Willa Jeane

Written By Liora Afilalo

Chapter 1 - Claudia Adopts Willa Jeane and Willa Jeane Settles In

At the Glenwood Adoption Center, Willa Jeane sat up in her bed. She could not fall asleep. She was too excited about Adoption Day tomorrow. She hoped somebody nice would adopt her. Her previous parents were cruel and mean and sent her to the orphanage at age 6.

The next morning, she was awoken by the sound of Ms. Horkstien, the orphanage manager, yelling “Brown, get up!” Brown was her last name. Willa Jeane quickly threw on jeans and a T-shirt. She ran to the kitchen and ate a quick bowl of cereal. Then, she went to the room where all the children would wait for parents to come and adopt them. A bunch of adults came in. There was a woman who looked friendly and cheerful. There was a man with a bushy mustache, and there was a mean-looking woman. Willa Jeane hoped the friendly and cheerful one would adopt her. The man with a bushy mustache said he would like a boy who was very athletic. A boy named Freddie stood up. “I’ll take him,” he said.

The friendly woman took Mia and Emma. The mean-looking lady said she wanted a girl. Ms. Horkstien said she might like Willa Jeane. “Oh, no!” thought Willa Jeane.

On the way home, the mean-looking woman told Willa Jeane that her name was Claudia. She also said that Willa Jeane should not expect a lot of her and that she will be very strict. Will Jeane told Claudia her name. When they got to her house, Willa Jeane took one look and that was one too many.

“Um, is this your house?” asked Willa Jeane.

“Of course,” said Claudia. Claudia opened the door and they stepped inside.

“Your room is in the attic; the spiders and cockroaches will keep you company.”

Willa Jeane shivered.

“I will be sleeping in my room,” Claudia continued. “Don’t you dare wake me up.”

“Okay.” Willa Jeane managed to squeak.

“Okay, Maam!” Claudia barked.

Willa Jeane went up to the attic. She found a mattress and a ton of spider webs and cockroaches. She shivered for the second time in 5 minutes. She had a major fear of cockroaches and spiders. It was already 11:30 am. She read for a half-hour and then went downstairs and asked Claudia for lunch.

“What do you want?” Claudia asked.

“Do you have peanut butter and bread?”

“Yes,” Claudia answered. “I came prepared because I knew I would adopt somebody picky who eats only peanut butter sandwiches.”

Willa Jeane ignored her. She made herself a peanut butter sandwich and went to her room. In the corner of the attic, there was dusty blanket and pillow. Willa Jeane put them on the bed. Not too bad, she thought. She would make her room as cozy as possible. She found a broom and dusted all the spider webs and cockroaches away.

Next, she swept all the dust out and put all of her clothes in the no-longer dusty drawers. She thought the room looked much better and even cozy. She went to bed and fell asleep. She was very tired. The next morning, Willa Jeane awoke to the sound of Claudia screaming.

“Wake up, it’s already 6:00 am! You have to scrub the toilet!”

“6:00 am? It’s too early for a Sunday morning,” Willa Jeane said in a sleepy voice.

“You’re lucky,” answered Claudia. “I was going to wake you up at 5:30 am, but I decided to go easy on you.”

Willa Jeane quickly got dressed and asked Claudia which bathroom she should clean. Claudia told her to go down the stairs one floor, the first door on the right. She went to the bathroom; it was worse than her room. The toilet water was brown and the rim was up. She took 59 tissues, put water on them and cleaned the toilet, making sure to wash her hands with a lot of soap for 5 minutes straight. She took 60 more tissues and put the rim down. Next, she looked in the shower. It was not a pretty sight. She turned the water on and went back to her room. She read for 5 minutes, then went to check on the shower. It was clean.

“Thank Goodness,” she thought.

She told Claudia she would take a small break before her next task. She decided to read in the attic until Claudia called her.

“Go to my room and clean it,” Claudia ordered. “Don’t forget to clean my bathroom, too.”

