The Mystery of the Birthday Basher

by Amirah Kassem

  “Was there a sprinkles room?” Amirah asked brightly, holding up her vial of sprinkles and giving it a little shake.

  “You know what? There was a rainbow room with sprinkles painted on the walls,” Elvis replied with a grin. Then his smile faded and he sighed. “But the Birthday Cakery went out of business three months ago,” he finished. “I still can’t believe it.”

  “Out of business?” Amirah echoed in shock. “How is that possible? That sounds like the most amazing party place on earth!”

  “It was,” Elvis said, nodding sadly. “But now it’s gone, and all we have left are memories, I guess.

  “Something weird happened in my family too,” Ziggy spoke up. “On my little sister’s birthday, we accidentally—we accidentally burned her cake.”

  Amirah’s hands flew up to her face. “Oh no,” she gasped.

  Ziggy nodded glumly. “It was so weird—the timer never went off! And since we were outside, by the time we noticed the awful smoky smell, it was way too late. The cake was burned black all over. We couldn’t save any of it.”

  “Was your sister’s birthday ruined?” Olivia asked.

  Amirah almost didn’t want to know the answer.

  “Not exactly ruined,” Ziggy replied. “We went out for dessert instead and we sang the birthday song at the restaurant and she seemed happy enough. But it wasn’t the same. You know what I mean?”

  Amirah nodded. She knew what Ziggy meant. “Something is definitely going on,” she announced. “And I think—I think we’ve come here to fix it.”

  “Really?” Mei asked.

  “I just have this feeling,” Amirah replied.

  Mei, Elvis, and Olivia exchanged a knowing look. When Amirah had a feeling about something, they took it very seriously.

  “Tell us,” Amirah said suddenly as she turned to Ziggy and Lacey. “Tell us all about Sparkle City. Everything you can remember! What it looked like, sounded like, smelled like—”

  “Smelled like?” Elvis cracked in a funny voice.

  But Amirah wasn’t joking around. “Everything,” she repeated.

  “It was glorious,” Lacey said, searching for the right words. Then she shook her head and shrugged. “And utterly indescribable.”

  Amirah understood. Some things in the Magical Land of Birthdays had to be seen to be believed.

  “I think that’s where we need to go,” Amirah said.

  “But why?” Ziggy asked. “Just curious. Why back to Sparkle City? There were no troubles there. But the countryside—well, I don’t want to criticize, but it’s seen better days, hasn’t it? Look—there’s more trash over there.”

  “Yes,” Amirah acknowledged, bending down to pick up more scraps of paper. “And maybe Sparkle City has too. See, I have this theory . . .”

  The other B-Buds stepped closer to her.

  “What’s going wrong in the Magical Land of Birthdays isn’t new,” Amirah said. “In fact, I think it’s been happening for a while. I think it’s why you two landed in Sparkle City while the rest of us were in the countryside. I think it’s why Ziggy’s cake was confused about not being able to find Ziggy. What if we were supposed to meet six months ago? What if we were supposed to spend our birthday together—not apart?”

  No one spoke.

  “I’ve seen the countryside twice now,” Amirah continued. “I know how it’s changed. But I dreamed about the Magical Land of Birthdays the other night—and honestly? It was more like a warning than a dream—”

  Mei shivered. “Don’t say that,” she whispered.

  Amirah paused to wrap her arm around Mei’s shoulders and give her a hug. “Don’t be scared,” she said. “We’re in this together. We’ll fix it—no matter what it takes.”

  Elvis glanced around. “I’d like to go to Sparkle City,” he said. “I want to see everything there is to see in the Magical Land of Birthdays!”

  Lacey and Ziggy exchanged a glance. “Well . . . we don’t know how to get there from here,” Ziggy began.

  “We don’t even know exactly where we are,” Lacey added.

  “The map!” Mei suddenly cried. She turned to Amirah. “Did you bring the map?”

  “No,” Amirah admitted. “I’m sorry, B-Buds. I should’ve thought to grab it!”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Elvis assured her. “We’ll find our way there. We’ll use birthday magic if we need to.”

  Amirah flashed him a grateful smile. “Ready, B-Buds?” she asked.

  “Lead the way!” Ziggy cheered her on.

