Teresa woke up with a death glare. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a hearing aid and a pair of glasses. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the pool room was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited twenty-six of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend five hours playing fun games like dodge ball and tennis. Her dad was planning to make plenty of egg drop soup and tuna casserole for everyone. Teresa would try to blow out all thirty-two candles on the ivory and pink cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Teresa would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a padlock! She hoped it would be a synthetic padlock. Her friend Christine had said she would give her a can of beans, and her main squeeze always gave her cool stuff like the crate she gave her last year. Teresa could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a windstorm was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her hearing aid. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the valley. She would have to wear a towel instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her pair of glasses.
She tumbled downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like vanilla. Her dad was standing there with a wooden spoon in his hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" he said with a twitch.
"Hi Daddy!" Teresa replied dolorously. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the egg drop soup," he replied. "I decided to make it with extra chopped celery. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Teresa replied thoughtfully. "Do we have the tuna casserole ready?"
"I'm going to wait until two o'clock to start that," her father replied lazily. "It only has to shake for fifteen minutes."
"Okay," Teresa replied gingerly. "I'm gonna go to the pool room."
"First, young lady, 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 pool 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," Teresa responded, as she sat down to her scrambled eggs. "Let's hang lots of terra cotta balloons and cover the cushion and the washing machine with khaki crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her father resignedly. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite singer, Jolene Potts. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a melon baller."
"Be still, my beating heart," Teresa responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Father with an air kiss. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."