Finleigh Fights Back

Finleigh Bridges loved school. Until  one day, she didn't. It all started out on the playground when Stuart Duncan, a boy she had never really liked anyway, started calling her "Fatty Finleigh". Now, Finleigh was not by an means the skinnest girl in the world. However, she was not by any means fat either. Perhaps she was just a tiny bit chubby. Nevertheless, Stuart gave her the nickname and it stuck.

The first time it  happened Finleigh had been playing on the slide with a group of other kids. She had just reached the top and was getting ready to slide down. She was happy and laughing and smiling and having a good time as she usual was. Over all, Finleigh was a very happy kid.

Stuart walked by and called out "There goes Fatty Finleigh!" The other kids laughed.

Suddenly Finleigh stopped smiling and laughing. She didn't feel happy at all. She felt horrible. She felt like she wanted to crawl into a hole and die. She slid down the slide quickly and then went off and sat by herself in a corner for the rest of recess.

She hoped it was just a one time thing. She hoped that Stuart would forget about it and that by the next day it would all be over. However, he didn't and it wasn't. The nickname stuck and other kids started calling her that too. All the joy and fun went out of school, and it became something to dread.

She started playing sick and doing everything she could to get out of going to school. Her parents were concerned, but Finleigh wouldn't tell them what was wrong.

"What's the matter?" teased her older brother, Brian. "Are you ashamed because you are not as smart as me?"

A single tear fell down Finleigh's cheek and then another and another until she was full out crying. Brian felt really bad. He really loved his little sister and didn't mean to upset her. "I'm sorry." he said sincerely.

Finleigh shook her head. "It's not that." she said through her tears. Before, she knew it the whole story had come pouring out.

Brian was outraged. He wanted to go right to Stuart's house and beat him up. "Don't do that." Finleigh begged. "That would only make things worse."

"Then you've got to fight back yourself." suggested Brian. He offered to show Finleigh how to throw a punch, but she declined. She didn't think she could really beat anybody up, and she didn't want to. Besides, Stuart was bigger and stronger than her. She didn't think she could beat him up if she wanted too. She thought about what Brian said though. Maybe, there was a way she could fight back without resorting to violence.

The next day in school, she got her chance. The teacher, Miss McCarty, was passing back the math tests they had taken the day before. Finleigh glanced up and saw a big giant red F scrawled at the top of Stuart's paper. She smiled inwardly. She knew she had what she needed to fight back.

That day on the playground before Stuart had a chance to call out Fatty Finleigh, she called out "Stupid Stuart!" The other kids started laughing and calling him that too.

Then, something surprising happened. Big tough Stuart started to cry. Then, he ran off and hid under a tree at the far edge of the playground.

Despite, the fact that Stuart had started it and he had put her through months of torture, Finleigh felt bad. She knew what it felt like to be on the receiving end of the teasing, and it was not a good feeling. She went off after Stuart.

"Go away." he said instantly turning away from her when he saw her approach. He was so upset he didn't even bother calling her "Fatty Finleigh."

Finleigh didn't go away. Instead, she sat down next to Stuart. "I'm sorry." she said, and she meant it.  "I  know it doesn't feel good to be teased."

"No, it doesn't." replied Stuart.

"I'll make you a deal. I won't call you Stupid Stuart anymore if you don't call me Fatty Finleigh."

"Okay." agreed Stuart quickly anything was better than this torture.

They went back to the other kids. "I'm sorry." announced Finleigh. "What I meant to say was "Super Stuart."

"Thank you, Friendly Finleigh." replied Stuart.

Well, of course, those nicknames weren't as fun to the other kids but they got used to them and besides, they all went along because nobody wanted to be the next one to be teased.

Go Ask Mommy

Gaby Nicoletti lay sprawled out on the couch watching her favorite TV show. Her little sister, Bria sat on the floor beside her. "I'm bored." whined Bria.

"Shh!" said Gaby putting her finger to her lips but not taking her eyes off the TV.

Bria wandered over to the sliding glass door and looked out at the snow piled up on the patio. Bria loved playing in the snow. "Can I make a snow puppy?" she asked eagerly.

"Go ask mommy." replied Gaby still not taking her eyes off the TV. Bria wandered off in up the stairs in search of their mother.

A few minutes later, she returned. She pulled on her heavy white snow boots. Then, slipped into her  fluffy pink fur jacket. She tugged opened the sliding glass door and wandered outside.

