text: Sierra K Y Just a Regular . . .Me By: SKY 
   
   
     
    Wednesday, October 10 
            Another regular Wednesday. I just can’t wait for Friday. I missed the bus, (because of my stupid alarm clock) fell in some mud, ruining my brand-new jeans, and, of course, was extremely annoyed by Vanessa and the “Cliques”. That’s my nickname for all the popular kid groups. Vanessa, by the way, is the queen of all the Cliques.  She’s mean, she’s popular, and any guy would drop dead from her so called “gorgeous looks”.  She always passes me in the hall, snickers, looking down like she disapproves of me with my loser clothes and says “Geeks, they ruin my day, “as if she decides what’s best, coolest , and what not.  If you asked my opinion, she’s one ugly, stinky, dumb, troll that can disguise herself very, very, well.  Like one of those Spiderwick demons. All of the students here would do ANYTHING to be her friend, (and don’t get me started on what all the boys, who want a date, would do for her.) 
  Any who, we had the dreaded, P.E today. P.E is the worst class for many reasons . . . 
  1. It makes you sweat and stink. 
  2. It makes you tired and weak. 
  3. It embarrasses you in front of the whole class if you make the slightest mistake 
  4. It has the worst teacher ever! 
  If you are playing a competitive sport, and you lose, you have to climb ropes while trying not to get hit by dodge balls thrown by the rest of the class. 
  We have it right after lunch, making everyone sick to their stomach. 
  7. Many other reasons, but I don’t even want to go there. 
  For lunch we had the mystery meat with a side of mixed fruit. What could be worse? I think they have everything except fruit in the mixed fruit. I’m pretty sure they put what they clean out of the shower stalls in the mystery meat. Although people are trying to convince me I was imagining, I swear my food actually moved. EEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!So, after lunch everyone started looking a little green, and P.E didn’t make it any better what-so-ever! 
            The only reason I really go to school is because of my best friend in the entire universe, Leila . . . and maybe because of my crush, Kason. The only things that are bad about him are that Vanessa likes him, which kind of makes him an impossible crush, and the fact that Leila also has a crush on him. I’m pretty sure he likes one of us because he’s always talking to us instead of the popular guys; I’m just not sure which of us he likes. SO complicated. 
            Other than school, Vanessa, and the rest of the bad things I mentioned, my life is good. Not great, but good. My mom just made me some of her famous feel-good soup. I can hear her sweet sounding voice calling my name. 
  ”Rose, I made your favorite soup, hurry downstairs, it’s getting cold.” Oh yeah, Rose is my name. I go by my middle name, because my mom thinks it “represents” me. Ever since, my face turned completely red, at a Kindergarten play, she’s called me that. 
  I ran downstairs. The wonderful smell of chicken and a variety of spices filled the air.  I sighed, taking in a deep breath.  I rushed to the dining room table where my turquoise bowl sat, not wanting to wait even a second to take a spoonful of my mom’s wonderful, sensational soup, but the unthinkable had happened. My bowl was empty besides some noodles and maybe a drop of broth. I heard giggling under the table. My body filled with anger.                                      
  “GET OUT HERE YOU LITTLE BRAT!!!!!” I yelled as I rushed under the table at lightning speed. I grabbed his shirt before he had a chance to escape. If you thought no one could ever be so attached to soup, than you’re wrong.             
   “Mommy! She’s hurting me! Get her off!” he yelled as I started to knock him to the floor.                                                                                                           
            “Rose! There is no reason to be hurting your brother like that.” I can’t say I was surprised. Even though I had barely touched him, his crying act always fooled mom. I grumbled under my breath.                                                             
            “Mommy, it hurts so badly!”                                                                     
            “Rose, to your room, now,”my  mom said in a tone that meant she was serious. 
            “But, mom! That’s not fair!” I said in my defense. 
            “What’s not fair? That you get the consequences for your actions?” 
            “No! But, look Jake’s fine.” At the mention of his name my brother looked up. 
