Closed Funny Food & Growing Up

[Kara Munn]

Kara brushed a piece of her blonde hair behind her ear, running her hands to straighten out her shirt. The party was at a park, so she was dressed casually in play appropriate clothes. Her Grandma Lily and Grandpa Rodger had called to wish her birthday earlier that day since they wouldn’t be coming to her party. They still lived in England. Her fathers side of the family would be there; Granny Anne, Grandpa Sam, Aunt Olivia, her twin cousins Harper & Elizabeth would be coming. Kara had received presents from her mother’s brothers, as they to would still be in England. Of course her mother, father, and brother would be there. Kara still couldn’t believe she was turning eleven, that’s a big deal!

She carried a bowl of sliced mangoes to a picnic table in the park with her family. Her mother had some presents and her father carried the rest of the food. Sammy, her younger brother, was simply pouting and dragging his feet to the table. Kara’s dad, Samual, began setting up the food on the table. There was roasted chicken, corn, sliced mangoes, and vegetable stir fry. Kara picked out the foods herself, it was some of her favorite foods. Candace, Kara’s mother, set the presents in a pile by the table. They were wrapped in matte blue wrapping paper.

She wandered over to the table taking a slice of mango from the bowl as she set it down. Taking a bite, she wondered who would arrive first. Recently she met a boy named Daniel who will be attending Hogwarts with her next year. She invited him to the party and hoped her would show.

 

[Elizabeth Fletcher]

Elizabeth skipped ahead of her grandparents, Granny Anne and Grandpa Sam we’re far too slow to keep up with. “Hurry! It’s Kara’s birthday. This is the important one.” Her grandparents chuckled and said they would catch up with her. Elizabeth and her twin brother, Harper, had been picked up by their grandparents for the party. Their mother had to work late and promised to catch up later. Her mom has had to work late a lot since their dad died.

Elizabeth spotted her cousin, Kara and began to wave and run towards her. “Happy Birthday, Kara! Now you are as old as Harper and me.” She wrapped her hands around Kara’s neck in a big hug. “We rode with Granny and Grandpa. Moms working late but said to wish you happy birthday and she will be by later.” She was clutching two polka dotted gift bags and smiled at Kara. “Presents!” Elizabeth placed the gift bags by the table with the other gifts.

 

[Harper Fletcher]

Harper wasn’t as close to Kara as Elizabeth was, but she’s family. He was used to his mom working late, but enjoyed spending time with his grandparents. Elizabeth ran ahead of him, but he stayed back to walk with his grandparents. He was carrying a large box wrapped in orange paper, a gift for Kara from them, but he offered to carry it.

Making his way to the picnic table, he waited for his grandparents to greet Kara and they wandered over to her parents to chat. Harper placed the box with the other presents and smiled at Kara. “Happy birthday.”

He noticed Sammy seemed to be upset. “What’s up with Sammy?”

 

[Daniel Remdond]

Daniel had come to Tākarokaro Park for Kara's birthday and was relieved when he'd found it alright. In his hand, he was holding onto a bag with a present for her. Even though she had said to just bring himself, he knew that it was polite to bring a gift. He hoped that she like the gift, especially since he knew she liked books. Since they had been sending each other letters, Daniel decided that he'd get her the whole set of The Giver books. The four books were reasonably light, so they were nice and easy to carry.

There were a few people around the place, so Daniel had a look around for Kara. He spotted her and walked over to her."Happy birthday!" he said when he reached her."I got this for you, I hope you like them as much as I did." He clamped a hand over his mouth."Oh no, I'm giving it away! Ignore what I said!" He laughed.

 

[Kara Munn]

Kara was filled with joy when she saw Elizabeth arrive in a tornado of smiles, waves, and hugs. She smiled and hugged her cousin back. “Thank you.” Kara watched as her grandparents arrived with Harper. She hugged them all and thanked them.

“Ignore Sammy. He is upset that he doesn’t get presents too even though his birthday was last month.” Kara understood her brothers frustration, but there wasn’t much to be done about it. Daniel arrived and she was very happy to see him.

“You didn’t have to bring me anything! Thank you.” Kara was just happy he came. “That’s my cousins Elizabeth and Harper. They are going to school with us next year. My younger brother Sammy is the one pouting over there. My Granny Anne and Grandpa Sam are talking to my parents over there. You already met my mom Candace but that’s my dad Samuel.” She paused for a second realizing that was a lot of information very fast. “It’s okay if you can’t remember it all but there are three generations of Samuels here, that’s a good guess when in doubt.”

 

[Elizabeth Fletcher]

Elizabeth snuck off to the picnic table while their grandparents greeted Kara. She grabbed a slice of mango and wandered back to her as a boy arrived. Kara bothered to introduce them to him but not him to them! “Hello, what’s your name?” She said excitedly. “Harpers the only one not named Samuel.”