After a few minutes, she returned shivering. "It's too cold out there." she explained to her disinterested sister. "I want to make a snow dog in the house."

"Go ask mommy." replied Gaby who was not even listening.

Again Bria disappeared up the stairs. She returned shortly. She opened the door once again and scooped up a bunch of snow and went off down the hall into the playroom.

"Can I paint my snow dog?" called out Bria after another few minutes.

"What?" asked Gaby who had no idea what her sister was talking about. All she knew was that it was incredibly rude that Bria kept bothering her while she was trying to watch her show. Whatever it was Bria wanted Gaby didn't want to be bothered with it anyway. "Go ask mommy!" Gaby yelled back finally.

Bria came out of the playroom and once again went up the stairs. Soon, she returned and disappeared back into the playroom. Meanwhile, Gaby continued to watch TV.

Suddenly there was a loud crash from the playroom. Gabi jumped up and rushed to see what had happened.  Bria was sitting in the middle of the floor all covered with paint and surrounded by ice and snow.

"Bria!" exclaimed Gaby. "Did mommy really say you can do all of this?"

Bria looked down at the floor and then looked up at her sister with wide innocent eyes. "Well, she didn't say no." she replied finally.

"What do you mean?" demanded Gaby. "What did she say?"

"She didn't say anything. She's sleeping. So I took that as a yes." admitted Bria.

Gaby just shook her head. She supposed it was partly her fault for not paying more attention to what her littel sister was actually doing. "Come on, Bria." she said. "Let's get this mess cleaned up before Mom wakes up."

Picky Patti

Patti Larsen was picky. Every morning, she had a plain bagel for breakfast. It had to be plain and it could never be toasted. For lunch, she had peanut butter and jelly. The peanut butter had to be smooth and the jelly had to be grape. For dinner, she ate plain pasta with a tiny little bit of marinara sauce on the side. All, she would drink was orange juice without the tiniest little bit of pulp in it, chocolate milk or water.

She was not only pick about food either. She was picky about everything. She only wore pants never skirts or dresses. Her favorite color was purple. She wore lots and lots of purple but never any pink. She hated pink. She always wore either her favorite brown shoes with buckles or white Keds sneakers. She always wore her long hair down never up.

Mommy and Daddy and her older sister, Pam were always trying to get Patti to change. They were always trying to get her to try new things. "Try it. You might like it." they told her. Patti didn't think so. She wasn't interested in changing, and she wasn't interested in trying anything new.

Life went along and Patti was happy until one day Patti found out her favorite aunt, Aunt Betty was getting married.At first, Patti was thrilled that Aunt Betty was getting married. She had never been to a wedding before, and she was looking forward to it. When Aunt Betty told her, "I want you and Pam to be flower girls at my wedding." Patti was even more excited. Aunt Betty even invited them to come help pick out outfits to wear to her wedding. Patti eagerly looked forwarded to it and was so excited when the day they were going shopping finally came. Mommy, Pam, Patti and Aunt Betty all set out for the stores.

After they had been to several stores Aunt Betty was getting discouraged. Patti had seen lots of things she liked but Aunt Betty didn't like any of her suggestions. They decided to go to one final store before heading home. As soon as they walked in the store, there it was - just the outfit Aunt Betty was looking for. "It's beautiful!" Pam gushed excitedly. Mommy nodded in agreement. Patti, however, was horrified. It was this pink sparkly dress. She would never wear anything like that.

Nobody noticed how upset Patti was. Aunt Betty quickly picked out one of the dress in Pam's size and one in Patti's. Pam excitedly hurried into the dressing room eager to try it on. Patti stood still and didn't move. She wouldn't even take the dress out of Aunt Betty's hands.

"What's the matter, Patti?" asked Mommy.

"I don't want to wear that." protested Patti.

"Oh that's okay." replied Aunt Betty quickly. Patti instantly felt better. She was so glad that Aunt Betty understood. However, Aunt Betty didn't. "It's okay sweetie." she said gently to Patti. "You don't have to be in my wedding if you don't want to. I understand."

Patti instantly felt worse. She did want to be in Aunt Betty's wedding. She just didn't want to wear that horrible pink dress. She started to cry.

Aunt Betty found a chair by the dressing room and sat down. She took Patti on her lap. "I am only going to get married once, and I want it to be special. I want it to be the way I want. Do you understand?" she explained to Patti. Patti nodded through her tears. "If you want to be in my wedding. You are going to have to wear a pink dress and nice shoes and put your hair up because that is what I want. " continued Aunt Betty.

