“Can we really invite the Queen and a member of the Revolutionary Council to the same birthday party…?”

  That was the question!

  “Well, we can’t…” Jeanine, Sophie’s mother and Duchess Emeritus of Bourbon, said.

  “But if a foreign diplomat hosts the party, that’s fine!” Francois, Sophie’s father and Duke Emeritus of Bourbon, said.

  “Really?” Sally tilted her head and placed a hand on her cheek.

  Monsieur Planner, the head of the Party Planning Staff, nodded.

  “Oui, diplomats can host parties, and invite everyone they want! Such parties are considered neutral ground.”

  “Yay!” Lily and Sophie shouted and bounced up and down, holding each others’ hands.

  “Meow,” Mr. Cat meowed smugly. Sally bent down and pet him.

  “Good idea, Mr. Cat.”

  It had been his idea in the first place!

  And his secret plan was moving along smoothly…

  You see, Mr. Cat was operating under a severe French Fry deficit!

  Ever since the price of ingredients had gone up, and they started traveling to solve the problems, he only had fries every once in a while!

  He was starving!

  (He was not.)

  He was wasting away!

  (He was not.)

  He was as slim and slender as he had been before he met Lily!

  (This was true!)

  Mr. Cat…

  Was a cat!

  And cats…

  Could be sneaky!

  Heheheh…

  Purr purr, he purred as Sally pet and praised him.

  All according to keikaku!

  (Keikaku means plan.)

  He was gonna get his French Fries!

  With all the problems with having a birthday party solved…

  It was planning time!

  Sally, Sophie’s parents, and the Party Planning Staff did most of the work.

  Sally would bake the cake!

  Lily and the chefs would make Lilyburgers and Fries!

  For drinks they would have juice for the children, and tea for the grown-ups!

  French people loved wine, but…

  Lily was too young for that!

  So was Sophie, for that matter!

  Plus, was wine even a good pairing for Lilyburgers and fries…?

  Not really!

  The flavor profiles were all wrong.

  The God of Cuisine up in heaven wiped some sweat off his forehead!

  “Phew, that would have been a culinary disaster…”

  He sent some more blessings down to Lily and Sally, so they could make the best food and cake possible for the party!

  Uzume, the heavenly persuader, was also blessing Lily, a lot!

  She had once persuaded the Sun God to come out of hiding by dancing!

  Hades, the God of Death, grumbled.

  “I had plenty of great diplomats for France, too…”

  But Justitia was keeping a close eye on him!

  Back down in the drawing room in Sophie’s estate…

  “Would you like to have a dance?”

  “Yeah! Dancing is fun!” Sophie smiled.

  Lily smiled too!

  She was happy to see her friend was happy!

  She had been kind of down until now…

  Lily was glad she had listened to Mr. Cat and decided to just have the party anyway!

  So what if the Revolution wasn’t over yet?

  That was future Lily’s problem…

  Well, it was everyone’s problem.

  “And now let’s go over the guest list…”

  Lily had to pay attention now!

  As the host, she also had a say in who was invited!

  “By law, the Queen has to be invited,” Francois said.

  “Yes, and Lionel is bringing the buns…” Lily agreed.

  “And the Marquis de Lafayette?” Jeanine asked.

  “Huh?”

  “Well, he is still a Marquis, and he’s on the Revolutionary Council, too. He might feel left out.”

  Lily thought about it.

  He had seemed really stressed when she saw him earlier that morning…

  “Yeah, let’s invite him! I bet he could use a break!”

  Sally looked at her daughter.

  “Well, what about the rest of the Revolutionary Council?”

  Lily thought about it…

  Napoleon was probably okay…

  He seemed like he might be good at parties…

  She looked at Sophie.

  “What do you think, Sophie?”

  “Well, don’t you think they’d be sad if their friends were invited, and they weren’t?”

  Sophie was such a good girl!

  “But it’s your birthday party,” Lily reminded her.

  “You can put in the invitation that they have to come and be Friendly,” Jeanine suggested. “Given that you’re here as a diplomat from the Friendly Commonwealth of Wisconsin, after all.”