 

[Harper Fletcher]

Harper held his hand out towards the boy. “Hogwarts is going to be exciting right?” He was ready to explore the castle and see what he could fine, maybe he would slip off into the forbidden Forrest he has heard about. “Yeah because my last name is Fletcher not Munn, I am not a Samuel.” Harper smirked rolling his eyes at his twin.

 

[Daniel Remdond]

Daniel nodded along with Kara's introductions, but it was hard to take in. Never mind, he'd manage."Hi, I'm Daniel," he introduced himself to Kara's cousins."You guys are going to Hogwarts too?" He grinned. Now he knew a few more fellow students."It's going to be great!" He didn't really want to mention him being a Muggleborn, since he didn't know how they'd react and he didn't think it was important. He also didn't want to mention the fact he didn't know much about the school, but that would probably come out anyway at some point.

 

[Kara Munn]

Kara silently shammed herself for neglecting to introduce them to Daniel but moved on with the conversation. The four young Hogwarts students to be, stood there for conversation. She wondered what houses they would all end up in, maybe the same houses, maybe all four of the different houses. That was kind of a nice thought.

"Come grab a plate and some food!" Candace, Kara's mom called out to everyone.

Kara smiled at her friends and walked towards the table of food. Picking up a plate, she began adding some of everything to it with extra slices of mangoes. "Every year on our birthday we pick our favorite foods and that is what is served. Sometimes it leads to some funny combinations." She explained to Daniel. "Don't feel like you have to eat everything." Kara wanted her new friend to feel as comfortable as possible. She sat down under the shade of a nearby tree and began picking at her vegetable stir-fry.

 

[Elizabeth Fletcher]

Elizabeth wondered where Kara met Daniel, it was cool that her cousin found somebody outside of the family they would be going to school with. "Yeah! Who knows, maybe we will all get to ride the train together." She already had plans to explore the train, but she wasn't sure what was allowed. Not that, that really matters.

Aunt Candance called everybody to get food and Elizabeth got into line. She grabbed some chicken, corn, and mangoes, but declined the vegetable stir-fry. "I don't understand how anyone eats this stuff, Kara." Elizabeth teased her cousin.

 

[Harper Fletcher]

Harper nodded to Daniel. "It'll be our first year as well." He was thrilled to get his hands on some magic skills but underwhelmed by the thought of school starting up again. School meant classwork, which just meant more work in general. "Although, I'd rather play gobstones than do coursework." Harper rather enjoyed the game.

He got in the food line behind his sister and grabbed a big plate of everything. Harper just liked all food. He joined Kara and his sister underneath the tree to eat.

 

[Daniel Remdond]

"Gobstones?" Daniel made a note to study more about magic. He was leanring so much, but it'd be nice to be able to impress someone with his knowledge.

Daniel got in line behind everyone."It all looks great!" he said. Food was one of his favourite things, so he didn't have too much trouble getting food. He followed the others to the tree, sitting down with them.

 

[Kara Munn]

Kara stuck her tongue out at Elizabeth who didn't seem to be pleased with the vegetables. "Better than an entire buffet of blueberries." She pointed out, seeing as that is what was chosen on Elizabeth's birthday. "At least you have a twin, so there is some diversity in food choices."

Kara shoved a forkful of chicken and veggies in her mouth, chewing politely with her mouth closed. "I was reading in the newspaper the other day, it was an article about the zoo. It got me thinking." She paused for a moment between bites of mango. "If you could design your own zoo, what animals would be there and what would you have the most of?"

 

[Elizabeth Fletcher]

Elizabeth laughed. "I love blueberries, what can I say." Her cake had been a gigantic blueberry muffin. "Even though we are twins, we get to each pick our own food buffet, just like everybody else. My side featured pretty much only blueberry foods." She explained to Daniel.

Feeding herself some chicken, she pondered about if she had a zoo. "My zoo would hold all the most dangerous and exciting creatures. Lots of dragons I think." She imagined for a moment, a zoo full of nothing but dragons. "It would have other animals too though. Are zoos allowed to have roller coasters? Mine would have a really cool roller coaster."

 

[Harper Fletcher]

Harper looked at the boy curiously. Who didn't know what Gobstones were? He pushed the thought aside and began to explain. "It's kind of like muggle marbles, so I have heard. You attempt to capture the other players gobstones and if successful, it squirts a foul odor in the losers face. I find it quite fun, others find it rather dreadful for some reason." Gobstones was not a very popular game, most wizards and witches prefered wizard chess to gobstones, and of course quidditch.

"The food on my side was chicken curry and rice cakes." Harper said with a smirk. The twins were very different individuals. "If I had a zoo it would be filled with magical birds. From owls to hippogriffs." He had a slight fascination with animals that were bird-like.

 

[Daniel Remdond]

Daniel nodded slowly as Harper described gobstones."Oh, okay." He needed to learn about magical hobbies. That would be a great thing to learn!

Daniel laughed with the others."Blueberries are pretty good though," he said."I'm not sure what animals I'd like. There are some pretty cool ones back in Australia, but I'd love to have something different." He thought for a moment."There's this zoo back home that has a chair lift, like at the snow, that takes you to the top of the zoo. You walk back down to the bottom through all the exhibits." He had never been, but had heard about it a few times.

