Amy Griffin and the Magical World

Chapter 2: The Worst Day of My Life

Three Months Ago

After studying diligently for Thursday’s science test, Amy was exhausted. She plopped onto her bed and fell fast asleep. While she was sleeping, her siblings had been amusing themselves by playing dress up and staying up way past their bedtime. Their mom was working graveyard shift. She had two jobs to support the family.

The naughty siblings cut up their mom’s best silk dress to create scarves and got nail polish on her imitation Louis Vuitton purse. Joey, Alice, and Dylan smeared makeup on their faces and all over the carpet and tried on their mom’s jewelry. Then the devious kids took all the evidence and laid it around their sleeping sister. Poor Amy was fast asleep and completely unaware.

The three minions stealthily placed the scissors in one of Amy’s hands and the nail polish in the other. They put sunglasses on her then took her phone and snapped dozens of photos of her with all the evidence and texted it to their mom.

Amy had been framed. Her mom responded with a text message saying, “You are so grounded! Just wait till I get home!!!” and a corresponding emoji 😡.

The next morning, Amy woke up to the sound of someone breathing on her face. She opened her eyes and saw her mom, her mom’s face nearly bursting with anger. “AMMMMYY!!!”

Amy said, “Hey Mom, what’s going on?” Her mom exploded, “Young lady!!! What do you mean what’s going on!?!” Amy looked around. The sunglasses had tumbled off her face and she saw the cut up shreds of her mom’s dress all over the floor. She stared down at the nail polish in her hand and the scissors in the other. “What in the world?” She questioned confusedly.

Amy had been framed. Framed and found guilty. “But I didn’t do it! Those little brats did!” Amy protested.

“Objection overruled!” Her mother had definitely watched too many court trials on TV.

Her mother went to the kids’ room to questioned the other suspects but the three children were found still sound asleep.

When woken up, they smiled sweetly and said, “Good morning Mommy!” with such innocence that their mother said, “Such angels!” The three “angels” grinned at each other. They had an alibi. When asked, “What were your whereabouts Thursday night?” They replied, “You mean last night, Mommy? We brushed our teeth and put on our pajamas and went to bed at exactly 8 o’clock like you told us to. And we slept all through the night.”

The jury (Amy’s mom) reached a verdict and found Amy guilty and the judge (again her mom) sentenced Amy to one week of being grounded and also confiscated her phone.

At school, things were even worse. The school was preparing for the Spring musical and needed some volunteers to paint props. Amy had decided to sign up.

Lauren, the most popular 7th grade girl, had asked Amy, “Oh, hi! Are you new to the school?”

Shocked, Amy replied, “No, “I’ve been going to the same school as you since 1st grade. We have Math, History, Music, and Science together. Don’t you remember me?”

Lauren coolly responded, “Nope. Never seen you before. Wait, actually I do recall a fat girl who always sits in the corner. Is that you?” Everyone started laughing. Amy was so embarrassed. Sometimes people treated her like she was invisible.

And then on Friday, The Event happened. She would remember it for the rest of her life. After school, she was at her locker getting her backpack and lunch box when out of the corner of her eye she saw Josh.

Josh was only The cutest, most popular boy in school. All the girls went goo-goo over him. Up until now, he had never even given her eye contact. Now, Amy stared as Josh walked — actually strutted down the hall, looking straight at her. When their eyes met, he smiled at her. Amy could feel her heart beating so fast and it felt like it would burst out of her chest. Her heart was palpitating so loudly that he must have heard it. She blushed and looked away, pretending to not have seen him.

“Is this a dream?” She thought to herself while staring at her lunchbox, “How is this even possible? Josh just smiled at me?” She glanced behind to see if there was anyone else behind her. Maybe he didn’t look at her, but at some other girl. But there was no one behind her. “Great galloping grandmothers!” she thought to herself. That was her catchphrase.

It seemed like everything was set in slow motion as Josh walked down the hall towards her. What if he didn’t come up to her? What if he walked right past her? Then, suddenly, he was in front of her. Her mind was racing in a frenzy. She didn’t know what to do or say. “I’ve been waiting for this moment all my life! What do I say? What should I do?” She paused with a caesura to gulp some air down — she had forgotten to breathe. “Play it cool, Amy,” she thought, trying to compose herself, “Act calm, natural.” She plastered on a smile and tried to regain her composure.

Josh opened his mouth. He actually opened his mouth and spoke to her! “Hey, Amy!”

“He knows my name! He actually knows my name! Oh my gosh!” Amy dialogued to herself.

“I’m having a pool party at my place tomorrow at 4pm.”

“Why is he telling me this? Wait, he’s actually talking to me!”

“Do you want to come?”

Amy was so surprised. Inside she was screaming and jumping up and down. On the outside, she was staring at Josh calmly. Her small, squinty eyes were widened and staring into Josh’s dreamy blue eyes.

Josh had some of his own thoughts, too. “Who in the world is this girl? She’s a complete and total loser!”

Amy was thinking, “Josh, the most popular boy in school, inviting me to his popular kids’ pool party?” “Wow,” she thought. “Wait! Is this just all a dream?” Would she wake up and find his handsome face gone? “Noooo!! That can’t happen!”

Josh’s voice brought her out of her virtual world. “Amy? Do you want to come or not?”

Oops. Half of her was panicking. “What should I say?” The other half responded, “Say yes! Say yes, you dummy!” Amy stuttered, “Yes. Yes, that sounds awesome!”

“Cool! See you at 4pm then.” Josh walked away, leaving Amy dumbstruck and speechless.

The next day Amy was standing in front of the mirror with a tight bikini on. She was stretching out a flab of fat on the side of her stomach and watching it jiggle like jello. She was feeling super stressed. Why did she have to be so fat? Maybe she shouldn’t have eaten that whole box of donuts for snack and washed it down with a liter of soda. Now she was starting to look like a donut.

