He'd eaten a huge chunk of his sister's birthday cake after getting home from his Karate class. When his mom caught Ronald digging into the yellow cake with chocolate frosting she was unable to get a word in before Ronnie bolted out the door. She chased after him with a rolling pin for about half a block before getting winded. Her sixteen year old boy, already six two, ran down the sidewalk barefooted and wearing shorts and a t shirt. He had frosting all over his mouth and giggled maniacally. Ronald knocked over Mr. Johnson's bucket of soap as he cut across the old man's drive way. Mr. Johnson shook his fist at the boy for disrupting the washing of his oldsmobile. This was about an hour ago.
Clarice was turning fourteen. The war between her and her brother had been raging for almost a decade. The year prior Ronnie had ruined her birthday party, which was too have been a girls only sleep over celebration, by spiking the punch with Ipecac. She didn't speak to him for two weeks. She'd vowed revenge.
As Ronnie meandered back to the house he was overtaken by a wave of drowsiness. Unbenounced to he and his mother, Clarice had made a decoy cake loaded with emptied capscules of ZEN, an hypoallergenic anti anxiety supplement that had been perscribed to her by the family's Naturopath. She used it to help her get to sleep. He doctor noted that since it was hypoallergenic a person could take a whole bottle and not suffer any adverse effects.
As Clarice blew out the candles on her real cake, surrounded by friends, she smiled. The phone rang, it was Mrs. Hinojosa.