Magic Bread

This story starts at a factory named Dr.Bread. They made magical bread that could heal you no matter what injury it was. Broken arm?? The bread could heal you. Bleeding head?? It could also heal that. This bread could heal small things like a paper cut but can also save you from even dying!! This factory is probably the best factory in the world. The workers get paid lots of money, they have great health, and the boss, Mr.Rosmary, is really nice. So it’s really great right?? What could possibly go wrong with such an amazing factory like this…

…….

Beep! Beep! Beep! “Ughh!” It’s 6:30, time to get up and go to work. As most people do, I hate waking up. Especially early. It’s not that where I’m going to is bad, it’s actually really good where I work. But it’s just waking up. I go down the stairs to the kitchen to get breakfast before I have to leave.

“Not today…” Of course I’m out of cereal. Today was the day when the bakery on my way to work was closed and I don’t have anything to eat for breakfast and we couldn't eat the bread at the factory. One of the only slightly bad things. Usually, I snooze my alarm clock so much I have almost no time to eat breakfast. The weird thing is, is that if I usually don’t eat breakfast at home, then how come I don’t have any?? The last time I checked I had like, 2 boxes?? How did I eat them so fast?!

Anyways, I quickly put on a shirt and jeans since I was going to have to wear an apron at work anyway. We’re split into stations and I have to make the dough, so Mr.Rosmary says I have to wear an apron.

I check my watch…how is it already 7:06?! I couldn’t have been thinking about cereal that long!! I quickly get my bag and go out.

Since I just started last month, I only got one paycheck so far, and my friends convinced me to have a party to celebrate, and I didn’t have much money left, so I didn’t have enough money to buy a car. My parents said I had to earn the money for the car even though they could have easily given it to me. So I have to take the bus to work. I have to run to the bus stop. It’s the same people on the 7:10 bus everyday. The mean old lady, the little girl and her dog, a man who talks way too much to you if you sit or stand next to him, a boy with his dad who’s always jumping worrying that he’ll be late for school, and a LOT more people.

Around where I live, the 7:10 bus is probably the most crowded bus after the 7:30 bus. Usually, I don’t even get a seat and I’m only like, the second or third stop!! It’s probably because this bus goes to a big part of the city where there are lots of schools, and factories, and companies, and shops and stuff.

Screeeeeeech!! The bus is here. If I missed it, the next bus would be the 7:30 bus, and there might not have been any space. On that one I’m one of the last stops, so I might even have to take the 8:15 bus, and then I’d be really late. I squish through the door and into the bus. As usual, it’s really crowded. One of the people just got off the bus!! I quickly run to get the seat.

Today’s my lucky day!! I just sit on the seat for like, two minutes, and then the mean old lady comes up.

“Hey!!” she shouts at me.

“Hi Mrs.Booker…” I groan.

“Why so glum??” she asks. Is she actually being nice?!

“Oh, I’m not-”

“Now won’t you be a dear and let an old lady sit down??” I guess she’s never nice.

“Well, you always sit here so I was hoping maybe today I cou-”

“You won’t let an old lady sit down?! Didn’t your parents teach you any manners?! What kind of person are you?! All these young people!! And…”

Now everyone in the bus is staring at me. I didn’t want them to keep staring at me so I gave her my seat. There goes my first comfy bus ride in like, what….two years?!

“That’s better!!” she shouts, glaring at me.

After what feels like a billion years, the bus is finally at my stop, Duckoo Street 24.

Everybody left in the bus gets about and once again, I squish through the door, except this time, there are even more people.

*GASP!!* I finally get through, breathing for fresh air. The place where I work is at the end of Duckoo St. 24, and it’s a pretty long street, so I have to take a taxi. I still have 12 more minutes until I have to be at work, and the taxi ride takes seven, so it should be ok.

A taxi drives up to where I’m standing. I open the door and go in the taxi. It smells…different then other taxis…it smells like…lavender?! Most taxis in this city smell so bad I have to breathe through my mouth during the ride!!

“What’s that lavender smell??” I ask.

“Nothing. Mind your own business,” he replies.

So rude!! “It smells so good!! How does it smell so nice??” I ask again. I’m still wondering about the lavender smell when the taxi stops at the entrance of Dr.Bread, the factory I work at. I pay the taxi driver and step through the door.

