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ALICE
THE EXTRAORDINARY
Once
upon a time, an extraordinary young girl named Alice was born to
two ordinary parents, Mommy Dearest and Dear Old Dad. Alice was
a special girl, and her ordinary parents didn't want anyone to know.
So they tried to make her look -- and feel -- ordinary. As a baby, they would let her cry and cry…her parents decided if they came to her too quickly, she would think she was special. Mommy Dearest refused to let Alice wear lace or sequins: that would be far too special for her little girl. Instead, she made her wear plain denim and brown shirts. Dear Old Dad never bought raspberry chocolate-chip ice cream cones for Alice; the only treat Alice ever got was an extra helping of Brussels sprouts. Nothing but the most boring and plain would do for Alice. When Alice was four, she went to Marvelous Mary's Magical Pre-School. By some twist of luck, her parents didn't realize how extraordinary the school was. Alice's teachers realized she could do things the other kids couldn't: she built enormous marshmallow towers, she knew all of her magical symbols by heart, and she created beautiful shimmering fairy dust paintings. When the teachers told Alice's parents about her many amazing talents, they became nervous. "Now people will know she's special!" said Mommy Dearest. "We have to do something!" said Dear Old Dad. So they removed Alice from Marvelous Mary's school and put her in Nasty Nancy's Normal School. Instead of building marshmallow towers, Alice had to do math. Instead of learning magical symbols, Alice learned the alphabet. And instead of painting with fairy dust, Alice drew with pencils. The teachers did not allow Alice to wear her sparkly orange superhero cape in class or to talk to her imaginary friends Puff and Billy. Soon, she felt her specialness fading as she became more and more normal. The years went by, each one more boring than the last. As Alice got older, she learned to be excited about normal things like plastic toys, television, and pizza parties. But it just wasn't the same. Her only joy was reading books, through which she would enter magical worlds and pretend she lived in them. Her favorite books were about grand adventures in amazing lands, incredible and fantastical animals, and ingenious, curious little girls. After years of reading hundreds of books, Alice decided she would write magical books as a career to help other kids like her find an outlet for their imaginations. She learned everything she could about writing, and began crafting stories for herself. But in the insidious way Nasty Nancy's Normal School works, Alice's teachers told her she would be more successful and make more money by doing practical writing at newspapers. By the time Alice reached Upper Normal School, she had forgotten about her dream of writing magical books. Instead she was swayed by normality. She even became the editor of the school newspaper. Naturally, her ordinary parents were perfectly pleased, for they knew no one would see how extraordinary their daughter was now. Eventually, Alice went to Normal University. She tried with all her might to be normal, even though she woke up some mornings not knowing who she was anymore. Where had the magical, imaginative, spontaneous Alice gone? During her time at Normal University, she met a boy named Ordinary Gary and settled down. When she graduated, she got a job at the Normal News. Soon, she and Ordinary Gary were engaged. Alice's parents could not believe their luck. If everything went according to plan, soon they would have incredibly ordinary grandchildren to spoil! But then something happened to Alice. She started seeing fairies. The first time it happened, she was lying in bed, about to fall asleep, when a teeny fairy pinched her nose. Alice sat up with a start and saw two pink fairy wings fly out of her bedroom through the doorway. She told herself she had imagined it and went back to bed. But pretty soon the fairies showed up everywhere: in the coffee room at work, in her ear during her commute home, even in the shower. Eventually, Alice listened to them. They told her, over and over, "Leave Ordinary Gary. Become a teacher. Do it NOW." At first Alice was scared by the fairies' suggestion. How would she ever find love again? How would she get a job? How could she afford school? After many nights crying herself to sleep, Alice listened. Four months before she was supposed to marry Ordinary Gary, Alice called off the wedding. Two months later she met Prince Charming, an artist who loved magic. Alice learned how to be a teacher. And her magic started coming back. She thanked the fairies daily, leaving them tiny snacks of sugarplums and mint-chocolate-chip ice cream. Soon, Prince Charming and Alice married on the magical island of Kaua'i, and started a life together. One day, Alice decided to write a book for kids. She made it magical and full of fun. It was published not too long after and sat on the shelf at her local bookstore. Alice couldn't believe how her life had changed. She got excited about spreading her magic even further. But Mommy Dearest and Dear Old Dad, fearing their daughter had become much too extraordinary, reminded her she needed to make a lot of money from the book or else it would be a failure. Alice was swayed by their argument. Even though her magic was back, it wasn't at 100 percent. She tried to sell as many books as possible by going on a big book tour, writing a blog, making phone calls, and incessantly talking to everyone she knew about the book. She worked so hard she made herself sick. All her thoughts were on money and not magic. The days became dark and dull -- and incredibly normal. As she lay in bed one especially dreary afternoon, Alice realized she hadn't seen the fairies in a while. She thought back to the last time she had seen them, and discovered it had been two years. She couldn't believe how far she'd gotten away from magic! She called for her favorite fairy, Aladriel. Instantly, Aladriel flew into the room, leaving a trail of purple sparkles behind her. "Help!" cried Alice. "I am lost and I don't know how to get my magic back!" Aladriel put her hand on her hip and said, "I thought you'd never ask! Go to Magic University. Regain your strength and belief in magic. Then start your own school and show others how to remember and realize their own magic." Alice knew not to argue. The next day she found Magic University -- and it was only 15 minutes from the house where she and Prince Charming lived. It was meant to be! At first, Mommy Dearest and Dear Old Dad were not pleased to hear about Alice's enrollment at Magic University. They saw their dreams of a normal daughter go down the drain. Now everyone would finally know they had an extraordinary daughter. But something happened as time went by. They watched Alice blossom and grow happier each day. She told them about the magic things she was learning, and some of the ideas didn't sound that scary to them. They even tried for themselves some of the things Alice had learned. And they began to see that having magic wasn't so bad after all. Eventually, they embraced their daughter's extraordinariness, and on her graduation day, they were there to cheer her on, telling every stranger they met, "That's our magical daughter!" And they all lived happily ever after. |