Birthday Bash Blogfest

So here we are at Tessa's Birthday Bash Blogfest!  The idea is to write a scene that mentions any aspect of birthdays. I decided to write a scene that's another installment in the Happy Acres saga I started over on my other blog (where I blog under my real name and which I have badly neglected for months now) back in August for the Invasion of the Bloggy Snatchers blogfest.

Hope you enjoy!

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“Tessa!” I said, throwing sparkly confetti as I entered the Happy Acres common room early on the morning of January 21. The sun had yet to peek over the horizon and the glow of the moon between the bars on the window made a striped pattern on the brown linoleum floor. It never mattered how early I got up, though, Tessa was always up before me. Her clock was hours ahead of mine.

Throwing my arms around her, I hugged her as hard as I could, “Happy Birthday!”

“Uh huh,” she said, barely acknowledging my assault.

She sat at a table in the corner with a spiral notebook and a pack of colored sharpie markers, her work illuminated only by a tiny book light. Uh oh. She had another Idea, on her birthday of all days. My big party plans could be in danger.

Mia wandered into the room, stretching and yawning, wearing her favorite Hello Kitty jammies. “Why did you wake me up so early? You know this means the zombies will be cranky.”

I hurried over to her, wrapping my arm around her shoulder, “Shhh, she has a New Idea.”

Mia groaned. “But the zombies are looking forward to the party,” she paused, then waggled a finger at me. “Just not this early.” Then a thought occurred to her and she pinned me with a suspicious glare. “There will still be cupcakes, won’t there?”

“Yes, yes,” I said, distracted. “But first we have to get her away from the Idea.”

A snort and grumble from the other side of the room startled us, and we both shot a look in that direction.

“What’s that?” I said.

“It is most likely only Simon,” Mia said, dismissing him. “He was up all night fighting with Mercedes.”

“The new girl,” I said, nodding. “She’s sharp, all right. Keeps him on his toes.”

Mia rolled her eyes, “I am just glad he gave up that stupid letter-writing campaign. The zombies do not like writing letters. It gives them cramps. He is a bad influence, you know.”

I nodded knowingly. “But didn’t you hear?” I asked. “Scotland finally acknowledged him as king.”

“Hmph. I think someone just got tired of his stupid letters,” she said.

Really they just bribed him with a case of vodka.

“Oh look! The zombies are here,” Mia said and went to greet her invisible zombie friends, one of which turned out to be Bill. He’s not a morning person.

He glanced in Tessa’s direction, hesitating, but I got to him before he made a move. “She has a New Idea,” I said. “Better to leave her alone for now.”

“Birthdays are edgy,” he said, then lumbered over to Tessa, patted her on the shoulder and said, “So, yeah,” then settled into a deep, cushy armchair, leaving me to figure out how to deal with Tessa’s New Idea.

I’d put lots of effort into planning the perfect Happy Acres birthday for her, so I wasn’t about to let something like a New Idea get in the way. I marched over to the table, pulled up a chair close enough so she couldn’t ignore me, and flopped myself into it.

“Tessa,” I said. “Today’s your birthday. You should party til you’re purple. The New Idea can wait a day.”

She shook her head. “It’s time sensitive.”

I rolled my eyes. All her ideas were time sensitive. “What is it?” I asked, trying a different tack.

“I want to put on a birthday blogfest in honor of my birthday. You see, the Idea is that other bloggers will post birthday-related stories on their blogs on my birthday. It’ll be like a giant round-the-world birthday party, just for me!”

I had to admit, this Idea had merit. Because, who wouldn’t want a worldwide birthday party?

I sighed, “okay, what can I do to help?”

“Do what you do best. Distract Nurse Cratchit so I can sneak into her office and use her computer to post my blogfest.”

“Okay, will do,” I said, accepting my birthday blogfest mission. “Oh, and Tessa? Happy Birthday, Sweetie.”