Last Saturday, I went to a best friend’s birthday party. His name was Rocky (name changed), and he was one of my best friends. I wanted to give him something he really wanted, so I asked him.

He told me he wanted Animal Crossing for GameCube. So I went home and told my dad. The next day, he went to buy it. But however, I was not the normal person that gave someone something. I wanted it to be a surprise, even though he told me he had wanted it.

So, to shake him off the track when he was just holding it, I put a rock in it to weigh it down. To make him unable to guess, I took a big box and stuffed it with Styrofoam, and then put the present in.

Before I wrapped it, I put on a sticky that said, “WARNING! BOX MAY EXPLODE IF REMOVED SUDDENLY. EXPRESS CAUTION.” I put a lot of duct tape to make him think that it was going to explode. This was going to be one fun party.

When I got to his party, he seemed to not notice the size of the box. When we were about to go upstairs to play, I thought it was the right time to open it, so everyone could play it.

I said, “Rocky, my present is a game. Do you want to open it?” Together, Rocky, another friend, and me opened the first layer: the wrapping.

He looked at it, then looked at me strangely. “A mini hydrogen bomb game?” He asked me. I just smiled. Then, he took off the duct tape. He began to open it further away from him than ever, holding out his hands as far as he could reach.

Meanwhile, we were behind the sofa, peeking our heads out, going “da-dum… da-dum…” and adding all sorts of sound effects. Finally, he pulled out the Styrofoam.

Since I had stuck the game on the bottom of the box, he took out the rock, and then said, “An exploding rock?” Then he looked at me angrily. Are you making fun of my name?”

Oh my gosh! I had forgotten that his name was Rocky! But just then, he spotted the game on the bottom. “Is that a… ANIMAL CROSSING?” He exclaimed and began to laugh very hard.

All in all, it was a great party. But I realized very quickly that Animal Crossing was a one-player game. However, that didn’t affect our attitudes at all.

As I write this, I am in an airplane to Denver, where snow is falling like crazy.