Chance

Make Things Right

I sat there, on the window seat, in my bedroom, watching the soft snow gently float through the sky. Snow was the only thing that seemed to keep me calm at this point in my life. Things were very chaotic and everything was just a mess, but the snow took me away from all of that. I just longed to be able to make things right. Just one more chance would allow me to fix everything, but who would give me another chance, after all, that I had done? 

I woke up one morning to the sound of the snow plow driving down our street, to pave a pathway for kids like me so that we could walk to school on the dry ground instead of the wet snow. As much as I loved the snow, walking in it when you’re trying to get to school, is not fun. 

I went downstairs to the kitchen where my mom, my two brothers, and my older sister were already sitting at the table. I sat down at the table and just waited until my plate of food came. When my mom set a plate down in front of me with eggs and bacon on it, which was usually all I ate on school mornings, I started eating right away. Then, of course, right as soon as my mom left the room, my sister had to say something like she always does, 

“Hey, Victoria. I think I just figured out why nobody likes you anymore.” Before anyone could even speak, my brother stepped in and said, 

“Why do you even have to go there, Vanessa?” Then my sister’s face became all red and she shouted,

“Why do you even have to stand up for that dumb girl! She’s not even your blood sibling! She is my blood sibling and only mine.” 

“Who would’ve ever thought that you would be so defensive about her being your blood sibling? You don’t even care about her. I am actually surprised she even is your blood sibling,” my brother shot back, which shut down Vanessa very quickly and with that, she rolled her eyes, got up out of her chair, and began to walk away, but then stopped in her tracks, turned back around, and yelled at us,

“I’m sick of all of you!” I briefly heard my mom scolding Vanessa, as she was making her way back to the kitchen. My mom always hated when Vanessa was mean to me in front of my younger brother, Beckham, who had been sitting at the table this whole time, but whenever Beckham wasn’t around and Vanessa was being mean to me, my mom didn’t even care. That always confused me, but at this point, I was already used to it, so I didn’t even care. 

Beckham always just sat there and listened to everything that was going on and he never really talked much. He was probably afraid to say anything and I don’t blame him. None of us really spoke that much, except for Vanessa, though, because she was basically the only one who could speak in our house. And then Jake as well from time to time, because he was the strongest of us all and actually stood up to Vanessa. 

Beckham was really cute, though, with very blonde hair and blue eyes. He was four years old. I adored him as much as I adored my older brother, Jake, who always stood up for me. Jake is fourteen and I am thirteen. Jake has blonde hair and blue eyes too, but he talks a lot more than Beckham does. He has a way with words, basically. He’s the only one who can win a battle against Vanessa. Besides, Beckham is only four years old, he’s very shy, and he’s been put through a lot, so he just kind of keeps to himself, but I can get a few words out of him from time to time. 

Out of my three siblings, Beckham, Jake, and Vanessa, Vanessa is the only one who has the same father and mother as me. That means we are blood siblings. Of course, it has to be her. Of all the people in the world. We adopted Beckham after a long time of fostering him and then we took Jake in after some issues had occurred in his biological family. Beckham and Jake have both been through so much in their lives, yet they are the two people who have helped me the most in life. 

When Jake came to live with us, I was basically brought out of the shell that I had been living in for so long. I used to trust nobody in my family. Vanessa was just flat out mean. My mom just didn’t seem to care whatsoever. My dad was my best shot, but he was always gone at work, trying to bring in enough money to keep our family going strong. Jake came and he changed everything. I finally trusted someone and had someone who could fight battles against Vanessa, that I couldn’t even begin to fight. Jake came when he was ten, so that was four years ago. 

On the other hand, Beckham came when he was two, so we’ve had him for two years. Although, one and a half of those two years, he had only been a foster child of ours. Six months ago, he finally became ours for good and that was one of the happiest moments of my life. 

Vanessa was born before me and then roughly three years later, my mom decided she wanted to have another child, so she had me. Vanessa is 17, if you’re wondering. That’s probably why she is such a brat. Who knows? I just try to keep telling myself that next year she will be going off to college and maybe I can have a little bit of a break from her. 

On my walk to school, that same day, I walked alongside Jake. I decided to speak first and break the silence between us, so I said, 

“Thank you for standing up for me again this morning. I just never know what to say in those kinds of situations, so I figure I’m just better off not saying anything at all.” Jake smiled at me and said, 

“No problem. I actually feel really good when I shut her down, because you know, she needs to be defeated at some point in her life. She can’t always have her way and she can’t always win.” I smiled and nodded. After a little bit of silence, Jake spoke again saying, 

“I heard that there have been some issues between you and Crystal lately. What happened?”

