Dream Birthday Read online

  Table of Contents

  My Future Awaits

  Chapter 1  Birthday Week!

  Chapter 2  Blast Off!

  Chapter 3  Spacing Out

  Chapter 4  Strange Trip

  Chapter 5  Grandma's House

  Chapter 6  In the Cards

  Chapter 7  Bestie!

  Chapter 8  My Worst Nightmare

  Chapter 9  The Water Works

  Chapter 10  Crystal Clear

  My Future Awaits

  Hi there! My name is Krystal Ball. I’m from Queens, which is a part of New York City. Some people call this place the Big Apple. But I live in a tiny, two-bedroom apartment with my mom and dad, so it seems pretty small to me.

  Don’t get me wrong...I love, LOVE my parents. My mom works as a hair stylist on the first floor of our building. My dad’s a high school history teacher. He’s always saying things like, “History repeats itself, sweetie.” Whatever that means.

  I’m not that interested in the past, though. I’m much more excited about...the future.

  I like astrology, palm reading, and stargazing. Why? Well, let me tell you a little secret. I’m not exactly normal. I may look small, you see, but I’m really a medium. That means I have a special ability, kind of like a sixth sense. My grandma calls this my “gift”. It helps me see what the future holds, but it’s never quite clear. I can learn things about a person or an object by touching them and, sometimes, my dreams show little glimpses of events that haven’t happened yet.

  I usually have trouble understanding these visions, or premonitions, but I’m working on improving my skills. I also go to Nikola Tesla Elementary School, and being a fourth-grade fortune-teller while juggling science projects, math tests, and homework isn’t easy.

  What else can I tell you about me? Ah! My best friend, Billy, lives in the apartment above ours. I’ve known him my whole life, and that’s a really long time. Almost ten years…Whoa! My other best friend, Claire, is the new girl at school. Both Billy and Claire know about my amazing gift, but they have pinky-sworn to secrecy.

  Together, we zip around the neighborhood on our scooters, seeking out adventure. But with my abilities, adventure usually finds us first!

  Okay, so you got all that? Good.

  Now take a deep breath, relax your eyes, and clear your mind. My future awaits…

  Chapter 1

  Birthday Week!

  “Moonbeams!” I shouted, awakened from a Sunday morning dream.

  I leaped out of bed in a flurry of star-patterned bed sheets and curly black hair. I scurried out of my room and dashed down the hall.

  My parents were standing in the kitchen making breakfast. “Moonbeams in a jar!” I said.

  They exchanged puzzled looks and followed me into the living room.

  “Is everything all right, dear?” asked my mom.

  “Of course,” I said, stretching across the couch. I grabbed the remote control and waved it in the air like a magic wand. “It’s my birthday week, and I’m starting it off with Beam Dreams!”

  I flicked on the television and plopped onto the couch. My frizzy curls bounced in my face, and I blew the strands away.

  “What’s Beam Dreams?” asked my dad.

  “Only my new favorite show,” I replied, not looking away from the TV. “There’s this pretty teenager named DeeDee, see? She has a special jar of moonbeams that her dad gave to her as a gift.”

  “How can she carry moonbeams in a jar?” my dad wondered aloud.

  I looked at him. “She just can.” Sheesh! Sometimes dads don’t get the simplest things.

  “Her father’s an alien from outer space with magic powers,” I explained. “He gave DeeDee the moonbeams so she can have powers, too!”

  My dad nodded his head. “Interesting,” he said.

  “DeeDee can do lots of cool stuff,” I continued. “Like, one time, she turned invisible, and another time, she was flying around her room like this…”

  I leaped off the couch with outstretched arms.

  Just then, Beam Dreams started, and I returned to my spot on the couch. I sang along to the theme song while waving the remote control like a musical conductor.

  Then I said, “Sometimes I feel like I’m from another planet.”

  “What do you mean, honey?” Mom asked.

