Charlie is invited to a birthday party. But then he learns that there’s going to be a chocolate cake, and he starts to fret. To go to the party would mean being exposed as an oddball — his friends would find out about his food allergy, and he assumes he’ll be teased or thought less of. But with a bit of encouragement from his mum, he decides to go. (And he needn’t have worried in the slightest!)
Charlie is a nice boy. He enjoys frolicking in the playground, building model aeroplanes, baking gingerbread biscuits with his parents, and inventing games of all sorts with his friends.
This was Charlie’s first year of school. Right at the start, he became friends with Toby, the boy who sat next to him. The two of them laughed so much together!
Toby’s birthday was fast approaching, and of course he would be inviting Charlie to his party. “There’ll be a giant chocolate cake with a digger on top made of icing! And my mum will be making us the best milkshakes in the world!” Toby told his pal excitedly.
But Charlie didn’t seem very pleased to hear it. On the contrary, he looked rather embarrassed. Toby was disappointed by his reaction, and a little confused.
“What’s up, Charlie? Don’t you like chocolate cake and milkshakes?”
“It’s not that, Toby. It’s just that I, I …” Charlie didn’t quite know how to answer him.
The truth is that Charlie’s allergic to milk, cocoa, and nuts. Ever since he was a toddler, he’s had to be extra careful about what he eats — avoiding things like nut bars, pastries that contain milk, and anything made of chocolate.
These restrictions hadn’t bothered Charlie at all at first (when he had no idea what those things tasted like or how much other people liked them). For a sweet treat at home, he’d happily munch on fresh fruit or dried fruit, or any number of goodies that he and his parents had come up with in the recipe books.
But after a while, Charlie began to suspect that he was missing-out and became frustrated. One day he decided to taste some chocolate, just to check if the allergy had by chance…
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