No dream too big

No Dream Too Hard

Chapter 1 My Dream

 “Robert! Stop picking on Austin and get down here ad help with breakfast!” I yelled up the stairs. What’s the point of yelling when no one listens? Ah, but Robert usually did listen. He came downstairs, his hair in a mess, and buttons were popped of his shirt. “Ugh, go change your shirt. That’s the third one you tore this week. If you expect to be a fighter you can at least pick on someone your own age for your so called training! And also, run a brush through your hair. I might have to send you to the market for more baby dills!” I shouted up the stairs as he walked away. You see, mom and dad were at the county court of justice, though Linda calls it the CCJ, they were there for a reason, and it wasn't because they were in trouble. You see, my dad is a detective, my mom a lawyer. I guess law just runs in our family’s veins. Robert wants to be a Sheriff, Austin wants to be a lawyer like my mom, Linda wants to be a judge, and Suzanna (we call her Suzie) would love to be the Lacey County policewoman. I’m the odd ball of the family. I want to be a baker. I bake cupcakes, cookies, cakes, scones, every single sweet you can imagine, I can make it.  I guess I’m just the everyday odd-ball. Linda thinks my talent is really, really useless. Austin says my gift is cool, but pretty useless, Robert claims my cookies are the bomb, but I shouldn’t make a whole entire business. Only Suzie likes my gift, she says I’m really talented, even my mom and my dad say that I won’t make a good enough living to support myself, and when they get too old to work, them too.  Oh well, it’s my dream I just simply wish I can fulfill it.

Today my siblings and I are all making sure that our house is clean and the snacks all set out. “Linda! Would you please get out the pickles and cut them in slices for the party? And Austin, vacuum your room again I saw you bring a bag of potato chips and didn’t see you bring them back out… NOW!” did I forget to add, I’m the second oldest, Suzie is first. Oh well, I suppose that’s why we get along so easy, we’re only a year apart. “TJ! Come here!” Suzie called for me. If you’re wondering, TJ stands for Trisha Jaclyn. Although most of my friends and family call me Jake, TJ is just Suzie’s special nickname for me, and Austin calls me Jack-O-Lantern. Its not very flattering, but I deal with it. The Texas sun was burning bright as our parents drove up the driveway. Linda ran outside and pounced on dad who took off his hat and promptly set it on Linda’s head. I am sure he’s a true cowboy. Mom simply kissed Linda and hurried inside. When she got in she groaned, “The sun is getting hotter and hotter nowadays, I sweat more each day! If it gets any hotter we may have to move out!” she remarked. Instantly Suzie stopped putting pillows o the couch, I quit cutting baby dills, Austin dropped the bag of chips, and Robert stopped everything, even his breathing. Mom stared at us. “What? We ain’t moving yet!” she said. Everyone sighed.  Linda and dad walked in and were laughing about something or other; they were always having the best of times.  Linda was a true daddy’s girl.

Anyway, when we all got to breathe again, everyone relost their breath and burst out laughing. How relieved was I that we were not moving! I ran upstairs to grab my stereo and my FEE CD. I popped in the music so that at least we could listen to music while we worked, to my surprise all my family including me started going faster, and everyone was happy! No fight. No gripes. No complaints. No nothing!  Man, the miracles of music! Yep, and Austin didn’t even like the band.  Suppose if you have a good attitude, play some music, and keep your mouth shut you can work faster and happier. The whole family joined in singing Faithful By Fee.  “To us God!” Austin sang at the top of his voice. Everyone laughed. “POWERFUL!” Linda sang happily. Suzie laughed and mom giggled. You could say we are a pretty cool family. Robert stopped and looked around our house. “Geez, our house looks pretty sweet. Oh Boy! Hey. Did we invite the Thwompsons? You know, with-“But Linda cut him off. “We know who the Thwompsons are. And yes they are coming. We invite them every year Robert.” Robert’s best friend was Henry Thwompson. “I don’t care who comes, I just want some snow!” Suzie shouted. Mom stared at her blankly. “Um, Suzie, you do know that it doesn’t snow in Texas, right?” Suzie frowned. “Well, maybe for our next vacation we can go to Mount Rainer in Washington State. That could be fun. Besides, Robert hasn’t been there yet, only Suzie and I have, but we were babies. Mom, think we could go there?” I asked. “I’ll think about it, maybe some snow would be good for a change.” She answered. Suzie exchanged her frown for a smile. “Mom, I was thinking instead of spending money on cookies from the store, I could make a few desserts?” I said. Mom looked at me. “You ask this every year,” she said “But you always say it right before the party, Trisha. No, I need more of a notice.” “But I could help her!” Austin jumped to the rescue. I smiled hopefully at mom. She seemed to be considering if she should. “What are you planning on making?” She sighed. I smiled. “Well, I thought peanut butter fudge brownies would be good, along with some chocolate variety cookies and marshmallow chocolate cake.” I said. “Are you sure you can be done in just 2 hours?” she asked. I nodded eagerly. I could see a hint of smile in moms face. She went behind me and tied her old apron behind me. I beamed. Then Linda went behind Austin and tied her apron behind him. “Well, if you want to be done by 6:00 PM, you better hop to.” Mom said. “Alright!” I shouted. “Okay, Austin you can do the chocolate variety cookies, I’ll do the cake, and we’ll both work on the brownies.” “I’ll handle them, if it’s okay with mom.” Suzie said. I smiled, and then handed out the recipes, I really knew all of them by heart, I wrote them of course. But I had written them down just in case. “Go ahead, but hurry.” Mom said. I nodded.

