If this story found its way into your hands, got you to open its pages and read its words then maybe just maybe, you don't believe in magic. I was like you once. I didn't believe in magic. I didn't believe in anything, that science couldn't explain. But, this is the story that made me believe, this is the story that changed who I was into who I am, this is my story.
My name is Penny Barbara Jones, but you can call me P.J., if you want its what everyone calls me, like I said before this is the story of how I learned to believe in magic. It was Tuesday and when I woke up in the morning, all I could think was let me stay home and sleep. 'Come on, Penny, Wake up!' called my Mom as she past my door doing her morning routine. I forced open my eyes and blinked until everything came into focus. I took a quick look at the clock. Shoot it was 6:43 AM. I staggered to the bathroom to take a shower. Ten minutes later, I was wrapped in my robe looking for something to wear in the closet. I finally settled on a pair of black jeans and a plain blue-green t-shirt. Around 7:01 AM, I was running a comb through my thick red hair. Then I was in the kitchen grabbing a bowl out of the cabinet, pouring cereal and milk in it and found a spoon. I sat at the table and began to spoon cereal into my mouth.
'Hey P.J., Do you want to play a game on the Gamecube when we get home?' asked my little brother Jamie. 'No, J. P., I'll probably have a lot of homework' I said. Apparently, my parents have a bad sense of humor cause when I was born they named me Penny Barbara Jones and called my brother Jamie Percy Jones, so everyone calls me P.J. and him, J.P.
I'm finally at school and I have to hurry and get out of the car before my mom can --- 'Make good choices, Sweety' calls my Mom out the car window just like 'Freaky Friday' ' Say that! Somebody kill me, I think as I walk even faster to get away from the eyes that turned to stare at me. It was the third week of my freshman year and I was a complete outcast, not that it bugged me that much. I'm not the kind of person that wants to be popular or even noticed, but it would have been nice if I had some friends. I was too shy to make friends and I didn't talk much. But, I was smart not that being smart completely made up for it. I practically ran down the hall to first period. As soon as I was in the door and in my seat, the bell rang. I had just made it. Miss Eazel had just closed the door and began class when there was a knock on the door. Miss Eazel walked over and opened the door. 'Yes?' she asked the person at the door. I looked up to see who it was ' I knew just about everyone in the 9th grade. One thing about being quiet was that you always hear more than people know. I was surprised that I didn't know this girl; I had never even seen her around the school. It had been a long time since we had a new kid
'I'm Annie Carday. Is this room 205?' asked the girl. She was tall with long dark hair and wearing faded jeans and a tye dye shirt. I went back to day dreaming, I didn't really care that we got a new kid in class, it was just one small difference in the one big long day and night called school. All the days ran together, it gave me a headache trying to remember if I had done something yesterday or a week ago.
Oh, Yes you're the new student, come on in and take a seat.' Miss Eazel said shutting the door again as Annie took the seat next to me. I must have zoned out after that because the next thing I knew Miss Eazel said, 'Penny, you and Annie will work together on the project.' I gave an inward groan. The project was to go around the room and measure things in it.
I raised my eyes to look at Annie, only to quickly drop them. She was staring at me like she wanted to burn a hole in my forehead. My face turned red like always, whenever someone looks or talks to me I blush. I don't know why, I just do.
'OK, everyone get started.' Said Miss Eazel.
I got up and went over to get a ruler then went to the spot Miss Eazel had pointed out. Annie was still staring at me as she walked over. I would not say her stare was mean looking but, it wasn't overly friendly looking either.
'Hi' she said when she was next to me.
'Hi' I said quietly back, my shyness kicking in. We were about finished, only talking when we had to. Annie seemed nice enough. She had stopped staring but continued to steal quick glances at me. It had gone from weird to strange to just plain creepy. It was getting annoying, I could tell that I was going to snap and soon if she didn't cut it out. 'What?' I hissed quietly to her after I managed to gather my nerve. She jumped slightly and turned away. That was so weird, I thought to myself.
Thank goodness it's the end of the day I thought as I went to the bus that afternoon. As always, I was one of the first on the bus. I sat staring out the window, daydreaming. I didn't notice how crowded the bus had got or that the spot next to me was the only seat left when the last person got on the bus. I did hear them sit down next to me but I didn't really take much notice of it. It wasn't until the bus hit a big hole did I come out of my daze. The first thing I noticed was the feeling that someone was watching me. I turned my head to face forward and out of the corner of my eye I saw who it was. To my horror it was Annie. I was beginning to wonder if she was some kind of murderer stalking me for some unknown reason. No you're just being paranoid, I said silently to myself or are you? My imagination was running wild with different ways Annie could kill me. I was beginning to freak myself out when I noticed the seat was shaking.
I looked over at Annie that's when I noticed it was Annie who was shaking the seat. She was violently shaking, her hands covered her mouth, and there were tears running down her face. At first I was wondering if she was ill when I noticed she was laughing. Now I was confused, what the heck was so funny. Maybe she's bipolar, I thought. I turned back to the window and noticed I was almost home. A few moments later the seat stopped shaking so I guessed that Annie was over her laughing fit.
The bus pulled up to the house next door to mine and stopped. The house had been for sale a long time and someone had recently bought it. My heart sank as I watched Annie get up and walk down the aisle, down the steps and up the driveway. Annie Carday was my new next door neighbor.