            “Oh . . . WAHHHH!!!” he said bursting into fake tears. 
            “Just go to your room, Rose.” 
            “But-“ 
  “NOW!” she yelled angrily. I trudged up the stairs, and into my room. I flopped down on my bed where I am now. I guess I’ll just have to go to sleep on an empty stomach. 
  Thursday October 11 
            Thursday again? I thought we had Thursday last week. I don’t want to wake up! Jake came in my room and shook me so hard; I think my arm went to Jupiter. There are only a couple good things about Thursday.  The next day is Friday, and I get to sit by anyone in class, because it’s SCIENCE! Kason and Leila are in that class too, so I sat next to them! 
            Today we have (drumroll please) Art, yay!!!!  Art is the best class in the whole entire day of Thursday. We get to use watercolors today to color our still life projects we did last week. I drew a wooden man-doll, Leila drew a seashell, and Kason drew an apple next to a glass bottle. I think ours turned out pretty good. Vanessa drew a pine cone, which looked like a porcupine holding a suffocated squirrel. She used it for fishing out compliments by saying it was ugly, which I agreed with. There’s nothing like insulting Queen of Cliques first thing in the morning. 
            We just had lunch. All of the Cliques sitting at their popular table; with everyone crowding their precious ruler, Vanessa. I was sitting at the “loser” table with Leila, and some other kids that didn’t qualify to be part of the Cliques. 
            Today we had pizza with a side of cookies. I love Thursday’s lunches. The lunch ladies are still mean, but they usually lighten up a little on Thursday. After lunch it’s math and we always learn the hardest stuff. Our teacher, Mr. Kandercane (Mr. Candy Cane to most) expects us to learn the whole unit in less than a week. He asked me to come up to the board and do this equation: 
  I made the mistake of writing this: 
  ∑ ™ β £ ≥ ≠ ∞ 
   I don’t know what that even means! I kind of just put some symbols I knew, so I wasn’t surprised when he told me it was wrong and to sit down. Then he asked Leila to answer it. She went up and neatly wrote: 
                                  The Answer!!! 
            “Correct!” Mr. Kandercane congratulated. ”At least someone here pays attention,” he added under his breath. 
            When Leila came back to her seat, one of the kids behind me muttered “Teacher’s Pet, Teacher’s Pet.” I turned around. Leila wasn’t beaming anymore. She looked really hurt. 
            “It’s okay, it was just a stupid joke,” I said trying to sound comforting. Leila cheered up a little. 
            Finally, it was Language Arts. I don’t really like language arts except for the fact it’s my last class. Today we had to write an essay on cursive. We had to write about either getting rid of it or keeping it. I really don’t care if we keep cursive or not, but I wrote about keeping it. Then my teacher started talking on how we have to write a story about a magical website… blah, blah, blah. I finished my story and earned a perfect score for my creativity, but I didn’t want to brag because bragging reminds me of Vanessa. 
            School was finally over. I had to go to the mall with Mom and Jake because Jake’s friend (Leo, I think) was having a birthday party so Jake needed to buy him a present and my mom had to get her friends’ a wedding present. 
            “You take Jake to the kids’ aisle and we’ll meet back here for lunch,” my mom told me. Jake rushed off to see all the toys. 
  “I want this one, and this one, and this one.” He said grabbing some toys off the shelf. 
  “This isn’t for you,” I scolded. 
  “But I want these toys!” he yelled and started crying. 
            “Okay, okay, but we’ll have to ask mom.” He stopped crying. What a fake-crier. We found a gift for . . . Landon? Something with an “L”. When we met up with my mom she asked why Jake was holding so many toys. I told her what happened, expecting her to tell Jake to put the toys he wants back on the shelf. Instead she said, 
  “Two or three toys couldn’t hurt.” 
  “Then can I get a new jacket? Mine is really worn out,” I asked. 
  “Sweetie, we are not made out of money,” she said in her gentle but firm voice. I was about to argue but seeing the look in her eyes made me think twice and I decided it wasn’t worth it. 
