May 31, 2018
Jasmine was browsing the overwhelming amount of decorations. Browsing through shelves of assorted junks and goodies at a party warehouse store. She loved looking at the never-ending variety. She picked up a stuffed ghost toy on clearance that was over her budget. The ghost, winning her over with its puffy cheeks, big eyes, and a goofy soulless smile.
She squeezed the ghost. “It’s so soft! So soft that...that...it's scary!” She thought to herself. She tugged on her mom’s sleeve, “Mom, can I have this please?”
The mother looked up from glancing at the binder of themed birthday cakes, “how much?”
“It’s only $6.00, please mom please"
Her mother sighed, “Fine, but you need to go choose actual party decorations now or you won’t get that ghost toy”
“But Mom, This is a decoration, it’s a spooky decoration”
‘That’s not enough decor for the party. Now go pick some more or you’re going to have to like what end up picking-”
“Noooooooo”, Jasmine said with childish protest.
“Okay fine, okay; now go pick out some decorations. I will be here browsing this area. Don't take too long and don't go too far. Tell me when you're done and-”
Jasmine sprinted off towards some bright decorations at the end of the aisle, not listening anymore.
She loved Birthday parties, seeing all her friends and family have a great time with her. She wanted everything in this party to be right. She ran up to the front of the store to grab a cart. Her mother gave her a thirty-dollar limit, and she was going to get the most out of it. Jasmine was determined to search all the aisles. She consistently lifted unique individual items to check their prices instead of looking at standard birthday party decorations. After about what felt like hours for her, she was able to get enough decorations to be just a little over the budget she was given. She was confident that her mother would not notice that she was going over budget by a mere dollar. She was about to consider something adults called tax for a moment before she shook that silly thought away; she did not need to think about such things. Tax, or whatever it was called was for adults, not her. she thought. She pushed her cart up just outside the store’s restroom.
She was ready to show mom the amazing party decorations. time for a pit stop.
A few moments later, she strolled out of the restroom.
She froze in place outside the door when she started in the direction of where she last left her cart.
The cart that was filled with all her carefully picked decorations, was gone.
She glanced around the area. Her cart was nowhere in sight. Her eyes widened as she noticed her mom walking towards her with a frown. She knew her mom was ready to go and that she would not be happy with her. Jasmine braced herself for when her Mom inevitably asked why there was a lack of picked-out decorations.
Her mom looked around the area as she approached her, “where's your decorations? We need to start preparing on heading out. I'm not kidding Jasmine, If you do not speed this up, we will not have enough time to decorate the house before the party. Do you understand, we cannot be here all day? Now, I found the dress you told me about in your size. I'm ready to go. Now, I'll get some snacks and then wait for you at the front. Don't make me pick out some decorations for you-”
Jasmine visibly panicked, “I think my cart got rolled away or something...I’ll be right back. I promise. I'll be real quick. Okay?”
Jasmine rushed off before her mother could speak another word.
She glanced back for a moment to see her mother, who rested her face onto the palm of her hand.
Oh no, shes angry, she grimaced.
Jasmine dashed through the aisles, panic steadily growing inside of her as she searched aisle by aisle for her missing cart.
Jasmine found an abandoned cart. She was going to have to start from scratch.
Frowning, she took the cart.
She pushed the cart foward, while speed walking.
She scrunched her face, she was determined to get the supplies she needed before her mother-
Jasmine froze as she heard her mother shout from the front of the store; “Jasmine, I'm next in line, get over here NOW”
Jasmine quickly slid random items from a nearby shelf into the cart basket. Her eyes went wide before she shook her head with disapproval. She turned the cart and started rushing to the front. She hoped that the random decorations she put into the cart would not cost too much.
She didn't look at the decor she was tossing into the basket while she pushed the cart to the front. She just wanted to hurry up to meet up with her mom to avoid getting in trouble. She really didn't want to get grounded, especially on her birthday.
From the corner of her eye, she noticed an employee restocking items a few feet away.
That’s her cart.
She rushed over to the store employee. “Hello hello hello store worker! Please trade my cart”.
The employee, who was only half mentally there, slowly turned their head to look at her, “huh….”
“Thanks”, she drove her current cart in front of the employee, quickly doing the swap to take back her original cart.
The employee stared at the new cart for a long time, before staring back at Jasmine, and then back at the new cart. The cart, filled to the brim with random supplies.
The employee didn’t complain as Jasmine sped off. The employee only shrugged before they quickly hit a vape.
Jasmine made it to the front of the store. She felt terrible, as there was a long queue of customers waiting behind her mother. Jasmine didn’t like the looks she was receiving from the other customers in line.