“Good morning!!” Ms.Liana greets me. She’s the owner Mr.Rosmary’s daughter and works as a secretary here.

“Hi!” I reply. I go get a chocolate piece from her desk. Every month, she brings a bowl of snacks and puts them on her desk so we can get one when we come to work and leave work.

I take the elevator to the sixth floor, the ‘dough making’ floor. Even though you might think that it might get boring, making dough for 8 hours from Monday to Friday isn’t that bad. And it’s almost the end of this work year(for the people who started at the beginning of the year) so we’ll get to have a big party. Mr.Rosmary throws us a party every year with food (it’s usually expensive food so I’m gonna eat as much as I can so I don’t have to make or order dinner at home) and drinks (he usually orders special champagne, which I’ve never triedm but everybody here says it’s the best they’ve EVER tasted).

And I’ll get my paycheck, so maybe I’ll have enough money to buy a car and stop going on the bus!! I start to make the dough.

At the back of the room, Mr.Rosmary put in a super cute dough elevator, which takes the dough down to the sprinkling station where they put some powder on it and carve patterns into it, and while it’s going down, it also works as an oven!! So we have one dough elevator for each person working in the dough station. I decided to customize mine with stickers, so it’s definitely the best looking one.

Suddenly, the speaker boomed. “Attention all employees!! The end of the year party will be tomorrow from 2 to 9!! Don’t be late!!”

Even though I knew there was a party, I didn’t know it was tomorrow!! Until now, of course. I was wondering what to wear when there was suddenly another announcement, “Oh, and also, can you please meet me in my office, Clarissa Levine? Thank you!!”

Clarissa’s working next to me. “I hope I didn’t do something wrong!!” She sounded pretty nervous.

“It’s fiiine nobody ever gets in trouble here,” I said. “Maybe he’s calling to give you a promotion??” I can’t think of any other reason for Mr.Rosmary to call someone to his office. He’s so nice he’d probably never fire someone. Or even give them a warning.

Clarissa went off to his office. I get back to dough making. After work, I have to take a taxi and a bus back home. But since my shift ends at 4, the bus isn’t that crowded. Since most people end work later and the schools end like, an hour earlier. A taxi comes up to me. So, obviously, I step in. Hey, it’s the same guy from this morning!!

“Oh, hi, it’s you again!!” I say in an excited voice. Maybe too excited. I mean like, I’m just seeing a taxi driver. He doesn’t seem as excited though since he replies in a tired-ish sarcastic voice, “Oh yaaay, it’s you.” I notice that the lavender smell is gone.

“What happened to the lavender smell that was here this morning??” I ask, even though he did tell me this morning to stop asking me questions.

“Didn’t I tell you this morning?! Stop asking me questions, he replies. He has kind of like a mix between a New York accent and a country accent. I stop asking, even though I’m really starting to wonder about it. While we’re driving there, we got stopped because of three red lights. So this is taking longer than usual. We finally get to the bus stop.

“That’ll be $82 please.” he says with a grin. “$82?!?!” I shout. It was such a short ride!! “Why are you charging me extra?!” I ask. “There were three red lights, which eats time out of my free time, and for asking me a question.”

Seriously?! You can’t charge people for that!! “You still can’t charge me that much for the ride. It usually costs $13!! How much can 3 red lights and a question cost?! You can’t even make people pay extra for that!!” I start to shout at him. But not too loud, there are people around.

“Well 1 red light costs $10 extra, so do the math for me will ya?? What’s 10 x 3??” This guy probably failed grade 2 like, 10 times or something. “30, didn’t you learn math??” I ask. The second part might have been a teensy bit rude, but it was my honest opinion and I’m an honest person. “Well that’s $30 so if you add that and $13, then ya got $56, right??” “That’s $43” I say. He’s checking his calculator. “Oh yeah.” he says. He continues, “Well anyways, so now the ride costs $43. And a question usually just costs $5. But an annoying question costs $39. And according to my calculator, that’s $82. So there’s your explanation.” he’s finally done explaining.

“All I asked was where the lavender smell was!! Nevermind…” I pay him the $82 and start walking to the bus stop.

Luckily after only around 5 seconds, the bus arrives. I step and the bus is completely empty. I take a seat and watch a movie on my phone. SCREEEEECH!! How is the bus already here?! It felt like only 10 minutes!! I check my watch. Oh, it’s been around 40. I step out and beep my octopus card on the scanner. I find my keys and unlock my door. I step in and throw my things on the dining room table and lie down on the sofa.