  Amirah was about to take a step when she realized that there wasn’t even a path to guide them. They’d have to push their way through the dry grass . . . and hopefully not get lost along the way.

  “I do remember that Sparkle City was high up,” Lacey said suddenly. “It felt like we could look out and see all of the Magical Land of Birthdays spread out below us.”

  “Okay, then. That’s where we’ll start,” Amirah said. Then she began to climb up the hillside.

  It seemed to get hotter and hotter as they walked, and Amirah could feel her face growing red from the heat.

  Suddenly Olivia spotted something. “What’s that—over there?” she asked. “It looks like a pond.”

  Amirah caught a glimpse of it through the tall grass. The smooth, shiny surface reflected the cloudless gray sky. “Yes!” she cried. “Let’s go splash around in it! Come on!”

  She took off running toward the pond with the B-Buds close behind her. She could just imagine how cool and refreshing it would feel to splash in the water. But when Amirah reached it, she felt a stab of disappointment. It wasn’t a pond at all. Just a shiny piece of cellophane wrapping paper that someone had left behind. More trash, Amirah thought in disappointment.

  “Well, that’s not what we were expecting,” she told the B-Buds. “Oh well! At least we won’t lose any time on our journey to Sparkle City. I probably would’ve splashed around for, like, an hour!”

  “Hold on,” Ziggy said, kneeling beside the cellophane to get a closer look. He peeled up the edge and pulled off a sheet of shiny cellophane with a crinkling sound—only to reveal another sheet of cellophane beneath it. Then another, and another, and another. “What do you think this is, anyway?”

  “Part of a present-wrapping station?” Olivia guessed.

  “But where’s the tape? The scissors? The ribbon? And especially the other kinds of wrapping paper?” Mei pointed out.

  “Good point,” Olivia said.

  Meanwhile, Ziggy kept peeling away layer after layer of cellophane. “Sorry, B-Buds,” he said, peeling faster and faster. “I’ve got to get to the bottom of this!”

  “We can all help,” Elvis said.

  The other B-Buds crowded around the cellophane and started peeling away sheets of it. Then, without warning, they reached the last one—and uncovered the lid to a box.

  “Should we open it?” Mei asked.

  “Yes,” Amirah said firmly. “Absolutely!”

  Mei reached forward and inched the tight-fitting lid off the box, one wiggle at a time. When it finally came off, it released a cloud of dust into the air that made all the B-Buds sneeze.

  It only took Amirah a moment to realize what was inside the box.

  “Treat bags!” she cried. “Party favors!”

  She pulled out a few of the striped bags and passed them around.

  “They’ve been there for a long time, huh?” Olivia asked as she traced the letter O in the dust coating her treat bag.

  “Maybe they were leftovers,” Amirah suggested—but even she didn’t believe that. There were too many of them. It was almost like they had been prepared for a party that had never even happened.

  “Ooh! Candy!” Ziggy exclaimed as he peered into his bag.

  “I wouldn’t eat that—” Mei began.

  But it was too late. Ziggy had already popped a piece into his mouth. Just as quickly, though, his mouth twisted into a grimace. “Yuck,” he said, turning around to spit out the candy. “
It’s stale. These have definitely been sitting around for a long time.”

  Elvis’s bag rustled as he dug around inside it. “Look what mine has,” he said, holding up a tin whistle that looked awfully familiar.

  Amirah’s eyes lit up. She recognized it at once.

  Elvis recognized the whistle too. “You want to do the honors?” he asked.

  “It would be my pleasure,” Amirah replied. She held the whistle to her mouth, pursed her lips, and blew.

  But the whistle didn’t make a sound.

  “That’s a pity,” Lacey said. “It must be broken.”

  Amirah smiled mysteriously. “Just wait,” she replied. Then she blew into the silent whistle again.

  The silence stretched on for seconds, then minutes. Amirah was about to blow the whistle once more when she heard it—no, she felt it first. The ground beneath them started trembling to a familiar rhythm. Then all the B-Buds could hear it: the rhythmic clip-clop, clip-clop, clip-clop that could only be one thing.

  Hoofbeats!

  “Are those hoofbeats?” Lacey asked. “Are there horses in the Magical Land of Birthdays?”