Her mother squeezed Jasmined shoulder, "It's not your fault that the store only one register open". Then, her mom crossed her arms, "That doesnt' excuse you not listening to me when I asked you to focuse. We'll take about that later"
Jasmine kept her head low, her good mood was gone. she pushed the cart over to her mother. She was actively trying to avoid the eyes of the cashier, her mother and the customers behind her.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Jasmine’s mother sighed, “Sweetie, you’re ten dollars over budget. Please pay attention to your budget next time. I want you to build good habits for the future”
Jasmine murmured, “I will mom.”
The cashier finished placing the decorations into their reusable bags. As soon as the transaction was complete, Jasmine grabbed one of the bags with one arm and use the other arm to latch onto her mothers arm. She was eagar to get out of the store as soon as possible.
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When they got home, she raced up to her room upstairs. She wanted to display all the decorations out onto the floor infront of her. She wanted to plan out on where to place the decor before the party started.
She reached her hand into the bag and pulled out a cheaply painted pink princess wand. She wanted to be a magic princess for her birthday this year, with dinosaurs as the birthday theme decorations. Her mother told her that the princess dinosaur combination theme didn’t make sense. She told her mother that it made perfect sense to her, because she wanted to be a magical dinosuar princess. It was her birthday party and she-
While Jasmine was alone with her thoughts, she didn't notice the toy plush emenating a faint glow from it's beady eyes.
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Jasmine spun and swished the wand around carelessly. She stayed in her room while her mom was downstairs baking the cake for the party. She didn’t realize that the wand had a button, and pressing it caused it to glow. “Hey” Jasmine stopped. She looked around, unsure who or what said that. She was about to shrug it off- “Do you hear me?” She paused. “Hey, get over here and help me out”
Jasmine pointed the wand towards the sound, ready to defend herself. She walked towards the voice slowly. It was coming from the shopping bag of decorations.
“Hello? Who said that?”, she jabbed the bag with the wand hesitantly. The voice emitting from the bag sounded muffled and annoyed, “Get me out of here before I get glitter in my eye” She dropped the wand and started yanking the decor out of the bag, decorations were flung across the room in a flash.
Jasmine was a little scared of what might be at the bottom of the bag but her curiosity was stronger.
There was only about a handful of decor left so she lifted the bag from the bottom to let the contents fall to the ground.
Jasmine was a little disappointed to only see some airless balloons and party poppers on the ground in front of her.
A muffled “Helphhffff” emitted behind her.
She turned around and glanced at the mess she’d made. She went to a small pile of party favors that landed on top of her bin of toys. She sorted through it. “You’re getting close” emitted a voice within the entangled mess. She searched through the pile.
Something glowing red caught her attention.
Compared to the yellow glow from the toy wand, this red glow was a lot brighter. She put her hand through the entanglement of decor and toys, grabbing the glowing object.
To her surprise, it was a ghost plushie. The ghost's beady plastic black eyes glowed a bright red. “Thank you, I greatly appreciate it'' the toy ghost spoke with a friendly tone.
The red eyes dimmed and brightened every other word. It took Jasmine a moment to process what was happening. She examined the ghost. “Are you magic?” she asked skeptically. The ghost's stitched mouth didn't move, the voice was radiating from inside it, like a voicebox. “You could say that. I’m grateful for you saving me from that shop, it was getting rather lonely in that plushie bin. The bin, as you saw, was very crowded, and uncomfortable to say the least. For your help in saving me and giving me a new home, I’m going to grant you, little human, one wish”. “It’s Jasmine” “Ok, Jasmine, you get one wish. Don’t take too long or I might just change my mind” “I don’t know Mr. Ghost if I want a wish and anyways you’re a ghost, and aren't ghosts like…supposed to be scary and like-really bad?”. “I can understand why you'd say that Jasmine. Yes, I am a ghost, and they are known to be spooky but that doesn’t necessarily mean I’m bad.” “I don’t know if I want to make a wish right now, I gotta get ready for my party” “Booooo”
“I’ll think of one later, ok Mr. Ghost”. Jasmine put the ghost down on her bed and then got started on picking up decorations.
After a few moments, the ghost spoke again, “Don’t you want everyone at your party to have a good time?
Jasmine stopped and hesitantly looked at the ghost.
The ghost continued, “If you don’t ask for my help, it could be the most boring party ever”
Jasmine dropped the handful of decorations in her hand and immediately picked up the ghost with both hands, “No, I don't want that. I want this to be the best party ever, all my friends will be here and I want it to be amazing”
The Ghost’s eyes glowed extra bright, then dimmed almost to black for a while. “Ghosty say something”, she pleaded.
