Ava's "Good Idea"
By Vivian - 5th Grade

     It was a ‘microwave day’, Vivian’s dad liked to call it. That day was one of the hottest days on record for Los Angeles in ten years. That’s why Vivian was outside in her friend Ava’s pool.

   “I’m melting!” Vivian said dramatically.

   “Even in the pool it feels like all the water in my body was sucked out,”  Ava added.

    They had been in the pool for twenty minutes just lying down on floaties, not talking.          Ava’s mom had advised them to stay in because she said she didn’t want them catching heat stroke, but they reasoned that only older people got heat strokes, and that they were still young and beautiful. So Ava’s mom let them go out for only thirty minutes and the girls accepted.  

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   Vivian slipped off her pizza floaty like a dead animal. She splashed into the water and let out a big groan. 

   “Shouldn’t we go inside now? At least the inside has AC,” Vivian reasoned.

   “Not enough AC.” Ava mumbled. Ava mumbled something under her breath and gave out a loud groan. 

   “Come on! We should go inside now,” Vivian insisted.

   “Ugh. Fiiiine,” Ava groaned again. 

They grabbed their blue and pink towels and wiped their bodies down. It wasn’t even cold when they got out of the pool. Ava grinned.

   “I have a good idea,” She said persuasively. Vivian didn’t answer. Vivian had decided not to listen to Ava’s ‘good ideas’ anymore because they weren’t actually good ideas.

 

   Once, Ava had had a ‘good idea’ to go to Vivian’s neighbor's lawn, Mrs. Whimsey, (who was around eighty years old) and to grab some stones from her lawn to make Stone Soup. Vivian had insisted not to, but Ava said they would only take a couple and would be out as quick as a breeze. Vivian, being herself, had told Ava that breezes weren’t quick and Ava quarreled with her to stop being such a smarty pants. Vivian had agreed and they went over to Mrs. Whismsey’s lawn to collect a ‘few’. In the end, they actually grabbed about twenty stones and got in trouble with Mrs. Whimsey because they were supposedly invading personal property. 

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   Another time, Ava told Vivian to raid a candy store with her and used her ‘We’ll be out like a breeze’ method. Vivian had agreed with her because it was a cold winter day and she was hungry. When they got to the candy store, there wasn’t anyone at the front desk so they just took a few pieces of candy out of a small box and left. That night, Vivian hid her chocolate coins under her pillow and the next morning while her mom was doing her bed, found it and made her go back to the candy store to return it and apologize. There must have been a zillion other times where Ava had some ‘good ideas’.

 

   Ava looked annoyed after Vivian had not answered her for a minute.

   “Did you hear me? I said I have a good idea,” Ava repeated.

   “I heard you,” Vivian countered, “I’m just ignoring you,”

   “What?” Ava looked confused.

   “How can you hear me but ignore me?” Ava asked. Vivian let out a small shrug and walked over to the back door that led to Ava’s house. Ava ran out to her and caught her by the arm.

   “Could you please listen to my idea?” Ava whimpered.

   “Fine,” Vivian groaned.

   “OK. So, basically, since my mom isn’t home, and since she left her phone here. I’m thinking we could buy some rated R movies, get stuff from the toy shop, order candy… You know. All the good stuff.” Vivian was dumbstruck. Ava had stolen from other people, but Vivian had never expected her to do that to her mom!

   “Are you seriously out of your mind?” Vivian asked.

   “I mean, probably. But, you see, this would be our only time to do this in life.”

   “Really? We wouldn’t be able to do this at eighteen and up?” Vivian lifted her eyebrow.

   “Well, we wouldn’t be into those kinds of things anymore. We would be like grown ups, you know? Like my mom. Worrying about life, cooking for ourselves, wanting to meet famous celebrities…” Vivian thought about this for a moment. 

   “Well…” Vivian started.

   “Well?” Ava said, eyes brightening.

   “I guess if we only spent a little bit… and if we never told your mom or anyone else-”

   “Right- no one else.” 

   “And- we get to buy my favorite type of candy!” Vivian said excitedly.

   “Oh, yes!” Vivian and Ava high fived each other as they headed back inside the house.

 

   That day, Vivian and Ava had watched Poltergeist (Ava had peed her pants), scrubbed the couch because, well, Ava, made prank phone calls, bought movies, ( they couldn’t figure out how to get candy or toys, so they just ate the candy that was there and played with he toys Ava had).

   “Wow.” Vivian said at last. They were sitting on the couch, full from all the candy they had eaten.

   “Wow.” Vivian said again.

   “I can’t believe we did this,” Vivan said. She sat up more and rubbed her eyes.

   “Me neither. You know, if my mom ever found out-” 

   “She won’t.” Vivian cut her off quickly. Ava looked at Vivian who seemed to look sweaty. 

   “Are you ok?” Ava asked.

   “Yeah. I’m just nervous that she’ll find out.”

   “Same. But what would she do to two cute little nine year olds?” Ava asked, making puppy dog eyes. Vivian rolled her eyes nervously.

   “I know what will brighten the mood!” Ava said, smiling. Ava got up and pulled Vivian to where she was standing.

   “What?” Vivian groaned.

   “Prank calls.” Oh, no. Here it went. Vivian was scared this day would soon come, and it had. Vivian put a sweaty hand on her face, feeling sugary chocolate and crumbs.

   “No way! People can actually call the police on you, you know,” Vivian said. 