 Eventually we were all done with baking, granted the frosting on the cake was a bit lumpy, and the cookies almost burnt when Austin didn’t set a timer, but the brownies were perfect. “Hmm, delicious!” Robert cried when he ‘tested’ all of it. I smiled. “The cake is so wonderful!” He cried as he pretended to grab the cake and run off to his room. I shook my head. “Well, thanks guys!” I said and the other two took a bow. I smiled. “Trisha, I need help!” I heard mom shouting in the other room. I ran to the front room where she was setting up board games. “Trisha, I need you to take Life and put it on table #4, okay.” “Okay.” I grabbed the game from mom and began setting up Life on table #4. “Aww.” Robert groaned. He hated Life the game I mean, because h always lost it. I giggled secretly, on time I had beaten him eight times in a row. He ran off to the kitchen to cut more veggies then to put them in a tray. “Trisha, are the Cukter’s coming today? I don’t know ‘cause they never RSVP’d.” Mom asked me. “Yeah, I’m sorry I forgot to tell you! Lizzie told me to.” I said. “It’s fine.” Mom answered me. “I just wanted to make sure.”

Chapter 2 Here are the guests!

An hour or so passed and we were finally ready for the party. Everything was perfect! Snacks were on counters and tables, games were set out all ready to play, and there were chairs all around the tables with little candles on the hearth. I grinned; it looked like Christmas all over again.  We even had presents under the tree for the annual gift exchange. I was exchanging gifts with you got it- Henry Thwompson. He was alright, but I always liked to think of his last name. Have you watched Thor? If so, you will remember when he called Agent Phil Colson (Son of Col) that’s because that was how old English people talked, so when I thought of Henry Thwompson, it would translate to (Son of Thwomp.) So I just thought that was funny.

Chapter 3 the accident

Anyway, the first family came the Thwompsons of course. “Yes.” I heard Robert mutter, and then he grabbed Henry and ran to the kitchen to raid the snacks, when I went back a terrible sight was on the floor. “My CAKE!” I shouted. Henry looked at me with shame. “I’m sorry.” I heard him mutter. I looked at Robert. I went to the pantry and grabbed the broom and mop. Robert chewed on his lip, and then took the cleaning supplies from y hand. “I’ll clean it.” Just then, Suzie walked into the room. She gasped at the terrible sight that was before her. “What happened?” She whispered, just loud enough so I could hear. “Nothing.” I said. Then she walked off, after Robert finished, I took the broom and mop from him.  Then I pulled him aside. “What happened?” I asked. Robert swallowed. “Um, well, we, we, we were running to get some baby dills, and I- well, actually Henry tried to grab my hood so he could get some first, but instead he hit the cake.” He explained. I crouched down to his height. “It was an accident, but be more careful from now on, okay?” I said. He nodded silently. I stood back up and shooed him towards Henry, then I walked to the door because I heard someone. “Jake!” Lizzie shouted then grabbed me in a hug. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, as usual. She was a very sporty girl. “Hey Lizzie!” I replied. “Any veggies?” she asked as she walked towards the snack table. I smiled, she was always for being healthy, although last year I saw her sneak some store-bought donuts, silly Lizzie! “Eh, what are these?” I heard her ask from the kitchen. “Dragonfruit.” I answered her. “They come from I think Kenya, they don’t really taste that good, but I thought the look would be good with the New Year’s party, so I bought a few.” “Oh.” I looked at her. “Um, wanna try one?” I asked. She shook her head. “It looks too weird.” I smiled; leave it to Lizzie to be the goof-ball of the ages. The door rang again, and Lizzie and I ran to answer it. “Aunt Lucie and Uncle Jeff!” I exclaimed. “Oh, and of course I can’t forget little Michel!” I said, as I cooed at the baby that Aunt Lucie had handed me. “Well! You are so grown up!” I said. Aunt Lucie smiled. “Hi Jake! Lizzie, how are ya’ll doing?” My favorite Aunt asked. Uncle Jeff was a complete contrast to Aunt Lucie, while she was loud and boisterous, he was quiet and reserved. She had fiery red hair that I inherited from her, while he had soft brown hair that was ultra thin. Slowly guest started to crowd our house, ah! Plenty of friends, family, and joy.

