When Life Gives You Lemons Read online

  “Fly!” I interrupted.

  “What?” Nikki asked.

  “I want to fly!” I smiled. “I want to have wings like Lea!”

  “That’s a little complicated, Gina.” Nikki replied as she pulled out her recipe book and placed it on the dusty cabinet.

  “I don’t care!” I squealed.

  “No, Gina. It’s a little dangerous, too.” Nikki sighed as she opened the book and pulled a few chemicals out of a drawer.

  I frowned. It wasn’t fair that Lea got wings and powers, and I didn’t. I’m the one that got us the potion! I should get a power! “I hate it.” I muttered angrily.

  “You hate what?” Nikki spun around looking startled.

  “This talent.” I groaned. “It’s boring! I don’t even have any MAGIC! I just know how to make potions! And I barely know how anyway! I don’t understand why it’s a talent! You just read a recipe out of a book, and then put them together! Anyone can do it, even Izzy!” I screamed.

  Nikki started to tear up. “How do you think I’ve felt my whole LIFE?!” She sobbed. She threw everything she had on the table and ran upstairs, crying.

  I didn’t mean to make her cry! I didn’t know that was offensive! “Nikki! I- I’m sorry!” I yelled. “I-I didn’t know that was going to make you upset! Please come back!”

  It was too late. Nikki had stomped upstairs and slammed the door to her room. I heard knocking on the basement door. “Come in.” I sighed. It was Selena, Lea, and Izzy.

  “What’s wrong with Nikki?” Selena asked.

  “What’d you do to her?” Lea scoffed.

  “Why’s she crying?” Izzy babbled.

  “Nothing.” I sighed. “Just...um… go...um… finish what you were doing.”

  “Okay...If you say so.” Selena said as she slowly closed the door.

  I knew what I had to do. I had to prove to Nikki that I was passionate about making potions. That would make her feel better, right? RIGHT?!

  Chapter 13

  Lea and her Powers

  By: Selena Johnson

  I really wish we would have gone to our other neighbors before we picked Lea to be a fairy. After we gave them the tour to our house, Lea was so excited, she took off upstairs. She ran into a room and sat down on the bed.

  “Is this your room?” She asked. She was talking so fast, I could barely understand her.

  “No,” I laughed. “This is Nikki’s.”

  “Oops.” She said. “Where’s your’s?” She got up off of Nikki’s bed and ran into the hallway.

  “Right there.” I pointed to the first room on the left.

  “Okay.” She walked into that room. “Nice room.”

  “It’s not that nice.” I snorted. “Not as nice as my last one.” Lea rolled her eyes.

  “Now, can I practice my powers?” She asked.

  “Sure.” I walked to the bathroom and pulled a cup out of the cabinet. I turned on the faucet and let the water dribble into the cup. But, as soon as the water reached the bottom of the cup, the water bounced right back up and splashed me in the face. “Lea!” I yelled and turned around. She was standing behind me, with her fingers stretched out. She giggled crazily.

  “It’s funny!” She laughed.

  I rolled my eyes and walked to my room. I grabbed the new cup of water and placed it on my dresser. “Okay, Lea. Just move the water out of the glass.” I sighed and sat down on my bed. The next thing I knew, I was covered in cold water.

  “LEA!” I yelled. “It’s not funny!” I wiped the water off of my face.

  “Yes, it is!” Izzy giggled uncontrollably.

  Why was Lea doing this to me? I looked around my room, and a little target caught my eye. It was my magic deflector. Perfect.

  “Hey, Lea,” I smiled. “Why don’t you do some target practice?”

  “Can I do it on you?” She giggled.

  “No, try this target.” I grinned as I took the deflector and put it against the wall.

  “Ok!” She stretched her hand out toward the cup and flung the water toward the target. The water hit the deflector and splashed all over her.

  “UGH! SELENA!” She shrieked. “Why’d do that? Fix it!”

  “Why? It was supposed to do that!” I laughed.

  Lea frowned. “S-So you KNEW it was going to do that?” She cried.

  “Yes!” I smiled. “That’s why I told you to do it!”

  Lea hesitated. Then she screamed, “You’re SO MEAN!” She ran out the room and slammed the door.

  “Wait! Lea, I-I didn’t know that would hurt your feelings!” I called, but she had already ran away. I didn’t expect that reaction. I was just trying to get her back for splashing me with water! Maybe I was a little mean. I wish I wasn’t. I wish there was a way to get rid of all the mean ideas inside of me.

