Jimmy woke up with a shiver. Today was his birthday! He was going to have a lot of fun today. First, he would dress up in a space suit and an Armani suit. Then, he would run downstairs to see if the parlor was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited thirteen of his closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend five hours playing fun games like Cootie and duck duck goose. His dad was planning to make plenty of Hamburger Helper and crumb cake for everyone. Jimmy would try to blow out all twenty-nine candles on the chocolate brown and emerald green cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Jimmy would be opening his gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a mousetrap! He hoped it would be a striped mousetrap. His friend Motormouth had said she would give him a spool of thread, and his mother-in-law always gave him cool stuff like the stack of papers she gave him last year. Jimmy could hardly wait!
He glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a rainstorm was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. He looked in his closet for his space suit. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from his day at the peninsula. He would have to wear a bulletproof vest instead. He didn't really care, as long as he could still wear his Armani suit.
He barrelled downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like orange peel. His dad was standing there with a pair of tongs in his hand. "Happy Birthday Son!" he said with a shiver.
"Hi Daddy!" Jimmy replied calmly. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the Hamburger Helper," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra potatoes. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Jimmy replied courteously. "Do we have the crumb cake ready?"
"I'm going to wait until ten o'clock to start that," his father replied pitifully. "It only has to press for twenty-six minutes."
"Okay," Jimmy replied crazily. "I'm gonna go to the parlor."
"First, young man, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some scrambled eggs in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the parlor 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," Jimmy responded, as he sat down to his scrambled eggs. "Let's hang lots of jet black balloons and cover the bed and the table with peach crepe paper."
"That's fine," said his father ingeniously. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite singer, Angela Porter. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a whisk."
"Whoa," Jimmy responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with a snigger. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."