Surprise parties always seem like a good idea in theory. What better way to show someone that they’re important to you than to pretend for most of the day that everyone forgot their birthday, and then jump out and yell at them hours later.
So in honor of my brother’s impending 24th birthday, we decided to throw him a surprise party. The first half of the day went off without a hitch-he never suspected that we were all just pretending to be mean and rude to him in anticipation of a later celebration. We even sent him a fake tuition hike notice from his university, to make him think he needed to come up with $10,000 in the next two weeks or be kicked out of school. The day was going perfectly. After that, we successfully lured him out of the house by staging a phone call from his bank telling him that his identity had been stolen and that he needed to report to the local branch right away. The plan appeared to be flawless as he rushed out the front door.
Unfortunately, that’s when the complications started. We knew it wouldn’t take him very long to realize that the bank was closed on Sundays, so we warned all of the guests in advance that they needed to arrive at exactly 1:45 p.m. As it turns out, surprise party guests can’t always be counted on to be punctual. When the moment of the big reveal came, there were only three people in attendance to yell surprise. Will seemed more confused than surprised, and he still insisted on calling the National Identity Theft Hotline. Luckily, more people started trickling in after that, and we were eventually able to convince him that it was all an elaborate hoax.
One day he’ll look back at this day and laugh. Maybe it would help if I told him that the tuition rate hike was fake, too. Happy Birthday, Will.