by Joelle Rhea Ong (P5 2022)

          “Hey, what shall we do for John’s birthday?” I asked my close group of friends during recess. My best friend, John, was turning 11 next weekend and my close friends and I had decided to organise a special birthday party for him. After all, John had never had a party before. We knew that we had to create a detailed and complex plan so that we could ensure that nothing would go wrong during the party. We spent that week preparing for the party.

 

         On the day of the party, everyone was buzzing with excitement for John’s arrival. We turned off the lights and hid in the pitch darkness of the room. No one made a squeak to ensure that we did not give the surprise away.

 

         “Happy birthday!” we yelled at the top of our lungs when he entered the room with Lucy. Lucy was a poodle with golden brown fur. John’s mouth hung wide open as we showered him with our splendidly wrapped gifts. Upon revealing the beautifully decorated cake with colourful frosting, rainbow sprinkles and John’s most favourite Marvel figurine, Spiderman, John stood rooted to the ground, speechless. The party was going well until, like a bolt out of the blue, tragedy struck. Lucy was chasing the stray cat that always slept on the fence of our backyard.

 

         “Woof! Woof!” Lucy who was fiercely baring her sharp teeth was barking at the stray cat. Chasing the cat fervently, Lucy tried to corner it. With nowhere to turn, the cat jumped onto the cake, ruining it in the blink of an eye. We were at a loss for words and some of us let out an involuntary gasp. John covered his mouth with his hands and was devastated. He seemed to be close to shedding tears.

 

         “Lucy! Now my cake is ruined!” John yelled, shooting daggers at her. With sorrow in her eyes, Lucy squeaked in apology.

 

         Everyone shuffled their feet wordlessly. We were not sure how to continue on with a celebration with a smashed cake. Suddenly an idea struck me like a lightning bolt!

“Why don’t we make an unconventional cake out of the fries that we have ordered?” I suggested with a glint in my eyes. We even tried to arrange the fries to resemble Spiderman’s head. John watched gleefully as we put our plan into action and John let out a chuckle.

 

         Finally, we succeeded. My quick-thinking had taken his breath away. We continued on with the rest of the celebration. We were exhausted but heaved a sigh of relief that John was pleasantly surprised by the makeshift cake.

 

         From that day onwards, I learnt how to be quick on my feet. We realised that there was no point crying over split milk. Everyone was very proud of their brilliance that day!

 

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