Willa Jeane hoped Claudia’s bathroom was not as dirty as the other one. She approached Claudia’s room with curiosity. It was fancy. Her bathroom was very clean. All it needed was a little dusting. She was done in less than a minute. She then moved on to Claudia’s bed. She arranged the pillows and blankets nicely and went to Claudia’s closet. It was already clean; all she needed to do was line up the shoes. When she went downstairs, she found a list waiting for her. It was a list of chores. Willa Jeane realized she was going to be home schooled.

She would wake up at 5:00 am on weekdays and on weekends, she could sleep until 6:00 am. On Saturday and Sunday mornings, she would clean the bathrooms and the downstairs. On weekdays, she would clean the upstairs. She started cleaning the rooms downstairs; they were not as bad as her room but still gross and dirty. By the time she was done 7 hours later, she was exhausted, even though it was only 1:00 pm.

She spent that afternoon in her room reading. She finished Ann of Green Gables and started the first book in the Harry Potter series. She enjoyed reading. It made her feel better and less alone. At some point, she went to the kitchen and found cheese and bread in the refrigerator. She made herself a sandwich and told Claudia she was done with her chores for the day. But Claudia had other plans. She told her she could finish cleaning the whole house, and then she could have free time.

“But I don’t have to clean the upstairs on weekends,” she said.

“I like my house clean, you can clean tomorrow again,” Claudia said.

At that point, Willa Jeane knew it was pointless to argue. She silently went up the stairs and continued cleaning. The guest room was rusty and dusty, like it had not been used for a while. The door was jammed. Willa Jeane used all her might to open it. It looked like the attic, so she cleaned and arranged it in the same way. She got the same results. The other rooms were pretty nice compared to the guest room. By the time she was done, it was 5 pm. She asked Claudia for dinner, and got frozen pizza. She took it to her room, read for a few hours, got tired and fell asleep. Early the next morning, she woke up with a start. She could not remember where she was. A few moments later, everything came flooding back to her. She put on a skirt and t-shirt, went downstairs and saw that it was 4:30 am. She went back to bed, knowing the Claudia would wake her soon. She fell asleep almost immediately. It felt like 2 minutes until Claudia started screaming in her ear to wake up. Since she was already dressed, she just needed to go to the bathroom and do her hair before starting her chores. That day was worse than the previous one. When she was done with her chores, Claudia told her that she would teach her math.

Chapter 2 - Willa Jeane Takes Action (But It Does Not Work)

After her math lesson, Willa Jeane went to the attic and locked the door. She decided she absolutely had to do something about Claudia. She decided she was not going to do her chores anymore. It was already 2:00 pm and she was starving. She went to the kitchen and found the leftover frozen pizza in the freezer. She put the pizza inside the oven. She had no idea how to work an oven, so she pressed some random numbers until she saw a light go on. She went back up to her room to read while the pizza cooked. But she was so focused on her reading that she forgot all about the pizza. She started smelling smoke. She ran to the kitchen and fanned the smoke out of her way. The smoke alarm went off. Willa Jeane opened the oven door and found a black pizza, all burnt. Even worse, there was a little fire starting inside the oven. Willa Jeane might not know a lot about cooking, but she knew that fire spreads quickly! She knew she had to tell Claudia, who hadn’t heard the smoke alarm while she was in the bathroom. At that point, Claudia came running out of the bathroom just in time to call 911. It seemed that the firetrucks came almost immediately. Five firefighters entered the house.

“Who caused this?” the first firefighter asked in a loud, deep voice.

“I did,” Willa Jeane answered in very small voice. She just wanted to disappear.

After the firefighters cleaned out the smoke and left, Claudia turned to Willa Jeane.

“What did you think you were doing?!”

“I was just trying to heat up the pizza,” she said.

“Did I say you could have pizza?”

“No, but I was hungry.”

“Well, you should have asked me!” Claudia barked. Willa Jeane began to wonder if Claudia would ever trust her. She had never trusted her in the first place.

