A couple of years back was one of the scariest moments of my life. It all started about 2 years ago when I had just gotten home from school on Thursday. My mom was wondering who I wanted to invite to Virginia (you see we have two houses, one in DC and one in Virginia. We go to Virginia every weekend and I like to bring kids).
"So, who do you want to invite to Virgina" asked Mom.
"I don't know", I said.
"How about Michaela or Amanda?"

"Amanda's going somewhere, and Michaela isn't allowed to come."
"Oh, how about Sasha?"
"Sasha's going to a party."
"Sally?"
"I don't think she's going anywhere, I'll call her."
So I dialled the number. The phone rang a few times and then I heard a familar voice, "hello," said Gillette on the other line (Gillette is Amanda's older sister).
"Hi Gillet, can I speak to Sally?", I said.
"Hold on," said Gillette.
"Hello," said Sally.

"Hi, this is Jennifer. I wanted to know if you want to go go to Virginia this weekend?"
"Hold on, let me ask." I waited for a while and then Sally came back, "I can!"
"Great," I said. "What time should I pick you up?"
"How about 7:00 tomorrow?", said Sally.
"Okay, see you then," I said. Then we hung up. "Mom," I said, "she can come."
"Good," said my mom, "what time are we picking her up?".
"7:00 tomorrow," I said.
"Hey Jenn, Friends is on," said my mom. Friends is one of my favorite TV shows that comes on every Thursday. I ran into the kitchen and turned on the TV. Friends had already started. After Friends, my dad announced dinner. So we sat down to Chicken and Cous Cous. After dinner, my mom said we could watch one more TV show and then get ready for bed. I decided to watch Seinfeld. Then my mom and I went upstairs while my dad took the dog for a walk. Then I brushed my teeth, put on my pajamas, and climbed in bed.
"COME HERE!" I shouted to my mother.
"HOLD ON," she shouted back. Soon I heard her coming down the hall to my room. "Hi mommy'" I said.
"Hi Jenny," she replied. "What did you want me for?"
"I don't know," I said.
"Well, good night Jenn," said my mom.
"Good night," I said. Then my mom left the room and about 10 minutes later I fell asleep.

The next morning my dad came in and woke me up at 7:00 in the morning. Ten minutes later I got up and went downstairs. I sat in a big red chair and started to fall asleep. The my dad yelled, "Jenn!..breakfast is ready, come out and eat!" So I got up and went into the kitchen. I sat down to a bowl of Oat Bran. After I finished, I said, "Where's mom?"
"She's out walking the dog," said my dad. I went back to the living room and lied back down on the big red chair. Then my mom came in the door and said "Hi Jenn." I got up and followed my mom up the stairs. Then I went in my room. I put on a T shirt and jeans, socks and shoes. Then I ran downstairs, got my stuff together and went into the kitchen.
"Okay, lets get ready to go," yelled my dad. My mom got her purse and ran down the stairs while I got my back pack on and gave the dog a treat, and we left.

When I got to school we had already started math. I got signed tardy for being late. During math I either got everything wrong or didn't answer the questions. Finally, at 10:00 o'clock, math was over. Next, half of the class went to music and the other group went to art. My group, the "buffalos," went to art. Amanda was in the "buffalo" group. Then she was my best friend, now we're just friends.

We were working on self portraits in art that day. Everyone thoght that Anna Belew's portrait was the best. "Anna's portait's pretty good," I thought to myself, but I didn't admit it. I really, really, really wanted everyone to adore MINE! Then I though of a mean, mean plan. I grabbed some markers and was about to scribble all over her portrait when Michel Martin pushed me out of the way so he could see better and made me scribble all over mine! Hours went by and I still had bad luck. In after school I got in trouble with Tim and Louie for talking back. Finally, at 6:00 my dad came to pick me up. But my bad luck didn't change, I got punished for being rude!

It was 6:30. "Only half an hour till we go pick Sally up and good luck will start happening," I said. But as I said that I knocked over my mom's favorite lamp. My heart skidded to a complete stop! My mom would be here soon. She'd be burning red. She might not even let Sally come. I started to throw away the last pieces from the lamp when I heard keys jiggling in the door. "She's home," I thought. I quickly threw away the last peices.
"I'm home!" my mom shouted. I dodged under the table. "Jenn, is that you? Why are you shivering?"
"Um...uh..oh, I confess," I said, hugging her knees.
"Jennifer, what are you talking about?"
"I was talking to myself and by accident I knocked over the lamp. I'm sooo sorry," I said.
"Jenn, don't worry. I'm not mad if it was an accident." I stopped hugging her knees. "So you're not mad?" I said.
"Of course not," my mom said. I was sure having bad luck but at least my mom wasn't mad. I ran up to my room and started to pack. Here's what I packed: Pajamas, socks, underwear, two pairs of shorts, two pairs of t-shirts, a board game, gum, and a teddy bear.

