Everything Is Not What It Seems

Chapter Two- Surprise!

One event which Natalie eagerly looked forward to was her birthday party. Her parties, quite famous for their extravagance, are the talk of the town and always awaited. She quickly got up from bed as the smell of  delicious food reached her. She washed her face and opened her cupboard to search for an appropriate outfit. She spent almost half an hour in thinking about the clothes.

"What are you doing Nat? The breakfast is ready." she heared her mum.

"I can't decide what to wear. Help me, please?" she replied.

"Darling, your dress for the day is kept on the armchair. Now come fast." Mum says.

"Uh, ok mom" she said, rather sheepishly.

After 10 minutes or so, she reached downstairs in her pink dress. The dress, oh, the dress was marvelous. It is, what you call a Cinderella frock, with puffed, laced sleeves. It has a laced belt of a decent white colour. She had her favourite pair of slippers on (she called them slippers, but they're more of ballerinas). She quickly ate her toast with marmalade and bacon and eggs. She then called all her friends to ask who was coming to her party. But to her greatest disappointment, everybody said that they were busy.

Why today? Why not some other day? ANY other day. Oh for God's sake, today is my birthday. It is supposed to be the best day.

And so, filled with anger and sadness, Natalie, spends her day doing nothing. She did the usual, played with barbies, watched TV and read a book. But today, she noticed, her favorite Barbie, Amanda, which she got 2 months ago, wasn't wearing the clothes she slept in. She washed her eyes properly, and saw again, Amanda was still wearing the blue dress with full sleeves.

Stop dreaming Natalie. You must have done that. You forgot it all because of your birthday excitement. BIRTHDAY. What sort of a birthday is this? Where the birthday girl is sitting in her room and playing with barbies?

"Nat, come down for dinner." Mum calls out from downstairs.

"hmm." She replies.

She goes downstairs with a fake smile on her face, which apparently, was found out immediately by her mother.

"Come here darling" mum says.

Oh, no. Not again. Not that it's-all-ok and family-first lecture again. She'd already had it once in the afternoon of this very pleasant day. Note the sarcasm.

As she walked towards her mum, the bell rang and normally, Bob, their servant opens the door, but Nat rushed towards the door, not that she was but, she just wanted to avoid the lecture. She twists the knob and pulls the door. And, to her greatest surprise, she sees, Molly, Sandra, Alex and Cathy. Her friends had came! She couldn't believe her eyes.

"OH MY GOD. This can't be. This just can't be. Why didn't I know this?" she said with her voice filled with surprise.

"MOM. You knew this. Couldn't you tell me?" she said when she saw her mom smiling. But she couldn't stop smiling herself, completely surprised by her friends.

They went upstairs after savouring all the goodies (her Mom had made since morning ) amidst lot of laughing . The next morning, the girls got up, and got ready. In the afternoon, the girls got ready to leave after this fun filled night-stay. For the next few days, Nat wakes up and thanks her mother and father for such a big surprise. But shortly after her birthday, she noticed something strange.