I turn on the TV to see what’s on. Even though you would expect most adults to watch the news and boring stuff like that, I watch something else that’s very different. I have to say though, it’s way better than the news. Oh it’s starting!! “Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? SpongeBob SquarePants...”

……….

Ring!! Ring!! “Huh?” I groan. Oh it’s my mom. “What time is iiiit??” I check my phone to see that it’s…8:28?! But I got home at like, 5:30!! Did I fall asleep?? I check the TV…NOOOOOOOOOOO!! I missed the whole cartoon!! I answer my mom.

“Uh huh??” I say. “Daria!! I keep telling you to stop always answering me like that!! Anyways, honey, I was wondering if you had time on Saturday to go to dinner with me, dad, Bruno, and Jessica??” I check my schedule. All the days are empty. “I mean, I have sooooooo many plans, but yeah sure, I can make time.” I say. “Oh, that’s great honey!! Everyone else is free too!! We’re meeting at Shake Shack at 7!! See you then!! Bye!!” “Bye.” I say.

Beep. I decide to see what else is on TV. BBC News. DDF News. GGH News. IJJ News. HOW IS THERE ONLY NEWS?! Even on Cartoon Network there are just ads. Wait somethings coming on…Ben 10?! That’s like the ONLY show I won’t watch!! I guess I’ll just…I’m afraid to say it…WATCH THE NEWS!!! OH WAIT!! It’s dinner time!!! Thank you dinner for sparing me from the news!!!!!!!!!! But what I will eat for dinner is the question.

I can have either a sandwich, pizza, or pasta. Today, to cheer me up from the SpongeBob incident, I will order a…PIZZA!! Time to call Pizza Delivery!! Ring-ring!! Ring-ring!!

“Hi, this is Food Bear. How may I help you.”

“Hi, can I order a pepperoni pizza with a LOT of extra cheese??” I ask.

“Yeah, what's your address?” “26 Arbry Street, House 2” I say.

For some reason, I always feel like when they ask for my address it’s because they want to come over in the night and murder me. But then it’s always just pizza delivery.

So far 15 minutes have passed. Ding dong! “Pizza!!” I shout. I’m answering the door…”Here’s your pizza that’ll be $62.” I give the delivery guy the money and slam the door. It’s PIZZA TIME!! I really love pizza. Mmmmm!! It’s so cheesy!! And stretchy!! After around only 5 minutes, I’m done!! That was goooooood. It’s 8:37, so I have time. I look at the kitchen table just to see that it’s a mess!! How did it get that messy?! I didn’t even use a plate!! I just used the box!! Ohhhhh that’s why.

I get a towel and clean the kitchen. I walk up the stairs and jump into bed. Finally. I decide to go to bed early since tomorrow’s the party!! I can’t wait!! Everyone says it’s so great every year!! And I have to try the special champagne!! I’m sooooooooooo excited!! I almost can’t sleep. I’m soo…*SNORE* *SNORE*

Beep! Beep! Beep! “Ahhhhhhhh!!!” This is the one day I don’t mind waking up!! I jump out of bed and check my calendar!! Yes!!! Today’s the party!!!!!! Wait, it also says something under it…”No work until the party, remember to turn off the alarm clock the night before”. *smack* How could I forget?! I just woke up at 6:30 for NOTHING?! When I could’ve been sleeping until even lunch?! I might as well go back to sleep now. But I should set an alarm for 12 then. Good thing I didn’t change yet. I fall back into bed. *ploof* “ahhhhh…”

-

Beep! Beep! Beep! It’s 12!!! Time to get ready!! I have to pick out a nice dress…hmmmmmmm…”This is gonna be one of the best parties in your life, Daria, so you HAVE TO look perfect.” Now that I hear myself say that I kind of sound way younger than I actually am. “Hmmmm…I have like 4 dresses, so this might be hard but easy at the same time…Let’s see…ball gown is too fancy…a-line is too…I don’t know, casual?? Lots of people will be wearing those. Mermaid might also be too fancy…Which leaves us with only 1 dress.”

