It was the first day of June, which meant it was almost Kirsten's birthday!  It was also almost Pink Hair Kirsten's birthday, and Slightly Inferior Kirsten's birthday!  Better yet, Miss Patti had given the Kirstens permission to have a birthday party.  They had gotten together to decide who they wanted to invite.  It was a tough choice, what with all the dolls Miss Patti had.  It sometimes was a bit difficult having all those sisters.

"Well, Nellie won't come if we don't invite Felicity," Kirsten said, "and Nikki won't come without Jess, and I am currently not on speaking terms with Jess OR Felicity."

Slightly Inferior Kirsten rolled her eyes.  "Sometimes I'm surprised you speak to anyone," she said.  "We could just put all their names in a bowl and pick a few out."


"If we invite Elizabeth, do you think we have to invite her mirror?" Pink Hair Kirsten giggled.

"It's hard," Slightly Inferior Kirsten said.  "We don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, after all, and I'm afraid that we'll just end up with too many people and not enough cake and too much chaos and not enough fun."


The Kirstens ate some chocolate and pondered some more, when suddenly Kirsten said, "I've got it!  Why don't we invite Karin's Samantha and Katy's Molly?"

"Perfect!" Pink Hair Kirsten agreed.

"Samantha's kind of spoiled," Slightly Inferior Kirsten said, "but at least we won't have to set up a chair for her mirror."


Kirsten and Slightly Inferior Kirsten set to work making invitations to deliver to Samantha and Molly, who lived in another town with Miss Patti's daughters.

Fortunately, Molly and Samantha were both delighted to accept, and Miss Patti's daughters didn't mind driving them out as long as they had a chance to mooch some free food.


The morning of the party, all of the Kirstens dressed up in their favorite party clothes and set about decorating.

"Does this look straight?" Pink Hair Kirsten asked.


Kirsten and Slightly Inferior Kirsten busied themselves with a package of pink and white balloons.  It seemed like the morning went by horribly slowly, but eventually the doorbell rang.


"I'm so glad you could come!" Pink Hair Kirsten greeted the guests enthusiastically.

"We're so pleased to have been invited," Samantha answered for both of them.

"Games first!" a slightly overexcited Slightly Inferior Kirsten shrieked.

Samantha was the first one out of musical chairs.  She didn't want to wrinkle her dress by diving into a chair.

"I was so here first!"  Kirsten said.

"No way, I've totally got more of my body on the chair than you do!" Molly said.

Samantha turned out to be surprisingly good at the fishing game.  "This is a fun party," she said.  "At my house, I don't have any other American Girl dolls to play with, and it gets lonely."

Kirsten sighed.  "Sometimes I wish I could be an only doll for just one day," she said.

"In honor of our heritage, we are serving Swedish Fish candies," Slightly Inferior Kirsten explained.  Molly certainly had no complaints about that, yum!


Then Molly showed Pink Hair Kirsten how to play the clothespin in the bottle game.  Pink Hair Kirsten watched politely.  "Let me know when you get to the fun part," she said.

"This is the fun part," Molly said cheerfully.

"I see..." Pink Hair Kirsten said thoughtfully.

"Present time!" Slightly Inferior Kirsten yelled.  The Kirstens dutifully read the cards first.


"Open mine first, Kirsten," Samantha said.  "I think you'll really like it!"


"Hurry up and open it so I can see what Katy--I mean, what I certainly picked out for you!"



The Kirstens were very pleased with their presents.  Then it was time for strawberry shortcake.


"This is the best party ever," Kirsten sighed happily.

"There is one more birthday surprise," Miss Patti said.  "You know how you Kirstens always complain that I don't have enough time to spend with any of you, and that you have to go by nicknames just to differentiate you from your sister Kirstens?"

"Insulting nicknames, in some cases," Slightly Inferior Kirsten muttered.

"Oh grow up, it's a name not a description," Pink Hair Kirsten explained for the four-hundreth time.

Miss Patti cleared her throat.  "Anyway, after much consideration, I was wondering if you would like to go live with Katy and Molly, Pink Hair Kirsten, and if Kirsten would like to go live with Karin and Samantha."

Molly and Pink Hair Kirsten hugged happily.

Kirsten and Samantha merely shook hands, so as not to muss their dresses.  But Miss Patti could see the joy in both their eyes and knew that she had made the right choice.

"I hope you won't miss us too much," Kirsten said to Slightly Inferior Kirsten.


"Miss you?  What?  Don't let the door hit you on the way out," she replied.  "I'm the only Kirsten here now.  I've just moved to the top of the Kirsten heirarchy!  All the dresses, all the accessories, all mine now!  And from now on, no more Slightly Inferior Kirsten.  I hereby dub myself Kirsten the First!"

And Kirsten the First shooed Molly and Pink Hair Kirsten and Samantha and Kirsten out the door, after carefully making sure they weren't trying to smuggle out any of her dresses or accessories.