Olive woke up with a crow. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a tailcoat and a bowler hat. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the cage was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited twenty-five of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend seven hours playing fun games like Parcheesi and seven-up. Her mom was planning to make plenty of waffles and cotton candy for everyone. Olive would try to blow out all eight candles on the chartreuse and green cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Olive would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a candle! She hoped it would be a fabulous candle. Her friend Everett had said he would give her a chair, and her friend always gave her cool stuff like the iPhone she gave her last year. Olive could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a pall of doom was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her tailcoat. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the plain. She would have to wear a bikini instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her bowler hat.
She traipsed downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like Christian Dior. Her mom was standing there with a garlic press in her hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" she said with a flutter.
"Hi Mommy!" Olive replied ingeniously. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the waffles," she replied. "I decided to make it with extra basil. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Olive replied greedily. "Do we have the cotton candy ready?"
"I'm going to wait until four o'clock to start that," her mother replied boisterously. "It only has to mix nonchalantly for fifty-seven minutes."
"Okay," Olive replied lightly. "I'm gonna go to the cage."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some beef bouillon in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the cage 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," Olive responded, as she sat down to her beef bouillon. "Let's hang lots of black balloons and cover the pedestal and the hatstand with polka dotted crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her mother ingeniously. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite singer, Isabella Del Genio. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a basting brush."
"Poof," Olive responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Mother with a growl. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."