  “Well, I wish I was pretty and popular like DeeDee,” I told my parents.

  I pointed to the TV. On the screen, DeeDee sat at her bedroom vanity getting ready for school. While she brushed her hair, the golden locks glinted under the lights around the mirror.

  “Her hair is so shiny and blonde,” I explained. “Mine looks like an electrified squid.” I tugged on a clump of curls in an effort to straighten them. When they sprang back to my head, I sighed.

  “Aw, honey, your hair is beautiful,” said my dad. “It looks just like mine!”

  My dad has a head full of curly, bushy black hair and a bristly mustache.

  He leaned over and gave me a kiss on the cheek. The hair on his upper lip tickled, but I tried not to smile. “Daaaad,” I groaned. “I don’t want to look like you. I want to look like DeeDee!”

  “Your loss,” he said, returning to the kitchen.

  Mom took my hand and sat down on the couch. She smiled and gently stroked my hair. “Your hair is just one of the many different parts that make you special,” she said.

  “I know, Mom,” I replied. “But the kids at school make fun of it. And, if they knew about my gifts, they would tease me even more. I wish I was a teenager like DeeDee. Teens don’t have any problems at all.”

  “My darling, you have no idea,” Mom said, chuckling. “I know you’re in a rush to grow up, but trust me. You need to be happy with who you are first. Then everything else will fall into place.”

  I squeezed her hand. “You’re right, Mom. It’s just that, well, my birthday is in seven days. I’m going to be ten. That’s a double digit. A big deal. I want my birthday party to be special.”

  “It will be,” said my mom. “Grandma says she has a very special birthday surprise for you.”

  “Really?” I said. I couldn’t wait to visit her.

  Then Dad shouted from the kitchen. “What do you want on your French toast?”

  “Blueberries, please,” I replied. “But can we eat after Beam Dreams? It’s almost over.”

  “Yes, dear,” Mom said. “May I watch, too?”

  “Sure!” I said, laying my head onto her lap.

  On the TV, DeeDee’s mom was painting the hallway. She had set up a ladder with a paint bucket on top of it. When DeeDee opened the door, she knocked the bucket off the ladder.

  Before the can of paint could spill, DeeDee tapped her index fingers together. They sparked with electricity, and the bucket froze in midair until DeeDee carefully placed it on the floor. DeeDee’s mother was happy, and the show ended.

  “Yay!” I cheered. “DeeDee does it again.”

  “Sheesh,” Dad yelled from the kitchen. “All this excitement made me hungry. Now let’s eat.”

  Suddenly, my ears perked up, and my body tingled. This usually happened when I was getting a vision or feeling. I closed my eyes, tilted my head, and said, “Somebody’s at the door…”

  And then, the doorbell rang.

  Chapter 2

  Blast Off!

  My dad walked over to the front door and peeked through the peephole. He couldn’t see anyone. “Who is it?” he asked.

  “It’s Billy,” I called from the living room.

  “It’s Billy,” echoed a voice from the other side of the door.

 
Billy Katsikis lives in the apartment above ours with his parents and his little sister. He has round chipmunk cheeks and messy black hair.

  “Good morning, everybody!” Billy cried.

  He looked my dad up and down and said, “You’re making French toast, aren’t you?”

  Dad smiled. “Why, yes, young man. How did you guess? Are you psychic, like our daughter?”

  “No,” Billy said, tapping his nose. “I could smell it from upstairs. I thought I’d come by and help finish any leftovers.”

  He rubbed his tummy. It was pushed against his dinosaur pajamas. The buttons looked ready to burst.

  I hopped up from the couch and ran over to him. “Since we met you, we haven’t had leftovers,” I said.

  “Your parents know you’re here?” asked Mom.

  “Yes, Mrs. Ball,” answered Billy. “We already ate, but I still have room for more!”

  After breakfast, Billy and I changed out of our pajamas and met at the stairs to the top floor of our building. We were going out onto the roof to play. As always, I had packed a satchel with everything we would need for the day’s adventure.

