Cedric woke up with a honk. Today was his birthday! He was going to have a lot of fun today. First, he would dress up in a headband and a tam o'shanter. Then, he would run downstairs to see if the cage was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited two of his closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend seven hours playing fun games like checkers and duck duck goose. His dad was planning to make plenty of ramen noodles and banana split for everyone. Cedric would try to blow out all twenty-two candles on the polka dotted and silver cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Cedric would be opening his gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a crystal ball! He hoped it would be a prickly crystal ball. His friend Alicia had said she would give him an Egyptian mummy, and his mom always gave him cool stuff like the flowerpot she gave him last year. Cedric could hardly wait!
He glanced out the window and was surprised to see that an earthquake was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. He looked in his closet for his headband. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from his day at the badlands area. He would have to wear a tinfoil hat instead. He didn't really care, as long as he could still wear his tam o'shanter.
He stalked downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like Chanel. His dad was standing there with an electric paint mixer in his hand. "Happy Birthday Son!" he said with a wag of the finger.
"Hi Daddy!" Cedric replied swiftly. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the ramen noodles," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra hard-cooked eggs. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Cedric replied wildly. "Do we have the banana split ready?"
"I'm going to wait until eleven o'clock to start that," his father replied truculently. "It only has to microwave for sixty-five minutes."
"Okay," Cedric replied grudgingly. "I'm gonna go to the cage."
"First, young man, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some banana split in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the cage first?" he begged.
"It looks just like it always does," his father replied. "Remember, I'm depending on you to help with the decorating."
"Oh yeah," Cedric responded, as he sat down to his banana split. "Let's hang lots of mauve balloons and cover the ping-pong table and the canopy bed with olive drab crepe paper."
"That's fine," said his father uneasily. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite Tv star, Stacy Palca. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has an oven mitt."
"Yippee," Cedric responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with a snicker. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."