  Sophie nodded, and Lily smiled.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “Okay! We’ll do that for everybody, then.”

  Surely that would ensure no drama at the party!

  Sophie, being a Duchess, invited all the nobility, who were her friends and colleagues.

  Fast as can be, the Party Planning Staff wrote up the invitations, and sent them out!

  Jacques borrowed a bicycle, and lickety-split, he took the invitations back to the Revolutionary Council!

  He had to hurry, so Lionel could bring enough buns for everyone!

  “Uh, Lily, there’s over a hundred guests…” Ghostly Mac pointed out.

  “Are you gonna be okay making that many Lilyburgers?” Ghostly Rich asked.

  But Ghostly Ray Croc smirked, and Lily made the same expression!

  “Delegation!” they both said!

  Everyone stared at Lily, who had just randomly said ‘delegation!’ out of nowhere.

  “Ahem,” she cleared her throat. “Sophie, can I borrow some of your chefs and teach them how to make Lilyburgers and fries tomorrow?”

  “Yeah!” Sophie smiled.

  Then Lily looked at her Mama.

  “Mama, are you gonna be okay making cake for so many people…?”

  Lily knew her Mama made good cake.

  But for her birthdays, and her Papa’s birthdays, she usually just made one small cake for the family…

  Sally held up her arm and flexed a bicep and grinned dauntlessly!

  “Don’t underestimate your Mama! I can do it!”

  Sally was fired up!

  This was her time to shine!

  To ensure they had all the ingredients they needed, Party Planning Maids went back to the market and put in orders for pickup in the morning.

  They billed it all to the Friendly Commonwealth of Wisconsin!

  (General Secretary Brenda had already approved a budget for Lily, anyway, so this was all above-board and okay!)

  RSVPs were coming in fast and furious Friendly!

  All the nobility were excited for the first party in a long time!

  They were also happy for Sophie, who had returned early, and now would even get to celebrate her birthday with a party!

  It would have been too sad for such a young Duchess to have to skip a birthday, after all…

  Even the Queen sent her RSVP immediately!

  Well done finding a baker to make cake during all this Revolution business, she wrote. I’m not thrilled that the Revolutionary Council is invited, but Mimi is very excited to try these fries she has heard so much about.

  “Lily!” Sophie took Lily’s hand in her own. “Let me have you a dress made!”

  “Okay!”

  The Goddess of Fashion up in heaven was thrilled!

  The Party Planning now mostly done, Sophie and Lily spent the rest of the day on dress making!

  The Duchy of Bourbon’s top seamstresses and fashion designers made them both new dresses!

  Sophie’s dress was a light green, which went well with her blonde hair!

  Lily’s was a light blue, which made her blue eyes stand out!

  They both had really puffy skirts, and Sophie lent Lily one of her tiaras!

  By the time the dresses were finished, it was quite late. Jacques had returned with a bunch of RSVPs, and he went back to the city hall slash Revolutionary Headquarters to let them know that Lily was spending the night at Bourbon estate.

  They would have to wake up early to finish setting up for the party!

  Lily giggled.

  She was gonna be sneaky!

  She was gonna have late night girl talk with Sophie!

  But…

  They were both eight-year-old girls!

  As soon as they were tucked into bed…

  “Zzz…”

  “Zzz…”

  They fell right to sleep!

  It had been a super busy day, after all.

  The next morning, they woke to a rooster’s crowing.

  “Cock-a-doodle-do!” he yelled!

  Throughout the estate, maids and butlers and Lily’s Mama woke up and started working…

  They had a lot to do still before the guests started arriving at noon!

  Sophie and Lily…

  ““Zzz…””

  Continued sleeping!

  Mr. Cat woke up, and looked over at them from the kitty guest bed that had been set up…

  Sophie was sleeping properly, like an elegant Duchess lady…

  But Lily…

  Was sprawled out!

  She had kicked off some of the covers, and her pajama shirt had pulled up revealing her belly button!

  She was a commoner through and through!

  “Meow,” Mr. Cat said.

  Lily jerked awake.

  “Bwuh? Yawn…” Lily said.