  “Carousel horses, yes,” Amirah replied. “But unless I’m very wrong, that’s—Cara!”

  Amirah couldn’t even finish her sentence. She was too overjoyed to see her dear friend, Cara the Unicorn, at last. The golden unicorn gleamed as brightly as the sun as she galloped toward the B-Buds.

  “Cara!” Amirah cried again. She took off running toward the unicorn at full speed. As soon as she was close enough, she threw her arms around Cara’s neck, burying her face in Cara’s shimmering rainbow mane. The gorgeous roses that encircled Cara’s gleaming horn perfumed the air.

  “I’ve missed you so much,” Amirah whispered near Cara’s ear. Amirah felt so much better already. Cara would help them find Sparkle City. Cara would help them solve the mystery of why so many birthdays had gone so wrong. Cara would show them the way.

  Just then, Cara trembled, as if a shiver had shaken her whole body. She pawed at the ground anxiously and looked around for—what?

  Amirah didn’t know. But even without words, she could tell that Cara was worried about something.

  Very worried.

  “I’m here now,” Amirah whispered to Cara. “I want to help. I’ll do anything to help.”

  Cara’s big, dark eyes gleamed with gratitude.

  “We’re trying to get to Sparkle City,” Amirah continued. “Can you take us there?”

  Cara nodded, a quick jerk of her head that sent shimmers down her mane.

  “B-Buds!” Amirah called to her friends. “Good news! Cara can take us to Sparkle City! She knows how to get there!”

  “Hooray!” The B-Buds cheered. The hope was contagious.

  With Cara galloping in the lead and the B-Buds running close behind her, they set off in search of Sparkle City. Amirah’s eagerness to find the magical place pushed her onward, even when the path grew steep and rocky. She was only a little out of breath when, at last, they reached the ridge overlooking the city.

  And what a city it was!

  Even from a distance, Amirah could see how it had earned the name “Sparkle City.” The buildings glittered like jewels, with faceted sides that reflected the light and, like a prism, split it into the spectrum of the rainbow. Rainbow beams spangled every surface, from the roads to the buildings. The sparkles! The colors! The joy!

  “Amazing,” Mei breathed.

  “I’ve never seen anything like it,” Elvis declared. “And that kind of feels like the understatement of the year.”

  “It’s so beautiful,” Olivia said. “This must be what it’s like to pass through a rainbow.”

  Amirah noticed, however, that Lacey and Ziggy were strangely quiet. “What do you think, B-Buds?” she asked them. “Is it the same as you remembered?”

  There was a long pause before they answered.

  “I . . . It’s hard to say,” Lacey began. “It just seems so . . . so quiet.”

  “Yeah,” Ziggy agreed with a curt nod. “I don’t hear music or laughter or—or anything, really.”

  With a sinking feeling, Amirah realized how right they were.

  Sparkle City was utterly deserted.

  “That can’t be normal,” she said. “It’s a city! Where are all the kids? Where are all the parties?”

  “There have to be plenty of birthdays today,” Olivia said.

  And every single one of the B-Buds knew she was right.

  A day without a single birthday party . . . a day when nobody celebrated . . . the thought made Amirah feel sick. Not just sick, though. It made her even more determined to find out what was going on.

  She placed her hand on Cara’s back and felt, along with the warmth, a sense of strength.

  “Come on,” she told the B-Buds. “We won’t solve this mystery standing up here, staring at Sparkle City from far away. We’ve got to get down there and investigate.”

  The other B-Buds were quiet as they set off for the last stage of their journey to Sparkle City. It was an easy walk. When they reached Sparkle City, the bejeweled buildings sat silently, almost as if they were waiting for something . . . or someone.

  Amirah wondered if the city really was as deserted as it appeared. “Hello?” she called, as loudly as she dared.

  Hello-hello-hello-hello-hello

  The sound of her own voice, echoing off each facet of the jewel-cut buildings, gave Amirah chills. The silence, the emptiness, the wrongness of it all.

  Suddenly, Amirah wished she could go home and forget all about the trouble in the Magical Land of Birthdays. But she already knew that wasn’t possible. Besides, the trouble had already followed them home anyway, ruining the birthdays of their friends and relatives.

