Ian woke up Jane on her special day. “Beast,” thought Jane. “He’s forgotten that we had a midnight feast last night. There was mountains of cake and lashings of Prosecco.”

“Wake up!” cried Ian. “It’s a lovely day, hooray! I don’t know why but it’s very important that it should be a sunny day on your birthday!” Jane dressed herself in her jersey and her favourite birthday purple tutu and packed her bathing suit in the car. The car seemed to eat up the miles as it purred along to the lake. It was an easy path from the car park to the lake. The lake was calm and blue in the morning sun.

“Happy birthday, Jane!” cried Ruth. Cassie the dog wagged her tail enthusiastically in agreement. “Are you going to bathe? Do lets go for a swim!” “Let’s go for a run around the lake to get warm first,” suggested Abigail. “I’ll go and time you all as you run!” Abigail scampered off to the parkrun finishing strait, leaving Jane, Ian, Katherine,, Ruth and Cassie to the run. “She is a dear,” said Ruth as they capered over towards the start line.

The run was marvellous. All the runners were delighted with it. “Don’t you simply love parkrun!” said Abigail as she caught them up afterwards. The smell of bacon and eggs coming from the Wired kitchen by the lake was very good, but Jane was keen to bathe first. She knew that she could bike faster than any boy and could swim faster too. In the warmth of the sun, she saw dancing sparkles on the blue water.

They changed behind the bushes and ran down to the lake. Oh the delicious coolness of the water! Phillipa joined Ian, Jane, Ruth, Abigail and Lisa for a swim and they all came out glowing and laughing. The Wired café had hot chocolates ready for them when they came back. Ian brought out a tuck box containing a large chocolate cake. “Oh goody goody!” cried Ruth. “Happy birthday Jane!”