Morgan's Birthday Read online

  “OK, OK,” Dad calls. “Let’s all sit down. It’s no big deal.”

  Except it is too a big deal. Everybody is blabbing all around me. For once I don’t say a thing. I look at my upside-down cake. It’s cracked and crumbling. All the good bits are mooshed into the table. Aldeen has finally wrecked my party, just the way everyone said she would.

  Dad shovels hunks of cake onto plates and blops on the ice cream.

  “It looks barfy,” Heather says. She eats it though.

  I am so bugged myself that I barely have two pieces. Lisa and Trevor are licking icing off the table when the doorbell rings. It’s Lisa’s mom, come to pick her up. Everybody but Dad is surprised that it’s two o’clock already.

  More parents arrive. Heather, Lisa and Trevor get their goody bags. They say thank you but they don’t look very happy as they leave. What’s their problem, I think. It wasn’t their party that got wrecked.

  “That was the best,” Charlie says. Charlie is my best friend, so he’s staying longer. His hair is green. He doesn’t seem to care.

  “See, when Aldeen started noogies, I thought Lisa was going to wet her pants.”

  I rub my head, remembering.

  “Well, somebody shoulda noogied Aldeen.”

  “Where is she, anyway?” Charlie asks as my mom comes in. “Did she go?”

  “She’s in the backyard,” Mom says. She puts a big piece of cake on a plate and hands it to me.

  “I’m full for now,” I say. Even I get full sometimes.

  “It’s not for you. It’s for Aldeen. You’re the one who’s going to take it out there and apologize.”

  10

  The Icing

  “What?” I say. “She wrecked everything! Noogies, paint, no present, my cake...”

  “She tried her best,” Mom says. “And you wrecked her party.”

  “Her party!”

  “Parties are for guests too. Now get out there and apologize.”

  Charlie waits in the living room. I shuffle outside. Aldeen is up in my play fort. She won’t look at me. My mom does though. I don’t get it but I don’t have a choice. I start climbing.

  It’s tricky with cake in one hand. As I get near Aldeen’s foot, I wonder if she’s going to kick me. She doesn’t. She doesn’t make room for me either.

  From the ladder I say, “I brought your cake.” She looks away and makes a long snork in her nose, the kind you make when you’ve been crying.

  I say to her witchy hair, “My mom says I’m supposed to say sorry.”

  Snork.

  “But, like, you know, when you go to birthday parties, you’re supposed to be polite and not hit people and you’re not supposed to drop the...”

  She whirls around. “It was an accident!” She has been crying. It’s kind of scary. It’s kind of sad too, I think. I get this squirmy feeling.

  “I know,” I say. “Sorry.” That one just pops out, but it’s OK. I mean it. “But, like, you’re supposed to bring a present, too.”

  “I did bring a present but it was too little. Here.”

  She digs into her sock and pulls out a crumpled-up tissue. Inside are two little lumps rocking back and forth.

  “Jumping beans,” I breathe. “Cool. I thought you can’t get them here.”

  “I don’t need all of mine. These two are good jumpers.”

  “Oh wow.” I look down in the yard. The rockets are already broken. The video game is boring. I have a squirt gun. The beans and the space-station kit are for sure the coolest things I have gotten. “Thanks, Aldeen.”

  Snork. “S’OK.” She grabs the cake and starts eating. When she’s done she hands me the plate.

  “I want some more. With ice cream.”

  I start down the ladder.

  Inside, Mom serves more cake. I decide I want some too. So does Charlie.

  “Come see what Aldeen gave me,” I tell him.

  Charlie grabs his goody bag. We take the cake and the space kit out to the fort and climb everything up. Aldeen scrooches over to make room.

  “What time do you have to go?” I ask her. “Can you stay for a while?”

  “Oh, I told my mom not to come until supper,”Aldeen says. She has icing on her glasses.

  I start to say, “But the party ended at two.” Then I decide to skip it.

  Charlie says, “Hey, there’s nothing in my goody bag but an eraser.”

  “That’s OK,”Aldeen says. “I’ve got tons of stuff.”

  For the first time I see everything from the goody bags piled in a corner. No wonder everybody looked unhappy.

  “Guess what?”Aldeen says. “My birthday is next month. You’re invited.”

  More in the First Novel Series

  find even more at www.formac.ca

  Music by Morgan

  Ted Staunton

  Illustrated by Bill Slavin

  Morgan has to get creative, and sneaky, if he wants to play music instead of floor hockey. He crafts a plan to swap places with Aldeen — but how long will they pull it off before they get caught?

  Raffi’s New Friend

  Sylvain Meunier

  Illustrated by Élisabeth Eudes-Pascal

  Translated by Sarah Cummins

  Raffi and the new girl in school, Fatima, have something in common: neither of them quite fit in. They bond when they find they have something else in common: a love of birds.

  Pucker Up, Morgan

  Ted Staunton

  Illustrated by Bill Slavin

  Morgan is delighted to have the lead role in The Frog Prince even if he has to kiss Aldeen, the Godzilla of Grade Three, to turn into a prince. They both agree smooching is gross. Despite Aldeen’s threats and Morgan’s overreacting they manage to create an unexpected twist to the play. Morgan discovers that teamwork makes a better performance.

  illustrations Copyright © 2011, 2002 Bill Slavin

  Translation copyright © 2011, 2002 Sarah Cummins

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  Formac Publishing Company Limited acknowledges the support of the Cultural Affairs Section, Nova Scotia Department of Tourism, Culture and Heritage. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for our publishing activities. We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program.

  Cataloguing in Publication data is available from Library and Archives Canada

  This digital edition first published in 2011 as 978-0-88780-185-3

  Originally published in 2002 as 978-0-88780-560-8

  Formac Publishing Company Limited

  5502 Atlantic Street

  Halifax, NS B3H 1G4

  www.formac.ca