Chapter 3 - Willa Jeane’s Great Plan

Willa Jeane decided she was going to run away. At first, she did not know who, what, where, when and how. But she decided that she would go, and soon. She settled on Boston, and she thought she would take some of Claudia’s money and buy a train ticket. She thought her plan was genius. She fell asleep and dreamt about cupcakes and unicorns, so unlike her life here.

She was in a good mood the next day, even when Claudia woke her up bright and early to work. She went through her chores quickly and did not mind them because she was so excited about her plan. She also made an amazing discovery. When she was cleaning the guest room, she saw a calendar. She knew her birthday was January 9 th, and she saw that today was January 8 th . Tomorrow was her birthday!

She had to tell Claudia, but Claudia said she did not care. So the next morning, Willa Jeane woke up at 4:30, before Claudia, so that she could go to the kitchen and find some treats for her birthday. She found a piece of French toast and some rice krispy treats; they were delicious. She then ran back up to her room in the attic and pretended to be asleep when Claudia came in at 5:00 to wake her. She spent the day doing her chores and did not complain.

Claudia sensed something and said “I know that you are up to something. What is it?”

Of course, Willa Jeane was not going to tell her about her plan, so she simply said:

“It’s my birthday today, so I’m happy.” It was half-way true.

At one point, she asked Claudia if she had had children before adopting her.

“I did,” Claudia said sadly. Willa Jeane had never seen her sad. She had never seen her anything but angry and strict.

“Really? Who?” she asked. She was curious.

“I had a beautiful family. I had a husband named Sam and three children. The oldest was 14 and her name was Abby. My second child was 10, almost 11, and named Michael. My youngest child was seven and a half. She was a cutie pie. She always looked up to her older siblings. Her name was Ella.”

“Oh, I miss them” Claudia said, even more sadly than before.

“What happened to them?” Willa Jeane asked.

Claudia looked like she was about to cry. Willa Jeane looked like she was about to have a heart attack.

“I loved all of them very much. But one day, they disappeared,” Claudia said sadly but just as spookily. “One morning, I looked into their bedrooms and they were gone. Then I saw that Sam was not in his bed.”

Willa Jeane reconsidered running away for a minute.

“Go back to your chores! What are you waiting for?” Claudia barked.

Never mind, Willa Jeane thought.

* * * * * * * * * * *

The night before running away, Willa Jeane went to bed at 7:30. She did not want to be tired when she was running away. Since she both excited and nervous about running away, it was very hard to fall asleep. She finally fell asleep at 8:30. She dreamt that she was on cliff and she felt a hand grab her and push her down the cliff.

Then, she woke up. She didn’t know what the dream meant, but it did unsettle her. She woke up by the sound of a garbage truck. Willa Jeane checked the clock; it was 3:00 am. No wonder she was so tired. She got dressed in her best clothes and tip-toed to Claudia’s room. Her wallet was on her nightstand, and she took it carefully and left the room.

“Who’s there?” mumbled Claudia.

Willa Jeane panicked. Phew, she thought. She was just talking in her sleep. Willa Jeane carefully unlocked the door and stepped outside. She loved the feeling of the cool night fresh air on her face. It was so relaxing. The night before, she had looked on Claudia’s map and found the closest train station. It was on Crabb Lake Avenue, only a few blocks from where Claudia lived.

Chapter 4 - The Adventure Begins…

Willa Jeane set out through the night, the cool air on her face. She got out of her sleep mode and found the train station. It was a big brick building that had windows carved on the side. They were closed tightly with brown shutters. The rest of the building was gray. The door creaked when she opened it. Willa Jeane had heard a rumor that the building was 100 years old. She opened the door just wide enough to squeeze through.

Inside, there were a lot of people drinking their coffee and reading the newspaper. She took out money from Claudia’s wallet and gave it to the man at the ticket booth. Willa Jeane saw that his name was Fred. He was a big hairy man with a deep voice. She took the ticket and sat on a bench. She thought about her life over the last few weeks. She did not deserve this. Everything is going to get better, she told herself.

A loud “Toot, Toot!” interrupted her thoughts. The train was here. After all the passengers got off, Willa Jeane got on and found a seat at the back of the train. And so, the adventure begins…………

* * * * * * * * * * *

Willa Jeane woke up startled.

