Finally in Paris

“Hi there! I’m Lorelei, and we are in Paris enjoying ourselves, We were once a bunch of kids who sell newspapers, But now we’re not, Here’s our story..”

It all started for me and my sister Karen a couple years ago.

We weren’t that rich, Dad had his own business and we had a full time Mom.

Me and Karen were twins, and we both were 13 when Dad’s business collapsed and They committed suicide . We didn’t know what to do, We used to rent the house, so when we couldn’t pay the rent, the owner kicked us out..

We were out in the roads, not knowing what to do, then we met the kids who sell newspapers for a living, they are other kids like us who have the same kind of story, they are Orphans like us..

They invited us to be one of them, and we agreed cause we didn’t have another choice, we were starving.

The orphans had a little hut where they all lived together, we joined in too, There were a lot of them in town and in our team there were 4, ours was a small team with only 4 girls including us .

We all squished in together inside the tiny hut, we had to make it a bit bigger or only 2 people would fit.

After renovating the hut there were 2 beds we found that someone had threw near the dumpster. And we also got a mat.

We had to sleep 2 people in 1 bed so that everyone could sleep.

Me and Karen slept together.

But before we went to bed, We all Introduced ourselves.

The other 2 girls were Jessalyn and Jayden, they weren’t sisters but, they both are orphans, After we had some bread in the evening, Jessalyn told us How to work ..

She told that every day, you go to any newspaper company and pay 60 cents for 100 newspapers. Then you sell each newspaper for 1 cent. If you sell all the newspapers, you get 100 cents, from which 60 cents will go for tomorrow’s newspaper, so you get 40 cents for food.

She sighed and told that “this is how you live in this town”

Me and Karen were scared.. So we asked “What will happen if we cant sell all 100?”

Jayden told “If you were alone and couldn’t sell all 100, you would starve and die, but we are all 4 right! So after you all sell, take all you have and put it in this box, and We will use my cents for food. Then we can save money for later!”

We thought this isn’t that bad! So everyday we sold as much as we can. And put it in the box while Jayden used her money for our food.

We also made cute nicknames for us! Jayden- Jay, Jessalyn- Jess

Lorelei(me)- Lei, Karen- Karie

3 Years passed by, we kept doing the same and we didn’t look inside the box, one day Jay decided to look inside the box.

She called all of us and said, “Girls today we count our savings, and if we have enough we will get something really helpful for us.” We all couldn’t be more exited.

We stayed up that night to count all our savings..

AND WE HAD 1314 DOLLARS!! THAT WAS A LOT FOR US!

Jess recommended that we save up more, and we agreed because we were greedy and wanted more.

One month later, the other bandit group found out that we have a lot of money saved up..

And when we were away selling newspapers, they stole EVERYTHING we got and when we all came back to put our money in the box, we found that it was all gone..

Karie fainted..And Jess kept crying all day, me and Jay didn’t know what do to...

Then Jay thought for a minute, and she told me “Take care of both of them, I will be back..a week later”

I said “No Jay, You..You can’t leave us for that long!”

She told “I am not leaving lei! I need some time to solve this.”

I said alright.

We slept that night, and Karie was crying so much, Jess cried “It’s all my fault! I was greedy and said to save more!”

I said “It’s alright mistakes happen Jess, it’s ok”

That night we slept without Jay.

A week passed by, I was worried, I couldn’t find Jay anywhere, I searched everywhere while selling newspapers.

While I was searching I found the bandits’ camp, I was so mad but there were boys in there so I knew I couldn’t defeat them.

I returned back home and I saw Jay coming back, I ran to her and hugged her, I sad “Jay! I missed you!”

She told me “WE ARE RICH!”

I was like “What!?”

She told “I will explain, lets go home first”

So we went home and Jess was still crying with Karie by her side, Jay jumped in and shouted “Everyone get together! WE ARE RICH!!!” Everyone was confused, and Karie was really into fainting since she was a kid and she fainted now as usual.

I was just so surprised, how are we rich? I asked Jay.

She told “Remember I went away? I walked a long distance not knowing what to do, then I a found a broken pencil, and a book near a dumpster so the only reasonable job to do was write a story with all I’ve got,”

Jess said “You actually wrote a story? No way, You told you didn’t know to do anything!”

Jay replied “Ok fine, I might have lied, I was born with the ability to write, Just let me complete alright?

Jay continued” I was sure no one would buy it but it was worth a try. The next day I went along and wrote a story and kept asking everyone to buy it, I went from house to house for several days and finally I reached a house, the person told that he will read it and see if it’s worth the money, Suddenly the person said that I wrote a wonderful story, and recommended me to a story publisher! I was surprised, really surprised! Then my story got published within 2 days!

And within 1 day, A MILLION PEOPLE BOUGHT MY BOOK!

And Karie just woke up and she fainted again..sigh

We are rich! And then we bought a home, a big one, and Jay kept writing books which made us infinite money!

Years went along quickly…

Jess is a professional cook now!

And Karie is a professional hand letterer.

We can do jobs because we’re adults now!

And I also decided to be a writer, this is my first book, and I wrote.. Our Story.

We are now in Paris, and all 4 of us are officially sisters and we promised we will never leave each other…

THE END

Written by Devapriya Sreekala