 

[Kara Munn]

Kara listened to the others zoo responses. “I am not surprised that you’d have some of the most dangerous and scary animals, Elizabeth. I didn’t know you liked birds so much, Harper.” She replied to her cousins, amused with their answers. “Whoa, that sounds so cool Daniel. Have you ever been? I want to go if I ever get to visit! I’m a little scared of heights but it sounds like fun.”

 

[Elizabeth Fletcher]

“Dad took us to Aotearoa Magical Wildlife Sanctuary once. It was lots of fun.” Elizabeth smiled proudly. “We saw TWO dragons.” She had carefully documented her finds that day in her journal and remember nearly every moment. Not to mention, it was one of the good memories with her dad before he passed. Her mood shifted slightly, she missed her dad a lot. “You are from Australia? That’s so cool. Is there places to rock climb?” She shook the thought of her dad from her head.

 

[Harper Fletcher]

Harper thought the idea of a chairlift was cool. Heights never really bothered him. His heart fell inside his chest at the mention of his dad, he hated when Elizabeth talked about him. It was easier to not think about him. “I’m not a fan of that place. The Hippogriff exhibit was closed when we went.” Harper wasn’t telling the complete truth though, he had a wonderful day that day and would do anything to go back to that day. The reality was he couldn’t ever go back to the zoo and see the hippogriffs with his dad like his dad promised. Harper didn’t want to go back there. “I’ve never been to Australia.”

 

[Daniel Remdond]

Daniel shook his head."I haven't been, but Mum said she went as a kid." He grinned at Elizabeth's question."It depends on where you are. I'm sure there are though, there's a surprising amount of stuff over there." He laughed."I haven't seen any dragons or Hippogriffs though. That's something that's a little lacking."

 

[Kara Munn]

Kara smiled at Daniel, she couldn't wait to go visit him in Australia and to go to zoos together. She was excited to watch them grow closer as friends and stronger in their magic. Their friendship was something she was beginning to treasure dearly. "Dragons are very large and very terrifying. I don't think you are missing out on much there." She said, not being a fan of big animals herself. Kara finished up the food on her plate and contemplated seconds. Deciding against it, she threw her plate away.

Her mom asked if she was ready for cake and presents and Kara nodded. Candace made a motion for everyone to gather around so she could open her presents, she wasn't a big fan of all the attention being on her. Kara's cheeks flushed red when she reached for the first present.

It was a large box wrapped in orange paper from her Granny Anne and Grandpa Sam. As she tore open the paper she revealed the gift, it was a chocolate pen. "Thank you." She said with a smile, it was something she saw at the store last time she was with her grandpa. Now she could write messages in chocolate before she ate it. Kara reached for the next bag.

 

[Elizabeth Fletcher]

Elizabeth's eyes widen. "I wonder how many cliffs there are..." She said in reply to Daniel, but mostly to herself. As it was time for presents, she grabbed one more plate of food and happily sat down by Kara to watch her open presents. A chocolate pen sounded delicious and she was going to have to ask Kara if she could try it. "Do the gift from me next!" Elizabeth said shoving a polka dotted bag towards Kara's reaching hand.

 

[Harper Fletcher]

Harper tossed his trash and went with the rest of the group to watch Kara open gifts. His sister had insisted on giving Kara a gift that he didn't agree with, so he had chosen to get her a separate gift. He always found Kara reading or writing, so he had elected to get her some new stationary and pens. Harper figured this gift would be useful since she would always need more.

He wondered exactly how the chocolate pen worked, being a muggle device and all. Harper curiously peeked at the box as Kara put it aside.

 

[Daniel Remdond]

Daniel followed the others to the presents. Kara opened a chocolate pen. That's cool, he thought. A non-magical pen though. Wait, do wizards have pens? He made a mental note to ask Kara about that later. Daniel hoped that she liked his gift, the four books in the Giver series. He wasn't sure what to get her, but that seemed like a good idea.

 

[Kara Munn]

Kara didn't have much choice but to accept the bag from Elizabeth. She took the polka dotted bag and opened it up to reveal an old lunch box that had been painted green and labeled 'Adventure Kit'. It seemed to be a handmade gift from Elizabeth. Kara opened the latches and looked inside to see various items; a pair of binoculars, a compass, a pocket survival guide, and various other adventure supplies.

She laughed a little bit but turned to Elizabeth. "Thank you, Elizabeth." Kara wasn't a fan of adventure, but she knew that's all her cousin did. She reached for the identical bag with a tag on it from Harper. Harper's gifts were usually more practical than Elizabeth's, but she loved them both. She opened it to reveal some stationary and pens. "Thank you, Harper. I love them."

Kara moved onto her gift from Daniel. She excited opened it to reveal the entire Giver series. "Thank you so much, Daniel. You didn't have to do that!" Kara looked at him in surprise. "I can return your copy to you now." She laughed looking at the covers.