Chapter One- Star

"Oh boy," Dani said as she woke up that morning. She rolled away from her window and faced her alarm clock, which read 11:42 am. She blinked a few times then rolled back to the window. "It can't be…" she mumbled. "Wait, WHAT?!" she threw off her covers and grabbed her alarm clock from her nightstand and read it again. It read 11:43 am.

"Oh crap!" She dropped the alarm clock, ran to her walk-in closet and grabbed the first things she saw- blue jeans and a red form-fitting top and ran to her bathroom. She quickly did her makeup and put on her clothes and ran downstairs. She chanted "Oh crap" the whole way down.

Today she was supposed to make a speech about the youths in Asia. She worked all night and was prepared for the rehearsal with the class before the presentation to the whole school the nest day. If she hurried, she might get there in time for lunch.

"Hi mom bye mom!" she said as she sped past the counter, grabbing her bag lunch before going to her car.

"Danielle?" her mom said as she saw her daughter flash by. "No wonder her lunch was still sitting there!"

Dani got to the school in the nick of time. Lunch just ended and everyone was going to fifth period. She apologized again to the ladies at the front office and raced to her classroom where the teacher was taking attendance.

"Ooh look, Dani's fanny just showed up," Kevin, one of the boys, said to his little friends. Everyone around him snickered. She glared at them internally and handed her note to Mr. Fredericks.

"Thank you, Ms. Tannenbaum. Please go to your seat," he said. Dani turned on her heel and headed to her seat next to her best friend, Kyle Ortiz. They'd known each other since fourth grade and were relieved that they were at least in one class together every year since then. But then again, maybe not. More on that later.

"Where were you today in French class?" Kyle whispered to her.

"Sleeping in my bed," she mumbled melodramatically. "I stayed up all night working on my speech and I think I conked out around four this morning…" she put her head down on her desk.

"Well, good luck with it anyway," he said, eyeing the teacher and listening for his name to be called. "You're gonna need it. Here!"

"Thanks…" she said.

Some time later, they started the speeches. Dani got up and took her notecards with her, head held high and confidence in her step. She almost tripped on a random guy's foot, but recovered with a skip. She approached the chalkboard and proceeded to write her topic on the board. She heard some snickers but ignored it and faced the class.

"My speech today is on the Youth in Asia," she started. "First of all, I would like to name—"

"Ahem, Ms. Tannenbaum," Mr. Fredericks interrupted.

"Yes Mr. F?" she answered, a little confused. "Is there something wrong?" she tried to ignore the growing volume of snickering in the class.

"Ms. Tannenbaum, your project is not on the youths in Asia," he said frankly, like he always did. She didn't like where this was going.

Dani looked out to the classroom, where all the kids were trying hard not to burst out laughing and start rolling around on the floor. Kyle's eyes were wide and he smacked his forehead in realization.

"You project wasn't on the youths in Asia, but the controversial topic of euthanasia," he said, trying not to embarrass her. His face was stern, but his eyes were laughing. "You have two options at this point," he said, but he paused to yell at the class to stop laughing. He led her to his desk. "The first option, redo it and present it tomorrow at the assembly. The second would be to drop out of the presentation and turn it back in to me by Friday, okay?"

"Okay," Dani breathed. "Uhm, sir?" she asked.

"Yes?"

"May I go to the restroom?" she asked, holding back tears.

He sighed and said, "Hurry back," and handed her a pass.

She took the pass and snatched her backpack from her seat before Kyle could ask her where she was going. But he already knew.

Dani tossed the pass in the garbage before retreating far behind the back of the school where a river flowed quickly. There was a slight drought and the water was low. She threw down her backpack and it almost hit the water.

Then the waterworks started. "Stupid oral report!" she screamed into the air. "Why did our teacher have to be a frikkin' conservationist and save paper for this dumb report!! Damn tree-hugger!!" She sobbed uncontrollably. "I hate this! Now they think I'm stupid too! On top of being fat, they can call me stupid, too…" she was calming down, and she was sniffing a lot. This was not her day. "I just wish," she said between sobs, "that I was the opposite of what I am now!"

Then, she saw something glittering between the rocks at her feet. She knelt down and picked it up. It was in the shape of a six-pointed star, like the Star of David, but there was nothing Jewish about it. She dried it off on her jeans and looked at it closer.

"Hmm," she said to herself. She didn't see anything else remarkable about it so she put it in her pocket and shrugged. "I guess I should get back to class now." She picked up her backpack and headed back to the school.

The rest of the day was torture. Dani tried to focus on her studies but another rumor had already been flying around the school about the stupid fat girl who confused euthanasia with the youth in Asia. There was only one person who had been there for her, though.

"Why don't you stop picking on her and actually try to get a life," Kyle warned the gathering crowd after school. "Everyone makes mistakes."

"Yeah Ky? Well, I don't make mistakes as stupid as hers," Kevin said smugly. He always picked on Dani because she was his twin brother's best friend.

