Of Witches and Warlocks: The Complete Series

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

My party was going dismally, and it was all the fault of those stupid Snowflake Lobos. I don't know what their coach said to them at halftime, but they came roaring onto the field for the second half and proceeded to slaughter our team like a well-oiled machine. The final score of the game ended up being forty-two to twenty-one.

Several of the Sedona football players were here, drowning their sorrows in my pink lemonade, while girlfriends hung on their shoulders attempting to cheer them. Shelly was sitting on Brad's lap at the picnic table, her arms draped around him as she tried to give him a pep talk. A group of girls clustered around the stereo kept playing melancholy songs one right after another, only serving to enhance the gloomy mood.

Sighing, I jumped off the small half wall surrounding Grandma's well-groomed backyard. I walked under the hanging Chinese lanterns into the kitchen, letting the screen door bang shut behind me.

"Having fun?" Grandma asked, pulling a pan of her steaming enchiladas from the oven, filling the air with wonderful aromas.

I released a pitiful harrumph. Grandma cast a quick glance at me.

"Don't worry, Lollipop. It'll get better I'm sure."

"We should've planned this party for tomorrow." I descended with a sigh into a chair at her small dining table, laying my forehead on it.

Grandma place the enchiladas on the stovetop with a soft clunk. She came and sat next to me, covering my hand with hers.

"Everything will be all right. Let's get the food served and open presents. That always makes everyone feel more festive." When I didn't move, she pushed my shoulder. "Go on outside, and put on some livelier music. It will help."

Pushing away from the table, I meandered through the door and across the porch to the stereo. I picked through the selections before pulling the slow-playing mood music out and putting in my favorite pop artist.

As the strong beat poured through the air, Grandma began bringing the food to the table. Shelly hopped up to help, and I snagged a classmate named Wes to keep the fast music playing, and followed her.

We quickly had the table loaded with the most delicious looking meal of red and green enchiladas with Spanish rice. The chips and salsa, along with a mouthwatering seven-layer dip, soon had everyone looking a bit peppier.

Grandma had placed several folding tables end to end to make one giant table decorated in bright fiesta colors. In the middle of each of the tables were sombrero hats, their brims filled with chips, and a bowl of either salsa or dip sitting in the top of the hat. As she predicted, my guests were soon sitting around the array, talking and laughing while the late night meal continued.

We had a good time visiting and joking with one another, and when everyone looked like they were finished eating, Grandma surprised me with a giant donkey-shaped piñata. A couple of the guys helped her string it from the large tree in the middle of the yard.

Since I was the birthday girl, I got nominated to go first. After I was blindfolded, I made a few feeble attempts to hit the swinging cardboard animal but only managed to connect with it once, and that was only a slight brush. I eagerly pulled off the blindfold and passed it on to someone else before I made myself look any more foolish.

As it turned out, the piñata was exactly what the guys from the football team needed to get them going. They started eagerly taking turns, each one trying to outdo the next while their girlfriends laughed and cheered them on. I suddenly realized we were all having a great time, and my eyes sought out my grandma who was watching the whole game with a large smile on her face. She snuck a quick wink at me. Smiling back, I moved toward the rear of the group since some of the guys were getting pretty aggressive with the baseball bat.