  When we got home, I made myself the biggest sandwich ever made in the history of sandwich making. I ate it in almost two bites. I was so lazy after that I flopped on the couch and started to watch my favorite television show ever. I fell asleep as I touched the soft, plushy, and heavenly couch. 
  Friday, October 12 
  I had the weirdest dream. I was at school (worst dream-place ever) and I had a big toe leech stuck to my elbow. Hey it’s a dream. Just then I tripped on an elephant, and Vanessa was riding it. She had a flaming whip, and was laughing at me. Then Leila appeared and Vanessa called her a teacher’s pet, and then she turned into a dog with a collar that said “Please return to Mr. Kandercane if found”. Suddenly, I was in a meadow with frogs hopping everywhere, and they were croaking my actual name, Judith. What an embarrassing moment. Then Vanessa came in, on this time, a flying fish. 
  “You’re name’s Judith? OMG, that’s the worst name in the entire universe. I don’t think aliens would be caught dead with a name like that! I can’t wait to tell everyone. Muh ha ha ha!” She said mockingly. I tried to run but I slipped in a puddle of . . . ew, It’s Leila’s dog saliva. I was freaking out, mainly because the saliva was warm, and because the P.E teacher showed up. She was meaner, buffer, hairier, and uglier than before. 
  “Onto the ropes ” She shouted “Now!!!!” I was close to screaming when I was clutching the ropes; lava bubbling underneath me. Everyone was calling my name and throwing electric dodge balls at me and I couldn’t do anything about it.  
  Suddenly, I felt my brother breaking my ribs by jumping on me, holding his new toys, trying to get me up. He was singing one of the hit songs, “Friday”. 
  “Get off of me you fatso!!!” I yelled before pushing him off the bed. He giggled. 
  “Look who’s talking! You’re the Queen of Fatties!” 
  “Mom finally made me your queen? “ I said feeling smart. Mom called us down. 
  “You’ll miss the bus, again Rose. Jake, you can skip school today. I mean, you have a cold, right?” mom called        
            “Oh . . . yeah! (Cough, cough)” 
            “You little faker!” 
  “Hey, I’m not a faker. You’re just jealous,” Jake said 
  “Yeah, I’m jealous of a lying little suck-up,” I said sarcastically.  He stuck out his tongue right before mom showed up. Jake pretended to cough again. 
            “You poor thing, I’ll make you some feel-good soup with extra broth. . .” said mom running her hands through his hair. “. . . And Rose you are going to be late!!! Gees . . . you never listen do you.” I got up and got dressed. I went downstairs and grabbed a granola bar. I ran outside and saw the bus at the corner, I barely made it on. The bus-driver gave me a crooked grin as I struggled to get on out of breath.  
  “The bus is too geeky to ride, that’s why I have my chauffeur drive me in my limousine to school every day, “said Vanessa at school. I think it’s my only transportation, so I don’t complain even though there is dirt on the floor, the heater and air conditioner are broken, it stinks like nobody’s business (except for maybe a dog’s business, if you know what I mean) and there is gum under and on seats. My granola bar was way too . . . what the word? Overdue. It was too hard to bite and was completely stale. The oats looked like animal voodoo.  
  Any who, Vanessa sat there bragging about who-knows-what, when Kason walked over. 
            “Hey Kason,” Vanessa flirted, twirling her hair. 
            “Hey . . .” he replied. 
            “Don’t you have some other people to annoy or something?” Courtney asked Vanessa. Courtney is one of the “nerds”. I like her because she speaks her mind, even to Vanessa. 
            “Courtney, why are you even on this planet, I mean we don’t need more freaks breathing my air. I bought air and it’s too expensive to waste on losers like you,” Vanessa said. By the time she finished criticizing Courtney, Kason had gone to class, even though we have 10 minutes left. “Wow Courtney, look what you did! You freaked my BF out.” 