Chapter 4 Gift exchange!

 I found out whom my secret Santa was, Aunt Lucie! When it was time to open gifts, I handed my gift to Henry, a little package that contained a Swiss army knife. (Don’t worry! I got permission from his parents first.) He opened it, his eyes widened. “Wow! Really Jake?” I nodded, then Aunt Lucie came over to me, and handed me a huge box I hadn’t seen her lug in when I opened the door. I opened it, inside lay an enormous bake set, it had a recipe book, apron, baker’s hat, measuring cups and spoons, little cookie and muffin trays. I gasped. “Whoa! Thanks Aunt Lucie! Awesome!!!!” I grabbed the pretty apron, it was pink. Pink with blue roses all along the fringe. “I picked it out!” Aunt Lucie said. I grinned. “Thanks.” I repeated .Uncle Jeff smiled under his bushy mustache. “Look what I got TJ!” Suzie called to me. I gasped at the pretty china doll that lay in her arms. “In named her Jaclyn, after you.” She said. I grinned at the doll. I looked around, but just then the bell that alerted everyone the games were about to begin rang. I smiled and dashed over to the Clue table, Lizzie went with me. I’m not sure if I mentioned this, but even though we are extremely different in a ton of ways, we’re to peas in a pod me and her. We always played as a team, no matter what. We guessed Scarlet, in the guestroom, with a bat, and hey! Lucky guess! We got it right on the first try! Everyone burst out laughing, all but Uncle Jeff, he glared at me, but I could see the twinkle in his eyes, and the smile that was trying to peek out of his mustache.  I smiled, well, we better move on to a different game. “C’mon, where now?” I asked Lizzie. She pointed to a table. “Life.” She said.  Robert was sitting at that table, I had a feeling he wanted to get it over with, I nodded at him. He nodded back. “Come on Lizzie.” I said, she was stuffing baby dills down her throat. Of course we beat Robert. I looked at Lizzie and grinned, she grinned back. It was fun. We retired with forty billion dollars, but Robert retired with two thousand, it was pretty angering for him, funny for us, he took it good-naturedly anyway. He didn’t really care he told me later, but back to that time frame. Anyway, I was just helping put the game up when I overheard Tracy McDanny talking. “Yeah, I’m super excited! You see, our school is going to be having a fundraiser for the Make-A-Wish foundation. It’s gonna be cool! But the problem is, I’m in charge and I have no clue how we are going to raise five-hundred dollars in just two months! That was how much our teacher said we had to raise, can you imagine? So any ideas?” My ears perked up. A fundraiser!? I had the perfect idea!

Chapter 5 My idea

I looked at Lizzie. “Did you hear what Tracy just said?!” I asked. She nodded. “So?” I grinned. “Lizzie, you’re my best friend! And we’ve been friends since kindergarten; I would only want help from you alone. Will you help me?” She raised an eyebrow suspiciously. “What are you up to, Jake?” she asked, but I could tell she was holding back a smile. She already knew what I was up to; she grabbed my hand and ran up to my room. We both sat on the bed. “Alright.” She said. “How do you want to do this?” I grabbed my journal. “First, we should find out what the favorite recipes are by asking friends and family, we will choose the top three that were picked. Then what we’ll do is cook them. Then we can give them to Tracy, and she can use it for her fundraiser!” I said. Lizzie looked doubtful. “Um, where are we going to, to you know, get the money for ingredients?” She asked. I chewed on the eraser of my pencil. “That does present a problem, huh?” I said. She nodded. I sighed. “I know!” I said. “There’s this discount store by WinCo, and they sell food really cheap. We can by the stuff there! I have an allowance of ten dollars every week, I have been saving up for a while now, and I have sixty dollars, which should be enough.” Lizzie smiled. “I have some money at home too. Not quite as much as you, about forty dollars, but that together make a hundred.” I nodded. “Okay, so tomorrow we can shop for supplies, I’ll meet you at the bike rack by WinCo, and then we can go shopping.” I said. “What time?” She asked. “How about at 3:00 PM?” I asked. I was so excited I nearly fell down the stairs while running. Pretty soon, everybody left, and I had the time to tell my family my idea. Mom nodded thoughtfully, dad sighed, (that was usually pretty good) and my sibling didn’t say a word. Finally Suzie spoke. “That sounds great, TJ.” She said. I looked at her thankfully, for breaking the silence. Dad nodded in approval, and a smile was soon across Mom’s face. “Alright! Sounds great, but are you sure Lizzie and you can handle this?” I nodded. “Well, can’t I help?” Suzie asked. “Sure! You can meet Lizzie with me at WinCo.” I said. She smiled.