-

I stare at my dress in the mirror. It doesn’t look bad…I take a spin. “I look so good!!” I say. It’s a black and white tea length dress. I have nice earrings and a necklace with it to add a bit extra. I put on my makeup, which takes a long time since I had to find matching makeup, which was very hard since I don’t have much white-ish and light color stuff. Finally, when I’m done, I see it’s 1:32. Perfect timing!! I decide I can’t ruin my dress on the bus. Even though it won’t be very crowded, the bus tends to have gum stuck in places, and I will not come to the party with gum stuck in my hair or my dress or just…anywhere!! I stand outside and wait for a taxi.

A taxi comes up. When I reach Dr.Bread. “Hey, Liana!! So, are you excited for today?!” I ask. “You bet!” she replies. “So where’s the par-tay?!” I ask, maybe I’m too excited. “On the 2nd floor, 2nd room. It’s a special room dedicated to the yearly parties.” “Thanks! See you on the dance floor!!” I wave goodbye and walk to the elevator.

2nd floor…Ding! I reach the 2nd floor and start walking to the 2nd room. I walk in and see a crazy party!! “Champagne, Daria??” “Ahh!!” I jump. I see Mr.Rosmary standing behind me. “Oh, hi Mr.Rosmary, didn’t see you there!! I’ll have some later, I just got here.” I tell him. “Ok, it’s at the drinks table, don’t miss it!!” The party is so fun!! This looks like it’s gonna be the best party of my life!!

-

Beep! Beep! Beep! Huh?? I must’ve been dreaming about the party because it seems I’m at home, in bed. I check my phone, a bunch of my coworkers sent me pictures of the party?? So it did happen!! I must’ve forgotten!! Now I’m gonna be late for work!! Oh! And tomorrow I have dinner with my fam!!

I quickly get ready for work. But once again, I have NO cereal!! Guess there’s no breakfast today!! I go out and get onto the bus right on time. After I get out I run to the taxi stand, and after I get out of the taxi I run inside the factory.

“Hi Liana! Can’t get chocolate today, gotta go!!” I tell her. “Hold up Daria!!” she asks. Didn’t I tell her I was in a rush?! “Yes?! I have to go so be quick!!” “You have 13 minutes before work starts. Chill! Take chocolate.” She says. “Thanks, now I need to- wait what?? 13 more minutes??” I ask. I check my watch. Oh yeah! 13 more!! “Oh good! I thought I was late! Thanks, bye!” I walk to the elevator and go to the dough making place.

After around 20 minutes I realize Clarissa isn’t here. She can’t be sick since whenever someone in my station is sick(which no one ever is) Ms.Liana always tells me. So she can’t be sick!! She must be missing!! I should go around and ask other people if they saw her. I ask all the people at our station, which is like, more than 20 people.

“Nope.” “Who’s she?” “Who?” “Never heard of her.” “I don’t know anyone named Clarissa.” Ok, I have 2 questions! How has no one seen her and even more importantly, HOW CAN’T THEY EVEN REMEMBER HER?! She was literally here yesterday!! I haven’t seen her since she got called to Mr. Rosmary’s office. Could he have something to do with it? Nahhhh, he’s too nice. This is weird. But maybe she really is just sick and forgot to tell Liana. Actually, no way. Clarissa’s really organized and would never forget that. She’s missing. And I’m gonna get to the bottom of it.

-

We have a 1 and a half-hour lunch break, and I just have a sandwich and I might get a coffee from Starbucks, but that only takes a while to do and eat and drink so I decide to call my bestie, Izzy.

Her real name’s Isabella, but everyone calls her Izzy. “Hiii Daria!!” she answers. “Hi! So it’s my lunch break and I’m really bored. Wanna talk?” I tell her. “Well I don't have much to say…but you can say something!! What are you doing now?? Well, before your lunch break.” She replies. “Well, something weird’s happening at work.” “Oooh! What is it?!” “Well, you know my co-worker, Clarissa?? She’s missing.” I tell her, though she doesn’t sound surprised.

“She’s probably just sick.” “That’s what I thought too, but when someone’s sick, they tell our secretary. And Ms.Liana didn’t say anyone was sick-” “Clarissa probably forgo-” “BUT SHE DIDN’T!!! She never forgets things!!” “Sounds fake. Maybe you should take the day off.” She says. Seriously?! Not even Izzy believes me?! “But that’s not it!! Whenever I ask someone if they know where she went they say they don’t even KNOW who she is!! Even Eric who also works right next to her!!” I might be talking too loud since lots of people are staring at me, especially Eric.