"Well, I'm about to make one!" Kyle yelled as he flew at his twin.

"What's going on here?!" the school deputy came and shouted. "Off to the office, you two! Don't make me use the handcuffs!"

Kyle growled under his breath and balled up his fists as Kevin shoved his hands in his pockets, mumbling, "Damn deputy, always on me case, I didn't even do anything this time…"

Dani drove home along the back roads, trying to avoid the public eye. She was thinking about her options about the presentation tomorrow. She sighed and got home and she climbed up to her room and locked the door behind her not saying a word.

Kyle and Kevin sat in the front office, waiting for the principal to finish a parent-teacher conference with another student.

"Hmmph," Kevin huffed. He had his arms crossed.

"I should say the same," Kyle huffed back. He mirrored Kevin.

"The only thing we agree on."

"Yup."

After about four seconds of silence, Kevin said, "Your girlfriend's a moron."

"Dani's not my girlfriend!" Kyle shouted. It turned some heads of the office staff, then they went back to work.

"Who said anything about Dani?" Kevin sneered.

"Kk, ah, ih, uhm," Kyle stuttered. It was all he could say.

"Oh, I know your little secret," Kevin mocked. "We're brothers, I can find out your deepest, darkest secrets, even if you can't yourself."

"Oh shut it, asshole," Kyle said, turning away.

"Face it, you're in love with the lard," Kevin leaned in.

Kyle got up and punched his brother in the cheek. Not a wimpy punch either, but a punch full of anger and hatred.

"I dare you to say that one more time," Kyle said, grabbing his brother's collar, lifting him off of the seat.

"What? Lard?" Kevin chuckled. "I've never seen you this way before, so full of passion and you're just itching for a fight!" he laughed.

Kyle hesitated and loosened his grip. He pushed Kevin back in his chair and sat back in his own and crossed his arms.

"Hey, take it outside, will ya?" the principal said, watching them. "But please, do come in first and we'll have a nice little chat about fighting in school." The principal grinned widely at that.

"Heh," Kevin said, sneering again at his brother before going into the principal's office. Kyle glared back, but he had other things to worry about.

Dani tossed her backpack on her desk and collapsed onto the bed. Something pricked her leg.

"Ow!" she said, rolling over on her back, digging out whatever poked her. "Oh, it's just the star I found," she mumbled. The memories started coming back and her eyes filled with tears. She wiped them away and put the star on the bed in front of her.

"If only I would become the opposite of what I am now, all my problems would be gone," she said to the star, as if it were listening. "Even though mom and Sammy and Kyle say my face is pretty, I feel like it's not enough. If only I weren't two hundred pounds, and if only I had better hearing and smarts and stuff like that, I wouldn't be in this mess."

She faced the window and got up. The star was still on the bed but she turned away just as it started to glow and shimmer, and not in the sunlight. It began to rise up and float toward Dani. She turned back toward the bed and the star bumped into her face.

"Aah!" she yelled. She opened her eyes and she saw the star floating there and her mouth dropped open. "What the-?" She reached for it.

As soon as she grabbed it, the space around her shifted from her room to a golden sphere. "Oh my God, what's going on? Whoa!"

She clutched the star still, but it jerked away suddenly and a voice said, "You wish to be the opposite of who you are? To be half your size and with better hearing abilities and book smarts?" the voice was constantly changing, and almost monotone. But she agreed with it.

"Yes, I do," she said to the star. "I don't want to have this stupid body and I want to be able to hear what people mean, not what they say, and not to confuse what they say to things I think they said. I also hate being so dumb and have bad grades all the time."

"Are you sure?" the voices said. "You only have one more wish after this. After that, you get nothing more, just a piece of rock."

"Wait, I had wishes on this thing?" Dani yelled. "You didn't tell me that!"

"Make the dumb wish!" the voices demanded.

"All right all right!" She took a deep breath. "I wish to be the opposite of what I am now, with better hearing capabilities and book smarts," she said in one breath. She held her breath now.

"Your wish shall be granted after you slumber," the voices from the star said. The space around her dissipated back into her bedroom and she fell to her knees.

After she heard her lungs breathe in and out for five cycles, her brain finally clicked and she said to the air, "After I slumber? Hoo boy...... Yahoo! It's time to go to bed!" She jumped up with her fists punching the air and she ran to the bathroom to brush her teeth. Her clock said it was only 7:15 but she got ready for bed anyway.

At eight o'clock that night, Dani's cell phone rang. It went to voicemail and Kyle left his message.

Hey Dani, it's me Kyle. I'm sorry for my stupid brother's behavior today and I've been talking to him in trying to apologize. Heh, it's not working that great. Well, anyway, I just want to say that I like you the way you are, don't let some dumb presentation ruin your life. So yeah uhm okay bye then…

Author: Well? How do you like it? It's pretty long, but I promise the rest won't be this long!