Bonita woke up with a cringe. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a necklace and a beehive. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the corridor was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited twenty-four of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend six hours playing fun games like charades and roulette. Her mom was planning to make plenty of dirty rice and crumb cake for everyone. Bonita would try to blow out all eleven candles on the pink and forest green cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Bonita would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a box! She hoped it would be a puzzling box. Her friend Hank had said he would give her a backpack, and her mother always gave her cool stuff like the fountain pen she gave her last year. Bonita could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a tornado was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her necklace. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the park. She would have to wear a bicycle helmet instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her beehive.
She sailed downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like cotton candy. Her mom was standing there with a garlic press in her hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" she said with a snigger.
"Hi Mommy!" Bonita replied boisterously. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the dirty rice," she replied. "I decided to make it with extra prime rib. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Bonita replied ignobly. "Do we have the crumb cake ready?"
"I'm going to wait until seven o'clock to start that," her mother replied carefully. "It only has to refrigerate overnight for eighty-seven minutes."
"Okay," Bonita replied frantically. "I'm gonna go to the corridor."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some prune pudding in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the corridor 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," Bonita responded, as she sat down to her prune pudding. "Let's hang lots of black balloons and cover the washstand and the coffee table with emerald green crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her mother briskly. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite Tv star, Alicia Major. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a foot."
"Fun," Bonita responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Mother with a giggle. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."