“I can’t believe I lost my Prada bag!” exclaimed Ally. Ally was fifteen and in tenth grade. Sitting on her king sized bed with her were friends Ashley, Lauren, and Grace. Ally lived in Beverly Hills, California in a mansion. The mansion had big purple flowers in the garden and French doors. Part of the house was hidden by trees. The house was shaped like an open square. In the center outside there was a backyard with a pool.

“So anyway, how’s your party planning going?” Lauren asked Ally.

“Great!” Ally said with an excited tone.. “Everyone is going to love it! They better anyway since I’m spending $10,000 on it.”

“See you tomorrow,” Ally said as she led her friends out the door. After seeing them leave, she walked back into her room to finish her math homework.

The next day in homeroom, Ally, Lauren, Grace, and Ashley sat at the “reserved” place at the table. Lauren twirled her curly, brown hair, Ashley tossed her flowy, blond hair, and Grace was on the phone with her chauffeur. Suddenly, another girl sat with them. “Eww!” they all screamed. “Go away and get some new clothes while you’re at it.”

“But…I just wanted to know if… uh never mind,” the girl said nervously and then sped away.

“She is such a loser,” Ally said. All of her friends agreed. The bell rang for class to start and they all grabbed their books and left the room.

Later that day, Ally’s chauffeur dropped her friends off and shortly after that, she12 arrived at her house. When Ally walked in she saw her dad sitting in the kitchen which had granite countertops, a stainless steel fridge, and a butler’s pantry.
“What’s wrong?” Ally asked. “Why aren’t you at work?”
Ally’s dad, Mark Parker said, “Sweetie, I’m sorry, but you can’t have your party.”

Ally’s heart dropped. “Why not?” Ally asked, with tears in her eyes.

“I lost my job today. I’m trying to save more money until I get another job.”

“I can’t believe this is happening!” Ally screamed. She ran up to her room and slammed the door.

Later that night, Mark went up to Ally’s room and walked inside. “Honey, I’m going to need a lot of your clothes and shoes. We’re having a garage sale to try and help with the money problem,” Mark told Ally.

“Are you kidding me?” Ally said with disbelief.

“Honey, I no longer have a job, which means we have to cut back and figure out other ways to earn money,” replied Mark. Ally could never tell her friends. She would be so embarrassed.

The next morning was hard for Ally. When she got to school with last year’s clothes and a cheap t-shirt, she got made fun of. “What are you wearing?” Grace asked with disgust.

“I’m having some problems,” she responded. Everyone stared at her giggling and thinking to themselves that she was getting what she deserved since she was so mean. At the end of the day when Ally was at her locker, she got a phone call.

“Hey, it’s me,” Mark said. “I need you to go home with one of your friends. I’ll pick you up later. I had to fire John, you know, the driver? Also I need you to clean up a bit because I had to fire the housekeeper too.”
Ally couldn’t speak. She felt frustrated. She just slammed her phone shut without saying goodbye to her father. Ally approached Ashley and asked if she could hang out at her house for a while. “Um sure,” Ashley said wondering what really was going on.

About ten minutes after getting home from school, Ashley and Ally sat on the couch. They talked as they did their homework and then Ally looked up at the clock. She knew her dad would be waiting outside to pick her up soon. “Oh, I have to go soon. I have to clean the house,” Ally said without thinking.

“Clean?” Ashley asked. “Don’t you have a cleaning lady or housekeeper or something?”

“Well…actually… uh,” Ally said not believing what she just told Ashley.

“Ally, what’s going on? You’ve been acting strange all day,” Ashley asked with a confused look on her face.

“Ok, fine. Yeah, my dad lost his job and now we have less money,” Ally replied feeling ashamed.

“Oh, well sorry but you’re hurting my reputation. I don’t think I want to be friends with you anymore,” Ashley said with a snobby expression.

Later at dinner in the dining room with a crystal chandelier, Mark said that they were down sizing to a smaller house and he invited the real estate over to eat with them to discuss options. Ally just could not take it anymore. Crying, she ran to her room. Her dad ran after her to see what was wrong. “Ally what happened?” Janice asked.
“Go away!” Ally screamed back. Landing on her fluffy mattress, she buried her face into her pillow and sobbed.

A little while later, after the real estate agent left and everyone had gone to bed, Ally sat in her bean bag chair and watched a show on her flat screen. As she watched, she thought about all the things that happened in the last few days. That is when she realized she was getting a taste of her own medicine. She had been selfish and mean to a lot of people at her school and made fun of them. Around her room, she saw her fluffy, green comforter on her bed, her sliding doors that went out to the balcony, the door that led to her bathroom, her laptop, her walk-in closet, and finally she saw a picture of her ex-friends Grace, Ashley, and Lauren. “What’s so great about them anyway?” Ally asked herself. They may have the clothes and the money, but they aren’t real friends.