Izzy starts to talk again. “Maybe you’re just kinda sick. I don’t remember Clarissa either. I think you should take the day off.” “Ughhhh!! Nobody understands!!!” Beep. I hung up. Now after I did that I realize that’s kind of rude…too late now. Maybe I should take the day off. Maybe I am going slightly crazy. Not CRAZY. Just…I don’t know. I only have a few hours left…I can finish the day. Well, it’s almost the end of my lunch break. I don’t have anything to do so I might as well get back to work. I started making dough again. It’s actually really fluffy dough, so it’s fun to make.

-

Oh! It’s already the end of work!! That passed by really fast. Wait, it isn’t just the end. I’m 1hour late for leaving!! But in a company as big as ours, nobody notices when that happens. I take the lift but it gets stuck on the first floor. I was one floor away!! I’ll have to get out and take the stairs I guess. I start walking when I pass by Mr. Rosmary’s office.

“Crackle!! Kaboom!! Mwahaha!!” Are those coming from Mr. Rosmary’s office? Well, there aren’t any others!! Unless..the factory’s haunted!!!!!! Maybe I should've taken the day off. The door isn’t completely closed…it probably wouldn’t matter if I peeked in…just a little…*Gasp!!*

It’s Clarissa!! But she’s tied to a table..? *step, step, step* Someone’s walking to Clarissa’s table!! “Well, well, well.” It’s Mr. Rosmary!! “Clarissa Levine…employee for 4 months so far?? Yes, I think so. You’re probably wondering why you’ve been here since I called you yesterday. Well, that’s sim-” *pff* Oh no, my bag!!

“Who’s there?!” Ahh!! I quickly run to the nearest wall and hide behind it. I can see Mr. Rosmary in the corner of my eye looking around his door. He goes back in. On one hand, I’m thinking ‘phew!’ but I was just gonna know why Clarissa was there!!

But anyway, I knew it!! She was missing!! But how was I the only one who knew?? It’s getting late, so I’ll go home, and try to find out on Monday. Oh! I have dinner with my family tomorrow!! Maybe they’ll understand. But even if they don’t, I will figure out what’s up with Mr. Rosmary and why is he keeping Clarissa?? There isn’t much traffic, but I’m not in the mood to take a bus so I take a taxi all the way home.

-

Yawn!! Luckily, it’s Saturday so I had more sleep and didn’t wake up at 6:30 but instead woke up at…I check my clock. 10:43. I have dinner with my family at…when was it?? I check my calendar… 7 pm. So I got around 7 hours and 40 minutes to myself at home. I might stay in bed for a while, yeah maybe I’ll read a book or m…

-

HOW DO I KEEP FALLING ASLEEP SO MUCH?! I slept for more than 10 hours and still fell asleep!! Now it’s…11:54. Time flies by when you’re asleep. I might as well just not eat breakfast and have lunch instead. I slide on my slippers and walk down the stairs.

My brother got me a coffee maker as a gift when I left my parent's house, so I already had one and didn’t need to buy one myself. I make myself a coffee and drink it in a few gulps. That’s how tired I am after more than 10 hours of sleep.

I decide since we might have a bigger dinner I’ll just have a sandwich for lunch. Usually, I just have cheese, but today I have ham for a ham and cheese sandwich. A classic. After lunch, I pass the time by doing crosswords.

What’s another 4 letter word for good..? Maybe…nice?? Oh, that works!! After my crossword, I do some “crochet.” It’s what moms and old ladies do for relaxation. My mom does it. My grandma does it. Lots of people do it.

I’m a beginner and my mom tried to teach me once, but I couldn’t do it so we gave up. But since I have lots of time, I’ll surprise my mom with a scarf!!! I found a video on how to do it, so what could go wrong with a YouTube video??

-

Everything can go wrong with a YouTube video. I tried making a scarf but I think I’ll give it to her as a thing she can use to clean up spills on the floor. I think I got more than 10 steps wrong!! But at least it passed 2 hours. Now it’s 2:13. How much longer until 7 pmmmmmm..??

“Time wasting crafts to do at home.” I hope Google has more ideas than me. Ooh!! Lip gloss!! That could be fun and useful!! And I can still give it as a present to my mom instead of the rag- I mean scarf. Hmm… let's see…I need olive oil, coconut oil, cocoa butter, beeswax?! Vitamin E oil?! Mica?! I don’t even know what “mica” is!!!!!

