Chapter 3: The Traditional Slumber Party
One seasonably chilly last Saturday of January 2019, I met my childhood friends Sarah, James, and Henri at Zone 28 in Harmarville, along with client Hailey Thomson and her older sisters, Mia and Erin, as well as Hailey's guests, Serena, Zoe, Grace, and Ella. "Hi, guys!" I greeted my friends. "Hi, Angel!" Sarah greeted back. "Are we going to bowl or just watch?" I asked everyone. "I believe that we are just going to watch," James told us. "I believe that you guys have not been bowling since we went to Arsenal Lanes in Lawrenceville with Carly and her parents last summer," I pointed out. "That's right, I think," Henri agreed. After Hailey and her friends bowled, her sisters, Erin and Mia wanted to give bowling a try. After dinner, we drove back to Hailey's house in Oakmont for her slumber party. The room was decorated with a banner, a collage, and of course, music in the background. We began with making tents, which Henri helped out with. The girls took cushions, sheets, pillows, blankets, clothespins, and yarn to make an enormous tent for the 5 of them to sleep in. Then, it was snack time. Henri helped serve the Tie-Dye Cupcakes, James helped serve the Mix and Match Snacks, and Sarah helped serve the Fruit Kebabs. "Fruit is one of the best things for me to eat since it tastes good and it is good for me," Sarah pointed out. "As a matter of fact, the day of James's 16th birthday, I ate a big fruit salad for a snack to keep me healthy and full between breakfast and lunch, especially since I would be eating a lot of junk food for dinner that evening." "I believe that James bought his car further up the Allegheny River along Cheswick," Hailey stated. "Yes," James replied. "How did you know that, Hailey?" "Sarah just told me," Hailey replied. "We went to Pizza Hut for dinner that evening," I remembered. "I will make sure that we will have some leftover snack mix for the movie," James stated. Henri looked at the Tie-Dye Cupcakes. "Mmm, these look much better than pizza, chips and dip, popcorn, cookies, brownies, and candy," he stated, drooling over the cupcakes. The dining table was decorated to look like a "bed". After snacks, we played games, including the Taste the Rainbow Race supervised by Henri, the No Peek Obstacle Course supervised by James, and the Guess Whose Secret game supervised by Sarah. Grace won the Taste the Rainbow Race, Hailey's team won the No Peek Obstacle Course, and everybody guessed Hailey's secret that Hailey wanted to travel to the moon someday. Then, we moved on to makeovers. Hailey got a manicure from Sarah with her dark pink nail polish. "Do you really want to travel to the moon one day, Hailey?" Sarah asked. "Absolutely," Hailey replied, "since I wanted to throw an out-of-this-world slumber party back in the fall." "My secret is that James, Henri, and I had to wear all black clothes to blend into a classroom with black objects," Sarah revealed. "Triple black?" Hailey asked. "Why would you do that?" "To appreciate different colors in this world," Sarah explained. "Black is a very sophisticated color, but I like other colors, besides pink, red, purple, and blue." "Sarah likes a lot of the same colors that I like," I explained. "What is your favorite color?" "Green," Hailey replied, "since it is the color of many growing things." After makeovers were over, James showed us a few movies that the girls could watch, including Spider-Man: Far From Home, Lilo and Stitch, The Sandlot, and The Princess Diaries, which was the winner. "I am really not a fan of too many movies about princesses, but it is all about what the girls want to watch," James admitted. Around midnight, ACCESS took us back to our hotel across the river in Harmarville. "Thanks for a great day, everyone!" I thanked my friends. "You're welcome, Angel," Sarah replied. "Good night, guys!" "Good night!"