Natalie and the Downside-Up Birthday by Dandi Daley Mackall Read Free Book Online Page B

real fast.
    “Sasha, sweetheart, would you please give everyone a plate and a napkin for me?” her mom asks.
    “We already got napkins!” Jason shouts.
    “Not like these napkins,” Sasha says.
    I have to admit she’s right about that. Sasha’s napkins are so big they cover our whole desks. Plus, they are purple. Plus also, they have cats in birthday hats on them. And we each get a party hat just like that.
    Sasha’s mom walks up each desk lane and plops down the biggest cookie I’ve ever seen onto thatnapkin. It’s a great cookie, with chocolate chips and chocolate frosting and more frosting inside of it. Plus purple candies that spell out SASHA on every cookie.
    But cookies are not cupcakes. I think cupcakes are fancier than cookies. That’s what.
    “Shall we start the first game?” Sasha’s mother asks. She writes in big letters on the blackboard: SASHA . Then under those letters she writes NATALIE . “Let’s see how many words we can make out of the birthday girls’ names.”
    “As!” Sasha shouts.
    Her mother writes “AS” on the board under “SASHA.”
    “Has! Ash!” Sasha shouts.
    Nobody else says anything. Finally, Anna says, “At?”
    Sasha’s mom writes “AT” under “NATALIE.”
    “I didn’t know you were using her name too,” Sasha says.
    “Well, let’s go on to the next game,” Miss Hines says.
    We play three more games that are more fun than words. Only not for me. Plus, there are prizes. And everybody ends up with a ball or a card game, even if they’re losers. Like me.
    “Is it time for cupcakes yet?” I ask my teacher.
    “Good idea,” Miss Hines answers. She holds out the box of not-smushed cupcakes.
    Laurie and I hurry up for that box.
    “ I have cupcakes too!” Sasha shouts.
    “You do?” Miss Hines says. “Well, okay then. Um…why don’t we pass out all the cupcakes? Students, you can take whatever cupcake you want. Okay?”
    I take the top off my cupcake box and hand the first cupcake to our teacher.
    “It’s lovely, Natalie,” she says. She puts it on her fancy purple cat napkin.
    Laurie and I start on the back row ’cause Sasha and her mom are on the front row. Anna takes one. “Thanks,” she says.
    Farah takes one. “These are very nice, Natalie,” she says. “Thank you.”
    “Man! These are awesome!” Matthew, a front-row boy, hollers. “I never saw cupcakes like these! Cool! Mine has a real whistle on it.” He blows the whistle.
    “I have a fan on mine,” Bethany says. “It really works.”
    “Who cares?” Griff says. “Look at the size of this cake!”
    The back-row people get out of their seats to go look. Nobody else takes one of my cupcakes when Laurie and I walk by with our cupcake box. Anna

    puts hers back. Farah doesn’t. But she takes one of Sasha’s too.
    I can’t blame her. Even Laurie and I take one of Sasha’s cupcakes. They are the most gorgeous purpley giant cupcakes I ever saw. Plus there are prizes on top.
    Everybody helps with cleanup. The school bell rings. Party’s over.
    I walk out into the hall with two boxes full of cupcakes. One smushed. One not chosen.
    Then before I go outside, I dash into the girls’ bathroom. And I dump both boxes into the wastebasket.

Chapter 15
Let’s Party!
    Saturday, I feel bad twitchy in my stomach. On account of I am having a birthday party, but nobody is coming.
    Mommy is in the kitchen covering up my birthday cake so the germs don’t get in. Daddy is in the family room dropping clothespins into jars. It’s a game. Granny and I are waiting in the living room.
    “Where is everybody?” Granny asks. She peeks out the front window for the gazillionth time.
    “Laurie will be here. Laurie’s mom made her go help pick up Laurie’s sister Brianna. Brianna got to sleep over at a friend’s. Only she was still sleeping over when they got there. And she is hard to hurry up.” My bestest friend was crying on the phone when she told me this.
    “But where’s everybody else?”