Lucy

<p>On Lucy's birthday, she summoned up the courage to send an invitation to her classmates, inviting everyone to come, and prepared elaborate drawings for everyone, rehearsing the scene of the day in her mind.<br> She remembered that when she was a child, her mother would prepare a cake made by hand for her birthday every year, and she recalled her mother's practice of making an awkward cake.<br> But two hours later than the appointed time no one came, and she sat in silence, laughing at her own ineptitude, taking away the presents one by one, when suddenly a knock at the door roused her from her daze. She began to finally give up the hope she had kept in her heart all day. &quot;I guess-... I guess they didn't check their lockers today. Heh...&quot; She said, trying to find comedy in the excuse that she developed.<br> You showed up, waiting outside her door. She stood up in a panic, took several breaths, and opened the door.</p>