Thanks a lot, Google. I need to find an easier recipe. “Easy lip gloss recipe.” Olive oil, coconut oil, cocoa butter, beeswax, vitamin E pills?! Nope. I will not use vitamin E pills or oil. Oh, this has no vitamin E stuff!! Beeswax, cocoa butter, coconut oil, olive oil…and that’s it!! And lip gloss containers. But I have some old containers so if I clean those that should be ok. And I already have…olive oil and cocoa butter. Why do I have cocoa butter??

Anyways, I need to buy the other stuff then. Usually, I’d order it, but that would take at least a week. So I’ll go to some shops to get it. I need beeswax and coconut oil. Should be easy. Well, coconut oil at least.

-

Ok, I got all the ingredients!! Now it’s…3:48. Still have enough time!! Ok, it says…”In a small pot…”

-

And voila!! It’s done!!! That actually wasn’t that hard!! And I’ve got a lot of extras. Maybe I should make lip gloss more often. But it didn’t take up much time. It’s only 4:16. Ughhhhhhh!!! HOW MUCH LONGER!!!!!!!

I might as well pick out what to wear. Well, it’s just Shake Shack so nothing really fancy so I can just wear casual clothes. I’ll probably just wear my white shirt, jeans, and a hoodie. Just simple casual. But my mom always makes a big deal when we go to have dinner as a family so she dresses all fancy even if it’s just McDonalds or Subway. And she makes my dad wear a suit, which he hates so much. But he knows who’s the boss in our family.

My mom doesn’t mind if me and Julia don’t dress fancy, but if Bruno doesn’t she starts telling him stuff like, “Bruno, what are you wearing?!” “Where are your manners??” “You’re the oldest!! You should set an example for your sisters!!” And dad not wanting to get on Mom’s bad side after she’s so happy about us being together just answers, “You know, your mom’s right Bruno.” or “Listen to your mom, Bruno” or just nods his head when she tells him that. I’ll just stay in bed and watch a movie or read a book or something until 6. Then I’ll start getting ready and leave at 6:10, just to make sure I’m there on time. Usually, I don’t eat dinner this early, but that’s ok.

-

6:00!!!!!! Time to get ready!!! Finally, after all this time!!! I change into my clothes and set off. The bus isn’t crowded much at this time, but I’ll just take a taxi all the way there this time, it’s only like, a half-hour drive so plus traffic(which there’s barely ANY) like 35. I can’t just wait for a taxi so I call a taxi on some taxi app and wait outside. Waiting for “DH4835.” That’s the car’s license plate.

I step outside and wait. Is that..?? Nope. DH4846. Oh! I think I see them!! I check the license plate. Yep!! It’s DH4835!! I wave so they know I’m here, even though I gave them my address. I hop in, and tell them where I’m going. “Shake Shack at Green Hill Street, please.” We drive there, but traffic isn’t bad so I get there in around 25 minutes!!

I pay the driver and walk into the Shake Shack and look for my family. Hmmm…oh, I can see Dad waving at me!! I walk over to the table, but of course, I wave back first. I sit down in the last seat next to Bruno. Mom’s in the middle of talking to Bruno about his clothes. This time it’s “Bruno! Are you trying to embarrass the family??” Me and Julia giggle.

“But Mom!! How come Julia and Dar-” He talks back. “This isn’t about your sisters, it’s about you!! You’re the oldest!!” Dad nods. Bruno gives me and Julia “friendly glares.” A waitress comes and asks if we’re ready to order. “Do you need some time, Dari??” My mom asks. “No, it’s fine. I’ll have the double cheeseburger and a tall lemonade please.” Everyone else orders. The waitress repeats our order, smiles, and walks away. “Hi Dari!!! Sorry I didn’t say hi yet!! How are you??” She hugs me. Oof!! Too tight, too tight, too tight!!!! “Good.” I say, barely breathing. She lets me go. *gasp!!* Bruno chuckles. “So anything new lately??” I try to think of something…”No, not much…” Oh wait!! Mr. Rosmary!! “How about y-” “WAIT I HAVE SOMETHING!!!!!” I kinda shout.