            “You did that yourself Vanessa, I mean he got scared because of your freaky smell, and vaguely bug-like looks, oh yeah, don’t even get me started on your cheap hobo-ish makeup,” Courtney said. For the first time Vanessa was speechless. Courtney had a triumphant look as Vanessa stormed away defeated. 
            “Wow, Courtney! You are so cool! I mean you stood up to Vanessa even with your popularity at stake! But, I guess you’ll be remembered as the Geek Who Stood Up To Vanessa,” said Leila. 
            “Vanessa is just a regular person . . . with huge issues,” Courtney said. “and I don’t care about the popularity or the drama. I just want to focus on my school work.” 
            “Yeah,” said J.J., one of Courtney’s friends. “You focus on school work by picking fights with Vanessa,” he teased. 
            “I am not picking fights with Vanessa!” Courtney objected blushing, and slugging J.J. in the arm. 
             OOOOWWWW !” J.J. howled, also blushing. They both like each other, but neither admits it. 
            Then the bell rang and we all headed to our classes. 1st period was short like the others, because it was the Friday the teachers had a huge and very important meeting with the Academicawest or something like that. 
            “Since class is short today it is a free period, so you can play some games and talk but keep the voice level down,” said Ms. Kate as she turned some music on. Ms. Kate is my favorite teachers because she’s super fun and we are allowed to eat traditional Spanish food in her class. 
            Any who, I received some scratch paper from Ms. Kate and drew a picture of this super cute elf girl with curly hair. It looked like this: 
            “That’s really good,” someone behind me said. I turned around and saw Kason standing next to me. I felt my face getting hot. “Are you okay, you’re turning really red, like impossible red,” Kason said looking worried. 
            “Yeah, I just have a . . . condition . . . yeah. It makes my face all red,” I said probably sounding like a total dork. 
            “Well, I really like your drawing,” he said before walking away awkwardly. 
            “I am such a nerd,” I muttered under my breath as Leila walked over. 
            “He SO likes you! Man, I wish he gave me that much attention,” Leila said jealously. 
            “Yeah, right. I’m too much of a geek. I mean I look like those creepy weirdo girls on those shows you love to watch. I’ve have the glasses, the horrid hair,” I said sluggishly. Hey, it’s not my fault I have my parents’ blind eyes and my grandma’s hair. My mom hates my hair right now so I get only two choices, either to cut it off like a boys or grow it out long. I decided on the second one. When I’m older, I hope I could have saved up enough money for contacts, but that’s a long ways away. 
            “AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!” Vanessa screamed as she jumped up on a chair. “SPIDER!!!!” 
            “I’m sure it’s just a leaf Vanessa, don’t get too dumb just yet.” Courtney said nonchalantly. 
            “La, la, la, la, la, la, la!” Vanessa said trying to block out Courtney’s voice. “ I can’t here you!” Then Kason went over and pick up the arachnid. 
            “It’s harmless. Not even fully grown yet,” he said as he dropped the spider out the window. 
            “OMG Kason! You saved me from that nasty thing. You are such a hero!” said Vanessa bringing all the attention back to herself. 
            “Can’t get any more desperate than that,” said Courtney. 
            “Stop being so mean to me. I am just an innocent girl thanking her hero for saving her.” 
          “You are so annoying,”  said Alexander or Alex the Brains.  
            “OMG Alex! You should be the last person to comment on something being annoying,” said Vanessa as snotty as ever. I walked away avoiding the fights. It was NERDS VS CLIQUES and frankly I didn’t want to be either. 
            Then the bell rang for 2nd period which was Social Studies, but today the counselor was coming in to talk with the class. She is fun and nice. She is a perky blonde who has us draw a lot, which is fine by me. First we played telephone. The first round “My Disappearing Pig Put A Banana in His Ear” turned into “My Invisible Dad Danced on A Pear .” The second time “ Charley is A Unicorn” turned into “Wall-E Eats Corn.” It was fun and interesting to see how one thing turns into another. She explained how when rumors are spread how easily it is for one thing to sound like a totally different thing, and the truth could easily turn into a lie by a simple misunderstanding.  Then, we had to do a rough draft of a banner showing something involving citizenship. My group decided to do it like this: (picture) 
  We spent the whole period drawing ad coloring this. Vanessa started bragging on and on about clothes, money, etc.       
