Sweet 16

"Mrs. Natsui!"
Teagan Phillips was thirty seconds into her day and already she was seriously pissed off. She sat up straight in her four-poster bed, her silk rose-colored Calvin Klein nightgown twisted around her size-six body like a straitjacket, and shouted at the top of her lungs.
"Mrs. Natsui! Get your ass in here!"
Teagan jabbed at the buttons on her remote control, flipping the channels on her plasma-screen TV until it finally landed on the Weather Channel. A snarky-looking guy with a clipped white mustache grinned back at her from behind his state-of-the-art weather desk.
"And it's a washout for the greater Philadelphia area today," he said as the screen snapped to live shots of the Liberty Bell, the steps outside the art museum, and the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Windshield wipers whipped furiously and raindrops pelted the camera lenses. "We're looking at record rainfall and possibly some thunderstorms rolling in late today, lasting straight through the night. If you live anywhere in eastern Pennsylvania or southern New Jersey, you're gonna want to break out your golf umbrellas and galoshes, people. It's gonna be a wet one!"
Teagan groaned and hit the power button. Slumping over her bunched-up hand-knit cashmere blanket, she stared across her cavernous bedroom to the bay window that overlooked the gardens and pool in the backyard. The sky was so dark it could have been nine at night instead of nine o'clock in the morning. The rain battered the perennials in her window boxes, beating them down. It should have been a beautiful, sunny spring day. The birds should have been chirping. The windows should have been open and a light breeze should have been tickling the gold chiffon curtains that fluttered around her bed. It should have been perfect. It was supposed to be perfect.
Teagan sucked in as much air as her lungs would hold and raised her voice to the rafters. "Mrs.! Nat! Su! Iiiiiii!!!!"
"Good morning, Miss Teagan!" Mrs. Natsui trilled as she padded into the room in her stiff black uniform and black sneakers. There was some sort of yellow stain on her white apron. Her graying hair was clipped back at the nape of her neck and she wore her humongous, red-rimmed glasses attached to her neck by a gold chain. She clutched a huge bouquet of colorful balloons in both hands and had an incredibly wide smile on. "Happy birthday!"
"Yeah, right," Teagan said, whipping the eight-hundred-thread-count Egyptian cotton sheets aside and stuffing her feet into her new sheepskin Coach slippers. "Why the hell didn't you tell me it was going to rain today?"
She trudged over to the window, yanking at her twisted nightie, and shoved aside the wispy curtain. Outside, the lush green grass was dotted with thick, muddy puddles as far as the eye could see. Budding trees bent under the force of the wind. The pelting rain made pockmarks in the sparkling pool water, which was peppered with white petals ripped from a nearby dogwood. All the lounge chairs had been removed and stashed inside the storage area of the pool house, which meant that at the very least the landscaping staff had known about the downpour ahead of time. Somebody should have warned her. Wasn't it kind of their job?
"I'm sorry, Miss Teagan," Mrs. Natsui said. "But what does the weather matter on such a special day? Your sweet sixteen!"
Try soaked sixteen, Teagan thought, just imaging the stupid puns her friends were going to make. This was unbelievable. Today was supposed to be the biggest day of her life. She had been looking forward to it forever. Today was the day she was supposed to have the party to end all sweet sixteen parties. The party that was going to totally kick the butt of Shari Marx's lame aloha-themed debacle with its pork kabobs and tacky plastic leis. She had spent weeks planning the event all the way down to the very last detail, spending her father's money like it was tap water in order to make sure everything was perfect. Over two hundred people had RSVP'd, the very cr�me de la cr�me of suburban Philadelphia society. Today was the day Teagan Phillips was going to prove to the world that she was the most stylish, wealthy, doted-upon girl in Upper Sheridan, Pennsylvania.
Or at least the one who knew how and where to spend the most cash.
But how was she supposed to have an elegant cocktail hour on the slate patio of the country club if the patio in question was submerged in water?
"Look! Look what that fancy school of yours has sent for you!"
Mrs. Natsui brought the balloon bouquet over to the window. Teagan tore the card from the ribbons and scanned it quickly.
Happy sweet sixteen to one of our top students! Best wishes, the faculty and staff of Rosewood Prep.