Wish On A Star

Cailee woke up the next morning feeling heavy, which was odd, since she hadn't eaten anything last night. She slowly grabbed her things and shoved them into her bag, and got ready for school. Cailee remembered hearing her dad storm out, probably buying more liquor. She opened her door slowly and peeked down the stairs. Her mom was nowhere to be seen, and her dad was out like a log. The house stank of vodka and brandy. Cailee tiptoed around her dad and made her way over to the fridge. Maybe there was something edible in there? She looked inside, but all she found was old rubbery macaroni. She closed the refrigerator with a sigh and turned around. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of something, something unusual. She looked at the counter and blinked a few times. Sitting on the counter were three neatly folded 20 dollar bills, and taped to them was a strip of paper. It said, in Cailee's handwriting, "Wish #1: I wish there was enough money to go grocery shopping. So that we could eat something good for once."

Cailee made an odd expression, something between a frown and a grimace. Did she drop one of her stars one day? Did her dad feel bad about last night's events, and, finding a star, granted a wish? That was improbable. Whatever money her dad had was usually spent on something stupid, like more Smirnoff. She looked around. If it wasn't either of her parents, it meant that someone had broken in again. "That is so creepy," Cailee thought. "We need a new lock."



"Cailee, you smell like a liquor store," her best friend Willow declared.

Cailee rolled her brown eyes. "Willow, when you practically live in a bar, smelling like liquor is natural."

"Even so. You smell gross." Willow flipped her dirty blonde hair,

Willow didn't quite up to her name- while a willow tree was tall, slender, and graceful, Willow was petite, curvy, and one of the clumsiest people that Cailee had ever met.

The two girls' friend Collin came over and threw his arms around the two of them. Standing a few feet back was Brandon, Collin's friend.

"Mornin'! What's going on?" he chirped.

"God, Collin, you're too happy in the mornings," Willow groaned, swatting Collin. "But nothing really."

"What's wrong with you, Cailee?" Collin inquired. As Cailee shook her head to say "Nothing", Collin added, "Your upset is obvious."

"How do you know this stuff?" Cailee asked. Collin shrugged and prodded her as if to say, "Go on". "Okay, my house got broken into yesterday. And they took my stars."

Willow and Collin turned and looked at Cailee.

"What!?" they both asked in unison.

"Relax. Nothing else was stolen, and I guess I'll have to start a new jar of stars," Cailee sighed. "But the weird thing is, I got 60 dollars with one of my stars taped onto it. That means that someone keeps breaking in." She stuck her tongue out. "But the good part is, I can go grocery shopping today!"

The bell rang for first period, and the three of them dashed into school. In English, they had gone over Shakespeare... again. In Math, they were starting Trig, which she would have to get Willow to explain later. In Science, they'd done a short lab on Color Chromatography. In History, they'd analyzed the Cold War. During Gym they had played volleyball, which was quite painful for Collin. In Writing, they wrote essays on their favorite subject and why. During Art, everyone made mugs. It had been another painful day, but Cailee pushed through. Finally, the school day was over.

"Bye Collin, bye Willow!" Cailee called out.

She walked a different way, she had to go shopping that day, didn't she? She walked to Jewel-Osco and was greeted by a blast of cold air. The linoleum floors were clean and the air smelled faintly of fresh vegetables and bread. Cailee knew she wouldn't be able to buy too much fresh food, so canned food was probably her priority.

She headed over to the canned foods section. There were cans and cans of beans, soup, chowder, fruits, and vegetables. "Blech," Cailee said as she saw canned artichokes. She placed cans of soup and chowder in her cart. She added some cans of peaches as an afterthought. She made her way around the store, and carefully checking the price of everything, added boxes of Jell-O, pudding, spaghetti, cereal, milk, a bag of coffee, some milk, frozen pizza, and just for some fresh food, picked up some fresh meat, apples, berries, avocados, tomatoes, and lettuce. Her total came out to be $58.89. She had $2.11 left over, which Cailee figured she should probably save.

Cailee walked back home, carrying the heavy bags. Once inside, she set down the groceries, massaging her tired arms. She started to heat up tomato soup, and made a salad while she was waiting. The plastic bags were still on the ground, but she made a mental note to put everything away after she was finished eating. Cailee made sure to leave enough for whichever parent was awake. As she put her used dishes and silverware away, the door opened, and a skinny, bedraggled looking woman came in.

"Hello... mother," Cailee said quietly.

Cailee's mom nodded as if to acknowledge her existence, and then noticed the grocery bags on the floor.

"When did you get the money to go shopping?" she spat. "Did you steal this money? You stole this, didn't you? You little bitch!" She lifted up her hand to slap Cailee.

Cailee blocked her hand, and her mom stared at her in disbelief.

"What do you thi-" she started, but Cailee cut her off.

"Dinner's in the fridge if you want any," Cailee said calmly, looking her mother straight in the eye.

Cailee let go of her hand and took her coat. She put on her shoes and walked out of the house, starting towards Willow's house, or Collin's house, or maybe even Brandon's house. But she couldn't take a step. She looked in the window and saw her mother slowly take out the salad and the soup. Cailee turned around, and walked down the street.