Chapter 1: The Glow-in-the-Dark Sleepover
One chilly third Saturday of November 2020, I met up with my childhood friends Sarah, James, and Henri at the Pittsburgh's Perfect Parties office in Monroeville for Game Day. "Hi, guys!" I greeted my friends. "Hi, Angel!" Sarah greeted back. Games we played included Charades, Donut on a Rope, Flashlight Tag, Corn Hole, Truth or Sing, and Nail Polish Spin the Bottle. Then, we met some of our other best friends Carly Shay and Spencer Puckett, as well as Carly's stepdad, Freddie Benson at client Shannon Kearns's house in Penn Hills for her Glow-in-the-Dark Sleepover that night. The room was decorated with everything glowing, including balloons, bracelet chains, glass jars, and a glowing message on the wall. The music of Santana and NSYNC was playing in the background. "This definitely does remind me of Jill's Up-All-Night Neon Party back in January of 2019," I stated. "I am glad that we know where we are going for Thanksgiving week and all, and that I am invited to come to Gettysburg with you guys." "I know," Sarah agreed. "Mom wants to know how we are doing in the new condo in Squirrel Hill." "Wow, I wish I could come to Gettysburg," Carly stated. "I will be visiting my new family and friends for Thanksgiving." We began with Glow Bowling, which James helped supervise. James was quite impressed with Shannon's strike. "Talking with teenage girls makes me miss when I was a teenager and my relationships with the girls at my high school didn't last long," James explained. "One girlfriend that I especially remember having was a girl named Phillis, and she was pretty similar to me, as our interests were both sports and music." "Oh, that's cool," Shannon agreed. "I am getting hungry now." Then, it was snack time. Sarah and Carly helped serve cupcakes with glowing frosting on them, James and Spencer helped serve glowing punch, and Henri and Mr. Benson helped serve glowing gelatin. "Do you think that we should both use the dry ice, James?" Spencer asked. "Spencer, I should use the dry ice to serve the punch," James stated. "Because I am older." Everyone was mesmerized by the glow in the punch. "Can I have some glowing gelatin, Mr. Benson?" Henri asked. "No, Henri," Mr. Benson replied. "The gelatin is for the guests only!" "What's next, is the whipped cream on my pumpkin pie going to glow this Thanksgiving?" Henri asked. "It's quite possible," Mr. Benson agreed. "You missed last week when we talked with Shannon about glowing frosting on our birthday cake, Carly," Sarah stated. "That would be nice, Sarah," Carly agreed. "By the way, your birthday is coming up at the end of the month and Alex suggested a very special birthday dinner at an Italian restaurant with us girls!" "Yes, one that all of us can attend together," Sarah agreed. After snacks, we played more games, including Bounce n' Glow which involved bouncing a ball through a glowing hula hoop supervised by Henri and Glow Ring Toss supervised by Sarah. Isabella had blue glow bracelets, Meredith had green glow bracelets, Shannon had red glow bracelets, Sarah had purple glow bracelets, and Ella had pink glow bracelets. Isabella won the game since she got the most "ringers" on the bottle. Then, there were three more glowing activities, which were Glowing Bubbles supervised by Spencer, a Glow-in-the-Dark Art Gallery supervised by Mr. Benson, and finally Glow Makeovers supervised by Carly. "I have always wanted to help out with glow makeovers," Carly stated, "because they were my favorite activity from high school, and I can't wait to visit my family for Thanksgiving, which should be the best Thanksgiving since then!" "That's great, Carly," I stated. "It would be cool if I met up with Madison Dayley, who was the client's slumber party I last worked with, and do all of the activities that she enjoyed back in the summer of 2012," Carly stated. "Including blindfolded makeovers in Churchill, a talent show in Oakmont, a Bean Boozled taste bud test in Monroeville, spas and makeovers in Murrysville, and playing video games in Plum, and we can even play a game of charades together, since that is one of my favorite games from Game Day and I couldn't even attend!" Pretty soon, it was time for all of us to leave. "Thanks for a great day, everyone!" I thanked my friends. "You're welcome, Angel," Sarah replied. "Good night, guys!" "Good night!"