The next morning, Lyra and Toni were woken by someone knocking frantically on the door. Lyra got up and went to answer the door, but Toni just stayed in bed and pulled the covers up over her head. Their visitor was Lizzie.

"Err, hi Lizzie," greeted Lyra. "Wanna come in?"

"Yes please," said Lizzie.

Lizzie hurried in and sat down on the end of Lyra's bed. Lyra shut the door and then came and sat down beside her.

"So what's up?" enquired Lyra.

"It's Marieke's birthday today," replied Lizzie.

"Really? Oh damn, I haven't got her a present," said Lyra.

"Me neither," said Toni, sitting up suddenly and making Lizzie jump.

"Don't worry, I haven't either. Marieke isn't expecting presents," reassured Lizzie.

"So why have you come round here?" asked Lyra.

"Well even though she doesn't want presents, I want to do something special for her," explained Lizzie. "I was gonna arrange a small party for her with a birthday cake and everything. I just wanted to ask you two if you could go round to invite some people for me."

"That's fine," said Lyra. "So who do you want to come?"

"Bilbo, Frodo and Mel for starters," said Lizzie, starting to count off on her fingers.

"I'll go see them," offered Toni.

"Thanks," said Lizzie. "And I need Sam and Rosie."

"I'll do them," said Lyra.

"And finally, Merry and Pippin," said Lizzie.

"I'll go!" volunteered Lyra and Toni at the same time.

"Why don't you both go?" suggested Lizzie, laughing.

"OK," agreed Lyra and Toni, looking at one another and grinning.

"Thanks so much guys," beamed Lizzie. "Well, I'd best be going. I've gotta go and start making the cake."

"You can make cakes?" Toni was slightly surprised.

"Well . . ." Lizzie hesitated. "I can have a go, can't I?"

And with that, Lizzie quickly left the house. Lyra went off to find Rosie and Sam, and Toni went to Frodo's house, intending to go to Mel's afterwards.

"Yo Frodo! Open the door! Hello?" Toni knocked hard on the door and called to Frodo, but she got no answer. "Hey, open the door already!"

Finally the door opened to reveal Mel. She looked as though she had dressed pretty quickly, and her hair was going in every direction.

"Mel? What were you doing in there?" asked Toni suspiciously.

"Well, me and Frodo were in bed and . . ." Mel started but was interrupted.

"Stop!" cried Toni. "Bad image. I don't wanna think about it."

"OK," laughed Mel. "So what do you want?"

"It's Marieke's birthday today, and Lizzie's arranging a surprise party for you. I'm just here to invite you, Bilbo and Frodo," explained Toni.

"Where and when is it?" questioned Mel.

"Tonight, but I don't know where," replied Toni. "You'll have to ask Lizzie if you wanna know that."

"OK," agreed Mel. "I'll tell Frodo and Bilbo. See you."

Mel went back inside and Toni went back home to wait for Lyra so that they could go to Merry and Pippin's.

Lyra had gone to Sam's house first but had found no one there, so she'd gone straight to Rosie's house. But when she got there she noticed someone bent over in the flowerbeds around her house. She could just make out a patch of ginger curly hair.

"Hey Sam," she greeted. "What are you doing in Rosie's garden?"

"She asked if I could do some gardening for her," said Sam, blushing.

"So you said yes. Aww, that's sweet," smiled Lyra. "Anyway, are you busy tonight?"

"Don't think so," said Sam. "Why?"

"It's Marieke's birthday," replied Lyra. "Lizzie's holding a surprise party for her, but you'll have to ask her where it is because I don't know."

"OK, I'll come," said Sam. "Is that it?"

"No," said Lyra. "Can you ask Rosie too?"

"Yeah sure," smiled Sam.

"Ta," thanked Lyra. "I'll see you both tonight then."

Lyra hurried off back to hers and Toni's house, and Sam went back to his gardening.

Not long after, Lyra and Toni were at Merry and Pippin's house and had explained the whole idea to them.

"So who's making the cake?" asked Pippin.

"Lizzie is," said Toni. "But I don't think she's tried to before. Imagine if she blew it up or something. That would be so funny."

"Yeah," agreed Lyra. "I can just see her covered in icing."

Pippin, Lyra and Toni all started laughing but Merry didn't join in.

"Lizzie doesn't have to make the cake wrong to make it blow up," he said thoughtfully.

