The Mystery of the Birthday Basher

did you and Ziggy get home?”
“By swing!” Lacey replied. “Come on, there’s a big park in the middle of Sparkle City . . .” Then she paused. “Except I’m not exactly sure where we are . . .”
Cara shook her head confidently. Her golden horn gleamed in the silvery moonlight. As she trotted down the street, the B-Buds hurried to follow her.
Cara led them straight into the heart of Sparkle City, where a beautiful, emerald-green park stretched out as far as they could see. Just beyond the entrance, Amirah could see a swing set with six swings.
A pink swing. A yellow swing. An orange swing. A green swing. A blue swing. And a purple one.
The colors corresponded perfectly to the carousel that Amirah and her B-Buds had used to travel home last January—and to the B-Buds’ favorite colors!
“Wait,” Olivia said. “Is this goodbye? Until next January? What’s going to happen next?”
“I don’t know,” Amirah said. “But I don’t think it’s goodbye. Just—see you later. Until the power of sprinkles brings us back here.”
“In Jamaica, we say ‘inna di morrows’ instead of goodbye,” Lacey spoke up. “Like—see you in the tomorrows.”
“In the tomorrows,” Amirah repeated thoughtfully. “I like that a lot! Inna di morrows!”
“Inna di morrows,” the B-Buds chorused. It was a promise.
“Tell us what to do,” Amirah said to Lacey and Ziggy.
“It’s easy!” Lacey said as she hopped onto the orange-colored swing. “Just swing as high and as fast as you can!”
The other B-Buds found their swings too. Then they started to pump their legs.
“Higher!” Lacey encouraged them.
“And faster!” added Ziggy.
As Amirah pumped her legs, her swing zoomed back and forth. Soon she was swinging higher and faster than ever before. The wind whipped her hair as she went up, up, up—
Oh wow, she thought suddenly. I’m going to go over the top!
Whoooooosh!
Amirah squeezed her hands tighter on the chains as, sure enough, her swing soared over the top of the swing set—not just once, but again and again. The stars above Sparkle City began to change colors, turning pink and green and blue and purple. They stretched and swirled until they looked like so many sprinkles tumbling through the night sky.
Amirah, dizzy, closed her eyes and waited for the spinning to stop.

Amirah awoke with a start. It was so dark that she wasn’t sure, at first, where she was. Then she spotted her rainbow nightlight glowing on the wall and realized, all in a rush, that she was back home, safe in her room, safe in her bed.
And completely wide-awake!
All of Amirah’s memories from her visit to the Magical Land of Birthdays came rushing back. She scrambled out of bed and turned on the light. There were two things she needed: her birthday book and The Power of Sprinkles. Intuition told her she was getting close to finding out the identity of the Birthday Basher, and she knew that there was no time to lose.
Amirah opened her birthday book and frantically flipped the pages to July 8. Sure enough, there was the name she expected to see: BILLY BONILLA.
Her own neighbor.
“What happened, Billy?” Amirah whispered sadly. “Why do you hate birthdays so much?”
Amirah was beyond curious, but she knew the reason didn’t matter as much as the solution. She opened The Power of Sprinkles and scanned each page, searching for Billy’s name.
Just then, Amirah realized that she hadn’t seen Billy’s name in the book before. What if he didn’t have a special birthday cake anymore? His cake in the Hall of Birthday Cakes was so rotten that she couldn’t even tell what kind it was.
Amirah shook her head as she continued to page through the book. The Power of Sprinkles had never let her down before.
Just then, the page beneath her fingertips started to glow with a warm golden light. Tiny sparks traveled from the page onto her fingers, then up her hand, past her wrist, over her arm . . .
Amirah’s heart leaped. She remembered when this had happened before and her very own special birthday cake had been revealed. Was another special cake about to be unveiled?
The words appeared as if by magic—birthday magic.
BILLY’S BIRTHDAY CAKE:
THIS GOLDEN CARROT CAKE IS FIT FOR ROYALTY!
Fit for royalty? Amirah thought in surprise. The Birthday Basher had once been the Prince of the Magical Land of Birthdays. This seemed like another sign that she was on the right track.
Wistfully, Amirah glanced toward her bedroom door. She wished she could go down to the kitchen right now and start baking Billy’s special birthday cake. But Mama and Baba would probably hear her banging around the kitchen, and they would not be happy to find her baking in the middle of the night. No, it would just have to wait until morning.
As Amirah climbed into bed, a new thought struck her. There could be dozens of people named Billy Bonilla in the world. Hundreds! And surely some of them share the same birthday. Maybe even July 8.
As Amirah rested her head against her smiley-face pillow, she remembered that Billy had named his dog Fiesta. Didn’t that suggest that he loved birthdays and parties?
The Birthday Basher used to love birthdays too, she reminded herself.
Amirah’s eyes started to close from sheer exhaustion. She knew it didn’t really matter if her neighbor Billy was the Birthday Basher or not. His birthday was just a couple days away.
And who wouldn’t love to be surprised by a special birthday cake?
Amirah awoke with the first light, filled with energy and purpose. She jumped out of bed, put on her pink baking overalls, and went straight to the kitchen—only to realize that she was up so early that even her parents weren’t awake yet.
Amirah knew that she wasn’t supposed to use the oven without an adult nearby, but she could still prepare all the ingredients for the cake. Sugar and cinnamon, flour and vanilla. And of course—carrots!
“You’re up early.” Mama’s voice carried into the kitchen from the doorway.
Amirah looked up and grinned. “Good morning!” she called out. “It’s Billy’s