Annabelle’s violin was in its case next to her bed. She picked it up. Playing music always made her feel better. But today it only helped a bit. Definitely not enough to want to go back outside.

After she had been playing for a while there was a knock on her door.

‘Can I come in?’ asked her mum.

Annabelle looked at her concert clothes crumpled up on the floor. She didn’t want her mum to see that she had ruined them. But there was no point hiding them. Her mum would find out in the end.

‘OK,’ said Annabelle.

Her mum came in and sat beside her.

‘You are playing so well, Belly,’ she said. ‘I can’t wait to hear you at the concert.’

‘I won’t be able to play,’ said Annabelle sadly.

‘Why not?’ asked her mum, surprised.

‘Because I’ve wrecked my concert clothes,’ admitted Annabelle, showing her.

Annabelle’s mum looked at the grass stain and the tear.

‘You know, these aren’t too bad. I think that grass stain will come out. And I can sew up that tear so you won’t even know it’s there. Besides,’ she added. ‘You have to play at the concert so you can wear this.’

She handed Annabelle a small blue box with a purple ribbon tied around it.

Annabelle was confused.

‘But I thought the cake was my present,’ she said.

‘This isn’t really a birthday present,’ explained her mum. ‘It’s to show how proud I am that you’re about to play in your first concert.’

Annabelle opened the box.

Inside was a small silver treble clef, hanging on a chain.

‘It’s so beautiful!’ said Annabelle. ‘Can I wear it today or do I have to wait for the concert?’

‘You can wear it today,’ her mum laughed. ‘Put it on and then come with me. There’s something else you should see.’

Annabelle followed her mum into the kitchen. All her friends were crowded around the kitchen table.

‘What’s going on?’ asked Annabelle.

Her friends all stepped to the side. Annabelle couldn’t believe it. There on the table was a brand new birthday cake! It was shaped like a castle with lots of pointy turrets.

‘Do you like it?’ asked Nicole. ‘We made it out of ice-cream! And the turrets are ice-cream cones.’

‘Yeah, what do you think?’ said Chloe. ‘Is it as good as the other one?’

Annabelle looked at the cake. It was already starting to melt. On the side someone had written, ‘Happy Birthday, Bell!’ in chocolate dots. Some of the letters were much bigger than the others.

Annabelle looked at her friends.

‘Are you kidding?’ she said. ‘It’s way better than the other one!’

‘Hey!’ said Nicole. ‘This means we can sing Happy Birthday again. But let’s sing it the other way this time.’

As she started singing, everyone else joined in. Even Annabelle’s mum!

Happy birthday to you

You live in the zoo

You look like a monkey

And you smell like one too!

When the song finished, everyone cheered again. And this time it was even louder than before.

‘Let’s eat the cake!’ said Annabelle.

Then she grabbed one of the turretcones and used it to scoop up some of the ice-cream castle.

‘Cool!’ giggled Sarah, reaching out for a turret.

Before long everyone else was licking a turret, too.

‘How about a swim?’ suggested Lola.

‘Great idea,’ agreed Sophie, starting to head outside. Then she stopped. ‘Hang on … None of us have our bathers.’

‘Wait there!’ said Annabelle, dashing out of the room.

She ran to her bedroom and grabbed as many T-shirts as she could find. Five minutes later, everyone was in the pool. Annabelle couldn’t stop laughing. It was so funny to see everyone swimming around in her clothes.

Nicole swam up to her.

‘I wish I’d been here from the start,’ she said. ‘Everyone keeps telling me what a great party it’s been.’

Annabelle was surprised. She hadn’t thought the party was very good at all. But then she thought about the day. A few bad things had happened. Like Chloe getting a bee sting. And the cake getting wrecked. But there had been lots of good things, too.

She looked around at everyone playing in the pool. Sophie and Michiko were both trying to sit on the li-lo, but they kept falling off. Dani was teaching the others her crazy dance. It looked even crazier in the water.

‘I guess it has been pretty good,’ said Annabelle, smiling. ‘But I wonder what the Party Princess would say about it?’

‘Who cares what she thinks?’ Nicole sang out. ‘You know more about parties than she does, any day!’