Patti thought about it for a while but didn't say anything. She really really wanted to be in Aunt Betty's wedding, but the dress and the shoes and the hair. It was all too much.

"Why don't you just try it?" suggested Mommy pointing to the dress.

Finally, Patti agreed. She went into the dressing room and tried on the dress. Even she had to admit it looked beautiful on her. She couldn't wait to wear it. Maybe, change wasn't entirely a bad thing.

After that Patti became a little less picky. She didn't just wear pants anymore sometimes she wore dresses. She didn't just wear her hair down anymore sometimes she wore it up.

She became a little less picky about food too. Sometimes, she drank strawberry milk and sometimes she ate grape jam instead of jelly. However, she was still picky, and she still wouldn't try everything but at least sometimes she tried things.

A Card for Candace

Mia Zambrano was shopping with her mother. When she saw the greeting card aisle, she suddenly remembered that her older sister, Candace's birthday was coming up. "Can I get a card for Candace?" she asked eagerly.  Her mother looked up for a moment from the grocery list she was looking over and nodded, and then immediately went back to her list. Mia looked up at the row of cards and found the ones for sisters. "This looks like a good one." she said reaching for one. She opened it up and read it, then shook her head disappointedly and put it back. "Too silly." she said. She took another one. That one was too sappy. The next one didn't make sense. Mia finished all the sister cards and still hadn't found a card she liked. She started looking at the general birthday cards.

"Mia," her mother said impatiently. "Just pick a card and let's get going. We have a lot of shopping to do."

"But, I can't find one." complained Mia. "They are all too sappy or silly or stupid or something."

"Well, maybe you'll find one at Target." said Mommy. "We are going there after."

Mia immediately brightened. Target had a lot more cards then the supermarket. Surely, she would find a card for Candace there.

When they got to Target, Mia dragged Mommy immediately over to the card section. She eagerly began going through the racks of cards. Still, she could not find a card for Candace. She looked and looked. Then, she walked back and forth and she looked some more.

"Mia," said Mommy tiredly. "Let's get going. I am going to have to go home and make dinner soon."

"But, Mommy." protested Mia. "I don't have a card yet."

"We've been over here for 15 minutes. If you haven't found a card you like yet, one is not going to appear out of thin air."

Mia sighed disappointedly and followed her mother away from the card section.

"You still have time." Mommy pointed out. "Candace's birthday isn't for two weeks."

Mia instantly cheered up. Surely, two weeks was plenty of time to find a card for her sister.

The two weeks went by quickly. Every time they went to a store, Mia searched and searched and still couldn''t find a card that she liked.

"Maybe, your being too picky." suggested Mommy one afternoon at CVS.

Mia angrily glared at her mother. "I don't think so." she said. She wanted just the right card and she was not willing to settle for anything less.

Finally, it was the day before, Candace's birthday. Mia still didn't have a card. Mommy didn't know where else to take her. "I have taken you everywhere I can think of that you can possibly get a card." she said. "I guess you are just going to have to go without one."

Mia wasn't willing to admit defeat, however. She sat and thought for a while and came up with a plan. She went into her room and took out a piece a paper and all her crayons and markers. If she couldn't find the card she wanted to give her sister, she was just going to have to make it herself. Across the front of the card, she wrote "Happy Birthday" and she drew a picture of two sisters.  Inside, she wrote. "Dear Candace, I'm so happy to have you for a sister. Happy Birthday. I love you!" Then, she signed her name and put  it in an envelope and sealed it up.

The next morning when Candace came down to breakfast, Mommy and Mia were already waiting. Mommy was cooking French Toast, Candace's favorite breakfast.  The air smelled delicious, cinnamony with a dash of vanilla.  "My you look pretty today." Mommy said to Candace. "Is it some special occasion?" she teased.

"You know it's Candace's birthday, Mommy." scolded Mia too tired to play along. She ran and got her card and handed it to Candace.

Candace smiled at her, took the card and opened it. For a minute, her expression didn't change. Mia got worried. What if she didn't like it? Then, Candace broke out into a huge grin. "I love it. " she said. "It is the nicest card I ever got. Thank you ."

"You're welcome." replied Mia still beaming. She was sure she had made the right decision and given her sister the perfect birthday card.

Ramira and the Rainy Day

The sky was a dark and dingy gray. Huge drops of rain poured down nonstop from the sky. Ramira Soto miserably starred out the window. "Mommy, I'm bored!" she complained. She couldn't believe it was raining. She wanted to go out and play. Mommy had promised to take her to the park.