“What, where, when, how, who, whaaa?” she said. “Oh,” she said a little less loud than before.

“Would you like anything to eat, maam?” a voice asked. “Yes, please. Can I please have some orange juice and pretzels?” Willa Jeane asked politely.

She poured orange juice into Willa Jeane’s cup and gave it to her. The lady then gave her pretzels. After she finished eating, she started reading. Willa Jeane was reading “Cyclone.” It was a good book. She was on p. 129 out of 334 pages. She read until page 150 and then fell asleep holding the book on her lap.

She usually took a medicine to avoid snoring. But since she did not have it with her, she snored very loudly. Willa Jeane was asleep for 2 hours and then woke up. There were only 25 minutes left until they reached Boston. She looked out the window and saw trees, trees and more trees. No houses. No people. No nothing.

She thought: “This is Boston? With no houses?”

After reading Cyclone for a few minutes, she started seeing people and houses. Willa Jeane even saw playgrounds and schools. After a few more minutes, she got bored. She did not want to read because she was nauseous. All of a sudden, it started pouring! Then came the thunder. Right after the thunder came the lightning. It was a big white zap the shape of Harry Potter’s scar, just a bit bigger. She had read all the Harry Potter books a long time ago.

Willa Jeane must have been in her own world because the next thing she knew, the conductor called: “Boston, Boston, we are in Boston!”

“This is it,” she thought. “This is where my life starts again.”

She took a deep breath and stood up. She let an elderly woman pass and then stepped off. The train station smelled like cigar smoke and onions. Willa Jeane held her nose. She waddled to the bathroom. She really had to use the facilities. The toilet was almost as bad as the one in Claudia’s house. Willa Jeane used up a whole roll of toilet paper just for cleaning the seat and another half for wiping. When Willa Jeane got to the sink, she sang the ABC song twice before putting on soap. She lathered the soap and then washed her hands for another 20 minutes. She took a paper towel and used it to open the door. The smell of cigar smoke and onions greeted her. She tried to find an exit but instead got lost. She saw a conductor on break and asked where the nearest exit was.

“Straight and to the right!” he said in a booming voice. She followed his instructions and soon got outside.

Bad luck.

It was pouring and she did not have an umbrella. Willa Jeane was afraid to say it but she was going to have to stay at the train station until the rain stopped. It might be a few hours. Willa Jeane still had some dollars left, so she bought a few snacks, an umbrella and a very fluffy blanket. She needed a blanket because when she was going to be living on the street, it might be cold. She ate the fig bar and Pringles while she was waiting. Fortunately, she had a few more snacks left. Her prediction was right. It took 5 hours for the rain to stop and even then, it was still drizzling. She opened her umbrella and left the train station. Outside, it smelled a lot better than inside the train station.

Chapter 5 - The Streets of Boston

The streets of Boston in the winter were cold and rainy, just like she expected. Willa Jeane thought that she did well to buy snacks, a blanket and an umbrella. The night before, she had looked on Claudia’s map and settled on Brookline, a suburb close to Boston. The train had let her off close to Brookline, so she found a bus that would take her straight there.

She sat down on the bus next to an elderly woman. She was pale and had grayish-whitish hear tucked back into a neat bun. She looked about 75-80 years old. She was sitting and reading a book. Willa Jeane looked at the cover. She was reading “Romance is in the Air.”

The bus driver called out, “If you are going to Brookline, 3 more stops!”

Willa Jeane was exhausted and closed her eyes for a minute. When she woke up, she was in Brookline. The streets were crowded and busy. Willa Jeane saw a boy hurrying down the street carrying a big box. She wondered what was inside. In bold red letters, the box said “Warning! Heavy!” She quickly moved on. She could not let anything distract her. She had to find a good spot to live. She found a spot that was very dirty with spider webs. She decided against it. After a few more blocks, she found just the right spot. It was just the right spot, a 5-foot space in between 2 buildings. Willa Jeane sat her blanket, snacks and umbrella down. Now, nobody would take her spot.

