"You don't want to be a girl, do you?" the other boys had said, and Jesse and Xander had just sort of looked at her apologetically before they went off to play wiffleball or whatever. What was so bad about being a girl, anyway?

"Boys are stupid," Willow muttered to herself, but even as she said it she knew it wasn't true. Jesse and Xander were boys, and they weren't stupid, even if sometimes they did dumb things like go play wiffleball with other boys who wouldn't let girls play.

"Wouldn't let you play either, huh?" a voice asked from her side. Willow turned and saw Amy, a blonde-haired girl from kindergarten. "Boys are stupid."

Willow felt the urge to defend them, but since she had just said it herself she couldn't very well disagree.

"Come on," said Amy. "Harmony's mom has cupcakes inside the house. Lauren said they had chocolate, even."

Harmony's mom had every type of cake, candy, and snack food imaginable within the house, Willow knew. Well, not imaginable, maybe, because Willow could imagine an awful lot of stuff, but more than you could actually eat, certainly. And it was all pretty, with all sorts of fancy swirls, instead of the plain cupcakes that were at most people's birthdays.

Willow followed Amy across the back terrace and into Harmony's house. There were a lot of grown-ups in the kitchen, talking. Mrs. Kendall saw them and came over. "Can I get you girls something?"

"Can I get a cupcake, please?" Amy asked, and Mrs. Kendall just nodded and smiled.

"Of course you can dear," she said, with a smile that was much bigger and happier than any smile Willow's mom had ever smiled—so much so that there was something weird about it. Like it was fake or something.

"Please, Mrs. Kendall," Willow said, and Mrs. Kendall laughed and handed them each a cupcake.

"Harmony and the girls are in the family room," Mrs. Kendall said. "Why don't you go see what they're doing."

Willow could think of a couple reasons not to, but didn't tell them to Mrs. Kendall. Instead, she and Amy made their way dutifully to the Kendalls' family room.

"What are you doing here?" Harmony asked when they entered.

"It's your birthday party," Amy answered. "You invited us."

"I didn't invite you," Harmony said. "My mother invited you. She invited everybody."