            “When will she give it a break? We all know she’s rich, has all the designer clothes, blah, blah, blah, “Courtney whispered to me. I chuckled. 
            “Wow! You two are such gossipers. Rude, much?” Vanessa said to us. 
            “Totally!” one of the other Clique members agreed. 
            “Look who’s talking, Ms. Rude herself,” Courtney said wit fully. 
            “Ugh . . . Do you have to ruin everyone’s day?” Vanessa replied. 
  “No that’s your job.” 
  “You are so mean!”Vanessa said angrily. 
  “It’s so sad that you talk to yourself, especially if you’re going to insult yourself,” Courtney said with fake sympathy. 
            “You’re annoying!” Vanessa exclaimed. 
            “There she goes again. Calling herself names and such. Poor Vanessa, she needs serious help. Actually, my mom has a friend who works with the loonies.” 
            “Seriously! OMG!!!” Vanessa yelled before running off to gossip with the Cliques. 
            “I just love watching her get upset,” said Courtney. 
            “You know that makes you seem like a mean, evil torturer, right?” commented J.J. 
            “Wow, J.J., way to sum it up,” Leila joined in. 
            “Stop teasing me,” Courtney said. It seemed like she lost all her courage. I was so confused :( . 
            “Time’s up for pictures,” called the counselor. 
            “Yay! Lunch-time :) !” I called. I was starved! 
            When we got to the lunch room Courtney looked sad. 
            “What’s wrong?” asked J.J. 
            “Well, I didn’t want to tell you guys, but . . . .” her voice trailed off. 
            “What?” asked Leila. 
            “Well, I’m . . . moving to New York. My dad got this awesome job there.” J.J.’s face paled. 
            “Wha . . . What?” asked J.J. shaking. “When?” 
            “My mom’s just letting me stay here forHalloween.” We didn’t talk for the rest of lunch. Suddenly my salad didn’t look pleasing. I felt sick, to the pit of my stomach. I watched the people around me leave the lunchroom. I left when there were only few students spread around the room. 
            We had a few minutes until 3rd period which was History with Mr. Mien (aka Mr. Mean).  We have to each take a 30 minute turn to teach the class a subject we haven’t learned. Last time this boy named Danny made us read these history books, but we didn’t have time to finish the books and we had to take a quiz on it, so pretty much everyone failed and each grade on our quizzes we got was a portion of our final participation grade. 
            When it was my turn, I could barely stand without blushing crazily. I was talking about how“The Shot Heard Around the World” started the war. It was a pretty boring subject because I couldn’t do much with it, and I’m not into that sort of stuff. I ended up making crossword puzzles and word searches on this cool website. All you had to do was put in the words you wanted and it sorted itself out. Then I handed out some candy. 
           Leila’s project was so cool. She did a puppet show, a play, and divided the room up into red coats and blue coats. We, then, went outside and had a game of revolutionary dodge ball. Totally beats word finds.  :( 
            Then the bell rang, and we all ran inside. We got our stuff and rushed into the halls. I saw Kason talking to Leila about something. They were laughing and he said something about liking something (or someone) and about it (or her) was cool. I guess he likes Leila al lot. ( SO JELOUS! :( )   
  The bell rang for 4th period. It was half computers with Mr. Nike and half library with Mr. Smith. In computers we just had to type a little and play some typing games.  Class goes by really fast so not much happened, but in library Vanessa continued bragging about how her and this guy from California are dating. So weird!  
  Any who,  Mr. Smith started talking about how the school is going to have a Pumpkin Fest. on October . It’s like a school carnival, but we will be having hayrides, a corn maze, halloween music, food, and games. Everyone seemed really excited about the festival. 