After what felt like an eternity to Jasmine, the ghost spoke, “You could just wish right now for the best birthday party ever I guess, but...what if you were to wish for something that would make things fun, something that is so awesome that would surely make them want to be your best friends forever?”
Jasmine started to bite one of her knuckles. She was getting frustrated, “I don’t know what you want me to wish for!” She shouted.
Her mother yelled from outside the room, "Sweetie, are you okay?"
"Yes Mom, I'm okay. I'm planning!"
"Okay Sweetie, You can play later. You need to start decorating"
"Yes Mom!" She shouted, before closing her door.
Jasmine held the ghost up directly in front of her eyes, eagerly waiting for it to speak again.
The eyes of the ghost glowed, “Okay child. Here’s a hint. You know what they say. Sharing is caring”
Jasmine frowned.
The ghost continued, "Don't give up, just think about it"
She paced around the room for a few minutes.
She suddenly stopped. Her eyes lit up and her jaw dropped before shaking the ghost a few times with excitement, "Oh I know! All my best friends could get wishes too, they will be so happy, I wish-”, she jumped a few times and almost dropped the ghost plush.
The ghosts spoke with a sterm voice, “Wait wait wait, Not so fast. You could wish now, but it won't be as effective. You need to wait until it's cake time. Trust me friend, it will be way more fun this way. It's not that long a way and it's easy. When it’s time to blow out the candles, ask your friends to wish for something too. The last step is, right before you blow out the candles, you just wish out loud that everyone's wishes today will come true. Make sure you say it just like that and then that's it. Easy! You just then go ahead and blow out the candles. Like any human would"
Jasmine had the widest grin on her face. She hugged the plush, "Oh ghost. That is going to be the most amazing birthday ever!"
The ghost plush voice increased in volume, “Now, now, one more thing and here's the important part. Don’t tell anyone their wishes will come true tomorrow. as It will ruin the surprise. Plus, everyone knows if you tell others your wish after you wish it...it doesn't come true."
Jasmine nodded, "Okay Okay, I understand and I won't"
The ghost plush continued, "Don't worry, just think about how everyone at school will want to talk about how you, Jasmine, had the greatest party of all time because all who went to your party had their wishes come true.”
Jasmine's eyes sparkled with joy, “You’re amazing Mr. Ghost, or Ms Ghost? I don't know but you're amazing”
The ghost’s eyes emanated a darker shade of red. “I know”
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The decorations were up and Jasmine and her friends were running around the whole house.
Jasmines mom was hiding in her bedroom.
The party was lit!
“MOM! I'm goin' to get the cake, I’m ready for cake!” Jasmine took her birthday cake out of the fridge. She carefully carries the cake to the dining room table. Her mom ran out of what seemed out of nowhere and helped put the cake on the table.
Her mother rushe into the room, quickly grabbed the cake tray out of Jasmine's hand. "Careful! Let me get that, I don't want you to drop it. Now, I'm going to place this cake down. Wait for me, I’m going to get my phone”. she quicly left the room.
Jasmine, not listening to a word of what her mom said, shouted, “Everyone, ok, quiet! It’s cake time. Hurry up everyone and get over here.''
A few of her friends walked towards the table. There were a few kids who were still chasing each other, trying to swack each other with rubber band balloons.
“I said-GET OVER HERE OR YOU'RE NOT GETTING CAKE. Okay? Hurry UP”.
That caught their attention.
Now that all of her friends kids were at the table...
“Sing time!” Jasmine shouted.
The kids sang the obligatory birthday song and eagerly made their way towards the plates and spoons.
“Wait, wait, wait everyone….stop!" Jasmine's mom walked into the room with her phone. “Why did you sing the song without me, start over, I didn't record yet and the candles aren't on yet”
“Yes Mom, candles please”
“Next time, please wait sweetie. I want to record this for memories” Her mom placed and lit the candles. She stood at the adjacent end of the table, her phone ready. Her mom gave her a thumbs up.
Jasmine looked at everyone with a dorky grin, unable to contain her excitement. “Before we sing, everyone make a wish with me! Oh, and don’t say it out loud or it won’t come trueee!” She closed her eyes, wishing that everyone's wishes today would come true tomorrow. She blew out the candles.
Her mom sighed and put arms in the air, "You all forgot to sing!"
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A few hours later, after the all the kids hat been picked up by thyeir parents. Jasmine plopped onto her bed, crashing hard onto the pillow from the sugar rush.
She passed out quickly, still wearing her princess dress. One hand still grasped a ghost plushie. The ghost’s eyes glowed with intensely with red, then blue, before fading to black.