  I walked downstairs. Nikki was on the sofa. “Where’s Lea, Izzy, and Gina?” I asked.

  She sighed. “Lea and Izzy went home. Gina’s doing something in the basement.” I sat down on the chair next to her. I flipped on the TV.

  For about thirty minutes, I watched a show about a talking dog. It was very dumb, but entertaining. As I got up to go get a snack, I wondered, Is there a way to turn me nice? I glanced at Nikki. Maybe she knew what I could do.

  “Nikki!” Gina called from downstairs. “Come see what I made!”

  “Alright!” Nikki sighed and walked down the stairs.

  A few minutes later, “That’s so cool, Gina!” Nikki smiled as the two walked back to the kitchen. “I’m so glad you started making potions!” That’s when I got an awesome idea! Nikki’s potions could make me nice!

  I made sure Nikki wasn’t looking and I ran off down the stairs. (She would be mad if she knew I took one of her potions.)

  I opened the door to the basement and hurried to the cabinet. I opened it. There were so many potions, and I didn’t know which was the right one! I turned around to see if any good ones were on the table behind me, and thankfully, there were two of them. The first one read Color-changing potion. I didn’t need that, unless I needed to dye my hair or something.

  The second one read Nice potion. WHAT?! I didn’t expect it to be THAT easy! Gosh, I was surprised that that kind of potion even existed!

  I happily took a sip. It tasted alright. I quickly gurgled down the rest of the bottle, and skipped back upstairs. I can’t wait to tell Lea!

  Chapter 14

  Making Nikki Proud

  By: Gina Smith

  I decided to make my own potion so I could prove to Nikki that I cared about making potions. I didn’t know what kind of potion I would make, though. What would impress her?

  I decided to take a look through Nikki’s potion recipe books. There were so many recipes, I didn’t know where to start! There were just too many!

  There were wings potions, fire powers potions, water powers potions, ice powers potions, earth powers potions, color-changing potions, animal powers potions, nice potions, and so many others that gave you all kind talents...even SEWING and PAINTING! What kind of powers are those?! I mean, they are fun to do, but that’s not exactly a power!

  I decided to start simple, like Nikki had suggested earlier. I was going to start with the color-changing potion. I began reading the recipe. There were about five ingredients I didn’t have. I would have to go to the store.

  I walked upstairs. “Selena?” I asked. She walked into the room.

  “What?” She asked.

  “Could I have a few dollars? I need to buy some things to make potions.” I asked.

  “Okay.” She smiled and handed me a $10 bill. I opened the door and walked to the supermarket.

  “Hi, Gina!” Mister Evans called from his yard. “Watch out for my new dog! He’s a little mean!”

  “Okay!” I smiled. I looked down. There was a little black and brown dachshund barking at my feet. I shoved the little dog out of the way. He jumped right back onto my ankle and bit it. “Ouch!” I shouted as I kicked the dog away. I
continued walking to the store.

  I bought the ingredients. As I left, I counted my change. $2.12. Not too bad. As I walked down the sidewalk down the road, the stupid little dog attacked my legs again.

  I had to do something about this animal. Maybe I could make Nikki really proud by making the color-changing potion AND the nice potion! Then she’d know I liked the talent!

  I sprinted back to the house and dashed downstairs. About twenty minutes later, I had successfully mixed a color-changing potion and a nice potion. “Nikki!” I yelled. “Come see what I made!”

  “Alright.” She sighed. She must still be mad at me. She came down the stairs. “Wow, Gina! This is awesome!” She smiled when she saw my potions.

  I knew she was happy for me now! We went upstairs. “That’s so cool, Gina! I’m so glad you started making potions!” She squealed.

  I grinned. Maybe this talent wasn’t so bad after all! As soon as I blinked my eye, Selena had dashed downstairs. I wonder why? “Hey, Gina.” Nikki said.

  “What?” I asked as we both sat down on the sofa.

  “You need to be careful with that nice potion. If someone already nice drinks it, it’ll turn them evil.” Nikki stated.

  “Oh. Then why’s it called a NICE potion?” I asked.

  “I don’t know! It turns evil people nice, I guess!” She laughed. “You wanna go look it up on my computer downstairs?”

