a short story by Mia Hasselback, 24′

She had lived her entire life in this house, but she was still standing in a hallway she had never seen before. Her name is Blair. She is an obnoxious, bratty 16 year old girl. She was homecoming queen 2 years in a row at her high school in Charleston, South Carolina. She is the most popular girl at her school. She has it all: a boyfriend,David the football teams captain, many loyal and kind friends, good grades, and a loving family. She is an only child and lives in a massive modern house on the outskirts of town. But she was tired of everyone following her around, as everything revolving around her made her feel stressed out all the time. Throughout her life, she had always been the main attention. Everyone had always tried to be her friend. Blair never got a break from being “Homecoming Queen” or “The most popular girl.” She was tired of everyone looking to her for their decisions. She didn’t want everyone to see her as their superior for everything. Blair was done being the cheer team captain, and the dance teams’ MVP every year.
She knew her house inside and out. She thought she knew every spot from all those years of playing hide and go seek with her cousins when she was little, until one day when she stumbled upon a little crack in the floor trying to find her overnight bag under her bed. She saw the crack in the floorboard and noticed it opened. She quickly closed her door and pried open the floorboard. As soon as she opened the floorboard she saw this big beam of gold light.
She has always loved anything gold or silver, so naturally she followed the light down. She went through this majestic garden and arrived at the bright white door with a gold outline. She was unsure if she should go inside and see what was in there,as she had never been down this staircase before. Blair opened the door and saw nothing but an old man sitting in a gold throne with his back toward her. The room she saw was a plain white room with a little table in front of the man. Along with the man was a young girl, around 6 or 7. The man suddenly turned around and said “You must be Blair”
“Ah! Oh… sorry you scared me,” Bair said. They started talking for a little bit. Blair found out the man’s name is Casper, he said he was here to help her. “What do you mean help me? I have the perfect life. I don’t need your help” Blair said with a little bit of attitude. Blair and Casper started talking about Blair’s life, and before she knew it, she was completely blown away about how much the man knew about her life and how she was feeling.
“Blair, listen to me ok? I know how you feel and what your going through, I’ve been watching you through my crystal ball and I’ve been waiting for you to finally come down.”
“But what could you possibly do to help me?”
After a few more hours of talking went by and some years later, Blair finally understands what it means to be Blair, she understands what she wants and what she doesn’t want. After a few hugs and thank yous, Blair has to head back up to her room. Blair walked back through the big white and gold doors and back through the garden. She headed up the stairs and sat on her bed. She just sat there and thought about her life. That’s when it hit her, “I want to be well liked, but I liked being popular because I can help so many people.” The following day at school, Blair completely turned her attitude around. She was nicer to everyone: she stopped bossing people around and she bought all her friends friendships bracelets and apologized to them for being so mean.
A few months had passed and Blair was still the most popular girl in school, but she was also the nicest person to everyone. That night Blair was laying in bed and just thought to herself, “That man just changed my life forever.”