It was Billy.
Her mind whirled as she tried to put everything together, remembering all the details from the story of the Birthday Basher. Billy seemed way too joyful to be single-handedly stripping the happiness from the Magical Land of Birthdays. What could have possibly happened to change him so drastically?
Be patient, Amirah told herself. She had a feeling that before long, all would be revealed.
As soon as the partygoers finished eating birthday cake, their plates disappeared like magic and a present appeared where each plate had been. The B-Buds gasped in delight. Amirah smiled to herself, knowing in her heart that those presents had come from the special tent filled with gifts she had discovered and that each friend was about to open their very own perfect present.
She watched as the B-Buds opened their gifts. A pair of ballet shoes . . . a soccer ball . . . a paint set . . .
And then it was Billy’s turn.
He lifted the lid off his present and leaned over to look inside. Whatever was in the box cast a golden light across his face, which seemed to glow with wonderment. Then Billy reached into the box and lifted up a golden crown. Each point was tipped with a glittering gem in a different color of the rainbow.
Or, Amirah thought, beaming, the color of sprinkles.
The B-Buds gasped when they saw Billy’s gift. “Look! There’s a tag!” a girl cried. “What does it say?”
“Read it!” one of the boys added.
Billy lifted up the tag and read. “For the prince of the Magical Land of Birthdays,” he said.
Silence fell upon the party.
A sheepish, almost embarrassed smile crossed Billy’s face. “This can’t be right,” he said. “There must be some mistake. I’m not a prince. I’m just—me.”
“Maybe in the regular world,” the girl said. “But here—you’ve always had more birthday magic than anyone else.”
“Alicia!” Billy said in surprise.
“It’s true, though,” Alicia insisted. “You discovered how to get here a whole year before the rest of us. And when we arrived, you found each one of us. You explained what was happening. You showed us how to love birthdays even more than we already did.”
“You know she’s right,” another girl chimed in.
Billy’s smile grew more confident. “Birthdays really are the best,” he said.
“All hail Prince Billy,” one of the boys announced.
Amirah suspected he was just kidding, but in the somber quiet of the clearing, his words rang too true to be a joke.
Alicia stepped forward and, without a word, took the crown from Billy. She placed it carefully on his head, making sure his crown was straight. “All hail Prince Billy,” she repeated.
Billy sat very still for a moment, as if he needed to get used to the weight of the crown on his head. Then he lifted his glass of lemonade for a toast. “To the happiest birthdays, and the best B-Buds ever,” he announced. “Cheers!”
“Cheers!” the B-Buds chorused.
Then they began to sing the happy birthday song. Amirah joined in, even though she knew they couldn’t hear her. It was her favorite song, after all.
Before the song was half over, though, the world started spinning, and the colors around her started twirling and twisting into new shapes and patterns. She closed her eyes and waited for the spinning to stop, knowing she’d be home, safe and sound in her very own house once more.
Except that’s not what happened. Not this time.
When Amirah opened her eyes again, she was seated on a velvet throne in a dark, windowless room. A screen on the wall across from her flickered to life. She leaned forward, eager to see what would be revealed.
There was a figure on the screen: Billy. He wasn’t in the Magical Land of Birthdays, though. Amirah had a feeling that she was watching him back in the real world.
A crown—Billy’s crown—glinted on a shelf above his bed. And on his bed, a small brown dog was all curled up.
“It’s going to be so great, Fiesta,” Billy said from his desk, which was cluttered with art supplies and stacks of red paper.
There were striped treat bags too, which looked vaguely familiar to Amirah, though she couldn’t quite place them. Even the invitations Billy was making looked a little familiar, but Amirah was certain she’d never seen them before.
She turned her attention back to Billy, who was busy writing something on a red piece of paper. “The best birthday party ever, right here in my own house, with my B-Buds from all around the world!” he was saying.
Fiesta’s tail went thump-thump-thump.
“Birthday magic can bring them here, I know it,” Billy said. “I feel it.”
Amirah sat up a little straighter. She knew exactly the feeling he meant.
“It won’t matter that they live all over the world when they get their invitations,” Billy confided in his dog. “My birthday magic is strong enough to bring them here. It’s strong enough to do anything!”
Billy sat back and looked at the six invitations on his desk. He placed a handmade friendship bracelet on each one. Then a grin flashed across his face. “Almost forgot something!” he said as he reached for a jar of sprinkles. He added a smattering of sprinkles to each card as he tucked them into envelopes. “Like confetti, but better. Right, Fiesta?”
Amirah smiled to herself as Billy popped a handful of sprinkles in his mouth before he sealed the envelopes. They had so much more in common than she would’ve thought. At least, they did—before he became the Birthday Basher.
She watched the screen as Billy took his invitations outside and put them in the mailbox on the corner. “See you soon, B-Buds,” he whispered.
Then he went home, whistling the birthday song.
Amirah sat up a little straighter as the mailbox on the corner started to tremble. The sky got brighter and brighter. Then, in a flash of blinding light, all six invitations soared out of the mailbox!
Wow, she thought in astonishment. Billy figured out how to use birthday magic in the
