by Kimberly Rogers

Lizzy ran down the stairs to breakfast. She was careful to skip the fifth stair. She didn’t need the creaking ruining her morning. The smell of bacon greeted her nose. She jumped the last stair and bolted into the kitchen. Her twin brother, James, was already there, gobbling up her bacon.

“Hey,” she yelled at him. “Why did you take it?” He smiled at her and ate the very last piece. She glared at him and sat down to eat her eggs. He jumped up from the table, nearly knocking over Aunt Lucy, who was just about to sit down. He dodged her and ran to the refrigerator, grabbing the last jello.

“Now it’s mine.” he grinned. Then, before Liz could stop him, he devoured it. Just at that moment, Mom, Dad, and Uncle Henry,  who was carrying Cousin Betsy, came crashing down the stairs.

“Come on,”  Mom yelled.  “We’re going to be late”.  James dropped the jello, Lizzy’s fork went clattering to her plate and Aunt Lucy jumped up from the table. The family ran outside and into the mini van.  Dad started the car. It was a quiet car ride. In less then ten minutes they were at the school. Lizzy and James hopped out .

“See you later,” she said to Mom. Then she grinned. Today, she was going to dance a dance with her good friends Rebecca, Isabelle and Lily. For the whole school.  She couldn’t wait.  She ran in to Math class. The teacher had just started class.

”Ready, set, go,”  Oh no.  She had forgotten.  She had a math test! Liz quickly slipped into her seat. She started the test. 5×8=… She couldn’t wait for the dance this afternoon.

“Diiiiiiiiiiing” the test was over. She snapped back to focus. She hadn’t even done one problem. She jumped out of her seat and ran to science class. The whole morning she couldn’t keep her mind off of the dance. She imagined that she was going to be pretty and everybody was going to love the dance and she was going to become very popular. Lizzy and her friends were all going to put on a modern dance for the whole school. She and her friends went to a dance class twice a week after school. They came up with a routine at the class and Lizzy and her friends decided that they should put it on for the school. They asked for special permission from the Principal and she’d said that they could do it. Finally it was lunch. She grabbed her backpack and ran to she cafeteria.

”Over here,” Beccy called.  Lizzy jogged over to join her friends. She swung her legs over bench and put her bag next to her. She picked up her sandwich, but then she put it back down. She looked her friends up down. She sensed her friends weren’t telling her something.  she looked around at them.

“Guys, whats going on?” Izzy looked at Beccy and Lily squirmed in her seat.

“Well,“said Izzy. ”Lily sprained her finger.”

“What! How? Not on the day of the dance!” She was almost shouting. Lizzy felt a gentle tap on her shoulder. She whirled around. It was the school nurse.

“Elisabeth, you need to be calm. I can’t have you screaming like this.” Lizzy started screaming again. The nurse calmly put her hands over ears and walked away.

“Look,” Lily said. She held up her hand. On her finger was a splint.

The dance was about to begin. Lizzy was the first on stage. She did a little bit of dancing, then suddenly she fell. She looked down. There was a trapdoor. Weird, she thought. She jumped back up, but everyone had seen. Soon, the whole audience was roaring with laughter. She suddenly felt humiliated. Lizzy wondered if her friends would care. She  wondered if they thought she was a good dancer. Lizzy saw Izzy and Beccy dance onto stage.  She danced over to them. They danced in a line until the dance was over, then they walked off stage. Lizzy peeked out into the audience. Her mom was out there somewhere. Lizzy remembered Mom was wearing a white blouse, a black skirt, a yellow sweater and high heels. She spotted Mom in the crowd.

“Lizzy!” said Beccy “Look at your knee.” Lizzy looked at her knee and gasped. It was gushing blood. No wonder everyone had laughed so hard. She quickly ran to the nurses office. The nurse gave her a band aid and Lizzy left. She dashed out the school doors and down the street.  Right, left, right. She ran through her house and out the back door. She kept running past Lily’s house all the way into the forest. Then she slowed down. she walked to her favorite maple tree and climbed up. She sat on her favorite branch and gazed up at the sky, thinking about the trapdoor and her mistake.

A few hours later she heard her name being called. She jumped down and jogged to her house. Her long hair blew in the breeze. She could see the sun setting behind the small town. It was so pretty, the whole town was reflected in gold, and all the trees were turning red, brown, orange and yellow. She stepped through the door and her family was all over her. She picked up Betsy and twirled her in the air. Betsy giggled “Lizzy.” Everyone smiled.

That night when she and James were in bed she asked, “James, are you awake?”

“Yeah.”

“I have to tell you about something.”

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