  “Ok!” I replied. We both got up and walked downstairs. I walked to the table to check on the potion. I was surprised at what I saw:

  The nice potion was GONE!

  Chapter 15:

  All goes wrong

  By: Selena Johnson

  How was I supposed to know the potion would turn me evil?! By the time I realized it was a huge mistake, it had already kicked in.

  I hoped I wouldn't do anything too bad. But I was wrong. I still had the nice part of me, but the evil side had taken over.

  I had to tell Nikki! She’d know what to do! I dashed upstairs to the living room and saw Nikki and Gina looking all around the living room.

  “Selena, have you seen the nice potion?” Gina gasped.

  Yes, Gina! I drank it! Help me! Is what I meant to say. Instead:

  “No, you dim-wit. Why are you looking for that piece of junk anyway?” Oh No! I couldn’t control what I said anymore!

  I ran over to Nikki. She looked up at me. “What are you looking at, pizza-face?” I snarled.

  “Pizza-Face?” Nikki gasped. “I knew I had pimples, but that’s just mean!”

  “Mean?!” I shrieked. “You want to hear MEAN?! I HATE YOU!” I didn’t think the evil would go this far. I didn’t think it could get any worse, but it was about to.

  “GO TO YOUR ROOM, SELENA!” Nikki sobbed.

  “YOU CAN’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!” I shouted as I spread my hands. Vines grew from the ground and trapped Nikki. She ripped the vines apart. I rolled my eyes and walked upstairs.

  At that point, trying to overcome what the potion had done to me was about pointless. I gave up, hoping the potion would do anything too bad.

  I slumped down on my bed, with my evil side thinking of something. I couldn’t read it’s mind for some reason, so I had no idea what it was going to do. “Aha!” I said. “I have the perfect idea!”

  I dashed down the stairs, and my legs took me down to the basement. I walked over to Nikki’s potion cabinet. I got a feeling a feeling of relief when I opened the cabinet. Maybe my evil side was trying to grab another nice potion to turn me back nice!

  But no, I was wrong. I reached for an earth-power potion and drank it all. I wonder why I drank that. I guess I couldn’t do much harm in that, except create an earthquake or two. Maybe move a mountain. Wait a second. Why would someone evil do a simple thing like that?!

  I found myself grabbing a lava potion. How could earth go with lava? I drank it all. I walked outside, with my evil side feeling proud of itself.

  Then, somehow, I began walking to Lea’s house. I knocked on the door. “Hello?” Lea asked. Then her cheerful smile turned into a frown when she recognized my face. “Oh. It’s YOU.” She groaned.

  “Hey,” I involuntarily smiled. “I’ve come to make up with you! To prove it, I want to show you something.”

  “Um, okay.” She giggled. Lea, Izzy and I walked back to my house. We sprinted down to the basement.

  “I want to show you this.” I smiled. “Nikki’s potions.”

  “Cool!” Nikki gasped. “What can they do?”

  “Watch this!” I spread my hand out, and the earth gave way beneath us. We soon found ourselves outside. “And, with my new earth and lava powers, I can create this!”

  With a little magic, we soon had our very own volcano in our yard. “HOLY COW!” Lea gasped. “THIS IS AWESOME!”

  I evilly laughed. “And here’s the best part!” I ran inside and grabbed one of Nikki’s humongous cages (don’t ask me why she has those) and said, “Step in. You’re going for a ride.”

  “Okay!” Izzy smiled as they both stepped in.

  I evilly laughed again. “Suckers.” I flew up onto the top of the volcano with them in the cage. I dropped them down on a piece of rock on the side of the inside of the volcano.

  “What are you doing?” Lea worriedly asked.

  “Going get Gina and Nikki to fall into the same trap you did!” I cackled.

  That’s when I realized what was really happening. I was going to drop them all into a hot, boiling volcano!

  Chapter 16

  Selena did WHAT?!

  By: Gina Smith

  “Now, where could have that potion gone?” Nikki groaned.

  “I don’t know.” I sighed. “Let’s go try looking down in the basement again.”

  “Alright. Maybe Izzy knocked it on the floor or something.” Nikki and I walked down the stairs into the basement, but what we saw surprised us even more!

  There was a giant hole in the ground, and the potion cabinet had been ripped open! “We’ve been robbed!” Nikki shrieked. “I’m calling the cops!”

  “WAIT!” I yelled back. “Don’t do anything stupid like that. No one on Earth will believe us that we are fairies and someone robbed our potions.”