  Mr. Smith also said that afterward everyone could tell or read scary stories. 
  “I am going to tell a story so scary even Vanessa will wet her designer pants!” boasted Joe, the class clown. Some kids giggled at the joke, but immediately stopped when Vanessa glared at them. 
  “Nothing scares me,” Vanessa said to Joe. 
  “Except for breaking a nail, being dumped, someone ruining her make-up in public . . . “ Courtney whispered. 
  “Ugh . . . I just can’t wait till you leave this school, but I feel bad for the students in New York that will have to put up with you.” Vanessa said. 
  “Well, at least they don’t have to see that face of yours,” Courtney argued back. 
  “Girls, stop arguing,” said Mr. Smith. 
  “Whatever,” muttered Vanessa. 
  Mr. Smith gave us a couple minutes to get a book before our next class. I got a how-to-cook book. Trey (one of the geeks) checked out When Dinosaurs Ruled the World, which didn’t look very pleasing from the front cover. 
  “I wonder what time it is. I want to know how many hours ‘till school ends. I have a manicure waiting for me at the spa,” said Vanessa trying to get Kason to look over. I was trying not to look at her in disgust, but it was so hard not to. 
  “Wow Vanessa, you do really need that manicure. I hope school ends soon,” said Courtney as casual as possible. I giggled a little under my breath which Vanessa might have heard, although she didn’t. 
  “You are really getting on my nerves Courtney. You better watch what you say,” Vanessa said trying to sound intimidating. Courtney smirked like she didn’t care just when the bell rang. 
  “I hate that sound so much,” said Courtney covering her ears. 
  “What, the bell? I don’t think it’s that bad.” I told Courtney. 
  “No, Vanessa’s voice. It’s so annoying, and weird,” she said being funny. In the hall Leila caught up to me. 
  “Hey, are you mad at me or something?”she said looking confused. 
  “Why would I be mad at you?” 
  “Well, you didn’t sit next to me or talk to me in computers or library,” she explained. 
  “Oh . . . I’m sorry. On a totally unrelated subject, what were you and Kason talking about in the hall?” 
      “Why?”she asked suspiciously. 
      “I kind of overheard parts of it-” 
      “What parts?” 
      “He said something about liking someone because they’re cool and-” 
      “Okay! First of all that “someone” is a something. Second of all that “something” was my presentation in history. He liked all of the stuff I did.” 
      “That makes SO much more sense!” I exclaimed. The bell rang. 
      “OMG! We’re going to be late for class!” 
      We rushed down the halls, squeezing past other kids trying to get to their classes. We, finally, made it to 5th period,  Music with Mrs. Walker.  She was an okay teacher, but she was very strict. If I even whisper, I get in a lot of trouble, but even if Joe interrupts the class repetivly and makes inappropriate jokes she laughs or gives him a “warning”. Today we had a substitute named Mr. Shaman, and because he wasn’t a “music expert” we just did a worksheet on identifying music notes, then played some games. 
      School ended at 12:45 instead of 3:05  and Leila asked me if I could come over for a sleep-over. 
      “It will be so much fun! Mia (Leila's 18 year old sister) and Courtney are coming, so it will be awesome for you to come to! Here you can use my phone to call your mom,” she said pulling out her pink and jeweled Apple iPhone 4S. I was like the only 12 year old without a phone. 
       I pushed down on the numbers of my mom’s cell. The numbers appeared on the screen as the ringer beeped into my ear. 
       “Hello, Mrs. Peggy Luther speaking,” answered my mom. 
      “Hey, mom, can I spend the night at Leila’s?”I asked. 
      “If it’s okay with her parents it’s okay with me.” I looked at Leila, and she said her parents approved. 
      “It is. Thanks mom. Love you,” I said. 
      “Love you, too. Bye,” she said before hanging up. 
      “Yes !” I yelled excitedly. 