"Don't worry." Mommy assured her cheerfully. "We'll go another day."

That didn't make Ramira feel one tiny little bit better. She didn't want to go another day. She wanted to go today. She frowned miserably at her mother. Now what was she going to do?

Mommy laughed. "Oh, don't be so pouty." she said reaching out and lifting Ramira's chin. "Come on, you can help me with breakfast."

Ramira frowned again. That didn't sound fun at all. Mommy was probably only going to let her set the table like always and that was boring. However, Ramira couldn't be more wrong. Mommy let her break the eggs and add the cheese and mix them. She let Ramira put bread in the toaster to make toast and even carefully butter it. Ramira pretended she was a cook in a restaurant. 1It was a lot of fun.

"Thanks for letting me help you, Mommy." said Ramira gratefully after they had eaten and finished cleaning up.

"No, problem, sweetie." replied Mommy.

Ramira glanced out the window hoping the rain had stopped by now. Unfortunately, it hadn't. Ramira sighed deeply. She didn't know what she was going to do now. 

"Why don't you come and help me?" suggested Mommy. Ramira frowned and didn't move. Mommy stuff was boring. "Come and help me." Mommy said again this time making it clear that it wasn't really a suggestion. Ramira reluctantly trudged after her mother.

The first job was the laundry. That turned out to be surprisingly fun. The bedrooms where the hampers were was upstairs. The laundry room was downstairs. Mommy let Ramira throw the laundry down the stairs instead of carrying it all down. Ramira pretended she was throwing garbage down a chute.

Afterwards, they went downstairs and Mommy let Ramira help sort the laundry by tossing it into separate piles. Ramira pretended she was a famous actress dividing up clothes to giveaway to poor people. When they were done sorting, Mommy even let her jump in the piles for a little bit with her shoes off. Ramira pretended she was jumping in big piles of leaves.

After they sorted the laundry, Ramira helped Mommy make the beds and straighten the bedrooms. She pretended she was a maid in a fancy hotel working to support her five children. That made it more fun.

By the time they finished that it was lunch time. Mommy let Ramira open a can of tunfish and drain and pour it into bowl. Then, Mommy let her add the mayonnaise and mix it. Mommy even let her scoop the tuna onto the bread to make sandwiches. Ramira pretended that Mommy was the little girl, and she was the Mommy. "Now, eat all of your lunch sweetie or you'll be hungry." she said to her mother as they sat down to eat. Mommy smiled at Ramira.

After lunch, Ramira helped Mommy some more. She kept imagining and pretending different things, and it was all a lot of fun. The chores went quickly with Ramira's help so late in the day they even had some extra time to play Scrabble Jr. and Monopoly Jr. before it was time to make dinner.

For dinner, Ramira helped Mommy make spaghetti sauce. She opened the can of sauce and added spices and stirred. She help Mommy fill the pasta pot with water and pour in the spaghetti when it was time and stir that too.

At dinner time, Daddy had three platefuls. "Who made this delicious dinner?" he asked.

"Me and Mommy did." replied Ramira proudly.

That night when Mommy was putting Ramira to bed, she asked. "Did you have fun helping Mommy today?" Ramira nodded happily. "It turned out to be not so bad for a rainy day, didn't it?" said  Mommy.

Ramira smiled and reached up and hugged Mommy tightly. "I hope it rains again tomorrow!" she said.

Tabitha Gets A Tummy Ache

Tabitha Shilling loved candy. She loved lollipops and gumdrops and taffy and all sorts of candy. If it was sticky and gooey and sugary, she loved it. Her favorite by far was anything chocolate. She just couldn't stay away from it. If she saw chocolate, she had to have it. When Mommy and Daddy noticed that Tabitha was getting a little bit plump, they banned candy from the house.

Tabitha's was watching  cartoons on TV. There were always so many food commercials especially candy ones. It made Tabitha's mouth water hungrily. She was trying to be good and eat better. She really was, but she so missed chocolate. When yet another candy commercial came on, this one for Snickers, one of Tabitha's particular favorite candies, she turned off the TV in disgust.

She went looking for her older sister, Teresa. Tabitha adored her big sister. She was everything that Tabitha wanted to be. She was tall, skinny, pretty, smart and popular. Teresa wasn't in her room but her blue and gold pom poms were laid out her bed. Teresa was on the high school cheerleading team. Tabitha ran the pom poms ribbons through her fingers. She closed her eyes and imagined what it would be like to be a cheerleader like Teresa. She slipped off the bed and wandered over to Teresa's closet to glimpse at her sister's cheerleader uniform so she could imagine it even better.

