The worst present I ever received was given to me by my step-mother Jen on my 11th birthday. Jen was only with my father Marcus for the money, and my mom was nowhere to be found. My birthday party was on Friday the 6th of April. It was going to be perfect. I was going to see all of my friends and family, especially my cousins that are around my age that I haven’t seen since last year.
Also, there was no school on Friday so we would be able to have the party earlier instead of waiting for everyone to get out of school, that was if it was okay with Jen and my dad. I was really excited for my birthday I began to have tiny goose bumps all over my arms. I couldn’t wait to hand out invites and tell everyone how cool my party was going to be.
The next day I handed out invites in all of my classes, inviting my best friends and people I thought were cool. Surprisingly, I even invited the weird glue-eating kid that no one ever talks to. Other than the glue indulging, I thought he was “cool enough” to be at my party. I handed out most of my colorful invites by the end of the day. Even on the way towards the bus after school, I was inviting people I didn’t know to fill in the gaps, and more people equals more presents.
When I got home I saw Jen and my dad setting up the tables with blue and red table covers and red and blue chairs. I was really into Spiderman at the time so it was all Spiderman-themed. There were red and blue cups, napkins, plastic plates, and party hats still in the bags when I walked inside. Red and blue party streamers also softly hung from the ceiling, I thought it was absolutely beautiful.
After finishing all of my math homework, I decided to relax and play X-box with my friends upstairs in my room. Of course like any other kid, we played Call of Duty online. Not going to lie, I pretty much bragged the whole time about how awesome my party was going to be. “You guys better get me something cool!” I sarcastically said to them. Silence is all you heard when I told them that, so to break the awkward silence, I began talking about my party again, but they didn’t seem to care. It seemed that they even got annoyed at me by even mentioning it.
After a brutal thirty minutes of me talking without any response, I decided to call it a night and get off the X-box. It was 1:38 a.m. when I got into bed and I didn’t fall asleep until ten-after-two because I was so anxious and excited for my party, but then I began to feel a bit sad because my friends didn’t seem excited as I was, not even a little bit. I got that out of my head and finally went to bed, knowing that the next day would be one hundred times better.
I woke up feeling refreshed and ready to face the day with full force. I brushed my teeth with my eyes half open and went downstairs to the kitchen. I saw my parents with the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen, a big platter filled with a breakfast fit for a king. A nice stack of golden brown pancakes drizzled with thick maple syrup, sunny scrambled eggs covered in cheddar cheese that melted on impact, crunchy brown toast, piles of thick sliced bacon, and a glass of fresh Florida orange juice. It smelled warm and sweet from the maple syrup. The meaty bacon left a savory aroma that flowed throughout the kitchen and the dining room. All of this covered half of our table which could seat six comfortably, so it was a pretty big table. I shoveled in my food impatiently waiting for my party to begin and for people to arrive.
We finished our breakfast at around noon, and my party began at 3:30. To keep myself busy until people started arriving to my house, I went upstairs to see if my friends were playing X-box online, and they were! I invited them to a party chat and waited happily. I was waiting to ask them when they were going to get to my house. None of my friends joined my party chat.
I began to feel rejected by own so called friends. I felt a hole gradually growing inside my chest until it began tearing my skin wide apart. “What could I have done wrong?” I murmured to myself, trying to hold back the first tear of many that were ready to begin streaming down my face.
A few hours go by and a few of my cousins began to arrive. I stopped being sad and began being happy instead. None of my “friends” showed up after, but I didn’t care. I later found out that they ditched me for the kid that always eats glue, which was strange, but I had a great time. We played football, video games of course, and we ate cake and all the junk food any young kid could digest.
After partying and eating for a few hours, it was time for the best part, opening the presents. I received the usual stuff like clothes, shoes, and the occasional gear to feed my videogame addiction. Jen’s present was next. It was wrapped with a blue and red vertically-striped box with a red bow on top to fit the Spiderman theme. I began ripping apart the thin wrapping to reveal one of the worst presents I have ever received on any of my birthdays.
It was wrapped in aluminum foil to start off, and when I finished ripping off the shiny pieces of foil, I revealed my present. I pulled out a dull, old dirty kazoo and a box of Crest™ sensitivity tooth paste. I was angry, the present sucked. Jen could tell I didn’t like it, I looked over at her she looked sad and disappointed. I knew it wasn’t the worst present ever because some kids never get presents. I felt embarrassed because I also made a disgusted face in front of everyone.
After everyone had left the party, Jen and my dad were taking down the decorations and cleaning up the mess. I decided to join in and help them. “I’m sorry Jen.” I mumbled to her. She began to explain to me why she got me what she got. She had spent most of the money on the decorations and food used for the party, and she didn’t have enough time to get me a real present. After she told me that, I understood her completely. I felt like a spoiled little kid. A week later, she surprised me with an even bigger present, a new Call of Duty game and a custom X-box controller with my name on it.
I learned that Jen wasn’t all that bad after all. She worked hard to throw me an awesome party with my favorite superhero as the theme. She went through all of the trouble to make me happy on my birthday and that showed me she actually does care for me.  Even though the present was absolute junk, she made up for it with one of the best presents I have ever had so far.