      “Woo - Hoo!” Leila said bouncing up and down, making her blonde curls dance about. We  found Courtney and waited for Mrs. Benson (Leila’s mom). I recognized the blue porsche as it pulled into the school parking lot. We all climbed into the car. 
       “How have you girls been?” she asked in a sweet voice. 
      “Good.” 
      “Fine.” 
      “Okay” 
      “You girls have very specific moods,” Mrs. Benson teased. We talked about school stuff until we got to Leila’s house. I had been to Leila’s house before, but I forgot how big it was. I mean, it’s HUGE! (picture) It’s hard to remember Leila’s rich, because I used to think all rich people acted like Vanessa, (spoiled, boastful, rude, and annoying, ) and fortunately Leila was nothing like Vanessa. 
      Any who, right as Leila opened the door a girl jumped on her knocking her to the floor wrapped in a giant bear hug. 
      “Hey! I haven’t seen you since I moved into my new house, which was when? Forever ago?” 
      “Last month,” corrected Leila suffocating under the weight of the 124 pound 18 year old. Mia stood up and grabbed Leila’s hand, helping her to her feet. Mia looked over at me and Courtney as if studying us.  
      She had the same blonde hair and tan skin as Leila but she was a whole head taller than her. I realized she was in jeans with holes in the knees. She also was wearing a shirt with a pig on it and a pig hat. Her curly hair was in two ponytail that went about two inches above her shoulders. She had no make-up on but her face was smooth and clean. She stood at an angle leaning to her left. Her eyes were hazel unlike Leila’s brown chestnut eyes. Her curled bangs hung slightly over  her eyes.  
      “Is she Rose?” Mia asked Leila pointing to Courtney. Leila moved Mia’s hand so it pointed towards me. “Oh,”she said nodding. 
      “And this is Courtney,” Leila introduced. 
      “Hello!” Mia said to both of us. 
      “Hey.” 
      “Hi.” 
      “You have got some seriously talkative friends,” Mia said to Leila. I started blushing. “Dang Rose, you are seriously red.” 
      “She’s a blusher,”said Courtney which made me blush even more. 
      We decided to go and get some movies, popcorn, and other party snacks while Mrs. Benson ordered pizza.  
  We climbed into Mia’s pink Civic. The seats were really smooth and the air smelled of a mixture of oranges and mangos. She turned on the radio and found Our Song by Taylor Swift. (one of my favorite songs :) ). Apparently Courtney and Leila knew it too because they started singing along. I joined in.  Then Love Song by Sara Bareilles  came on.We sang to all the songs we knew until we came to a GIANT store. I had never heard of it but Leila seemed to have been there before. We got out of the car and walked across the parking lot. When we went inside, the store looked bigger on the inside than the outside. There were costumers walking around casually. There was also a bunch of employees wearing matching yellow and green outfits. Some were helping costumers, or at the cash registers. Others boxing and unboxing items. A lady walked up to us. She was in the green and yellow uniform with the store’s logo printed on the side next to her name tag that read Hello My Name Is Jane.  She wore a yellow headband across her dark bobbed hair to go with her  outfit and had a smile (covered with way too much red lipstick) plastered onto her face.  
  “May I help you lovely young ladies? Oh, by the way, I love your hat,” she said. 
  “Thank you. Um, we’re looking for popcorn, sodas, that kind of stuff,” Mia said awkwardly. 
  “Oh, right this way, to aisle seven,” she said walking away. We followed her to an area of the store filled with party food, snacks,  everything else.  “Here you go, ladies. I hope you find everything you need and have a nice day,” Jane said. She left us and went to a couple of other costumers that just walked into the store.  
  “Okay, now we just have to get everything we need; soda and popcorn. m I missing anything?” Mia asked looking at us. “Oh, yeah chips. Do you all like sour cream and onion flavor?”We all nodded before she grabbed a bag off the shelf. We also grabbed some Pepsi and extra buttered popcorn. We decided to get some candy before we left. 
