Tortoise's Surprise Birthday

         "Please, Monkey? If you don't stall him then He might get home to early."

          It was a nice spring day, and Hare wanted to throw Tortoise the absolute PERFECT surprise birthday party. 

          "OO-OO of course I will stall him, Hare, I just don't see the point because he is soooo slow and it will take him soooo long to get his groceries anyways," replied Monkey as he swung back and forth between two trees.

          "He does go very slow, Monkey, but I need him to go slower because I forgot to hand out the invitations to all of the guests, I still need to make the cake, decorate the house, get him a present, get prizes for the games I still need to put together, and make sure everyone will get a party-gift when they leave," Hare said, hopping around in circles to calm his nerves.

          Monkey, who had stopped swinging to watch Hare said, "OK, OK I will leave, now just tell me how I will know when it is okidoki to come back."

          Hare told Monkey that he would send Bluebird to tell him when he was ready, and then hopped off to start handing out invitations.

          When Monkey found Tortoise, he was just crawling into the marketplace to buy some groceries with the money he had won in a race.

          "Good-morning, Tortoise, how wonderful it is to meet you here, you see I woke up this morning, and had this amazing urge to help someone with their shopping!" Monkey said truthfully, he had wanted to help someone with their shopping when he woke up.

          "I don't know, I have never needed help shopping before..." Tortoise answered slowly.

          "OO-OO, it will be fun! I can climb up and get you the stuff on the tippy-top of the shelf, just think of all you can make with baking powder," persuaded Monkey.

          Tortoise muttered something under his breath about wanting to make scones, and Monkey swung excitedly on the nearest tree.

          "Yes, yes! Scones would make a lovely breakfast with that awesome tea that you make!" and with that, Monkey and Tortoise slowly but excitedly walked into the market. 

          It felt like forever to Monkey, who read all of the products that were above the bottom two racks since Tortoise couldn't see that high. It took them about ten minutes just to get through one row!

         There were ten aisles in the store, and while monkey was on his way to the bathroom after just going through row seven, he spotted bluebird.

         "How is Hare doing?" Monkey asked.

         "He said he just needs about an hour and a half to finish the cake, and then he said that the surprise party would be at Tortoise's house after that."

         Monkey thanked Bluebird for bringing him the news, and then did some quick math in his head. If it takes him about thirty minutes to get through the last three aisles, and thirty minutes for him to walk home, then Monkey would have to stall Tortoise an extra thirty minutes in order to throw him the best surprise birthday party ever!

        Monkey hurried back to Tortoise, who had patiently waited for him and started walking down the next aisle. After that, Every time Tortoise wasn't looking, Monkey would knock stuff over into the cart with his tail.

        When Monkey and Tortoise got to the checkout line, Tortoise looked in his basket and exclaimed, "I don't remember having that put in there!"

        "OO-OO, my silly tail must have knocked all this stuff over when we weren't looking! Let's go and put it back so that the cashier doesn't get mad at us."

        So Tortoise and Monkey walked through the aisles and put back all of the stuff Monkey had knocked into the cart, taking ten minutes to go through each aisle.

        "Well I really have to go, Tortoise, but it was fun hanging out with you," Monkey said as he turned around and ran out the door and swung through the trees all the way to his house to get the present he had made, and then sped all the way to Tortoise's house for the surprise birthday party.

       "There you are, I was starting to worry, quick, hide! Tortoise will be here any moment," Hare said as Monkey blew out the candle and hid. A few minutes went by until they heard Tortoise walking slowly towards his house. When he opened the door, put down his groceries, and turned the lights back on, every body jumped out of their hiding spots and yelled, "SURPRISE!"

      Tortoise got so surprised that he hid inside his shell for a full minute before he realized what was happening.

      "I didn't even remember it was my birthday today!" he said happily.

      "Blow out your candles, Tortoise! Don't forget a wish,"Hare said as he placed the cake in front of him.

      Tortoise blew out the candles, and the passed out cake. When the party ended after everyone had left with game prizes and full bellies, Tortoise thanked Hare and Monkey for giving him the best day ever.

                                                                         THE END