Chapter 1 The Birthday Rush
Amanda woke up to see the sun peeking out of her window.
“It’s morning already!” she cried.
She slept a little more, then got out of bed to see her sister Emma’s door wide open, and her bed made. She went downstairs to see her mother, Rachel, washing the plates.
“What’s for breakfast?” Amanda asked.
“There’s waffles in the microwave,” her mother replied.
Crash! A plate fell.
“Oops.”
“Oh no, that’s the one I got on our trip to China. I’ll clean that up later. Eat fast, it’s your sister’s birthday today. We have seven hours to get everything ready. It’s eleven o’clock already; we wasted so much time! This is horrible, we need to go faster,” her mom said frantically.
“Your father took her to her piano class. It will end at two o’clock, then they’ll go to a restaurant for lunch and then the mall. So, I will order the cake and invite her best friends. You go down to the attic and grab some decorations and get the snacks. Set them on the table quickly,” her mother ordered.
Amanda ran downstairs to get the decorations from the attic, while her mother called all of Emma’s friends and ordered the ice cream cake.
They decorated everything and were so relieved and exhausted. But suddenly, the doorbell rang—it was the cake.
When they checked to see how it looked, the ice cream had melted, and the cake was crumbled and smushed.
“This day could not get any worse!” Amanda exclaimed.
“Oh no, I forgot to mail out the invites,” her mother said.
“What?!” Amanda screeched. “We don’t have enough time. Everything has to be perfect!”
Beep! Amanda’s phone rang. She grabbed her phone and read the text out loud.
“Dad and Emma got stuck in traffic on their way to the mall, and they’re going to be late.”
Rachel sighed. “I’ll go to the library and get a party planning book, and I’ll buy the ingredients for making a new cake.”