  She sat up, her hair a mess, and looked around.

  Then, slowly, a smile dawned on her face.

  “Party day!” she whispered.

  Sophie woke up more elegantly. She brought her hands up, rubbed the sleepiness from her eyes, and looked over to see Lily sitting up.

  “Good morning, Lily,” she said.

  “Happy birthday!” Lily replied.

  “Thanks…” Sophie blushed.

  She was more excited for this birthday party than ever before!

  Sophie reached over, and rang the bell to summon her morning maids.

  Ring-a-ding-ding!

  The maids entered, and got the girls ready!

  Sophie and Lily both got washed up, and had their hair styled, and got dressed in their birthday party dresses!

  They both looked fancy and cute!

  “Ah!” Lily said.

  “What?” Sophie asked.

  “I forgot, I have to cook the Lilyburgers!”

  She didn’t want to get her dress dirty.

  “Oh, don’t worry about that,” one of the maids said.

  “You can just direct the chefs what to do, they’re quite skilled!” another advised.

  Lily looked at her ghosts, who nodded, so she breathed a sigh of relief.

  “Phew…”

  Then she took a deep breath, and put on her business boss thinking hat!

  “Okay, let’s go!”

  Sophie went to brunch with her parents, and Lily went to the kitchens!

  Her mother was already there, baking up a storm!

  Lots of and lots of birthday cakes were baking, and a bunch were already cooling, having been taken out of the oven. Sally was almost ready to start frosting them!

  “Good morning, Mama!”

  “Good morning, Lily!”

  Lily went past the baking part of the kitchen, to where a team of chefs were waiting!

  “Zo, how do we make ze Lilyburgers?” the head chef asked.

  “Wait!!!”

  Bursting onto the scene, it was Lionel, the baker!

  He was carrying a huge basket full of hundreds of burger buns!

  “Oh, good, you made it! Hi, Lionel!” Lily smiled at him.

  “You were going to start without me!” he said, furrowing his eyebrows at the little diplomat girl.

  “No…” Lily said.

  “You were!”

  “Well, you’re here now!”

  “Hey!”

  “We couldn’t have made the Lilyburgers without your buns, don’t worry,” Lily reassured him, and Lionel joined the rest of the chefs to learn how to make Lilyburgers!

  So, Lily explained.

  Making patties out of the ground beef…

  Grilling them up…

  Cutting a bun in half, and the putting the beef patty inside…

  Add some ketchup, and a slice or two of pickle…

  And cheese as an option!

  “And when you add cheese, it’s called a Lilyburger with cheese!” Lily explained.

  All the chefs and Lionel frowned.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “That name… it’s a bit of a mouthful, no?”

  Lily tilted her head.

  Could there be a better name?

  She shrugged!

  That was a problem for later!

  Right now it was birthday party cooking time!

  “Meow, fries! Fries!” Mr. Cat meowed.

  “Right! Here’s how to make the fries…”

  Lily told them how to cut up the potatoes.

  They didn’t have a convenient potato fry slicer here, but the chefs were really skilled with their knives!

  Chop chop chop!

  In a flash, they had plenty of sliced up potatoes!

  And in no time at all, all the chefs were hard at work, cooking up Lilyburgers and Fries, and putting the completed dishes in a warming oven to keep them at temperature.

  Lionel tried to sneak one early…

  “Hey! Wait until the party!” Lily scolded him, and he put it back.

  “It looks really good…” he tried to explain himself, but Lily wouldn’t hear it!

  “You can’t eat before the birthday girl!”

  “You’re right…”

  A maid came down to the kitchen.

  “Lily, the Duchess has requested you join her upstairs. Guests will start arriving soon…”

  “Coming!”

  She ran up to the stairs, then turned around.

  “You too, Lionel!”

  “Okay…” The Baker slumped his shoulders and followed after the party host.

  No sneaking food allowed!

  “And you too, Mr. Cat!”

  “Mrow!”

  Mr. Cat had been caught sneaking!

  The maid giggled and picked him up, and followed after Lily up the stairs.

  The party was about to begin!