A Green Shirt for the Party

Around the time of Leina's actual birthday, Angie gave her a fancy green, low cut shirt. Leina really liked it. She wanted to wear it to a special occasion. And she knew that one was upcoming... "I'm going to wear it to my party... I mean dinner with Charles, tonight!" she exclaimed to Angie that Friday. And she did. And she had dinner with Charles again, but there was no party for her.

Erica and Tony had gone to New York the weekend before Leina's birthday, and Leina secretly wondered if Erica was just pretending to be going to New York and was going to jump out and surprise her that weekend. She wasn't.

On Leina's actual birthday, she took a long long time getting ready before going out to dinner with Charles. Much longer than he'd ever see her take. And it was a tough birthday for her not only because she discovered that her future mojitos would be few and far between, but because she was sure there would be a lot of people yelling suprise to her somewhere. But no one emerged.

She put the shirt on again Saturday, Charles was actually taking her to some youth basketball thing, just like he said he was going to do. By this time she had stopped putting quite so much effort into her makeup. There was a surprise that evening when Liane and Dominic came, but where were Tony and Erica and Stephen and Mary and the rest? She was getting very tired of waiting for this surprise.

It must be the following weekend.

Still no party on Friday. There were no confirmed reports of her wearing the green shirt. Finally, Saturday. Erica made a fake effort to invite Leina to dinner and threw her off her game for a moment, but Leina quickly recovered. Leina wore the green shirt. Charles took her to Stephen Dodson's apartment building, where she noticed Angie and Noriko's cars. Then she saw Auntie, who failed to obey the "Please do not arrive between 8:15 and 8:45" request. But she pretended she didn't. Plus Mrs. Turner had asked her all about the party that afternoon, knowing full well that her daughter was doing her best to keep it as much of a surprise as possible.

But Charles took her upstairs, and everyone was there, and "Surprise!" She acted a little surprised, but there were no tears, no open mouthed gasps, and no bugged eyes. Still, she had a great time at her party, which will be documented shortly.