Chapter 6 Let’s go shopping!

Pretty soon, Suzie and I were waiting for Lizzie at the bike rack. Lizzie soon arrived with her mother in her big black van. I nodded. “Hi, Lizzie!” I greeted her. “Ready to hop to?” Suzie asked. Lizzie nodded. We all walked to the store. The night before we had taken the poll, and the three desserts chosen were my minty cookies, my triple chocolate peanut butter fudge brownies, and the last one was my old fashioned strawberry cheesecake. “Okay, I have the list of ingredients we need right here.” I said I handed a list out to us all. “Now, the items you personally need to get are marked. See, right next to walnuts I put an S, because Suzie has to get that, next to strawberries I put an L, Lizzie gets that, and so forth. Get it?” I said. Both of them nodded. Then we all went off and eventually we were all at the aisle number eight, where we had agreed to meet after we were done shopping. Suzie was last to get there, I was first. We all went to the cash register to pay. We clocked in at $87. 90, so I gave Lizzie all the extra we had left. Eventually, we went home.

Chapter 7 The work!

Three cheesecakes, two batches of brownies, and two dozen cookies later, we were exhausted. We still had tons to bake though, so we took a break and went to Jack in the Box for milkshakes. Lizzie ate her cherry, “Boy! That was tough! Are we done yet?” she asked. I shook my head no. “We still have four dozen more cookies, two more cakes, and about four or so more brownies to make.” I answered her. “Look, can we have dinner? Our mothers are over there, could we ask if we could eat here? All the cake was making me hungry!” Lizzie said. I looked up at the sun that was still warming us, but slowly setting to indicate we had passed three hours baking, making it 6:00 PM. I nodded, and Suzie walked over to their booth and asked. She came back with a twenty dollar bill, she took our orders and soon we had burgers and fries. We were done, and I suggested we have a sleepover, because then we could go straight to baking the next day. Lizzie looked hesitant, “Are you sure we don’t have enough?” She asked. Suzie and I nodded in unison. “Oh alright!” she said. We went home and dropped into bed. Lizzie’s mom had dropped by with all her stuff earlier, and was still downstairs talking to mom. I looked over where Suzie lay with Lizzie beside her. They were already sound asleep, but I could not sleep, I was way too excited.

Chapter 8 Robert!