The next few days after that seemed to go normally as before Annie moved in next door. But Friday afternoon, something I would never forget happened. Ding Dong, Ding Dong went the bell - who in the world could that be? I was home alone and since I didn't have any friends I wasn't expecting anybody. It's probably the mailman delivering something or so I thought.
Ding Dong, Ding Dong, Ding Dong, Ding Dong, Ding Dong, Ding Dong, OK maybe it 's not the mailman. I walked to the door and peeked out the little hole thing that people look out to see who is at the door . 'What the?' I stammered to myself. It was Annie. 'What does she want?' I asked the air. Curiosity, made me open the door for her.
'What?' I asked curious and annoyed at the same time.
'Will you help me?' she asked with desperation in her voice.





'Help you what?' I asked I was beginning to get worried.
'Will you help me?' her voice cracked with emotion.
'Are you in trouble?' I asked urgently.
'Yes, Will you help me?' she sounded close to tears.
'Yes, of course, come on in.' as I said this I could feel my eyes growing wide with worry and fear.
'Oh, Thank you, Penny!' Annie cried out as soon as I shut the door behind her. She threw her arms around me and the tears I had heard finally appeared.
'Come on.' I said quietly, 'Let's go up to my room and you can tell me what you need help with.'
'OK.' She said her voice thick with tears.
I lead her up the steps to my room and sat her down on my bed. I sat acrossed from her on my desk chair. 'Annie, if this is about the homework Miss Eazel assigned us I don't understand it either.' I said hoping vainly that it was that simple.
'Oh no that's not it.' She said.
'Well what is it then?' I asked curiosity getting the better of me.
'My world is dying.' She whispered, 'and you are the only one I've found so far who can help me save it.'
I stared at her with wide eyes my neck pricked and goosebumps sprang up and down my arms.
'W-W-What?' I croaked.
'Come on, I'll show you.' Annie said as she jumped up and pulled me by my hand. She dragged me over to my closet door. She grabbed the knob, but instead of opening the door she closed her eyes. A few moments later, she opened her eyes and opened the door. I stared on in mutely, shocked as I saw it wasn't the interior of my closet on the other side.
'W-W-What?' I stammered, as Annie lead me through the door I stared in amazement on what was on the other side. At first glance, it would appear to be the most wonderful place in the world, the trees and grass were the greenest green I'd ever seen and the sky was the richest shade of blue, I could have imagined. It was like a picture out of a fairytale. But then I blinked and took a closer look there were patches of brown dried up grass and dead leaves under dying trees. It was then I remembered Annie had told me her world was dying but I could never have imagined this.
'This is the Realm of Light, my world.' Said Annie with pride.
'Who are you?' I asked, my head buzzing with everything that I was taking in.
'Annie Carday is my real name.' 'I was in your world on a quest to find people with strong imaginations who still believe in magic.' Annie said looking at me.
'But I don't believe in Ma-' I started to say but, Annie covered my mouth.
I looked at her with startled eyes. 'You can't say you don't believe here, if you do everything will die faster.' She said clearly distressed.
She removed her hand and I hastily said, 'I'm so sorry Annie, I didn't mean it.'
'I know Penny it's o-Glowworm!' she gasped as her eyes brightened as she looked past me. She ran around me and I turned to see what she had seen. It felt as if the wind had been knocked out of me as I watched Annie throw her arms around the most gorgeous creature I had ever seen. It was a pure white horse with at crystalline horn in the center of its forehead.
'Is that a ' Unicorn?' I gasped, my eyes and mouth both wide open.
'Yep, this is Glowworm, come on pet her. She 's real friendly.' Called Annie.
I managed to move my feet up to the beautiful animal. Still in awe, I raised my hand and sit it on Glowworm's neck and ran it down her back. She felt like what I would imagine a cloud would feel like if you could touch it.
'Are there any more?' I asked still amazed by the fact I was actually touching a unicorn.
'Yeah, but not as many as there use to be.' Annie answered sadly.
'Why?' I asked, instantly.
'Because people in you world are losing faith and have stopped believing in magic.' She said quietly. 'This world is made up by things imagined by those who believe in the magic of their own imaginations. But when people stopped believing this world stared dying. That's why I brought you here Penny, so you could see the magic and learn to believe in it. Now you can go home and help to teach others to believe in Magic too.'
'But isn't that why you came to my world?' I asked when Annie had finished her speech.
'Yes, but I got a whole world that needs to believe in magic again. That's why I'm looking for people like you who have strong imaginations and can easily believe in magic to help me.' She said.
'You will help me won't you?' She asked worriedly.
'I already said Yes Annie.' I answered.
'Thank You, Penny!' she said as gratefulness filled her eyes.
'Oh, Annie.' I said
'Yes?' she asked.
'You can call me P.J.' I said as a mark of friendship.
'Well P.J. ' she said 'Do you want to see some more of this place?'
'You Bet!' I said with excited anticipation of seeing more wonderfully magic things.
I won't bore you with the details of the rest of that day but I can easily say that I will never forget it. I saw everything you could ever imagine and if I didn't as soon as you imagine it it'll pop up on the Realm of Light. That's if this story did what it was suppose to and you now believe in magic. Because if this story found its way into your hands, got you to open its pages and read its words then maybe just maybe it found its way into your heart.