   “Yes, but we would only be on for less than a minute- thirty seconds even- and they can’t get our number in thirty seconds,” Ava was convincing to Vivian.

 

   Vivian thought about this for a moment. She had never done prank calls before, and her friends at school were always doing that on sleepovers or playdates. She had also heard it was very fun.  “Ugh! Fine…” Vivian finally agreed. Ava grinned. Ava ran all the way down the hall with Vivian behind her. They got Ava’s mom’s phone out of the drawer they had placed it in and unlocked the password. Ava went to her mom’s calls and typed out a random number. She called and the phone started ringing. Vivian started biting her nails. It was a bad habit, but she did it when she was nervous. 

   

   “Hello?” An angry and flustered lady answered.
   “Oh, hello!” Ava said in an old snobbish, british accent.

   “Who is this? This better not be you Marissa!” She yelled at the phone.

   “I just wanted to know how you wanted your custom made underwear to look. Would you say pink or red?” Ava said, trying to hold in giggles. Vivian herself couldn't hold in her laughs and they bursted out.

   “What? So now you're laughing at me Marissa? I don’t want your dirty underwear or your stinky perfume! You may have Jonathan but I have Stinky the singing dog and a trip to the Bahamas and I wear that with dignity, unlike you!” The lady screamed at the phone.

 

   Suddenly, there was a loud beep and the lady hung up. “Hahahahaha! That was great!” Vivian bursted out laughing.

   “Wasn’t it?” Ava laughed back. They both high fived each other and laughed some more. After that, they went back to watching more rated R movies. 

 

   Ding Dong. the doorbell rang. Vivian sat up quickly and gave a worried look to Ava who did the same. 

   “Who is that?” Vivian whisper-shouted.

   “My mom.” Ava replied more calmly.

   “Did you put her phone back in her drawer?” Vivian asked, standing up. 

   “Yeah,” Ava said, walking up to open the front door. 

   “Trust me! I’ve got this all under control,” She said to Vivian as if she was older than her. Vivian gave her an exasperated look and ran up to the door beside Ava. Ava opened the door to find her mom in a pilates workout outfit. 

   “Hey, girls!” Ava’s mom, Schery said.

   “Hi, Aunt Schery!” Vivian said through clenched teeth and a forced smile. 

   “Hi mom!” Ava said as calm as calm can be. She squeezed both of them tight in her arms and walked in. Ava followed right behind her but Vivian stayed at the door, not knowing what to do.

   “Well, don’t you want to tell me what you girls did while I was out?” Aunt Schery asked. 

   “Oh! Yes, yes. Telling you what you did- we did!” Vivian panicked and sat down next to Ava. 

   “Oh, you girls just look so cute side- by-side! I just need to get a picture! Hold on- I’ll grab my phone.” she said while getting up. When Ava’s mom was out of the room, that’s when Vivian started to panic. 

   “What if she questions what we watched?” Vivian asked.

   “Then we’ll tell her we didn’t watch anything!”

   “What if she asks what we ate?”

   “Then we’ll tell ehr we didn’t eat anything!”

   “What if she notices the stain on the couch-”

   “Let's not talk about that.”

   Suddenly, Ava’s mom came back into the living room with her phone in her hand. She sat back down on the couch. 

   “Ok, girls. Say ‘Cheese’!”  

   Vivian and Ava put their arms around each other and plastered on a smile. 

   “Cheese!” They put said through a clenched jaw. Ava’s mom examined the photo right in front of her face. 

   “Oh, girls this is so cute-” Ding! A loud noise came from Ava’s moms phone. Ava’s mom had a weird look on her face. Vivian started to panic. 

   “Ava!” Vivian whispered. 

   “What?” Ava whispered back.

   “I think she’s found out!”

   “Of course not-” Ava whispered.

 

   Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Four more sounds came from Ava’s moms phone. 

   “Girls-” Ava’s mom started, “do you have anything to say about this?” She asked, putting the phone in front of their faces. Ava and Vivian stared at the phone. It was on Amazon Prime, a movie for Poltergeist and It. Vivian frowned and bit her lip. Vivian looked over to Ava who had a straight face and seemed perfectly fine. 

   “Well, you see-” Ava started. Vivian knew she was going to lie again and she just couldn’t handle it. Suddenly, Vivian bursted out and cut Ava off.

   “It was us! We bought the movies, and we made the prank calls, and Ava peed on the couch, too!” Vivian said way more dramatically than needed. 

   “Ugh! I knew you couldn’t handle this!” Ava said, annoyed. Vivian gave Ava a death stare and Ava immediately backed off and shrugged. 

   “We're really sorry.” Vivian said.

   “Yeah. We really are. I’m sorry mom.” Ava said sympathetically. Mrs. Scherry raised an eyebrow. 

   “It’s OK. Don’t you think I was a kid too, once? I mean I’ve done what you’ve done, except way worse.” She laughed. Ava and Vivian laughed too. They felt really relieved how Mrs. Scherry was so understanding and not upset.

 

   Vivian and Ava learned a lesson from that day that you don’t need to get more because you should really appreciate what you have. And from then on, she would never beg her mom for things, or try to sneak her dad’s money, she would just accept it and be happy.

Mrs. Scherry stopped laughing and put on a straight face.

   “But seriously. You guys are paying me back.” 

   “That’s fair.” Vivian laughed.