The Fly Me to the Moon Party

"Not again!" scolded Mr. Dirt. This was the last time he was going to put up with my daydreaming. For the fifth time I answered, "Excuse me sir! I didn’t quite catch what you were saying."

Mr. Dirt sighed and said, "This is the last warning Jake! Just get on with your work."

I groaned and tried to concentrate on my maths, but my mind kept travelling off to my birthday party in one day! My party was going to be the best party ever! With a cake, sausages, all kinds of food, and all shaped like planes. But best of all were the balloons. I was having stacks and stacks of helium balloons, all for Mick {my best friend} and I to {when my parents weren’t looking} float up into the sky upon and, preferably, to the moon. Since this wasn’t possible, I had bought not ordinary balloons but, ‘float to the moon�?balloons. I was sure it would work since I’d stayed up all night devising a plan. Little did I know that my great idea would turn into such a great disaster.

Mum woke up two hours after me and by that time there were about two hundred fly-to-the-moon balloons in and around my bedroom. Mum exclaimed "What in the world!" {Too stunned to say anything else}

"Um, Mum it’s for my�? But she cut me off.

"What in the world is all this nonsense! What are we going to do with all these balloons? Did you think we would use all of the balloons for this one party? Five years! Saving all the balloons up - for one party! I don’t think so! We’re not made of money you know!"

"Well now, since I’ve been so stupid we’re just going to have to keep all the balloons blown up, aren’t we?" I stated sarcastically, and mum, in a rage, stormed out of the room. One parent down, one to go I thought.

Dad was easy to handle. It was just walk in, walk out. Luckily when I came out of my room, mum and dad had cooled down.

"Pancakes for breakfast." Mum called,

"Don’t worry about those balloons, honey."

"Thanks mum." I replied.

At 1:00 p.m., people started to arrive for the party. First Will arrived (I don’t know why I invited him), followed by Candy Morrow, in her frilly dress, and of course when Danielle and Lisa arrived they were dressed in their most fashionable gorgeous outfits from their extensive wardrobes. The last three to come were Sandy, Kate and my best mate Mick. Before the party began and all the guests were mingling, Mick and I snuck off to my bedroom, attached all the balloons to our backpacks then crept back to the party.

The games went just as slowly as the week leading up to the party. Pass the parcel, Pin the wing on the plane, chubby bubbys etc. Mick and I, for a second time, inched off to my room, collected and then fastened our backpacks. The moment we escaped outside we floated upppp!

Candy screamed, mum jumped about six inches into the air and Mick yelled,

"See ya!"

We floated a considerable distance up, then just floated with the wind. Further and further away from the party we floated. Smiling, staring at all the supprised and troubled faces we glided. The first person to speak was Lisa,

"Oh my gosh! When they hit the power line their fashionable outfits will be ruined!"

�?Uh, what power line�?"

I didn’t have time to finish my sentence because Mick and I were heading straight for the bird covered, power lines. But the second we were about to hit I had a brain wave, "Onto the birds Mick!" I called.

"Just jump on the flock?" he fanatically asked.

"Just jump!" I screamed. I shut my eyes. And then I felt the strangest feeling. Like I was flying -  literally flying on the doves. We floated up, up and beyond the power lines and the house until mum was only a little dot below me waving and screaming for help. I looked at Mick's stunned face. After a while he stuttered out, "I�?We made it, b�?but I want to go home. I don’t like this idea anymore!"

"Mick the funs only just begun. Don’t you want to fly past the�?" I never finished my sentence because Mick  blurted out angrily, "NO!"

"Fine!" I said reluctantly, hoping that he would be tempted to drift over the M.C.G. "Um Jake? How do we get down?"

"You were the one that was supposed to organise the pins, remember!"

"No I wasn’t Jake. You were!"

"Well if I didn’t, and you didn’t Mick, the who did?" I said lowering my voice.

"No one!" Mick answered nervously - not angry any more, but frightened. We seemed to be floating down towards the party now. I suppose that at the rate we were falling, I would just be able to touch the ground in approximately two weeks! Anyway I was getting scared at this point in time since we had no reliable way of getting down so I yelped, "HELP!" as loudly as I could.

No body on the streets even lifted their heads.

"HELP!" Mick yelled with much more force than I had so that this time mum looked straight at him. She pulled out her mobile phone, then started talking into it. I couldn’t hear what she was saying, but Mick told me she had called the police, because he reads lips. Mum didn’t take her eyes off us while she was on the phone. I felt like she was holding us in one spot because her stare was extremely strong but, after a while, she lost concentration (someone on the phone must have said something shocking) and as I predicted, mum's mouth started to gape further and further and eventually she hung up the phone.

I estimated it took about two or three hours for the police helicopter to arrive. When it did, it came suddenly from above. Mick and I were (at the time) bobbing up and down waiting for something to happen. So we didn’t get too bored. Mick decided we should play - I Spy. At first it was entertaining but it became more and more boring over the hours until, instead of doing challenging questions, we ended up doing questions like ‘I spy with my eye something beginning with t�?(answer) ‘trees�? So when at last the helicopter did arrive, we were very relived. It all started with,

"Hey, Jake can you hear buzzing?"

"Um, no. Hang on yeah! I can. It’s getting louder too."

"Ja�?Jake! It’s a helicopter and it’s heading straight for�? The rest of Micks sentence was drowned out by the buzzing of what sounded like a giant bee. I could also see police cars on the horizon because if I haven’t told you already we had the best view of the city ever! Anyway, I realised that there was a police sign on the helicopter so I screamed out to Mick,"It’s the police!"  He obviously didn’t hear me because he was going hysterical. I had a bit of a giggle because I could see the pilot of the helicopter looking strangely at Mick as if he was mental or something. So I tapped Mick on the shoulder and pointed to the emblem on the side of the vehicle. He relaxed and started waving. The helicopter slowed down and hovered in the air next to us.

"Hop in boys," said the friendly voice of the pilot.

"Your mums not very happy," he continued.

"I can understand that," I murmured.

"Um, how do we get in Mr?"

"That’s Mr. Camion; but you can call me Joe," he told Mick.

"Now guys, get in, and we’ll cut the balloons off inside."

"Okay!" Mick and I said in synchronisation. Joe smiled and beckoned us in. Inside the helicopter there were beautiful black, leather seats that strangely smelt like almonds and they were very deluxe. The engine started. I didn’t want to go back to mum because I was scared. And so I should have been, because what lay ahead at home wasn’t scary - it was frightening.

Mum was screaming - no that’s the wrong word - she was roaring about everything that I did wrong. According to one of her quotes, ‘Jake! You’re selfish, horrible and I wish I had never bought the balloons for you in the first place.�?

I won’t go on about what she said because that would take up too much time and would be completely pointless; but as well as roaring, she was crying and laughing all at the same time. At the end of the lecture, she sent Mick home to his place and told him not to tell his parents about this incident because they would never let him come to our house again. After mum disappeared outside with Mick, I snuck into my room and stayed in there the whole night. And, ever since the worst party in the history of the world, mum and dad haven’t trusted me nor treated me the same. But I suppose - that’s the price of fun!

Emma

21/9/01