It was another freezing cold, snowy, winter day; the sun was nowhere to be seen. School was so much more dreadful and miserable than normal because the weather outside was making it dark inside. Yes, welcome to my gloomy town of Grand Forks, North Dakota, where it’s cold and somber, literally all the time.

“Nat! Stop daydreaming.” Jorge yelled at me.

“I’m sorry, I was thinking about something, jeez!” I yelled back.

“You’d better eat all of your lunch before Christina comes over here,” Jorge utters to me quietly.

But it was too late, Christina was already headed over to us, with her posse of popular, mean girls. I coward my head down towards the table, pretending that I didn’t see her, hoping she avoids me completely. Obviously, that was just a fantasy that I had in my head.

“Oh, Natalie, I see you’re eating salad, trying to get skinny again?” Christina laughs.

I put my head down, too embarrassed to look up because I know my cheeks are red, they feel like they’re on fire. I can feel her staring at me with that judgy, mean look that she has, which doesn’t help.

“What? Cat got your tongue?” She laughs again.

“Okay Christina, you can leave now, you’ve done enough for the day,” Jorge states in a blunt manner. He’s never been scared of her or from what I’ve seen I don’t think he is. Although, he doesn’t really seem scared of anything though.

“I’m actually skinnier than you, you need to start eating salads and the only reason why the cat has my tongue is because it didn’t want yours.”

Christina peers at him then looks back at me nervously. “You know what, he’s right. I have better things to do than hang around with fat people.” She laughs again, but this time so does her posse, and then they all strut away from us as if nothing ever happened.

   “Jorge, I’m so tired of her saying stuff like that to me, it’s been going on for weeks now. I’m scared she’s going to do something to me one day.” I told him with tears in my eyes, hoping they don’t fall down my face.

   “Christina is too much of a coward to ever do anything, otherwise she already would have. You know what you need to do? You need to get revenge.” He says with a sly look on his face.

   “How would I do that?” I confusedly respond.

   “Easy. Sneak into her house in the middle of the night and pull a huge prank on her, that will definitely set her off and get her back for everything she’s done to you.” He says again, with that sly look on his face, growing into a grin.

   “What would I do though? I’m not good at these things, you are the class prankster, not me.” I say, feeling like I don’t want to ball my eyes out anymore.

   “Leave it up to me, I will plan it all out and give you the details later.” He claimed.

   “Okay, I trust you,” I say.

   Suddenly, I feel relieved like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I don’t have to be scared again, not after this prank, I’m going to get her so good that she will be terrified of me and not the other way around.

*BEEEEEEEP*

   “Bye Blondie, that’s the bell, I’ll call you later and give you the details,” Jorge says with a wink.

   “Bye Brownie, call you later.” I then replied with a wink and walked off.

It’s now later in the day. I get off the bus at my stop. It’s so cold outside that it sends shivers down my spine. Since it’s the middle of winter, there is frost everywhere. It’s on my mom's black Honda, on the grass, on all the trees; I can see my warm breath in the air when I breathe. I run down my sloped driveway and finally get to the door, I decide that I want to stand outside for a minute to call Jorge. I get out my phone and call him.

He picks up after 2 rings and I answer with, “Hey Jorge, do you wanna come over right now so we can discuss our plans for tonight?”

He replies with “Yeah, I’ll be there in 5, see ya Blondie,” and hangs up.

I suddenly get a text from Christina, it says, “hey fatty natty what are you doing right now, probably eating. you need to go to the gym, I have a free pass if you want it” A tear slips out of my eye. She’s always sending me texts like this. I’m gonna be so glad when Jorge helps me get her back for all her bullying.

I patiently wait around for Jorge but it was too cold outside. I decide to go inside where it’s nice and warm because my mom turned on the heater before she left for work. I wipe my feet on the rug and take off my scarf, jacket, and backpack. I hang them on the metal hooks by the door. I turned around and I saw this glowy and sparkly lady hovering by the unlit fireplace. She says, “Hello Natalie, how have you been? It has been a long time since I’ve seen you when I’ve been in this form.” I just stare at her, astonished.

“Who a-a-are yy-you?” I manage to utter. “And w-w-why are you gg-glowing?”

“Oh yeah, you were a baby the last time you saw me like this. I’m your fairy godmother. I was the one that separated you and your sister at birth and I’ve been watching you ever since, just in a different form so I would not scare you.” She says, “My name is Lucinda.”

