Wings

Allie Garrett was the smartest kid in Washington Peak Middle School. She had gotten standing ovations from college professors and hadn’t gotten below a 4.00 average in her entire life. But, she also happened to be my next door neighbor. Allie was always trying to invent things and she failed at every single one of them, I would know because she would always invite me to see her latest invention. For a smart girl I bet she doesn’t realize that she fails at all her inventions! That’s why I wasn’t surprised when I got an invitation in the mailbox asking me to come over to her house to see her “fabulous” new thing. This time it said she made a “smart car formula”, with all that she’s made, I’m surprised that she doesn’t run out of room in her garage! So this time, I was really grumpy about going, because I had just got a new video game, “Alien Smashers 3”, and was planning to play it all afternoon.

But, no my mom literally pushed me out the door with the words “You have to go, she invited you and you said yes”.

“But, that was two weeks ago!” I shouted

“You’re going!” she said, and then shut the door and locked it, so I was stuck out here and had no choice but to go to her stupid house and view her failure of an invention at first hand.

“Why me?” I thought as I walked over to her house

I mean I’m not the only one with the misfortune of living next to her. There’s Bobby Tronk down the block and the Fishkin twins, Adela and Adrian, next door. So why am I the only one who has to put up with this?

As I approached her house I was overwhelmed by the horrible smell of rotting vegetables. One time Allie tried to grow a garden with her “super vegetables” and then her formula blew a hole in her backyard, knocking down an old yellow treehouse that her dad made her for her one of her birthdays. I also noticed that there was another car parked outside their garage. That meant that I wasn’t the only one who has the misfortune of knowing her. Yes!!! As I walked across the faded gray stones to her house, I noticed Allie’s cat, Whiskers, getting ready for a nap on the porch. I bet even her own cat didn’t even want to see her latest invention.

I rang the doorbell.

“Who is it?” Allie’s mom, Hilary, asked

“It’s just me, Riley, from next door.” I said

“Come on in, Allie’s waiting for you” she said gesturing me inside the house.

I took off my shoes and went and waited on one of the plush leather sofas in the living room. A few minutes later Allie ran up the basement steps, ushering me into her lab. And following her was her best friend, Teilla Willis.

“I invited Teilla this time, I hope that’s okay.” she said, acting like my occurrence was a regular thing.

“I’m fine with it” I said, still totally happy that she invited somebody else this time.

“Allie’s been raving about her new smart car formula all week. I just had to come and see her test it out” Tiella said, breathless with excitement

“Ok, so this is the formula” Allie said picking up a glass vial with a murky green liquid in it. “All you have to do is pour a little bit of it onto any sort of car and the car will automatically come to life and start doing things by its self!” she finished

“What car are we going to test it on?” I asked

“Just my mom’s old one. She said it was okay if I experimented on it since she’s ready to throw it out.” Allie said, opening the door to the garage and walking in.

Then she started blabbing on about how she made the formula and the ingredients she used to make it, and how she is positive that it will work, something she says every time she makes something. She always turns out to be wrong though. That’s why I am positively sure that the formula that she is about to pour onto the car will not work. It would be more likely that the car would explode or shatter into a million tiny little pieces like the doll she experimented on last month. I watched as she poured the strange liquid onto the car. And then I instinctively ran back and I covered my head with my arms, ready for the car to explode. But, surprisingly, nothing happened.

“Why is nothing happening?” Allie shouted as she kicked the car door.

“Because you suck at inventing” I muttered under my breath

“Maybe it didn’t work right. You should try pouring more onto the car.” Tiella suggested

Allie poured the rest of the formula onto the slippery surface of the car, until the glass vial that was once containing the formula was completely empty.

We waited for a full 2 minutes watching the car and expecting something grand to happen. Then I noticed something.

“The car looks a lot shinier” I said, breaking the silence

“Yea, like it’s brand new again!” Tiella chimed in

“Yay! My formula does work!” Allie squealed, pretending that that was her purpose all along.

The old car was now a bright and shiny with sparkling new wheels. It looked like it was just bought.

“I know what I can do! A lot of my tools are all rusty and old. Why not make them brand new again?” Allie said happily skipping back into her lab.

“Really, that’s what you’re going to use this for?” I thought.

But nevertheless, I followed Tiella back into the lab and watched as Allie picked up 5 more glass vials and dumped some formula on almost everything in her lab. 2 minutes later everything looked brand new.

“I really am a fabulous genius, aren’t I?” Allie boasted, beaming with pride at her own compliment.

“Sure” I said, not really paying attention to her. I didn’t want to give her more satisfaction. I mean this was the only time that nothing bad happened. Now Tiella must think she’s a brilliant inventor or something. I sure don’t.

Suddenly I heard a rustling noise from the garage. I opened the door and saw that the car had magically grown wings. You know the kind that angels have, except way bigger.

“Umm…Allie, I think you should see something” I said

She walked over to where I was, just in time to see the car fly away.

“What the heck!?!” she shouted as the car flew out of sight

Her lab rumbled and everything started sprouting wings and flying away.

Allie ran after them. “My tools! My tools!” she shrieked over and over again.

Tiella tried to catch them too.

I just stood there, smiling at the fact that her lab was gone.

She probably won’t be inventing something else anytime soon!