  I believe in birthday magic, Amirah reminded herself. It was a thought she knew she needed to hold on to—no matter what happened next.

  Just ahead, the road split into three directions, and Amirah turned to Cara for advice. “Which way should we go?” she asked.

  The unicorn didn’t hesitate. She set off on the right-hand fork at such a fast clip that the B-Buds had to scramble to keep up. Cara didn’t slow down until she’d reached an airy tent made of colorful, gauzy panels that fluttered in the breeze.

  For a moment, the B-Buds stood in stunned silence. They’d never seen anything like it. The enormous tent was filled, filled to the brim, with—

  “Presents!” Elvis finally yelled. He turned to face his friends with wild joy in his eyes. “Have you ever in your whole entire life seen so many presents?”

  Tall presents, long presents, short presents, small presents, presents so big they’d need a ladder to reach the bow on the very top. Presents wrapped in boxes, presents tucked in bags, odd-shaped presents draped with golden cloth.

  When Amirah glanced at the B-Buds, they were all grinning.

  “Sorry,” Ziggy suddenly said. “I can’t resist!”

  He grabbed the nearest present, gave it a gleeful shake, and ripped off the star-covered wrapping paper to reveal a telescope.

  “Huh,” Ziggy said. “I wonder what the rest of the presents have insi—”

  His words stopped abruptly as the telescope began to crumble in his hands. A look of panic crossed Ziggy’s face as he tried to hold the present together. But it was too late. The telescope dissolved into powdery ash that slipped through his fingers, no matter how hard he tried to contain it. It formed a small, shimmering pile on the floor before a gust of wind blew through the tent, scattering the remains of the present until there was no trace of it.

  None of the B-Buds were smiling anymore.

  “What—what just happened?” Mei asked.

  “I don’t know,” Ziggy said miserably. “I was just holding it—I didn’t mean to—”

  “I think,” Amirah began, “that it wasn’t your present.”

  Everyone turned to look at her.

  “Look at all these gifts,” she continued. “I bet there’s one for everybod
y in the whole wide world. One perfect present for every person. But if you try to take one that doesn’t belong to you . . .”

  Amirah didn’t need to finish her sentence. Everyone knew what she meant.

  “I’m sorry,” Ziggy said. “I’ m so sorry.”

  “It’s okay,” Amirah told him. “You didn’t know.”

  “We can’t open any more gifts, though,” Lacey spoke up. “It’s not worth the risk.”

  “Definitely not,” Olivia added. She glanced around warily. “I think we should get out of here. We shouldn’t mess around with birthday magic that we don’t understand.”

  “And Sparkle City is huge. There have to be plenty of other places to explore,” Mei chimed in.

  “But Cara brought us here for a reason,” Amirah said. “Right, Cara?”

  The unicorn tossed her mane and pawed at the ground, a clear yes.

  “We’re not just sightseeing,” Amirah said. “Something is going seriously wrong in the Magical Land of Birthdays and it’s spilling over into our world too. If this tent holds the answer—or even just a clue—we’ve got to find it!”

  “We can’t just tear open presents until we find the right one,” Lacey pointed out.

  “I agree,” Amirah said, nodding. “That would be wrong in every way. But . . . if I could find my own present . . .”

  “There are so many of them, though,” Lacey said with a worried look. “Where would you even begin?”

  Amirah wasn’t sure. Deep in thought, she stroked Cara’s rainbow-tinged mane. And then the answer occurred to her in a flash of intuition that was as brilliant as a stroke of lighting in a storm-dark sky.

  Trust your heart.

  “I will,” Amirah whispered, so quietly that only Cara could hear her.

  Amirah took a deep breath and began to walk through the tent. She was secretly relieved when the B-Buds didn’t follow her. It was almost as if they knew that Amirah would need all her concentration to succeed. It was almost as if they knew that this was a task she had to complete on her own.

  What would my perfect present look like? Amirah wondered. It was a hard question to answer. When she thought about “perfect,” she imagined a gorgeous cake . . . a fun afternoon with her B-Buds . . . a happy vacation with her family. Presents weren’t the most important part of birthdays to Amirah. They never had been.