Excerpt: Shindigs and Hootenaneys

When Ariana Beddau was a little girl growing up in suburban Toronto, she lived for parties. If there was any excuse for her to put on her patent leather Mary Janes and a velvet and lace party dress, she would do it. Ariana, at the age of 8, would stand in front of her mirror, perched precariously on a footstool, to meticulously brush her poker straight brown hair until it shone and clip a shiny barrette right above her right ear. She would then make sure she didn’t have a single wrinkle in her white wool tights, and go downstairs to pull her party coat off its hook and stand by the door to wait for whichever adult was going to drive her to the location of the party. Ariana would do all this, pay attention to all this detail, at the age of 8, and from there it spiralled.
Soon Ariana took to convincing her friends to have parties just so she could help plan them; there were themed parties, tea parties, dinner parties, seasonal parties and holiday parties, all hosted by her friends, all planned by Ariana. By the time high school graduation rolled around, everyone knew what the logical next step was for Ariana Beddau; her guidance counsellor encouraged her to enrol in an event planning program at Seneca college, but Ariana surprised them all when she enrolled in culinary school instead.
Ariana Beddau had a plan, and she knew exactly what the end result would be; absolute and utter party glory.