Wesley woke up with a face palm. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a pair of knickerbockers and a set of braces. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the game room was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited twenty-four of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend one hour playing fun games like battleship and Russian roulette. Her dad was planning to make plenty of bread and butter and cabbage rolls for everyone. Wesley would try to blow out all thirty candles on the teal and brown cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Wesley would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a diamond! She hoped it would be a cardboard diamond. Her friend Marcy had said she would give her a stone, and her fiancée always gave her cool stuff like the can of shaving cream she gave her last year. Wesley could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that an ice storm was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her pair of knickerbockers. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the beach. She would have to wear a fedora instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her set of braces.
She dove downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like skunk. Her dad was standing there with a grater in his hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" he said with a cheer.
"Hi Daddy!" Wesley replied briskly. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the bread and butter," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra pomegranate juice. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Wesley replied stealthily. "Do we have the cabbage rolls ready?"
"I'm going to wait until nine o'clock to start that," her father replied calmly. "It only has to whirl for forty-six minutes."
"Okay," Wesley replied offhandedly. "I'm gonna go to the game room."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some steak in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the game 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," Wesley responded, as she sat down to her steak. "Let's hang lots of magenta balloons and cover the coat rack and the bench with burgundy crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her father solemnly. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite singer, Virginia Oldfather. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a paring knife."
"Uh," Wesley responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with a gurgle. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."