𝒫𝒾𝓃𝓀 𝒮𝒶𝓉𝒾𝓃 𝒮𝒽𝑜𝑒𝓈

𝓂𝒾𝒹-𝓈𝑒𝒶𝓈𝑜𝓃 𝒽𝒾𝒶𝓉𝓊𝓈

𝐼 𝓌𝒾𝓃𝒹 𝓊𝓅, 𝓅𝓁𝒶𝒸𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓂𝓎 𝒻𝒾𝓃𝑔𝑒𝓇𝓈 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒽𝑜𝓁𝑒𝓈 𝑜𝒻 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒷𝑜𝓌𝓁𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒷𝒶𝓁𝓁. As I approach the lane, I let the ball go, a heavy thud gracing my ears as it hits the wooden lane. The bowling ball makes a low rumbling sound as it gains momentum and I watch it roll straight down the middle of the lane, a subtle scraping noise hurting my ears. As it reaches the end of the lane, it crashes into the pins, omitting hollow clanging sounds as all ten pins hit the lane.

"Strike!" I shriek, watching my score go up ten points on the monitor.

"Yeah, but I still won," Maddie taunts, looking at my score. "Sorry, birthday girl."

I pretend to pout before putting my pink bowling ball away on the rack, getting ready for dinner. I've always wanted a bowling birthday party and this year, I finally got one. After we got home from the competition yesterday, we finally got our contract-mandated two-month hiatus. Thankfully, the hiatus means that we could plan a birthday party this year and everybody could come.

Between Maddie, Mackenzie, Chloé, Brooke, Paige, Nia, Kamila, and Iris, after playing two rounds with bumpers on, Maddie prevails with a score of one hundred and eighty. I manage to get fourth, only bested by Brooke and Iris, with Kamila placing last with a mere sixty.

"Okay, time for cake!" Mommy shouts, Logan aggressively smashing candles into the vanilla cake from Safeway (the best place to get a birthday cake.)

This is the first time that the girls have met Logan, other than Maddie, Mackenzie, and Kamila. In the beginning, the girls stared at him with apprehensive looks on their faces, and it was clear that none of them liked him. Nonetheless, we all put our bowling balls back on the rack and sit around the bowling alley table, our soda cups marking our places. I take a sip of my Sunkist Lemonade as Mommy begins passing out cheese pizza slices.

"I am so glad we get a break! I can do something other than dance," Brooke exclaims, she and Paige the most excited to leave out of all of us.

"I don't think I'll ever get a break," Maddie huffs, setting her elbow on the table while devouring her slice of pizza. "Mackenzie and I have modeling shoots for dance companies throughout the whole break and a bunch of auditions Mom's making us do."

"I think I have a couple of them, too. Mainly for Jo and Jax," I report, not exactly thrilled about being on camera during my break from the camera.

"Mom's working out a deal for me to do a magazine cover next month. I'm excited," Chloé reveals and we all gasp in excitement.

"That's awesome, Chlo!" Paige squeals, giving a side hug to her best friend.

"You must be famous if you're in a magazine," Kamila laughs, eating her own dinner since the pizza and cake aren't Kosher-verified. "At the grocery store, I see magazines with John Travolta and Tom Cruise."

"I don't know if my magazine is going to be at any grocery stores. It's for this magazine called Dream Magazine. I think it's supposed to be for little girls," Chloé adds. "What about you, Nia? Anything?"

Nia shakes her head. "Chess club's picking up, I guess. I have a chess tournament next week. And I'm testing for my purple belt next month."

"I want to do karate," Mackenzie whines, sipping her soda.

"Alright, is everybody ready for cake?" Mommy suddenly shouts, cutting through our conversation.

Bringing out an airbrushed Tinkerbell sheet pan cake, Logan places the cake right in front of me. In really bad piping, it writes Happy 7th Birthday Rue! Holding a lighter, Mommy lights the big candle that says seven first and brings it around to light the other four candles as if the cake was a menorah. When she's done lighting the candles, Mommy sticks the candle back in the cake.

"Three, two, one," Mommy calls out, beginning the obligatory birthday song.

Nobody likes the Happy Birthday song, but I force myself to sit through the group of girls beginning to sing to me. "Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Rue. Happy birthday to you."

Once they finish singing that dastardly song, I take a big breath and try to blow out the candles. The lit candles turn into smoke in front of my eyes. I don't get them all in one go, though, so I huff out a final candle on my second breath.

And just like that, I'm officially seven.