As soon as she opened the closet, she got distracted by a box on the floor and forgot all about cheerleading. It was a big box full of candy. There were M & Ms and Twizzlers and Hershey Bars and best of all Snickers. Tabitha's eyes opened wide with delight and she licked her lips hungrily. She opened the box. It was heavy and  full. She took a Snickers bar out of the box and held it in her hand with the wrapper still on. She just wanted to feel it in her hand that's all. She wasn't going to eat it. Then, she just wanted to smell it so she opened the wrapper a little bit. Then, she just had to see it so she opened the wrapper the whole way. She was sure just one tiny little bite wouldn't hurt so she took a tiny taste. That tiny bite was just a tease it wasn't nearly enough for her to taste any of that nutty chocolatey caramely goodness so she took a slight bigger bite. She decided to take another bite and then another and another and before she knew it she had eaten the whole bar. Afterwards, she was overcome by guilt, and she didn't want Teresa to know what she had done. She quickly closed the closet and left the room taking the candy wrapper with her.

In her own room, she threw the candy wrapper away and pushed it all the way down to the bottom of her very full garbage can. She sat down on her bed and picked up a book. She couldn't concentrate on it though. She couldn't stop thinking of the rest of those candy bars lying all chocolately and delicious at the bottom of Teresa's closet. She decided to play with her toys instead, but she couldn't keep her mind on that either. She snuck back into her sister's room, went into the closet and got another candy bar out. This time, she ate the whole bar quickly. "There." she thought happily as she finished the last bite. She was sure she had satisfied her chocolate craving and went back into her own room.

Still, she couldn't stop thinking about those chocolate bars, she went back into Teresa's room three more times and ate three more candy bars. After the first, her stomach started to feel full but not full enough to keep her from eating another bar. After the second, her stomach started to feel a little heavy. After the third, her stomach felt like a rock. It felt so heavy she could barely move. She practically crawled back into her own room and pulled herself  up on to her bed. Her stomach  started to feel even worse. She lay on her bed in pain biting her lip to keep from crying.

Just about that time, Tabitha heard a car pull up in front of the house. She glanced out the window. It was Teresa back from studying at a friend's house. "Oh no." thought Tabitha miserably. She wanted to run and hide but she was too full and in too much pain to drag herself out of her bed.

Tabitha heard the sound of Teresa's feet running up the stairs. Teresa poked her head into her sister's room. "Hey!" she said. "After dinner I'll braid your hair. I just learned how to do a French braid." Unlike most big sister's Teresa was pretty fond of her little sister. Tabitha was really lucky. Only, she didn't feel very lucky right now though. She felt overstuffed and in pain. She nodded weakly.

"Are you okay?" asked Teresa full of concern. She sat beside Tabitha on the bed.

"I'm fine." insisted Tabitha. She pushed herself up even though that made her stomach hurt even more. "I'm just a little tired." she said pretending to yawn. "So I was lying down."

"Are you sure?" asked Teresa. Tabitha nodded. "Well okay then. I'm going to go get ready for dinner. You let me know if you need anything, okay?" The thought of eating dinner or eating anything at all made Tabitha's stomach churn and hurt even more. She hoped she didn't throw up.

Teresa left the room and went into her own room. A few seconds later, Tabitha heard the sound of Teresa's closet door sliding open. She closed her eyes worriedly thinking about the candy bars now missing from the box at the bottom of the closet.

About a minute later came the sound of Teresa yelling. "Tabitha!" Just because she loved her little sister didn't mean they got along all the time or they didn't fight. "Tabitha!"yelled Teresa again. "Where are the rest of my candy bars?!"

Tabitha didn't think she could possibly feel more miserable, but suddenly, she did. She grabbed onto her stomach just as Teresa came storming back into the room. "Where are the rest of my candy bars?" asked Teresa demanding an explanation.

"What are you doing with all that candy in the house anyway?" asked Tabitha trying to shift the focus off herself. "Mommy and Daddy don't allow candy in the house. Why do you need so much candy anyway?"

"They're are not for me. They're for cheerleading. We're selling them for a fundraiser."

