Jenny Bryngle galloped around her living room as her two pigtails bounced up and down. "Giddy up horsey," the eight-year-old shouted. Nicole, Jenny's older sister, walked in from the kitchen, phone in hand and headphones on. Jenny, not seeing her sister, accidentally bumped into her.
"Nicole," Jenny tapped her sister on the shoulder, "do you want to play with me? You can be a cowgirl, too!"
Without looking up from her phone, the annoyed fifteen-year-old replied, "No, why on earth would I want to play with you?"
Disappointed, yet not discouraged, Jenny went back to her western ways. She always became completely consumed in whatever she pretended to be. It was like she was in her own world, unaware of the things around her. Grasping the broomstick in both hands, Jenny flew around the room; the end of the broom whipping behind her, threatening everything in its path. As she carelessly rounded the backside of the couch, she came too close to her mom's expensive vase. The end of her broom brushed the vase just hard enough to force it to start tottering. Unaware of what had just happened Jenny kept prancing around the couch. She was suddenly brought back to the real world when she heard a loud crash. She dropped the broom and looked around; noticing the vase was not on the table, she went around to the back side of the couch. The sight stopped her in her tracks. Her mom's favorite and not to mention most expensive vase was lying on the ground: broken into large chunks of colored glass. Remembering how excited her mom was when she bought the slender vase last year, Jenny instantly ended her charade and debated what to do. She decided she could fix it.
Glancing around the corner into the kitchen, Jenny caught a glimpse of her mom turning off the music. She needed to get the tape from one of the drawers. Unfortunately, the tape drawer was the one that squeaked when opened, but Jenny had no time to waste; her mom could walk into the living room at any moment. She tiptoed into the kitchen. Reaching the drawer, she slowly opened it. SQUEEEAAAAK! Jenny grabbed the tape and bent down, hoping her mom wouldn't catch her in the act.
"Jenny? Was that you?"
Busted, Jenny thought before she darted back into the living room.
"Jennifer, come back here for a second. Did something fall in the living room? I thought I heard a crash."
Uh oh, now what do I do. "Um, you must have just imagined it mom, I was just in there and I didn't hear anything," Jenny lied.
"Okay well in that case, I'm going to run to the flower shop real quick, I want to get some new flowers for the vase in the living room. Your sister is upstairs if you need anything. Just please try not to make a mess while I'm gone," begged her mom, knowing how crazy her daughter could get.
Great, Jenny thought, now I have time to fix the vase while she's gone! She skipped over to the broken glass and began tugging at the tape dispenser. Then she tried placing the tape on the broken edges, but quickly gave up, realizing that tape was not going to work. Jenny watched TV while she thought up another idea for her repair project. She flipped through the channels until she reached her usual three: ABC Family, Nickelodeon, and Disney. She immediately stopped on ABC Family the second she got to it. They were playing Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. This was Jenny's all time favorite movie; she knew almost every line!
That's when the next idea hit her. I can use magic, that's sure to work! Jenny bolted out the door and straight to the woods behind her house. Now to find a wand—ahh, perfect! Jenny snapped the long stick in half and held up her new wand for inspection. Seems magical enough to me, she decided. Knowing the spells would surely fail if she did not wear her cloak, she ran to her room to retrieve it. The long, heavy black cloak consumed Jenny. As she walked back down the stairs, it dragged several inches behind her.
Standing over the broken glass, she slowly raised her arm, wand in hand.
"Reparo," Jenny shouted! The glass remained on the floor.
"Reparo!" It still didn't budge.
"REPARO!" Nothing. After her third unsuccessful attempt at magically fixing the vase, she opened the front door and angrily threw the stick as far as she could. She slammed the door shut. Now what am I supposed to do? I'm all out of ideas. Jenny sulked up the stairs. After returning her cloak to her closet, she walked to her sister's room. The door was closed, so Jenny knocked three times. She could hear music seeping through the cracks of the door.
"Nicole, open up! Please, I need your help," shouted Jenny, hoping to be heard over the music.
She waited for her sister to open the door but it was no use, the music was too loud for Jenny to be heard. She slowly turned the knob and opened the door a crack. Peaking her head into the room, Jenny’s jaw dropped at the sight she saw. Her sister was dancing around the room with a tutu on. Jenny opened the door a little more and stepped into the room. She’d never seen this side of her sister before. Just as Jenny had decided she was going to sneak back out of her sister's room, Nicole turned and saw her standing there, watching.
Panicked, Nicole screamed in a high pitched voice, "GET OUT." Jenny scampered out of the room, knowing there was no way she would stay alive if she taunted her sister over this. Suddenly the phone rang. Jenny ran into her room and picked up her rhinestoned pink phone.
"Hello," she pleasantly said into the phone. Her mother had always told her to answer the phone as if you are the happiest person ever that way you make the person on the other end of the line cheery too.
"Hi Jenny, I just wanted to call and let you know, I'm only five minutes away from home." Jenny's heart immediately picked up its pace. Her palms began to sweat. She hated getting into trouble especially when she knew it was going to happen.
"Jenny? Did you hear me? I said I'll be home soon."
"Yeah, okay mom. See ya, bye!"
She threw down the receiver and flew down the stairs. She didn't have a third plan yet. Jenny began running around the house. She thought, surely I can find something around the house that I can use to fix the vase. She covered the whole bottom floor in a matter of seconds. Then she bolted upstairs, into her room. She stopped. Took a few deep breaths. Her heart was beating so fast that she thought it might jump out of her chest and her hair was a mess. She sat down on her bed and squeezed her favorite pink, fluffy pillow. Beginning to give up, she took one final glance around the room. Then, almost as if a spotlight had been turned onto it, she spotted her Elmer's Glue bottle. She quickly leaped off her bed and snatched the bottle. Picking up speed, she raced down the stairs. While going down the stairs, Jenny realized was going way too fast, but there was no way she could slow down now. She tried to stop herself as she rounded the corner, but it was no use. She slipped on the floor rug and began to fall. In an attempt to catch herself, she flung her arms out in front of her. Her hands hit the floor in balled up fists. Following was her head. It hit her fist just hard enough to knock out her loose tooth. She laid there for a moment, a little shocked from what had just happened, until suddenly she heard her mom's car door slam shut. Once again, full of energy, Jenny sprang up from the floor and tore up the stairs. She ran into the bathroom and shut the door; her heart was pounding. She gripped her tooth in her left hand.
"Jennnny!"
She could tell her mom was not happy.
"Jenny, get down here right now!"
Before Jenny went downstairs, she took one last look at herself in the bathroom mirror. Her pigtails were lopsided and her two bows limp. She swiftly fixed her dark brown hair then opened her gap-filled mouth. Oh, I hope the tooth fairy comes tonight, she excitedly thought. Smugly, she closed her mouth and, with her tooth in hand, danced down the stairs to show her mom her newest lost tooth and tell her the true story about the crash in the living room.