I put it all in a small suitcase. I turned off the light and ran down stairs. I turned on the TV and watched the end of "Renn and Stimpy." Then my mom yelled, "OK Jenn, let's go."
"Hold on. I left my stuff upstairs."
"Well go get it," my dad yelled. I went up the stairs and into my room. I grabbed the suit case and started to head out when I caught a glance of a picture I had taken at Virginia. It was of a cave on the beach near my house. It was the cave that John, Kristel, and I would play in (John and Kristel were my two best friends down at Virginia). "The cave," I thought aloud, " I could show Sally the cave."

"Hi Sally, how are you?" my mom asked Sally as she hopped into the car.
"Fine, thank you," she replied. "So, what are we going to do when we get to Virginia?" Sally asked me.
"Well...by the time we get there we'll have to go to bed, but in the morning we're having pancakes for breakfast, and then we can go play in my tree house, and for lunch we can have a picnic in the woods and go swimmimg, and..."
"And what?" Sally asked, excited.
"And after lunch I have a surprise," I said.
"A surprise," Sally screamed.
"Wait a minute, is this surprise bad?" my dad asked.
"Oh, no, no," I said. I whispered something in his ear.
"Ohhhh," he said, "you're doing that." My dad told my mom and she just smiled.
"A surprise, a surprise," Sally kept whispering to her self.

Finally, after an hour and a half of driving we got there. It was 8:30, our bedtime (we were only 7 then). Sally looked in awe at the big house. It had a pool, a hot tub, a dock, a jet ski, a tube, and more. "Wow," Sally said, "I'm going to be staying here?"
"Yep," I replied. We went inside and my mom our stuff up to my room. My room had yellow walls, a bunk bed, a trunk of toys, a rocking chair, and two doors. One out into the hallway and down the stairs, and the other to a small balcony. Sdally and I decided to empty out our stuff and see what there was to do. Sally had most of the stuff I had except a different board game. We played both board games (chess and Shark Attack). Sally won both games. Then we put on our pajamas (which were only long t-shirts) and hopped in bed. I was on the bottom bunk with Sara (the dog) and Sally was on top. When my mom came in she kissed me on the forehead and said, "good night Jenn, good night Sally."
"Good night mom." I said. You would think that most kids would talk a little before they went to bed, but we were too tired to talk so we soon fell fast asleep.

We woke up to the nice smell of pancakes. "Ummm, I love the smell of pancakes," said Sally.
"I told you we would have pancakes for breakfast," I replied. We ran downstairs in our pajamas to eat breakfast. Both of my parents were already awake. My dad was sitting in an arm chair reading, and of course, my mom was making pancakes.
"Good morning," my mom said cheerfully.
"Good morning," I said, "are the pancakes ready?"
"Almost, why don't you go upstairs and get some clothes on and when you come down the pancakes will be ready."
"OK." So we went upstairs and started to get dressed. Sally wore shorts and a red t-shirt. I wore pink shorts and a purple t-shirt. When we went back downstairs our pancakes were ready. We each had two pancakes and my parents had three. After we finished our meal Sally asked, "can we go play in your treehouse now?"
"Sure." So we went outside and climbed the ladder to my small, cozy tree house.
"Cool," Sally said. "It has two floors." We decided to play cops and robbers. First, I was the robber and Sally was the cop, and then we switched. We played for hours and soon it was lunch. We had our picnic in the woods. We ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, brownies, apples, apple juice, and cake. After lunch we went swimming. My pool was from three feet to eight feet deep. It had a low diving board, and lounge chairs.
"Wow," said Sally, "this is great."
"I knew you would like it," I said, "let's get out and sip lemonade in the lounge chairs."
"OK," Sally said. So we got out and sat in the lounge chairs. My dad brought out some lemonade for us. Sara was on the end of my lounge chair sleeping so I had to bend my legs.

"So what about this surprise?" Sally asked.
"Well," I said, "there's this really cool cave that I want to take you to. I already asked my parents and they said we can go by ourselves!"
"Awesome!" Sally said.
Since the cave was on the beach we had to change into long pants, long shirts, a light jacket, and some boots.
"OK!" said my mom, "have fun, don't take too long."
"We won't," we said in unison. We started down a small grassy path and then down a small hillonto the beach. After we walked a little it started to rain.
"Oh, no," I said.
"What are we going to do?" Sally said.

"Well, when we get to the cave we can use it as a shelter," I said. We started to go up a hill we thought would take us to the cave and were on a street.

"We're in town!!!" I screamed, "we must have missed the cave." Then we did the stupidest thing anyone could do. We started knocking on people's doors. After we got no answer at two houses, we began to cry and cry. Finally someone answered the door.
"Hello," said a 65 year old woman.
"Well, we were going to a cave," I said.
"And we went up a hill," Sally said, "and..."
"You mean your lost?" the woman asked.
"Yes," we said in unison.
Now, here is where we made the stupidest mistake. We went in her car. She started driving us around.
"I see my house," I shouted
"Wher?" the woman asked.

"There," I pointed, to a big blue house.
Soon we were heading down my driveway. When we got home my parents weren't mad. But they did give us a big lecture about how we shouldn't go in stranger's cars.

Two years have passed since then, and now I know better. For readers, I hope you have learned a lesson.