Anastasia woke up with an air kiss. Today was her birthday! She was going to have a lot of fun today. First, she would dress up in a business suit and a stovepipe hat. Then, she would run downstairs to see if the auditorium was decorated and ready for the party. They had invited thirteen of her closest friends. When everyone arrived, they would spend one hour playing fun games like roulette and battleship. Her mom was planning to make plenty of chicken soup and brownies for everyone. Anastasia would try to blow out all twenty-two candles on the polka dotted and jade cake. While the guests were eating their cake, Anastasia would be opening her gifts. Maybe the first package would contain a dart! She hoped it would be a broken dart. Her friend Wesley had said he would give her a clarinet, and her girlfriend always gave her cool stuff like the spider she gave her last year. Anastasia could hardly wait!
She glanced out the window and was surprised to see that a gale was on its way. Hopefully, that wouldn't deter anyone from coming. She looked in her closet for her business suit. It wasn't there. Uh oh. It was still dirty from her day at the cave. She would have to wear a gorilla suit instead. She didn't really care, as long as she could still wear her stovepipe hat.
She scooted downstairs and went into the kitchen. It smelled like liver and onions. Her mom was standing there with a paring knife in her hand. "Happy Birthday Honey!" she said with a glare.
"Hi Mommy!" Anastasia replied madly. "What are you doing?"
"I'm making the chicken soup," she replied. "I decided to make it with extra ground beef. Hope that's okay with you."
"I guess so," Anastasia replied cruelly. "Do we have the brownies ready?"
"I'm going to wait until one o'clock to start that," her mother replied neatly. "It only has to broil for thirty-seven minutes."
"Okay," Anastasia replied cheerfully. "I'm gonna go to the auditorium."
"First, young lady, you need to have some breakfast. I've got some strawberry shortcake in the skillet for you."
"Can't I just take a peek at the auditorium 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," Anastasia responded, as she sat down to her strawberry shortcake. "Let's hang lots of forest green balloons and cover the ping-pong table and the armoire with peach crepe paper."
"That's fine," said her mother flightily. "The paper plates and napkins have pictures of your favorite Tv star, Carina Baggins. Set the table with them, and make sure everyone has a garlic press."
"Yowsers," Anastasia responded. "I'm done, can I get started with the decorating now?"
"I think you inhaled your food," said Mother with a curtsey. "Go on, I'll be there in a few minutes."