Willa Jeane wanted to know the streets of Boston better. She took a walk around the neighborhood, bought herself another blanket, and then walked back. She gobbled down a Twix bar. She was starving. She then made her bed. One blanket on the bottom and one on the top.

She looked at her watch. It was 1:08 pm. She wondered if she could find the boy with the big box again. She thought she saw him go left. She went left and there he was. He looked like he had no family and had been living on the streets for a long time.

“Hi,” Willa Jeane said awkwardly.

“Hello, my name is George,” the boy said in a raspy voice.

“My name is Willa Jeane. I ran away from a mean, mean woman named Claudia,” she explained. “Before Claudia, I lived in an orphanage called the Glenwood Adoption Center. My parents sent me there at age 6.”

“Wow, that is quite a story,” George said.

“Why don’t you have a Boston accent?” Willa Jeane and George asked each other at the exact same time.

“I’ll go first,” George said.

“Fine,” Willa Jeane pretended to be angry.

“Well, to answer our question, I only moved here a month ago, so I still have not fully developed it yet” George explained.

“My turn,” Willa Jeane said. “I got here literally 5 seconds ago. And by the way, how old are you?”

“I am 10. My birthday is January 10 th

“Yea,” Willa Jeane said. “I’m older than you. My birthday is January 9 th . Wait, if your birthday is January 10 th , then happy late birthday!”

“Thank you,” George said.

This is a very nice boy, Willa Jeane thought.

“So where is the area that you settled into?” she asked him.

“Right around the corner,” he answered.

“Mine is down the block and to the right,” she said. “Now we can visit each other whenever we want.”

“Sorry to break up this lovely meeting, but I’m behind schedule,” George said and then he left…

“Well that was weird,” Willa Jeane thought. She decided to forget everything. All of a sudden, a fluffy cat jumped on her, knocking her down to the ground, and started licking her face. Willa Jeane loved cats. At the orphanage, there was a cat roaming around the building. She had named him Sunshine. This fluffy cat pawed at her, as if asking for food. She gave it a Snickers bar. The cat gobbled it down like she had not eaten in her whole life, which was probably not very long. She looked to be a newborn cat.

I’m going to keep you, she thought, and name you “Fluffernutter” or “Fluffy” for short.

“Meow,” Fluffernutter answered in agreement as if she liked the new name and she wanted Willa Jeane to be her owner.

“Come, Fluffy,” she was worried she’d have to train Fluffly, but Fluffly was already trained. She realized Fluffy was a girl. As soon as Willa Jeane said “Come!” she came. Willa Jeane made a spot for Fluffy on her bed/blankets, and said “Here, Fluffernutter, this is where you will sleep.”

“Meow,” was her response.

Because of all the commotion, time had passed so quickly. Right then, George appeared and said in a spooky voice: “Ooh, I see you found Moody.”

“Who’s Moody?” Willa Jeane asked.

“You haven’t heard? Even I have been here for less than a month and I know. I’ll tell you. Moody was once owned by a mad scientist, Dr. Alistair Moody. Then, one day, the mad scientist went to a grocery store and never came out. Oh and by the way, I think you’re pretty.”

Before she could answer, he gave her a quick peck on the cheek and ran away.

That was odd, she thought.

Chapter 6 - The Mystery of George and FlufferNutter

Willa Jeane was surprised by the compliment. She secretly thought he was cute, too, with all that dark hair and shining green eyes. Willa Jeane was also surprised that George liked her because her shaggy, long black hair and brown eyes were not attractive. She knew a 10-year-old should not have a crush but it was hard to resist.

George was too attractive. She had to use the bathroom and wasn’t sure what to do. She had an idea. She walked into a restaurant called “The Buffet,” and asked if she could use their bathroom. She saw a sign that said only paying customers could use the bathroom, so she lied and said “I bought hot chocolate.” She found herself thinking about George and where he was.

“What are you thinking about?” said a voice that she did not recognize. Willa Jeane could have sworn that she saw the cat move her lips.

