I had never been to a birthday party before

and really i had never seen how other people lived

so when we pulled up to this enormous house

and dara ran outside i just laughed and then

his mum took my coat and his dad gave me pop

then we played games and sang songs and later

on he showed me his present and it was a gecko

which is a type of lizard but i didn’t think anyone

would ever get a real lizard for their birthday so

when he handed it to me i thought it was plastic

and threw it up in the air and it landed with a damp

pink thud that told me it was time to go home.