xliii. birthday parties and double digits

Today was the day. September 14th. My birthday. I had been counting the days until my birthday for the last month, but I was still a little nervous. I knew Mom would make me throw a party. If she did, I would only invite Aaron and Justin, like I did every year. They were my only real friends.

I opened my eyes and rolled out of bed. I looked at my alarm clock. 6:24. I went out into the living room. There weren't any presents there yet. Oh well. I would get my presents soon.

Mom entered the room. "Happy birthday McKenna," she said.

"Thanks Mom," I said.

"What do you want for breakfast?" she asked.

"Grilled cheese," I said.

"That's not a breakfast food," Mom said.

I pouted. "Yes it is," I said. "Maybe we can have ice cream too?" I had always wanted to have ice cream for breakfast.

"No," Mom said.

"Come on," Dad said. "You only turn ten once, right?"

I nodded. "So can we have grilled cheese and ice cream for breakfast?" I asked.

"Of course, sweetheart," Dad said.

I hugged Dad. "You're the best," I said.

Dad took out a big container of ice cream and started scooping. "So what are you doing for your birthday party McKenna?" Mom asked.

"I don't know," I said.

"McKenna, I asked you to figure this out a month ago," Mom said. "I'm very disappointed in you. Do you at least who you're going to invite so I can call their parents? It's too late to send out invitations now."

"Aaron and Justin," I said.

"Just two friends? Don't you have more than that?"

I was glad Mom wasn't really listening. That meant I could have Aaron come. "Not really," I said.

"Are you sure you don't want me to invite anyone else?" Mom asked.

"I'm sure," I said.

Mom sighed. "You really need to make more friends McKenna. Where do you want to have it?"

"In the treehouse," I said.

"That's not an option," Mom said.

"Why not?" I asked.

"It would really be a pain to clean up. Besides, don't you want to go somewhere?"

No. I liked the treehouse better, where it could be just the three of us. "Please Mom?" I said.

"Just let her do it," Dad said. "It's her birthday!"

"Do you want to clean everything up Neil?" Mom asked.

"Sure," Dad said.

"Yay!" I shouted. I couldn't wait until they came over.

A few hours passed. Dad was busy setting up streamers and balloons and cake in the treehouse. I was watching out the window when Aaron's mom's car showed up in the driveway.

I ran to the door and waited for Aaron to get out of the car. I watched him say goodbye to his mom and run up to the door.

"Happy birthday McKenna!" he shouted, handing me a present.

I smiled. "Thanks Aaron." The box was light. I shook it around a little. Something rattled around inside. I couldn't tell what it was though.

Justin came a few minutes later. He was carrying a big red bag. I couldn't tell what was in that either. Once Justin arrived, we all climbed up to the treehouse.

I looked out the treehouse window. Some of the leaves on the trees were turning different colors. It looked really pretty from up there. The sky was bright blue. I noticed our catapult was still there. I kind of wanted to throw some cake from it, but I decided that wasn't a very good idea. I wanted to eat the cake too.

I opened my two presents. Aaron got me a box of candy and Justin got me a book and a board game. Justin's game ended up being really fun. We played it until it was time to go home. We ate a lot of cake too.

Everything went by too fast. Time really did fly when I was having fun. I wanted to stop and savor it, like I did with my cake, but I couldn't. At least I had an amazing tenth birthday.