  “My birthday is next week, you know?” I said.

  “Oh, yes,” Billy replied. “And last week, your birthday was in two weeks. You made sure not to let me forget. And then, I got your party invitation in the mail a few days later. You know, you could’ve just handed it to me in person.”

  What a smart aleck. “If you want to throw a proper party,” I said, “you need to send out handmade invitations by mail. Then you need to decorate and plan lots of fun games with prizes.”

  He smiled until his cheeks scrunched his eyes. “What about food? There better be food.”

  “You’re driving me crazy,” I told him. “Do you know how big this is? I’m going to be TEN!”

  Billy replied, “You’re going to be an old lady.” He laughed and pushed the door open. A gust of wind blasted into the building. “Careful the wind doesn’t blow you away, Granny.”

  I ignored him and tied a long colorful scarf over my head. I should’ve tied it over his mouth!

  The roof area had a weatherproof table with an umbrella in the center and some chairs.

  “Let’s build the spaceship,” Billy said.

  Each of us grabbed two patio chairs and placed them a few feet apart from one another. I pulled out an old quilt from my bag.

  “Ready?” I called out to Billy. “Catch!”

  I tossed one end of the quilt to him, and he draped it over the two chairs.

  “Mission accomplished,” Billy announced. Then he bowed like a gentleman. “After you.”

  “Why, thank you,” I said, crawling inside.

  When Billy entered, I whispered, “What’s on the top-secret agenda for today, Agent Katsikis?”

  “Race to outer space, Agent Ball,” Billy said.

  We emptied out the contents of our bags. Billy brought his Galaxy Guard action figures.

  I, on the other hand, brought my deluxe picture books of outer space. One of them had pop-ups of each planet. How cool is that? I also brought my model rocket that glows in the dark.

  “Billy, which planet is your favorite?” I asked.

  “That’s easy,” Billy replied. “Jupiter! It’s the biggest one. And it has sixteen moons.”

  “That’s cool,” I said. But it wasn’t as cool as my favorite planet. “Mine’s Saturn!” I exclaimed.

  I turned to the Saturn page in my pop-up book. “I like it because it wears a giant ring. See? It’s the most stylish of all the planets,” I said, laughing.

  Billy laughed too. “Yes, very fashionable.”

  “It’s called accessorizing,” I said. Then I gasped. “Oh, that reminds me.”

  I rummaged through my bag, looking for all my bright-colored bracelets.

  “I can’t very well go into outer space without my Gauntlets of Gravity,” I explained, slipping a stack of them onto each wrist.

  “Of course not,” Billy agreed. “Let’s go!”

  “Today we’re going to some very glamorous galaxies,” I said, propping up the books. They became the backdrop for our spaceship.

  “Keep an eye out for trouble,” Billy said. He pretended to steer the ship toward the Milky Way.

  “Uh-oh,” I shouted. “The rocket ship is on a collision course with an asteroid.”

  “Mayday! Mayday! Abort! Abort!” Billy cried.

  I laughed and tipped backward onto the ground, yelling, “Ka-boom!”

  Suddenly, my eyes closed and my body shook.

  “Are you okay?” Billy asked.

  I snapped out of my trance and opened my eyes. “I had a vision,” I said.

  “What was it? What did you see?” Billy asked.

  “Cannot predict now,” I replied, dazed. “But I have a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.”

  Billy said, “Maybe you should have let me finish that last piece of your French toast. It’s probably not agreeing with you.”

  “The vision was something about my party, but it was too hazy,” I said. I closed my eyes and tried to bring the vision back, but it was no use.

  “Well, maybe we should head inside anyway,” suggested Billy. “I’m getting hungry...again.”

  We packed up our belongings and went downstairs.

  “I’ll see you later,” I said.

  “Yup,” replied Billy, walking into his apartment. “See ya!”