The next morning was Saturday. Ally knew that on Sunday, she would move. She wasn’t happy about only having one more day in the only house she ever knew. Ally rolled out of bed with her feet landing on her white rug. She shuffled to the bathroom. Looking into her shiny mirror, she took a long look at herself. That person that she saw in the mirror was going to go from a mean girl who only cares about herself to a nice person who cared about others.

Sunday came around and Ally sat in her dad’s car looking out the window. Today was the day she would have a new house and become a new person. They arrived at the new house and Ally saw it for the first time. It was a medium sized brick house, with a cherry wood door and a two-car garage. At least it wasn’t the worst thing she had ever seen. She got out of the car, walked to the front door, and went inside. There wasn’t a high vaulted ceiling, but it was comfy. There was a living room, a kitchen, an office, and a dining room on the first floor. Ally walked up the stairs and saw a post-it on the door that said “Ally” on it. She knew it was her bedroom. She opened the door and stepped inside. It wasn’t as big as her own bedroom but it was a decent size. It had wood floors and a big window. There was no furniture in the house yet.

Outside, Ally was taking a walk and saw a girl walking her dog. She thought the girl looked familiar. “Hi,” Ally said.

“Hi, I’m Sandra. You’re new in this neighborhood right? I think I have seen you before.”

“You go to my school right?” Ally asked. “I’m Ally by the way.” Sandra looked a little nervous for a while and then started to say something and then stopped. “Why are you so scared to talk to me Sandra? I don’t bite you know.” Ally said.

“You seem like you do. You have made fun of me before and I don’t really understand what’s going on with you moving here,” Sandra replied feeling relived that she just let it all out.

Feeling hurt, she looked down at the concrete sidewalk, then at Sandra’s shoes which she wasn’t too crazy about and then back up at Sandra. “I’ve changed you know,” Ally said to Sandra.

“How could you have possibly changed?” Sandra asked. Ally didn’t know what to say. She didn’t know she was hated that much. This broke her heart and she ran home.

On Monday, the day after Ally moved, she went to school knowing she’d probably dread what was to come. She had no friends and no designer clothes to cover up her insecurities. Ally dragged herself into school with her head down.

By lunch time, Ally had been teased and laughed at in the hallway. Ally sat alone in the corner of the cafeteria. She had a feeling of emptiness. Surprisingly, Sandra came and sat down right next to Ally. “Hey,” Sandra said.

“Hi,” Ally responded. “Why are you sitting with me? You didn’t seem to like me very much yesterday,” Ally said to Sandra.

“I felt bad,” Sandra replied. “So how exactly have you changed?”
“My dad lost his job, and now we had to move to a smaller house, and I had to sell a lot of my stuff,” Ally replied.
“Oh, that’s too bad,” Sandra said. It felt good to finally have someone who had sympathy for her instead of just laughing.

Then, Ally heard, “Hey Ally get over here!” It was Ally’s old friends. Ally started to walk over, but when she was half way there she stopped.
“Don’t go back there, they don’t deserve you,” Ally told herself. They never cared about you because they ditched you just because you didn’t have as much money as they did” Ally stopped, turned around, and walked back toward Sandra. She didn’t need her so called friends anymore because now she had a real friend.

“Why’d you come back here?” Sandra asked.

“They only wanted to be friends with me in the first place because I was rich and when I wasn’t anymore, they ditched me not caring,” Ally replied.

Later that day when Ally got home from school, she heard that the real estate agent was having difficultly selling the house since it cost so much. After dinner Sandra came over to study with Ally. They were getting to become good friends now.

“You’re really nice to me,” Ally told Sandra. “I’ve never actually had a friend that cared so much about me.”

“Oh, thanks,” Sandra replied. They sat in the family room. Ally chose that room because it had the furniture from her old house and she wanted to impress Sandra.

After Sandra left, Janice came into Ally’s room. “I like how you’re handling all of this. I know it was hard but you seem to be okay now,” Janice said to Ally.

“I’m alright, everything is fine now,” Ally said

“See you later sweetie,” Janice said as she left the room closing the door behind her. Ally stared up at the ceiling. She had a lot on her mind. “There’s a new beginning for everyone,” Ally thought smiling. She realized that there was more to life than just things. Even though she had money and clothes, she was still mean and ugly inside. Now all of that had changed. She was beautiful not only on the outside, but on the inside too.