A Perfect Life

Chapter One

"I'll be back at 10:00," Mrs. Thomas told Zachary, the babysitter. Zachary nodded, thinking she'd be back right
around ten.

He was watching the twins, Amanda and Joey. Joey sat playing with his trains quietly. Amanda did the same with her dolls.

That's all it was for the four hours. Zachary watched them carefully, sometimes checking his phone for the time. It was 9:57. Mrs. Thomas would be back soon.

When his phone switched from 9:59 to 10:00, the door opened. Mrs. Thomas burst through. "I'm home!" She called. Zachary was amazed. "I told you I'd be back at 10:00," Mrs. Thomas said. Zachary took his ten dollars and left.

The Thomas's were a perfect family.

When Lillian, the oldest Thomas, arrived home from school exactly at 4:00, she ate her snack of a granola bar with exactly twenty chocolate chips in it. She pulled one out, to make nineteen. Another chip grew back in its place.

Lillian sighed. She hated having such a perfect family. She wanted to be abnormal. She wanted to be... A klutz. She wanted to be late sometimes. She wanted to eat granola bars with something other than twenty chocolate chips in them. She wanted to be irregular.

But she felt as if she were CURSED with good luck.

Lillian had tried everything. She tried going to bed at 7:59 instead of 8:00 on the dot. But she just couldn't. Her brain couldn't control her feet. It went right to 'its 8:00, go upstairs'. Right at 7:59, she tried to get up. But it felt like her bottom was glued the the couch. When the clock said 8:00, she was free.

She tried staying up till 8:01. But she was pulled upstairs. By wind.

Lillian decided she hated being a Thomas.