"Oh." said Tabitha quietly. She suddenly felt even worse as if that were possible. She closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them and looked up at her sister who was still standing there waiting. "I'm sorry, Teresa." she said and she really really was sorrier than she had ever been in her life. "I ate the candy bars. I couldn't help myself. They just looked so good and tasty, and I just love chocolate. I know I shouldn't have eaten them but I did. "

Teresa still didn't look happy, "I have to pay for those." she explained. "They aren't mine."

"I'll pay for the ones I ate out of my allowance." promised Tabitha.

That seemed to make Teresa feel  a little better. She gave Tabitha a half smile. Tabitha was too much in pain to try to smile back. She bit her lip hard and closed her eyes. "Tummy ache?" asked Teresa. Tabitha nodded too much in pain to talk. "Well, five candy bars will do that to you." said Teresa.

"Are you going to tell Mommy and Daddy?" asked Tabitha worriedly.

Teresa shook her head. "No." she said. "You promised to pay the money back, and I think you've learned your lesson."


"I did. I really did." swore Tabitha. She never wanted to see another Snickers bar let alone eat one as long as she lived.

Ella Exaggerates

Ella Ambrose wasn't exactly a liar. She didn't say things that were completely untrue. She just liked to exaggerate a little. Well, okay maybe a lot. She wouldn't say she had a lot of books. She would say she had thousands of books. She wouldn't say she could jump high. She would say could jump higher than anybody else.

"I'm the best reader in the world." she told her mother.

"The best in the whole world?" asked Mommy. She frowned. They were trying to teach Ella not to exaggerate so much.

"Well, maybe not the best in the whole world." Ella corrected herself, "but the best in the whole school."

"Ella .." said Mommy still frowning.

"Well, maybe not the best in the whole school, but the best in my class."

"Ella..." repeated Mommy.

"I'm one of the best readers in my class."she admitted finally. "I'm in the highest reading group."

One night after a really big and  really filling spaghetti dinner, Ella said she was never going to eat again as long as she lived.

"Never?" said Daddy. "Are you sure about that, Ella? Never is a long time."

"Well, not for a long long time" corrected Ella.

"Ella..." said Daddy frowning.

"I'm not going to eat again until breakfast."admitted Ella.

One afternoon, Ella came home from school and tossed her backpack on the floor. "Guess what!" she called out excitedly to her mother. "I have the most exciting news in the whole world! " She looked around but didn't see her Mom only her older sister Erin.

Erin was sitting at the table eating a snack of yogurt. She raised her eyebrows at Ella. "The most exciting news in the world?" she said. "Did you find a way to achieve world peace? Did you discover a cure for a deadly disease? I don't think so. There's no way  your news is the most exciting in the whole world." she scoffed.

Ella glared at her sister.  "Guess what, mommy" Ella repeated.

"Backpack, Ella!" said Mommy coming in from the other room and pointing to Ella's backpack on the floor.

Ella sighed. She picked up her backpack and put it on the table. Didn't anyone care about her great news?

"Now, what's your news?" asked Mommy as if reading Ella's thoughts.

"I'm the best speller in the whole school!"

Mommy frowned. "Ella..." she said.

"No, really I am." repeated Ella.

Mommy frowned even deeper. "Ella..." she said

"I am Mommy." insisted Ella. Erin gave Ella a look that said she didn't believe Ella either. Ella glared at her. "I am the best speller in the whole school."

"Ella," said Mommy calmly and quietly. "I know you're a good speller, but you have to stop this exaggerating."

"I'm not exaggerating. We had a spelling bee in school today, and I won. I beat all the kids in my class, and all the other kids in the school too.  I get to go to the county spelling bee, and if I win that I get to go the state spelling bee. If I win that, I get to go to the national spelling bee."

"Really, Ella?" asked Erin in disbelieve.

"Really Ella?" repeated Mommy but she said it more with surprise than total disbelieve.

"Really." insisted Ella."I am telling the absolute truth. I won the school spelling bee. I am the best speller in my school."

Mommy threw her arms around Ella. "Oh sweetie." she exclaimed genuinely excitedly for Ella.  "I'm so proud of you."

Ella frowned. "Why didn't you believe me at first?" she asked her mother disappointedly.

"Oh come on." butted in Erin. "You exaggerate all the time."

"I wasn't talking to you." replied Ella angrily.

"You do have a tendency to exaggerate." admitted Mommy.

Ella frowned harder. She did not like that Mommy had not believed her at first. "I'm never going to exaggerate again." she swore.

"Ella..." said Mommy.

"Well, I am going to try not to exaggerate anymore." said Ella.

"Now, that I can believe." said Mommy.