“Oh…yeah…about that…umm. Well, basically Whitney Thompson was bullying Crystal one day and I didn’t stand up for her, because…you know…I am not brave enough. I didn’t know what to do. And so, ever since then, Crystal has been mad at me,” I answered and tears filled my eyes. Jake saw that I was starting to cry and he put his arm around me and we walked like that the rest of the way to school. I think I heard him whisper that everything would be okay and suddenly, my tears stopped. He always knew what to say. 

The day of school was a blur. I hardly remember anything that happened. All I know is that things still aren’t better with Crystal. She won’t even talk to me. And Crystal has been my only really good friend since Anna Hathcart and Emily Cage left our school. I don’t like to bother Jake because he has his own school life with all of his friends and stuff, so I was just alone at school. 

When I got back home after school that day, I went straight up into my room and closed the door. I sat at my desk and started on my homework. I usually tried to get my homework done right away, so I could talk with Jake or Beckham later and to just get it over with. Jake would usually do the same thing. 

As I was doing my homework, my pencil had broken, so I opened up the drawer to get my pencil sharpener. In the drawer, I found a purple pencil with Crystal’s name engraved on it. Then I had a flashback of when I was in first grade and had moved to the school. Crystal had given me the purple pencil as a reminder of our friendship. Tears started streaming down my face and I ran into Jake’s room and when he saw me walk in, he quickly got up from his desk and led me to his bed and we sat down. Once we had sat down and we had been sitting there for a little while Jake asked, 

“What’s wrong, Victoria?” I was barely able to get the words out, to tell him why I had started crying, but he knew what I was trying to say anyway. He pulled me into a hug and whispered, 

“Everything will turn out fine. Don’t worry. I promise. Things will be okay. Things will get better.” Then I asked, 

“How do you know that, though?” He looked at me and said, 

“Because…because, I just know. Victoria, I have believed in you ever since I met you. You have the bravery to do many things. You have the courage. All you have to do is just trust and believe in yourself. Can you remember that?” I nodded and smiled and then Jake said,

“Now there’s that smile. Victoria, just remember that I will always love you no matter what.” I nodded and said, 

“I will always love you too.” 

I went back to my bedroom and finished all of my homework, we had dinner, and I played a few games with Beckham in his bedroom. Then, I said goodnight to everyone and went to bed. As I lay in bed, I thought about everything that was going on in life and I just prayed that everything would be fine just like Jake had said. 

While I was sleeping, I was awoken by a bright blue light coming from the floor. There must have been something pushing me to do so because I suddenly got up and out of bed and jumped into the portal. When I was all the way through the portal, I was standing on the basketball court at my middle school. Crystal was talking and laughing with me?! Then a voice said to me, 

“You are currently in the past of your life. This is your one and only chance to make things right again. Can you be brave enough, Victoria?” I answered saying, 

“I don’t know. Can I?” The voice spoke again and said, 

“That is a question you must ask yourself Victoria. I can no longer help you here now. It is up to you Victoria.” I say Whitney Thompson walking towards Crystal and me, of the past. The words that Jake had told me that night were repeating over and over in my head. I knew what I had to do. I slowly walked towards Crystal and myself, of the past, as my heart was beating hard against my chest and when Whitney Thompson was done saying all the mean things about Crystal, words just started spilling of my mouth, 

“You know what, Whitney Thompson, you don’t speak to my friend like that. I don’t appreciate your willingness to just walk up to her and say that stuff about her. How would you like it if we started bullying you? You wouldn’t like it, would you? Just because you’re older than us, by one year, doesn’t mean you get to bully us and make our lives miserable. When you try to put up a fight with Crystal, you have no choice but to put up a fight with me as well.” Whitney was awestruck at the words that had just come out of my mouth and to be honest, so was I. Whitney walked away stomping her feet loudly on the ground as she went. Crystal thanked the Victoria in the past and they hugged. 

The next morning, I felt really weird. I wasn’t sure if it was just a dream or if it was actually real, but when I got to school, I got my answers. Crystal came up to me and acted as normal as can be, like nothing had ever happened. I acted causal and I tried to act as if nothing had happened either. I was completely overjoyed. The rest of the school day, Crystal and I continued to act as if nothing happened and everything was fine between us again. 

When I got back home, I told Jake about everything. I was dying to tell someone. I didn’t want to tell Crystal because there wasn’t much time to. When Jake had heard the whole story, he responded with, 

“See, I knew everything would be fine and I knew you had enough bravery all along.” I just smiled and we sat there together on the couch looking out the window, where there was snow slowly falling down everywhere. 

I was given another chance and I was able to make things right in the end. My friendship with Crystal has been repaired. Things are fine now, just like Jake had said they would be. I ended up having enough bravery and courage all along, all I had to do was just believe in myself. How does Jake know so much? I don’t know, but what I do know is that life is seeming pretty great, now that I finally had the chance to do something over again. 

The End…for now