Scarlett woke up with a simper. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a kilt and a dirndl. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the master bedroom was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited twelve of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend eight hours playing fun games like treasure hunt and Cootie. Her mom was planning to make plenty of crumb cake and cherries jubilee for everyone. Scarlett would try to blow out all eight candles on the sea green and striped cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Scarlett would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a pumpkin! She hoped it would be a miniature pumpkin. Her friend Emile had said he would give her a Band-aid, and her mentor always gave her cool stuff like the photograph she gave her last year. Scarlett could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a flood was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her kilt. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the pond. She would have to wear a toga instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her dirndl.
She stormed downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like roast turkey. Her mom was standing there with an oven mitt in her hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" she said with a bow.
"Hi Mommy!" Scarlett replied grimly. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the crumb cake," she replied. "I decided to make it with extra parmesan cheese. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Scarlett replied urgently. "Do we have the cherries jubilee ready?"
"I'm going to wait until eleven o'clock to start that," her mother replied bitterly. "It only has to deep fry for seventy-one minutes."
"Okay," Scarlett replied defiantly. "I'm gonna go to the master bedroom."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some Hamburger Helper in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the master bedroom first?" she begged.
"It looks just like it always does," her mother replied. "Remember, I'm depending on you to help with the decorating."
"Oh yeah," Scarlett responded, as she sat down to her Hamburger Helper. "Let's hang lots of jade balloons and cover the safe and the wine rack with fuchsia crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her mother flightily. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite Tv star, Hildegarde Fulton. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a spoon."
"Remarkable," Scarlett responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Mother with a frown. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."