We woke up the next morning, pulled on our clothes. We all knew Robert was probably already up, he was a very early riser. We went downstairs for breakfast. But the sight before us! OH WOW! Lizzie gasped, Suzie stared in horror, and I started screaming. “What have you done!!!???” I screamed. Robert looked up from where he was cleaning up what little cheesecake was remaining that was on the floor. Tears began to fill his eyes. “What have you done?” Suzie said softly, but there was anger in her voice. Yep, that was Suzie, always keeping her temper, but you could tell when she was mad. Lizzie was just plain pale, she looked at the floor. I stomped over and snatched up the broom he was holding. “Give me that!” I said. He looked at me, but his expression was dark. He got mad easily, and I snatching the broom set him off. “You don’t have to be so rude, Trisha! I’m going to tell mom, and she’ll ground you for the rest of your life!” he raged. I looked at him stomp up the stairs. I looked at my sister and friend. I began to go upstairs too, but I was stopped by Suzie’s comment. “WWJD? What would Jesus do?” she said. I glared at her, but then swallowed. “Forgive him.” I answered. “But he should be punished.” I said. “That’ not out place though.” Suzie replied. I sighed, I knew that. I looked at Lizzie. “Sorry.” I said. She gave me a little smile, but unlike most friends, she wasn’t uncomfortable. She was just as mad as I was, I could tell Robert had angered all of us. I swallowed, then gently went up the stairs. I went into mom and dad’s room where Robert was screaming that I had been mean, and I yelled at him, and I picked on him, but he failed to mention his fault. Mom looked at me, and gave me a sideways glance. “Trisha, what really happened?” Dad asked. I looked at Robert. “I don’t know. All I know is that when I came downstairs all our desserts we spent all day on yesterday were ruined.” I said. Mom looked down at Robert. “Honey is this true?” she asked. He looked at me. I noticed his expression had turned from anger to shame. “I was looking for the milk, and I saw it behind a lot of tinfoil. I decided I could simply grab the milk from behind it, but instead, I knocked all of it to the floor. I’m sorry.” He said. Lizzie tilted her head; apparently she and Suzie had followed me upstairs. Dad sighed. “Robert, next time move what you need to before you go the ‘easy’ way. Trust me; it is not going to be easy.”  He said. Robert nodded. “Robert, you have to but not only get new ingredients, but you also have to help them cook. That fair, girls?” he said we nodded. “I don’t have that much money!” Robert said. “You can borrow from me, but you must pay it back my doing chores, mowing the lawn, washing the car, vacuuming the house, things like that.” Dad replied. Robert nodded.

Chapter 9 Time to share!

Well, eventually after re-buying ingredients again, we were cooking. Robert found it was actually fun, and with the extra help in two days we had cooked all we needed. ALL OF IT!!! I was so excited, that we all went straight to Tracy’s house. She answered the door. “Oh hi guys! What’s with the wagon? Want to come in?” she greeted us, and soon we were inside sipping lemonade. I explained it all, and soon an enormous grin was spread across Tracy’s face. “Sounds awesome! A bake sale is exactly what we should do!” she said. I pulled the wagon to her. “Here you go. It’s all yours.” I said. Tracy swallowed. “Oh, you baked it all for us?” she asked. Lizzie nodded wearily. “Um, this isn’t going to be enough. And we high-schoolers’ have to do it ourselves. Thanks anyway though.” She said. Lizzie slapped her forehead. “UGH!!” I looked at her. “So, you can’t use this?” I asked Tracy.  She shook her head, no. Suzie frowned. “Any of it?” Suddenly, Tracy’s eyes brightened. “WAIT! I KNOW! Yes, yes we can use this! You guys can help us bake more! All our class could make a ton! Anyway, you guys wouldn’t have to bake; I can tell you’re pretty weary.” She glanced over a Lizzie who was just staring off into space. “Anyway, you could direct us! We would have a huge bake sale!” she said. I nodded, Suzie did too, but Lizzie actually started snoring. “Lizzie!” I said sternly. “What? Oh, sorry.” She yawned. I raised an eyebrow. “We would love to! Right guys?” the other two nodded. Tracy said we could meet up at Bethel High school at four o’clock for baking, in the school kitchen.

Chapter 10 The Bake SALE!

Soon, after only four disastrous burning cakes, we were finished cooking. The cakes we iced, the brownies were cooled, and the cookies were round, OH!!! We were ready for tomorrow. I could barely sleep that night! I was too excited, I didn’t fall asleep till around 2:00 AM, the bake sale was at 10:00 AM, so I woke up at 7:00 AM, and to help set up. Ten came way too fast! Signs were put up; cakes and another variety of desserts (We made a lot more different kinds) were set up on little tables with purple, blue, and white tablecloths. Those were the school colors. Everyone arrived so fast! I was wearing my best skirt and shirt, Suzie was wearing a dress, as was Linda, with her hair put up in a neat bun. Everyone looked kinda dressy, even Lizzie, well, for Lizzie. She was wearing jeans, and a long-sleeve shirt that was purple. I had to admit, she looked nice. Her hair was down, and her bangs were pulled back by a flowery headband.  I grinned as she walked towards me. “Ugh, this shirt! It’s so, so, ah, comfortable.” She sighed. I smiled. The bake sale was magnificent! We managed to make 1,000 dollars! And at the end, I was put up on stage to thank everyone. “Thanks everybody.” Soon when everyone went home, I had to help clean up though first. When we were done cleaning, Lizzie got to take a cake home for all her efforts,really, it was just leftovers. Soon everyone left, even the clean up crew. So, don’t ever think you’re dreams are dumb. God put them there, and even if it’s from blowing up balloons, to making speeches, you are always great in God’s eyes. Thank you!

BY: Pepper Potters