Birthday Blast

"Pass me that balloon, Bell", Cora called out while balancing on a stool near the big wall. Bella, holding the ribbons and texting at the same time, sauntered into the room with the balloons but crashed into Amelia who was trying to decorate the hall with dazzling lights. The commotion imbalanced Cora and she toppled down into the middle of the room, beside her sisters. "What all the noise?” their mother shouted, "I thought you were setting up the party, not destroying the house". "Just a tiny error mom", Bella answered while trying to get up," we are going to organize a great birthday party". "You will if you stop wrecking the house", and with that she went outside the hall. Cora made a face and started blowing up the balloons. Amelia began to fix the lights while standing on the stool alongside Bella who was trying to selecting the most colorful ribbons to embellish the furniture. Cora, lost in her thoughts, accidently blew a balloon so hard that it popped. The alarming sound startled Amelia and again she fell on the unaware Bella. “Girls!” her mother yelled. “I don’t think I like my spot very much”, Bella mumbled. Cora started to giggle. Bella strolled towards a large sofa just beside Cora and started to cover it with her ribbons. Cora began filling up the balloons again. Amelia caught hold of her phone and started typing. “Tom is going to have the best birthday ever!” Amelia declared. “I have to call all my collage friends”, Bella articulated. Amelia walked out of the room. Bella took her ribbons and again started on her task. Cora, bored with the balloons, began wandering across the room in search of a new and better task and reached the sofa just alongside Bella. Unexpectedly, their mom came into the room. “Girls”, their mother cried,” Girls!” Cora tripped over Bella due to that unpredicted call. ”NOT AGAIN!”

“What happened?” Cora questioned. ‘I have to go out for a few hours”, their mother told, ’’I can’t bake a cake”. This was a huge shock for them. ‘’their’s no party without a cake!” Bella screamed. ‘’I know but I can’t do anything right now, Bell”, and with that she went out. A sudden unhappiness struck the hall. Amelia, uninformed, walked into the hall but stopped when seeing their sad faces. She didn’t had the foggiest idea what had happened. ‘’What on earth has happened”, Amelia exclaimed. “What has happened!” Cora cried, “We are not having any cake, Amelia”. “Why? Where’s mom?” Amelia asked in an outrageous manner. “She is out for some while and don’t have time to bake a cake”, answered Bella. “Then what about the party? There must be a solution to this problem”.cried Amelia. Everybody began to think for an idea to solve that issue. “Why don’t we bake our own cake”, Amelia suggested. “Bake our own!” Bella yelled ,’’We can hardly make our own breakfast, and baking a cake is a whole different matter”. ’’I am in this”, Cora exclaimed,” How hard can it be”.’’ Not hard, if we know how to bake one!”. ‘’I am ready”, Cora shouted, ‘’and plus, we got the internet”. ‘’stop worrying so much”, Amelia pronounced, patting Bella on the back, ‘’everything will be fine, Bell”. ‘’I--- guess so”, Bella sighed. She was not very ecstatic about the scheme but she went with it. They started gathering their ingredients. Soon, they had mustered eggs, flour, milk etc. None of them had ever baked a cake so they started surfing the internet. Cora and Amelia were trying out the ingredients and Bella was trying to get the best and perfect recipe. After a couple of hours, the kitchen looked as if a tornado had been there. Eggs, flour and milk were everywhere on the floor, walls, cabinets, etc. Bella, Amelia and Cora gasped when they saw their kitchen has turned into a henhouse. ‘’We will tidy it up right away”, Bella shouted but suddenly slipped on the spilled flour. ‘’Bell!” the other two shouted but then they too slipped and fell on poor Bella. “Really?” Bella whispered. The girls soon got up and were running in all different directions. Slowly but surely, the kitchen looked neat but the girls were totally out of gas. ‘’Let’s ----- get dressed now”, Bella spoke wearily. Amelia turned around. She started imagining herself in her striking scarlet dress and shoes. ‘’Where are the keys? ”Bella questioned. “What?” Amelia interrogated. ‘’I think I handed Cora the keys”, Bella told. Cora came streaming through the door when she heard her name. ‘’Where are the keys?” Bella debriefed. “They were in the cuboard, no on the table, no in the hall, -----’’, Cora tried to remember. The girls started rummaging the house for the key. They all together reached the hall and almost turned the whole place upside down. But then Cora accidently turned off the light while poking the sofa. Amelia, petrified, fell on Bella. Cora ran towards the noise but fell on them. Unexpectedly, Tom turned on the light. “What in the world?”. ‘’Surprise”, the girls screamed. ‘’ Where is my birthday”, he asked. Bella stood up. “Sorry we couldn’t arrange a good birthday”, she said, “We thought we could but things got out of control and, I guess we do make a pretty bad team”. Tom walked right to them. ‘’ it doesn’t matter how things turn out, what matters to me is how. You did all this for me, and I am really grateful”. ‘’ We did have a lot of fun, except the rotten cake and lost key”, Amelia laughed. “I had a great time”, Cora chuckled. “I have got the best birthday I could ever ask for!” they all hugged each other. Half an hour later, they all gathered around for dinner. They were eating but stopped when Tom choked. “What happened”, Amelia asked. Tom reached his mouth and took out a tiny silver key. The whole room got filled with shrieks and bursts of laughter.

“Mistakes have the power to turn you into something better then you were before”.

                                                                                                                           - Amna Ejaz