Promptly at 4 o’clock, Amy arrived in her bikini. She was panting and gasping for air after biking for two whole blocks.

The bikini was way too tight, riding up her butt. Her skin was bulging out everywhere, flabs of fat hung over her stomach. The fat on her arms wobbled as she walked.

As she approached the backyard, she heard loud music blasting. Was she late? She was even more surprised to see everybody already partying… in regular clothes! What happened to the pool party? And where’s the pool? Amy was the only one with a bikini.

The party was hopping. There must have been at least two hundred middle schoolers. Amy recognized the popular cliques — the cheerleaders and the jocks. Lauren was flirting with Josh in the corner.

Once the DJ got a good look at Amy, the music came to a screeching halt. Dead silence. Then everyone turned around to stare at Amy with her too-tight bikini. What seemed liked hundreds of eyes stared at her in utter shock, many with their jaws dropped. Those few seconds felt like eternity. Amy felt herself shrinking smaller and smaller in their judgement.

Then the silence was broken by a roar of laughter. The crowd pointed their fingers at her bulging body and laughed and laughed.

Then the photo snapping and texting began. Sounds of clicks could be heard as almost everyone took out their phones to take photos of Amy in her shame. Within seconds, the whole school received embarrassing photos of Amy. Some texts had even reached other middle schools in the area. Amy was famous but for all the wrong reasons. Her life just went from bad to worse.

The worse part was seeing Josh laughing, giving high-fives and fist bumps to his friends, including Lauren.

She was so humiliated, so ashamed and embarrassed beyond words. Amy felt crushed. Her life was over. She ran out crying. The laughter and mean jokes continued in the background.

In her haste, Amy left her bike and ran through the street. She lost track of time. When she finally regained her mental state, she had strayed past the town border and found herself in a meadow. There, fatigued and emotionally devastated, she collapsed. When she regained consciousness, she again began weeping uncontrollably.

When she gained her composure and looked at her phone, it was past midnight. She had been out all night. Her swollen eyes were nearly shut from hours of crying.

Weak, hungry and destroyed, she staggered home. When she arrived, there was no one waiting for her. Her mom was at work and her siblings were already asleep. She felt so alone. No one to talk to and confide her feelings. She felt abandoned by the world.

She cried herself to sleep.

It seemed like only half an hour when her morning alarm went off. After that life-altering incident, she was not about to go to school to face her peers. She wanted to run away as far as she could but feeling the responsibility as the oldest, she mustered up her strength to send her siblings off to school.

Amy came downstairs to find that her mom had already left for her day shift.

Her siblings, Thing 1,2, and 3 (that’s what she called them anyways), were already gathered in the kitchen.

Dylan, Alice, and Joey were greedily gobbling down jelly filled donuts and squabbling over the last few drops of milk. Dylan was playing fetch with Skipper, their dog, using a crumpled up paper that used to be his homework. Alice was frantically pouring out all the Lucky Charms cereal in search of a pink clover charm for show and tell. Meanwhile, in the middle of the kitchen, Joey was sprawled supine on the tile floor, munching on the cereal that Alice was dropping right into his mouth.

Just as Amy walked down the stairs, Petey the Parrot perched on Skipper’s head and squawked, “Petey want a cracker!”. Skipper was so startled he began barking furiously and chasing Petey. This pursuit tipped over the chair which Alice was tiptoeing on the edge of. She tumbled forward and fell in a heap onto unsuspecting Joey. And Dylan contributed generously to the scene by screaming at the top of his lungs, just because he could.

Amy scolded them, struggling to yell over the cacophony, “Pack up your books and finish eating. Now! Quick! Before you miss the bus! And you’ll have to clean up this mess later before Mom gets home!” They grumbled, but stuffed the remains of their donuts into their greedy, jelly-smeared faces and reluctantly packed up their homework (and in Dylan’s case, his crumpled up ball of now slobbery paper).

She herded her siblings into the bus and waved goodbye, telling them some excuse about walking to school with a friend. Phew! All of this was too much for her. She needed time to be alone.

Once the bus was out of sight, she ducked into the woods. No one would even know she was missing.

She dreaded the thought of going to school. By now, all the kids would have seen her bikini-clad photos. Maybe even posters on lockers. Amy was not going to set her foot into that school.

She wandered deeper into the woods.

Forgetting about her troubles for a few minutes, she found herself humming and enjoying the delightful breeze.

Pretty soon she lost all signs of the hiking trail. She looked behind her and to the side but couldn’t make head or tail on a path home. She was lost. Panicky and distraught, Amy searched in vain for a way out but she unknowing went deeper into the woods. She was completely lost in the forest.

Soon she realized that it was hopeless. Plopping herself down on a ferny log, she dropped her lucky pencil. It was a glittery pink pencil with feathers and sparkles and plenty of nervous bite marks.

As she reached down to grab it with her pudgy fingers, a mischievous squirrel scurried out from behind a tree and snatched it away. Chittering playfully, pencil between teeth, the squirrel skittered deeper into the forest. Finally it rounded a majestic Redwood tree, scampering behind. Fuming, Amy followed, stomping emphatically. The squirrel sat calmly at the foot of the Redwood tree.

The gorgeous cherry-colored trunk of the tree was hollowed out like a little cave. Amy forgot her exasperation at the rather cute squirrel when her gaze fell upon the most beautiful purple flower. As her hand reached out to grab the flower, she felt her whole body being suddenly pulled down into the ground. She let out a shriek.

“Aaaaah! Someone help me!”

Tune in for the next chapter!

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• Mackenzie

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