A week before my 6th birthday, my mom took me to the bakery to pick out cupcakes to take to school on my birthday. They had three colors of icing: white, chocolate, and "royal blue". Royal blue sounded so exotic I wanted it right away.  But I thought Mom would think it was tacky and I was afraid royal blue would cost more, so I said white would be fine.

 

She was working at the bank downtown and dad was already gone and not contributing any money, so she couldn't take the day off work to bring my cupcakes to school the way the stay at home moms did. So I was going to take the white cupcakes to school myself the Monday after my birthday.

 

On the Friday before my birthday, the door to my classroom opened, and there was my mom with a big bakery box. She was so much prettier than the other moms (she was only 23 when I was 6!) and I was so proud. When the teacher opened the box to pass out the cupcakes, they had royal blue icing.