Happy Birthday, Dear Amy - Marilyn Kaye - Paperback

From her perch on a comfortable lounging chair, Amy Candler basked in the sunshine and gazed out at the shimmering crystal-blue water in the oval swimming pool. This was very clearly not the community pool where she and her friends usually congregated. There weren't any screaming kids splashing each other, and no one was jumping up and down on the diving board, yelling like Tarzan. There was no chain-link fence, and no bored teenage lifeguard was ordering people out of the pool. Best of all, Amy didn't have to worry about anyone using the pool as a gigantic toilet. This pool was surrounded by a stone terrace, and the terrace was surrounded by rosebushes. The terrace led to a large, modern house, where there was a bar. Amy knew she could help herself to a soft drink or juice whenever she wanted one, free of charge. From unseen speakers, her favorite radio station played the top ten songs of the week at exactly the right sound level. If she wanted, she could turn it up and not worry about bothering the neighbors. Up here in Beverly Hills, you couldn't even see the home of your next-door neighbor. An uncle of Tasha and Eric Morgan's lived in the house. He had left keys with the Morgans so that they could use the pool while he and his family were on vacation. What Amy couldn't understand was why people who had a house and a pool like this would need to go away for a vacation. But she was certainly glad they had. "Summer," she murmured blissfully. "Yeah," Eric sighed. And Tasha punctuated this with a little moan of pleasure. Even in Los Angeles, where you could hang out in sunshine practically all year long, there was something special about summer. It wasn't just the weather. Summer meant no school and no homework, and for Amy, it meant her birthday. In fact, her greatest problem at that moment was deciding what kind of cake she wanted for the great event, which was coming up on Saturday. One thing was for sure: It would have to be a big cake. "Do they make cakes big enough to serve forty people?" she wondered out loud. "Maybe I'll need two cakes. Does that mean I have to blow out two sets of candles?" "Yeah, but you'll get two wishes," Tasha told her. Eric pretended to groan. "Do we have to sing 'Happy Birthday to You twice?" Amy giggled in delight. She'd never had such a big birthday party before. But then, she'd never turned thirteen before. Thirteen. The beginning of her real teen years. "Do you feel any different now that you're thirteen?" she asked Tasha. Her friend had celebrated her birthday two months earlier. "I'm not sure," Tasha said. "Most of the time I think I'm exactly the same as I was when I was twelve. It's not like I look any different. But sometimes I think I feel a little different. More mature." "That's just in your head," Eric said. Tasha looked at him scornfully. "That's where mature feelings are, Eric. In your head." "Yeah, in my head," Eric chortled. "Not yours. I can guarantee, you are absolutely no more mature now than you were two months ago." "Okay, you guys, cut it out," Amy said mildly. She was accustomed to hearing the brother and sister tease each other. As an only child, sometimes she even envied them. "Eric, did you feel any different on your thirteenth birthday?" "That was two years ago,"Kaye, Marilyn is the author of 'Happy Birthday, Dear Amy - Marilyn Kaye - Paperback' with ISBN 9780553487442 and ISBN 0553487442.