By Sunday, Annabelle still hadn’t decided what to do. It would be so awesome to have a rock-climbing party. But how would she choose who to take? There was her bestie Nicole, for a start. Plus she had her second besties – Sarah, Dani, Chloe and Lola.

Then there were her orchestra friends. Annabelle had been playing in the orchestra for a while now and she really liked Siri and Freya. And what about the kids who lived nearby? She always invited Michiko from next door and Shae who lived down the road. Plus there was no way she could leave out Sophie, who was her friend as well as her cousin.

It was just way too hard to pick only three friends.

As Annabelle lay on her bed thinking, her mum stuck her head around the door.

‘Come on, Belly. It’s time for lunch at Uncle Bob’s,’ she said.

Annabelle and her mum had lunch at Uncle Bob’s place every Sunday. Sometimes Sophie was there, too. But some Sundays she was at her mum’s place.

‘Cool,’ said Annabelle, getting up.

She liked going to Uncle Bob’s. He was an illustrator and had lots of funny drawings stuck up around the house. And this week Sophie would be there.

I can ask her what she’d do about this whole party thing, thought Annabelle. Her cousin was good at solving problems.

Sophie was using the computer when they arrived. She listened as Annabelle explained her problem.

‘I think your parties are cool the way they are,’ said Sophie. ‘But it’s up to you, I guess.’ Then she typed something into the computer. ‘Let’s visit the Party Princess website. She might be able to help.’

Seconds later a girl appeared on the screen wearing a tiara and holding a present.

‘That’s the Party Princess,’ explained Sophie. ‘She knows everything there is to know about parties.’

Sophie clicked on the WHAT’S HOT section.

Annabelle grinned.

‘That’s it!’ she said. ‘I’ll have a mocktail party! Then I can invite whoever I like. And it’ll also be totally different to the sort of parties I usually have.’

Sophie nodded.

‘Cool idea, Bell,’ she said.

Over lunch, Annabelle explained her idea to her mum and Uncle Bob.

‘Everyone can dress up. We can have fancy drinks in tall glasses and food on silver trays,’ she said excitedly. ‘Then we can all play crock-kwit.’

Her mum frowned for a moment. Then she laughed.

‘You mean croquet,’ she said, saying it ‘croak-ay’. ‘I wonder how you play it?’

Annabelle’s face fell. She had hoped her mum would know.

‘You’re all forgetting the most important question!’ said Uncle Bob suddenly. ‘What sort of invitations should we make?’

Annabelle bit her lip.

Uncle Bob made Annabelle’s party invitations every year. For the Hawaiian party he made girls who wiggled their hips when you pulled a tab. For the winter party he’d drawn penguins wearing sparkly hats. And for the school party he’d made invitations that looked like report cards.

But Nicole’s birthday invitations had come from a proper party shop. They had gold edges and smelt like watermelon. Annabelle really wanted invitations like that this year. But before she could say anything Uncle Bob slapped the table.

‘I know!’ he said. ‘We can make them look like cocktail glasses! And as you pull the straw the drink will disappear.’

Annabelle sighed, but very quietly. There was no way she could say anything now. Uncle Bob was way too excited.

After lunch they all set to work on the invitations. Uncle Bob designed them on the computer. Then Sophie, who was almost as good as Uncle Bob on the computer, coloured them in. Then they printed them out and everyone helped put them together. As a final touch Annabelle added red and gold glitter to the straws.

It took all afternoon but the time passed quickly. Uncle Bob kept drawing funny things in the glasses. In one he drew a dolphin wearing goggles. And in another he added a duck doing backstroke.

When the invitations were finished Sophie spread them out over the table.

‘They look so cool!’ she said.

Annabelle nodded.

They did look good. And seeing them there made her realise that her birthday was very soon! Annabelle felt all quivery just thinking about it.

This is going to be the coolest party I’ve ever had, she thought.