9: At age 10, what sort of kid was your character at birthday parties?
Alicia was super talkative. She was talking about all the toys that were popular then, that she and her friends were collecting. Barbies, my little ponies. Her friends had way more of them than her, but she wasn't jealous. Her dad bought her the popular toys, but she had like two Barbies, and two my little ponies, usually only getting them on birthdays and holidays while her friends had tons of them, but she was still grateful.
She'd talk about the TV shows and the library books that went along with the series, and their favorite characters, the prettiest ponies etc. with everybody.
She'd be part of all the games, and helping her friends decorate their custom cupcakes because everyone wanted one Alicia had designed, because she made them so pretty, and then the birthday mom would forever be taking pictures of everyone's cupcakes on her flip phone. She wasn't exactly popular, but she did have quite a few friends and they all liked her a lot, though most of them were better off than she was.
Kattar had a lot of friends. He didn't exactly like going over to other people's houses to play. He didn't like going through their toy bins, were for some reason usually dirty, and that he'd occasionally find Cheeto and Dorito crumbs on the floors or the carpets, but he'd learned not to talk about that by that point, though he did wash his hands quite a lot, and always immediately when he got home.
At his friends house he played a lot of video games. At birthday parties they'd often have video game marathons, sometimes have star wars themed light saber battles, water balloon fights. They were usually pretty structured parties with a lot of games and activities planned out, party favors, and things like that. Kattar wasn't into a lot of the same things as his friends but he knew how to appreciate other people's hobbies when he was hanging out with them. Also the majority of his friends weren't rich kids like him, but middle class, so it helped him keep him from becoming snobby or elitist in the long run, a very intentional choice on his mother's part, and the reason why she sent him to a public school.
His parties were nothing like anything any of the other kids would expect, almost more like an adult party than a kid's party. There were a lot of snacks and decorations, movies and board games, but the decorations were never related to any kind of cartoon, TV show, or toy that was popular at the time, just Kattar and Mrs. Moon's aesthetic tastes. You're not seeing him with Toy Story themed decorations with paper plates and food-dye flavored cakes with spider man on them. Nope, his cake came from an artisan bakery and it was coconut and passion fruit flavored.
What's the theme? We are all going to enjoy ourselves, but they also already had very nice decor for a reason.
The only kids who invited Essence to their parties were the ones who wanted more presents. She didn't have friends, but her mom's friends pretty regularly invited her to their kids' birthday parties, because that's what you're supposed to do within your 'circle.' So naturally she didn't really have a lot of fun. People tried to avoid her as much as possible during the parties unless their mom's gave them a look and then they'd more or less begrudgingly interact with her for a little while before excluding her again,
Her little sister Elizabeth had a couple of really close friends, and they regularly hung out, not just on birthday parties, but she would be invited out for girls' days by her friends' mothers. The parties were often girly themed parties, with everything pink, spa-day things and stuff like that.