Guest Post from Kody Keplinger

I have the one and only Kody Keplinger. She is the author of The DUFF and is amazing. Here is her most memorable birthday...
The Birthday From Outer Space
When I was a kid, I had a sick obsession with aliens. The green kind with funny shaped heads and three fingers on each hand. I had aliens on my notebooks, my trapper-keeper, my T-shirts. I was an alien for Halloween, I had an alien key chain, and I even had a set of stuff animal aliens. It was a big deal to me. Like I said – obsessed.
So when my eighth birthday rolled around, my mom proposed a plan. We were living in a cabin by the river then, and we had a huge backyard for the first time in my life. She suggested we put that yard to use and have a birthday party – a real one with friends from school instead of just the family. Of course, I was completely on board with this.
I invited twenty of my closest friends and carefully selected my outfit. At eight, not only was I obsessed with aliens, but I was also a fashionista. After finding the perfect outfit, I was ready for my party, which Mom was planning with almost frightening enthusiasm. She made gift bags for the guests and decorated the picnic tables in our backyard with balloons. Then, just before everyone started to arrive, Mom showed me the cake.
It had an alien on it!!! I was so excited. An alien driving a convertible, to be exact.
But let’s back up. My eighth birthday was already my best birthday ever for one reason. Two weeks earlier, my grandmother had surprised me by bringing over her gift to me – a feisty yellow Labrador puppy named Bowser. Getting my first dog already made the year spectacular, but this party was icing on the alien-themed-cake.
Finally, my friends started to arrive. Me and the other third-graders ran around the yard, laughing and popping balloons while Bowser chased us and Mom sat up the bobbing-for-applies game. By the way, I suck at bobbing for apples. You have no idea.
After a few games, it was present time. My friends gathered around as I opened gift after super awesome gift. The big present (aside from my puppy of course) was a brand new bike (which said puppy later chewed the seat off of – sigh). It was amazing and fun, and my eight-year-old crush gave me the TY beanie baby unicorn I’d been wanting, so I was sure that was true love.
And then the moment came. CAKE TIME!!! I waited for my mother’s boyfriend to walk out of the house carrying my birthday cake, but instead . . . an alien walked out the back door.
Gasp!
Okay, not a real alien. Duh. But it looked like an alien! It was really my mom’s boyfriend – we all knew that – but he’d put on my old Halloween mask and dressed in all black and green, looking just like the alien on my birthday cake. My friends laughed and clapped as the alien presented the cake to me, and I felt like the coolest kid ever.
A few hours later, everyone but my best friend, Molly, had gone. Molly’s grandmother lived just down the road from our cabin., so we spent the rest of the evening riding our bikes up and down the gravel road, talking about all the fun things that had happened that day, with Bowser chasing our tires and barking at us when we got too far ahead. It was like a scene from a sweet Disney movie.
I’ve never forgotten that birthday. Tons of other little girls get big backyard parties. Ones bigger than mine with more people and more presents. But my eighth birthday was truly out of this world.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZOE AND SARAH!!!!