“I have a ss-sister..?” I trail off.

“Yes, I thought you knew. Christina? That’s why she’s always so mean to you because you are twin sisters and sisters are supposed to be mean to each other, granted, she is a little more mean than the other sisters that I’ve seen..” She trails off.

“CHRISTINA CANNOT BE MY SISTER!! She bullies me, not because we are sisters, but just because she is mean and doesn’t like me!” I was angry now.

“Christina bullies you? I should have known by what she said to you at lunch.”

“How do you know what she said to me at lunch. Who are you?”

“Jorge, my human name is Jorge.”

“JORGE?!?!” I was so astonished I had no more words.

“Yes, Natalie. I was assigned to you and your sister because you and she are supposed to be rulers of the fairy world one day. But now that I have learned that she is a bully, she must be punished. I have to go.” She disappears into the air.

I stand there, staring at where she disappeared, too flabbergasted to even comprehend what just happened. But wait, is she going to do something to Christina for bullying me? I mean, it’s been going on for a really long time and I’m kind of tired of it, maybe she deserves it. But wouldn’t I be a terrible person for letting this happen? I sit there and ponder for a few minutes, deciding what to do.

After a few minutes, I decide that I’m going to help Christina, no matter how much it feels like I’m in a dream. I’m going to help her because she doesn’t deserve to die or get physically hurt over this.

I start to run to Christina’s house before anything happens to her, but the fairy godmother is already there… Oh, but of course, I trip over a huge stone outside of her house. Now my knee is all bloody and it’s stinging from hitting the concrete. The rock looks like it’s grinning at me, what has my life become?

I must not waste any more time, no matter how bad it hurts, I have to hurry. I bolt to Christina’s door and I start pounding on it for her to let me in, but no one answers. It doesn’t sound like anyone is even here. I slowly twist the doorknob and step inside. Suddenly, someone slams the door, then grabs me from behind and puts his or her hand over my mouth, telling me to be quiet. I turn to look at this person, it’s Christina. Why is she protecting me, I wondered?

“Natalie, the huge, sparkly, fairy lady told me everything, we’re sisters.”

The fairy godmother comes out of nowhere and blasts Christina and me away with her magic wand. I start to lose consciousness but before I do, the last thing I see is the fairy godmother standing over us, transforming back into Jorge. He returns with that sly grin on his face saying one last thing; “I pranked you guys pretty good, I would say.” Only for me to slowly slip away into the darkness.

I wake up, fully dressed in white. Where in the world am I? I don’t know what’s going on. The only surroundings around me, are white lights.

“My goodness, she’s awake!!” The familiar voice of my mother shrieks.

“Where am I?” I question groggily as I wipe my eyes.

“Sweetie, you’re in the hospital. Some people came to our house while you were with Christina and-”

I cut her off, “Christina? Where is she? Is she okay?” I ask.

“Yes, um, about that… She passed away last night in her sleep.” My mother says in a gentle tone.

Jorge walks into the room. “Hey Mrs. Fitz, can I talk to Natalie alone?” He asks as if nothing ever happened.

“Yes Jorge, go ahead.” My mother replies and walks out of the room.

“I’m taking you to the fairy world, it’s where I took Christina, you and her will be our rulers. You take the offer or I will kill you right here in this hospital.” He says as if it is something a normal person would say.

“I will go, just tell my mother that I love her and that I never meant for any of this to ever happen,” I say gloomily.

“Okay, will do.” He says as he walks out of the room. I blink and I’m suddenly in this huge, glorious, sparkly, luxurious room. It’s pink and purple, there are sparkles everywhere. There is a mirror beside me and when I look into it, I see that I am wearing a sparkly, short, pink dress and I have wings… I have a pair of sparkly, clear wings.

Christina comes into my room and comes over to hug me, “I’m sorry I never wanted any of this to happen.” She’s actually crying on my shoulder at this point.

“Christina, everything that happened between us is in the past,” I say as I pet her blonde hair, “none of this is your fault, we are destined for something much greater than being mean to each other, we are supposed to rule this fairy world. Yes, that is an extremely weird thing to say, but it is true. When we walk out of that door, we will embrace on a remarkable journey. Are you ready?” I say as she releases me from the hug.

“I think I’m ready for this magical, weird and mysterious journey, let’s go.” She smiles. I take her hand, look at her and give her a sly grin. We then walk out of the door and we start on our journey together.