“Holy smokes!” Alice exclaimed while her bright blue eyes opened wide, “That’s two quarters in one day!” She quickly stood erect and placed her newly found treasures in a bubblegum pink basket. As she gleamed about the five pennies, three dimes, and two quarters she found today, her friend, Polly moaned, “Can’t you ever just walk instead of gluing your eyes to the ground looking for change?” With an ear-to-ear smile on her face, Alice gleefully retorted, “But then I will never have enough money for the Barbie Princess doll that comes with a matching pink and purple-y horse!” “But you will never have enough money, it’s like a bagillion dollars and Barbies are stupid anyways” snorted Polly while rolling her eyes. “…twenty-five, thirty-five, sixty, eighty-five! I almost found a dollar worth of change today! That’s thirty more cents than yesterday!” announced Alice, still too happy to even attempt to listen to Polly’s criticism, causing Polly to be even more indifferent toward Alice than before.

Alice blissfully skipped the whole way back to the orphanage with her basket hanging over one arm and her used Barbie backpack slung over the other. The bleak orphanage had come into sight and the stench of mildew entered her nose but nothing could hamper her mood. Kneeling on the ground at her bedside, she gingerly counted all of her money, making sure to keep an eye out for anyone that might want to steal her savings. As she counted the last of the coins, the emotions inside her started to build, each penny, nickel, dime, and quarter raising her to a new level of excitement. Finally, it all exploded out of her in that one moment in the form of a tremendous shout, “I did it! I finally have enough!” which she accompanied by flinging her arms into the air and swinging up her head of golden braids. She noticed the yelling attracted the attention of the other orphans so she made an effort to find her composure as fast as possible. She decided that the next day, after school she would take her basket to the nearest toy store and buy the Barbie Princess doll that she had been diligently saving for for more than a year.

That night she was far too buoyant to even consider trying to fall asleep so she laid awake listening to the drip-drops of the leaky faucets and the soft breathing of her already sleeping fellow orphans and imagining all of the merriment she will have playing with her new doll.

The time finally come for Alice to make her long awaited for purchase, she pranced into the store breathing heavily since she had ran there. Since she had gawked at the Barbie many times before, her disintegrating tennis shoes were able to easily escort her to the doll section of the store. Then, she became stiff, the Barbie Princess wasn’t there, she went straight to the cashier and asked who had bought it. He said a girl named Polly had come in with her parents the evening before and bought the last one. Tears immediately started to drip down her pale cheeks.