Eighth Grade

Today’s writing prompt at Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie is Make a Wish.

 

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So, I was walking along the same old dirt road I walked every day to wait for the school bus, thinking about how much I hated school. It was stupid. I wasn’t good at it, nor was I interested in any of the subjects. Eight years of school ought to be enough. I could read, write, and do simple math. What more did a girl need? I was gonna marry Bobby Sanchez from 10th grade anyway, and he already had a job at Burger King. I was all set!

 

And that’s when I saw it from the corner of my eye: a glint of gold in the sunlight. I walked over to investigate and it was one of those magic lamp things like on I Dream of Jeannie. I picked it up and looked around. Not sure what I was looking for but that’s what people do when they find something cool. Next, I started rubbing it, hoping some smoke and a genie would come out.

 

Sure enough, after a few minutes that’s exactly what happened! After the smoke cleared, the genie said I could have three wishes.

Hmmm… I thought for a minute and blurted out wish number one: I wished I’d never have to go to school again, ever!

The genie made some kind of magic sign with his hands and said, “It is done. What else you want?”

“Ummm….. I know! A set a fake fingernails with lavender nail polish on them.”

See, my mom absolutely would not let me buy or wear fake fingernails, and I wanted them more than anything!

“Okay,” the genie shrugged. And BOOM! suddenly I had ten beautiful lavender nails!

Then the genie asked what I wanted for my final wish.

I was sort of hungry so I asked for a package of Twinkies. In a puff of smoke, the genie was gone and a package of Twinkies was in my hand.

Now what?

Twenty years later I have an 8th grade education, three kids and no husband. Bobby turned out to be a jerk although he still works at Burger King. I live in a dump and I’m on welfare. The fake fingernails fell off after two weeks.

Those Twinkies were delicious, though.

At least I made one right choice.