  Nikki snickered. “Yeah, that does sound kind of dumb. We can just find out who did it by ourselves.”

  “How?” I asked.

  “By following this hole!” Nikki jumped into the hole in the ground.

  “Whatever.” I rolled my eyes and jumped in after her.

  We soon found ourselves outside, on their back porch. “HOLY COW!” Nikki hollered.

  “What, Nikki? What’s so amazing you had to-” As I was talking, I noticed a VOLCANO IN THE YARD!!!

  “WHERE DID THAT COME FROM?!” I yelled.

  “I don’t know, but I do know that someone got into my earth and lava potions, and possibly the nice potion.” Nikki groaned.

  “Let’s go check it out and make sure no one is trapped in the volcano!” I said.

  “Alright.” Nikki and I trudged up the rocky, hot mountain and we finally got to the top.

  “Hello? Is anyone in there?” I called.

  There was a muffled voice from a gray dot near the lava! I couldn’t make all the words out, but it sounded a little like this: “Hpppp…. Sln tpd s n hrr!”

  “Nikki!” I screamed. “There are people in there! We have to get them out!”

  “But we can’t!” Nikki cried. “We don’t have wings! We’ll fall in!”

  “Then we have to get Selena to help!”

  “Okay.”

  We ran down the volcano, praying those poor people weren’t stuck. “SELENA! SELENA! WE NEED YOU!” Nikki and I screamed as loud as we could.

  “What’s wrong?” She asked as she opened the door to the house.

  “Look!” I pointed to the big, obvious, volcano in the yard, wondering how she didn’t notice that yet.

  “Oh my goodness!” She cried dramatically. “Is there anyone in there?”


  “YES!!!!!” Nikki and I screamed at the same time.

  “Oh, that’s a shame.” She frowned.

  “Will you help us come save them? You can fly!” I yelled.

  “Quit yelling!” She laughed. “Of course I’ll save them!” She pulled out her wings and flew up to the top. We followed behind.

  “Where are they?” She asked.

  “Down there! How will we get them up?” I cried.

  “Easy!” She smiled. “By pulling this rope!” She pulled up a rope coming from the side of the volcano. How did I not notice that? Finally, a gray cage came out from the side of the volcano.

  “Gina?! Nikki?!?! You saved us!” Cried a voice. It was Lea and Izzy!

  “WHAT?! How’d you guys get in there?!” I laughed. I opened the cage door and Nikki and I walked in to give them a hug.

  Lea laughed then frowned. “You’re not going to believe this, but Selena did it.”

  “What?” Nikki laughed in disbelief. “Selena wouldn't do that.”

  “Yes, I would.” Said a rude voice. Suddenly, a we heard a loud BANG! I turned around to see what it was, and the cage door had been slammed shut.

  Selena had locked us in the cage! “Why are you doing this?!” Lea cried.

  “Yeah!” Izzy shrieked. “You’re a BIG MEANIE!”

  “Because it’s FUNNY.” She sneered. Lea rolled her eyes.

  “Selena, please stop it!” I cried.

  “No!” She smiled as she shoved the cage into the volcano.

  I thought that that minute, we were going to die. But no, there was a rope that hung us a few feet over the lava. But still. We were doomed.

  “Nikki?” I whispered. “I think I found out who drank our nice potion.”

  Nikki rolled her eyes. “Me too.” She snarled.

  Chapter 17

  Selena at her Worst

  By: Selena Johnson

  “HAHAHA!” I cackled. “Now you will ALL be thrown into my volcano!” I shrieked.

  “Why, Selena? WHY?!” Lea sobbed. “What did we do to you?”

  “Let me answer both of those questions.” I smiled. “BECAUSE it’s FUNNY.” I mimicked Lea. Lea rolled her eyes and continued her crying. I kept laughing.

  I lowered the rope. At any second, they were going to get dropped into the lava. Gina screamed in terror.

  “YOU MONSTER!” Lea screamed. “YOU CAN’T DO THIS!”

  I’m guessing she doesn’t understand yet that I drank the potion and I couldn’t control this. Poor Lea.

  “Oh, yes I can!” I screeched back in reply.

  “I’m so sorry about this!” Nikki sobbed. They all looked up and scowled at me. I wanted to pull the rope back up and forget this whole thing happened. I was about to drop my only sister and the only other fairies left into a volcano!