Need quick!

read the passage.

a birthday tradition

it had been an annual tradition since justine was five years old. her maternal grandmother always surprised her with a brand new outfit on her birthday. justine would put on the clothes, and the grandmother and granddaughter would go to the movie theater together. it sounds like a marvelous tradition, right? the only problem was that justine’s grandmother did not exactly have a supreme, or the most modern, sense of style, and for a fifteen-year-old fashionista like justine, the yearly outfit reveal was pure torture. she was known for her sense of style, and wearing an atrocious outfit to the cinema felt like social failure.

justine reclined on the front porch and looked out at the driveway, awaiting her grandmother’s imminent arrival. her thoughts drifted back to when she received the cartoon cat sweatshirt for her tenth birthday. it wasn’t so dreadful, yet the matching cat-ear headband made the outfit appear like she was wearing a costume rather than attire appropriate for the movies. she had taken the items from the gift box, put them on, and posed for pictures with her grandmother, as was customary, but then, justine hid her face until they made it into the darkness of the theater.

justine remembered how distraught she had been when she got an even worse outfit several years later. the family gathered around as she opened the box her grandmother handed to her, and she shivered as she looked inside to see a tank top and matching leggings covered completely in sequins and rhinestones. justine felt as though she not only sparkled but also glowed in the dark, and later at the theater, the outfit was so itchy that she was scratching and thrashing around throughout the whole motion picture.

later that night when justine had complained to her parents about the embarrassment of going to the movies in her birthday outfit every year, her mother simply told her that she should be grateful. “your grandmother won’t be around forever; you should be for the time you have with her and the effort she puts into selecting those outfits for you. cherish your moments with her,” her mother said.

replaying her mother’s words in her mind, justine roused from her daydream. justine was grateful—to an extent. she loved her grandmother and appreciated the effort she went through to buy her clothing, but enough was enough. she was tired of dreading the birthday outfit, and she made a pledge to never again wear a glow-in-the-dark outfit to the cinema. while on the porch, justine concocted a plan so that she no longer would have to parade around in a hideous outfit. after all, what if someone she knew saw her walking into the theater like that? there was no way she could go out in public and be embarrassed in this year’s repulsive ensemble.

as justine waited for her grandmother’s car to pull into their driveway, she practiced the excuse she had concocted for herself: “wow, grandma, i adore the outfit. how about i put it on, and we can just watch a movie here at the house instead of the theater? i think you’d be much more comfortable on our cozy sofa than in those unbearable theater chairs.” justine mumbled, “and then after you leave, i’ll incinerate the outfit.” justine chuckled to herself. of course, she would leave that second part out when she conversed with her grandmother.

just then, a mail truck pulled in front of her house, and the driver stepped out to deliver a package with a note to justine. justine pried open the package, and inside the box was obviously another grandmother-chosen outfit: a fringe-covered, pink leather jacket and sparkly stretch slacks. justine wondered, though, why was her grandmother sending the outfit instead of bringing it in person? justine opened the attached letter, and it read: justine, i’m sorry to miss your birthday this year. i’m not feeling well, so i won't be able to join you at the movies. i couldn’t resist sending you your gift on your actual birthday, so i decided to mail it to you. happy birthday, darling. i love you. sincerely, grandma.

justine felt tears well up, even though she realized that this was exactly what she had wanted: she didn’t have to wear the outfit in public—she didn’t have to parade around in those awful clothes. yet the remorse began to form within her, and she did want to see her grandmother. as she stared at the tacky outfit, she realized in retrospect how selfish she had been, and her mother’s words returned to her: “your grandmother won’t be around forever.” justine recognized that the tradition of spending her birthday with her grandmother was way more important than wearing trendsetting attire for a day, and she ran inside to get her phone. she called and her grandmother and rescheduled the trip to the movies so she could wear her new clothes and continue the birthday tradition.