"You what?" asked Toni, confused.

"Listen," Merry grinned. "I've got an idea."

Merry quickly whispered the plan to the other three and they all started laughing again.

That evening, Lyra and Toni were still with Merry and Pippin when there came a knock on the door. Merry went to answer it.

"Lizzie? What's wrong?" he questioned.

"Why aren't you at the party?" Lizzie asked.

"Because we're here," suggested Toni.

"You never told us where it was," pointed out Lyra. "And what about the others?"

"I told them where it was. Sorry, I forgot about you guys until now," apologised Lizzie.

"Oh thanks," said Merry sarcastically.

"Oh whatever. Let's just go," encouraged Lizzie. "Hurry up though, I've still gotta arrange for someone to bring in the cake and light the candles."

"We'll do it," offered Lyra quickly. "Just tell us where it is."

"OK, I will," said Lizzie. "Let's just go!"

The five hurried out of the house, and Lizzie led them down into the heart of the Shire. There were small tents everywhere, and music filled the air. Mel, Frodo, Bilbo, Sam and Rosie were there, and some other hobbits that they didn't know. Lizzie took them over to one of the tents.

"The cake's in there," she pointed. "And we're gonna let some fireworks off later. Bring the cake when the music stops."

"OK," they said.

"Where's the fireworks?" asked Pippin, trying to look innocent.

"In one of the tents over there," said Lizzie, pointing vaguely. "Why?"

"Just wondered," said Pippin.

Lizzie went off to find Marieke, and the four hobbits hurried in the direction that she'd pointed. They tried several tents before they found the one that contained the fireworks. There was a big box filled with them.

"Which one are we having?" asked Toni, holding up several of various sizes.

"It can't be too big," said Lyra. "Or it won't fit in the cake."

"Yeah, but it can't be too small either," smirked Merry.

"Well, that doesn't help," said Toni impatiently. "So which one?"

"Get that one," said Lyra, pointing to one in the box that was just slightly bigger than average.

Toni took the firework, and they all went back to the tent with the cake in. It was a very large round cake, decorated with lilac and white icing. There were seven candles in the middle. They took the centre one out, so that Lizzie wouldn't notice the difference in numbers. Then Lyra plunged the firework into the middle of the cake. Thankfully it didn't make much mess, and they covered it over with icing. Only the end of the fuse was left showing to make a temporary candle.

"Let's go and find the others for a bit now," suggested Pippin.

The four of them went out the tent and went and joined Mel, Frodo, Bilbo, Rosie, Sam, Lizzie and Marieke, who had now appeared. There then started up a big night of singing and dancing.

Over an hour later, the music died down and then stopped completely. Merry, Lyra and Toni recognised it as the cue and hurried off back to the tent. Pippin had forgotten so they'd had to drag him along and remind him on the way.

"OK, we've gotta be careful," warned Lyra. "We don't want the firework going off while we're carrying it."

"Yeah," agreed Merry. "So we'll light it and then we'll have to carry it quickly. So who's lighting it?"

"Me! Pick me! I wanna light it!" cried Toni, bouncing up and down.

"OK, OK, you can light it," said Merry, handing her a box of matches that he'd picked up earlier.

Toni took a match out of the box and struck it on the side. She lit the candles one by one, leaving the firework fuse till last.

"Done!" Toni announced.

She then threw the match and the box aside, and the four picked up the cake between them. They carried it out of the ten and over to the table were Marieke was currently sitting with Lizzie, walking as fast as possible. They laid it down in front of her and everyone started singing 'Happy Birthday.'

"Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday dear Marieke. Happy birthday to you," everyone sang.

Marieke took a deep breath and blew out the candles. They all went out apart from the fuse, which disappeared into the cake as she blew, causing perfect timing. However it still had a small length left inside the cake.

"Hip, hip hooray!" cheered someone. They all started to join in. "Hip, hip hooray! Hip, hip . . ."

BANG! The cake exploded, covering both Marieke and Lizzie in icing. Everyone burst out laughing.

"You are so dead," snarled Lizzie, glaring at Merry, Pippin, Lyra and Toni.

Lizzie and Marieke both got up from their seats. The four troublemakers decided that it was time they left. Without another moment's hesitation they fled back to Lyra and Toni's house with Lizzie and Marieke shouting and chasing after them all the way.