Joni woke up with a flutter. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a locket and a pair of safety glasses. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the guest room was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited twenty-four of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend seven hours playing fun games like checkers and Monopoly. Her dad was planning to make plenty of chopped liver and lime sherbet for everyone. Joni would try to blow out all twenty-nine candles on the pink and mauve cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Joni would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a tennis racket! She hoped it would be a polished tennis racket. Her friend Tori had said she would give her a bowl, and her mentor always gave her cool stuff like the banana she gave her last year. Joni could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that an earthquake was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her locket. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the ridge. She would have to wear a cardigan instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her pair of safety glasses.
She slithered downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like bleach. Her dad was standing there with a melon baller in his hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" he said with a wag of the finger.
"Hi Daddy!" Joni replied openly. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the chopped liver," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra sesame seeds. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Joni replied hopelessly. "Do we have the lime sherbet ready?"
"I'm going to wait until twelve o'clock to start that," her father replied caustically. "It only has to sear for one minute."
"Okay," Joni replied viciously. "I'm gonna go to the guest room."
"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 guest room first?" she begged.
"It looks just like it always does," her father replied. "Remember, I'm depending on you to help with the decorating."
"Oh yeah," Joni responded, as she sat down to her Hamburger Helper. "Let's hang lots of beige balloons and cover the desk and the bed with chartreuse crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her father sternly. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite singer, Sissy Gordon. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a whisk."
"For Pete's sake," Joni responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with a wrinkled nose. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."