  As the door shut, shivers went up and down my spine like prickly little centipedes were crawling on it. “Uh-oh,” I said to myself. “Something big is going to happen…and the outlook is not so good.”

  Chapter 3

  Spacing Out

  That night, I had the weirdest dream.

  I wore a fabulous glittering silver spacesuit and climbed into a silver rocket ship. (That’s not the weird part.)

  “Three, two, one, blast off!” said a computer voice. The shuttle streaked through the atmosphere, and a red planet came into view.

  That must be Mars, I thought. It’s exactly how it looks in my book!

  Once the space ship landed, I got off and walked around the rocky terrain. I could feel the tiny pebbles crunching under my sparkly boots.

  Suddenly, Martians appeared everywhere. I was surrounded!

  Is this what they look like? I wondered.

  They were tall and thin, with green skin and pointy spikes sticking out of their heads. Slowly, they shuffled toward me. Some were wearing chains on their wrists, others on their legs.

  “This is not the way to go,” the Martians chanted together. “This is not the way to go.”

  The aliens advanced. I tried to push past them, but I couldn’t. They started to smother me. I couldn’t breathe. Finally, I let out an ear-piercing scream.

  “AAAAIEEEEE!”

  I sprang up in bed awake. The sun was out, and I was in the safety of my room. The Martians were gone.

  Mom and Dad appeared in the doorway.

  “Krystal, honey, what happened?” my mom asked.

  I took a deep breath to calm myself, and said, “I was on Mars, and there were these scary Martians all around me, and they were yelling and trying to grab me and…”

  “It’s all right, sweetheart. It’s over now,” Mom said soothingly. She hugged me. “The Martians can’t get you.”

  “I love you, Mom,” I whispered back. “Thanks.”

  My father came over and kissed me on the forehead. He said, “Do you know where we’re going today?”

  I answered, “Yes! We’re going to Grandma’s house, of course. How could I forget.”

  Overjoyed, I leaped out of bed as the memory of my nightmare faded away. Then I shooed my parents out of the room so I could start getting ready for the day.

  Once I was alone, I turned to Stanley, m
y stuffed stegosaurus. He was blue and soft with a long neck and a longer tail.

  “Going to Grandma’s house is always a special occasion,” I said to him. “She’s one of the few people that understand me.”

  For those of you who don’t know, Grandma is special, like me. She has the gift of sight and other amazing abilities. Grandma helps and guides me whenever I feel lonely.

  I opened my closet and stared at my clothes.

  “What dazzling duds shall I wear?” I asked Stanley. Then it came to me. “Let’s start at the top and work our way down.”

  I pulled out a box full of scarves. When I turned it upside down, a rainbow of colorful patterned fabrics swirled around my feet and fell to the floor. “Aha! This bright pink one with gold fringe will do,” I said.

  I smoothed down my unruly curls and wrapped the scarf around them. “Why don’t we tie the ends at the top so we get a nice fancy bow?” I asked Stanley. The stegosaurus silently agreed.

  I skipped over to the dresser and pulled open the drawer with my favorite shirts. On the top of the pile was a purple T-shirt. In its center was a gold star studded with plastic beads.

  Lifting it out of the drawer, I exclaimed, “A star for a star!”

  I put it on and decided to wear a long purple skirt that matched my shirt. But then I glanced at myself in the mirror.

  “Hmm,” I said. “Too much purple? I want to look great, not grape!”

  I scratched my head until a brilliant idea popped in.

  Once it did, I ran over to my scarves and picked a bright yellow one with white stripes. I tied it around my waist and let the ends dangle on one side. I had created a sensational sash.

  “Much better! And now for the finishing touches,” I said.

  I opened my jewelry box. It was a present from Grandma on my last birthday. Inside was a little dancing ballerina. It twirled to the sweet tinkling sounds of music.

  I picked out some costume jewelry that was also a gift from Grandma—a pair of gold hoop earrings and a chunky gold bracelet.