“That is impossible,” she thought. She shook her head at her foolishness. Then George appeared again.

“N-N-Nothing,” Willa Jeane stuttered.

“Nothing what? Oh whatever,” he laughed. She loved the way he laughed.

“I was just wondering if you could come with me to buy potatoes at th-

“What? Where did you get money from? Playing guitar in the street?” She

interrupted him.

“Um….Well, I kind of did play guitar on the street.”

“You play the guitar? You have a lot of explaining to do!” Willa Jeane commanded.

Chapter 7 - The Very Unfortunate Incident of Willa Jeane, George and Dr. Lexicon

“Ok, so as I was saying before somebody rudely interrupted me, there is a grocery store around the corner where we can buy potatoes,” said George sarcastically.

“Why exactly do you want potatoes?”

“Because I like them?” he tried.

“Ok, whatever, let’s just go.”

As they strolled along the street, Willa Jeane realized that when it was not raining, Boston was actually pretty. They quickly went into the supermarket and started looking for potatoes.

“Aisle 6,” a voice said. So Willa Jeane and George went to Aisle 6. Sure enough, there were the potatoes.

“How did he know?” they both wondered out loud.

When they left the store without paying for the potatoes, they were immediately stopped by a rude man.

“Why are you 7-year-olds doing walking without an adult?” he barked.

Willa Jeane knew she was short but not as short as a 7-year-old.

“Well, actually, we are 10, and if you are wondering, we are buying potatoes,” she corrected him.

“My name is Dr. Lexicon, and I’m going to report you to the police,” the man replied.

Right then, Willa Jeane realized that THIS was the voice that said “Aisle 6.,” and that he had been following them. By the time they got to the police station, it felt like they had been walking for hours instead of minutes.

“Stay right here, do not move or else,” He threatened. As soon as he left, George whispered, “Let’s Go, Hurry!”

Willa Jeane knew not to argue so they quickly got out of the police station and started running.

“This way, I see the supermarket,” George said.

“Hey, where do you think you’re going?” Dr. Lexicon said. “Run!” Willa Jeane cried.

As they ran, George had an idea. “Come Under the horse.” The man did not see the horse so he banged right into it and then fell on the floor.

“Ouchy, Oww, my head” he moaned.

“Your loss,” George screamed and then took Willa Jeane by her elbow and led her back to the place where he lived.

“Well, um… that was kind of brave,” Willa Jeane told George once they were safe.

“Kind of used to it. I do it all the time,” George replied.

“What do you mean, you do it all the time?”

“Well, let me show you. It’s better than explaining.”

George led her to the area where he lived and he took her under the covers.

“Wow,” Willa Jeane said in awe. Under the covers were every type of food you could imagine, from broccoli to potatoes. The only thing he did not have was peaches. Willa Jeane noticed and asked George why he had practically everything in the world except for peaches.

“Well, I was just about to ask you if you want to come buy them with me.”

“OK, fine, let’s go,” Willa Jeane answered.

Chapter 8: The Happy Ending

Everything went smoothly until they came out of the supermarket. They saw a woman who looked exactly like Claudia, just older. The woman wondered why these young children were alone without parents in a supermarket. She was concerned for them.

“What are you two doing?” She asked in a sweet voice. “Come to my house. I will provide you with food and water.”

George and Willa Jeane glanced at each other and nodded.

“Wait one second,” George said and then dashed off. He came back a second later with everything in a secret stash.

“Ok, now I’m ready,” he said.

Willa Jeane had just one question.

“Are you Claudia’s mother?” she asked.

“Yes,” the woman answered. “My name is Evelyn. How do you know Claudia and that I’m her mother?”

Willa Jeane proceeded to tell her the whole story.

They walked for 2 minutes and reached her mansion. The house was huge. Evelyn fed them a meal. She was much nicer than Claudia. She felt so bad for what her daughter had done that she decided to take in Willa Jeane and George. And they lived with her happily ever after. Willa Jeane never cleaned a toilet at 6:00 am again.