  When we arrived to the  cash register we were welcomed by a new employee named Samuel. He wasn’t as cheerful as Jane though. He kept mumbling to himself and looking down. We got what we needed and headed out to the parking lot. When we got out, Mia reached into her purse. “Dang it!” she cursed. 
  “What?” asked Leila. 
  “My keys aren’t in here,” she said worried. 
  “Did you leave them in the car?”I asked trying to be helpful. 
  “No, I remember having them in the store.” 
  Then Samuel came out. 
  “Excuse me,” he said to Mia. “You left these by the cash register,” he said handing her the keys and her zebra-printed wallet. She checked her purse looking confused. 
  “Thank you,” she said putting them into her purse. 
  “Yeah,” he said before awkwardly walking back to the store. 
  “Well, that was very nice of him to return your stuff,” said Courtney. 
  “Are you sure he didn’t take any money,”Leila wondered. 
  “It’s all here,” Mia said checking her wallet. 
  “Maybe he thought he’d get a kiss,” Leila teased as we got into the car. 
  “Whatever,” Mia said hitting Leila laughing. “OMG! It’s all ready 3 o’clock! We have got to get home.” This time Turning Tables by Adele was playing. Then a different song, I had never heard of before, blared through the speakers.  
  We quickly pulled into the driveway and unloaded our stuff. The pizza guy was parked around the corner.  
  When we were inside, the air smelled deliciously of cheese and pepperoni. Mrs. Benson had just payed the pizza man, and he was just heading out the door, when he bumped into Mia. Her bag split open and the soda fell onto the floor, leaking. Soon, there was a puddle of Pepsi running down the floor. 
  “I am so sorry,” apologized the man. Mrs. Benson brought a pile of napkins and everyone helped clean the mess up. “I think I have some extra sodas in the car, maybe even this brand. I’ll go check.” He left and soon came back with three bottles. There was Pepsi, Root Beer, and Sprite. 
  “You can have the extra ones because there kind of warm, and because of the inconvenience.”  
  “Thanks, I guess,” Mia said before putting the soda into the fridge. 
  After he left, Mia showed us a hilarious video called Potter Puppet Pals In The Mysterious Ticking Noise on Youtube.It was so funny. It had characters from the Harry Potter series, but they were puppets. They did a skit and sang a silly song. 
  We had our dinner and soda.Then we found a movie and popped the popcorn. Even though it was only 5 o’clock, the sun had already set. We watched the   show and talked about girl stuff, like our crushes and such. 
      When we were playing Truth or Dare, the lights went off. Some of us screamed, until Mrs. Benson came down with a flashlight. 
  “It’s okay. A storm came in and blew out the power.” For the first time I noticed the rain pounding on the windows. Man, I am so oblivious. “I was just talking to Courtney’s mom and their power is gone, too, even all the way up the hill on Oak Street.” 
  We got some more flashlights and lit some candles. We started playing Clue and Scribbilish. Scribbilish is like telephone except you draw. You pick a card and draw what it says without writing letters or numbers. Then you pass it to the next person and they write what they think it means, then the next person draws what the 2nd person wrote the sentence about. It is one of my favorite games. 
  Then we made a bed on the floor and everyone started to fall asleep, but for some reason I couldn’t. I tried waking one of the other girls up, but that didn’t work, so I decided to write in here a little longer. Well, I guess I’m kind of tired. I need to at least try to go to sleep. 
  Saturday, October 13 
       Mrs.Benson makes the best breakfast ever! She made cinnamon rolls, bacon, hash browns, and chocolate pancakes, and she expects us to eat it all! She says she makes so much because girls these days don’t eat anything. I love eating at Leila’s! I’m just surprised that she doesn’t have a cook to make the breakfast if she’s so rich and all. I hope I don't have to go home soon. 
                                 To Be Continued . . . Mabye . . .  
   
   
   Publication Date: January 29th 2012 https://www.bookrix.com/-sky050401