“Yes, Daria??” She asks. “Something crazy happened at Dr.Bread yesterday!!!” I tell them. “Well, why don’t you tell us??” Dad says. Well, OBVIOUSLY!!!! What else was I gonna do?? Just leave it at that?? “Did your oven blow up??” Bruno asks. “Did someone turn out to be an alien??” Julia asks. “Julie, I don’t think aliens exi-” dad starts. “Well, close with the aliens, but not exactly. “Huh??” Dad says. Mom gives him a look.

“Told ya so, Dad.” Julie tells him. We all have nicknames except for Mom and Dad. They’re just “Mom” and “Dad.” The weird thing is they all end in an “ie” sound. I’m Dari, Julia’s Julie, and Bruno Brunie or Uno if we want to annoy him, or if we’re actually playing the game, Uno. “So what happened??” Julia asks. “So you know my boss, Mr. Rosmary??” I tell them. “Oh yes! He was nice when I met him!!” My mom answers. “Well, I thought he was nice too but GUESS WHAT!!! He’s a wizard and he stole Clarissa and he brainwashed everyone so nobody remembers her!!!!!” I tell them.

If anyone should believe me, it’s my family, right?? “Excuse me did you just say wizard??” My dad asks. “Yeah.” I told him. “Are you sure you didn’t dream that, honey??” Mom asks. “YES!! I saw him after work!! He had potions on his wall and tied Clarissa to a table!!” How couldn’t they believe me?! They said some more things. Well everyone except Julie. She just looked surprised. Our food came so we stopped talking about Mr. Rosmary.

Now Bruno was talking about how he got a raise in his work and he and his friends celebrated with sushi. I just ate my food and half-listened. After dinner, when we were walking in the garden path next to Shake Shack, Julia came up to me. “Hey, um, you know what you said about Mr. Rosmary??” she asked. Was she just gonna tell me about how I was dreaming like everyone else?? “The thing that NOBODY believes me??” “I believe you.” She said softly. I stared at her.

“WHAT?! You do? I mean, I know it’s true, but…You’re the only person who believes me!! I’M NOT GOING CRAZY!!!!!” I may have said the last sentence too loud since after that Julia said with a laugh, “Well, just because I believe you doesn’t mean you aren’t crazy!” “Ha ha. Very funny.” I said in a sarcastic voice and gave her a friendly glare. “So, what are you planning to do about it??” She asks in a suspicious tone. “I don’t know…stop him?? Oh! Do you wanna go to work with me on Monday?? Well, not go to work, but after work. So you can see Mr. Rosmary in action!” I tell her.

“That’s such a good idea!!! What time??” “Hmm…3:30? I end work at 4 since you won’t get in without our secretary questioning you if you come after everyone’s gone home. We’ll have to wait until 5 though…” “That’s fine, I got nothing to do anyway.” She says. That’s a relief, I thought she was gonna say something like ‘I’m not waiting for an hour and a half just for this!! I’m out!!” and then she’d walk away.

“Good!! See you monday…After this of course!!” We laughed and talked for the rest of the walk.

-

Beep! Beep! Beep! Monday!!! It’s showtime!! Today’s the day to STOP Mr. Rosmary!! Or at least show Julia what he’s doing. I’m not gonna go into detail about my morning routine or getting to work, so let’s just skip ahead to 3:40. I check my watch, almost the end of wooorrrkk!!! Why isn’t Julie here yet?! Ding! A message?! From Julie?! My phone doesn’t have any notifications…oh yeah, that was just the elevator. *sigh* Wait, the elevator?!

“Hi Daria!! Sorry I’m late!!” Julie walks out of the elevator. “Julia!!!!! I was just thinking about you!!” I hug her. “So what should I do while you finish work??” she asks. I hadn’t thought about that. “You can…help make dough??” I ask. Probably not. She wasn’t really ever the baking ty- “Yay!! That sounds fun!! What do I do??” -pe. Wait what?!

“Oh! Um, so you take some powder…” I explain it to her but by the time she’s done making her first bread dough, it’s 4 pm. “So now we go check out his office?!” Julie says, sounding VERY excited. I haven’t seen her this excited since her 4th birthday when Mom and Dad hired a few people to cosplay Disney princesses and even a unicorn. They told us when we were older of course, since we both believed the princesses were real. And the unicorn too.

“Well…we have to wait for around…1 hour??” I tell her slowly. “WHAT?! 1 whole hour!!!! What can we do in that time??” she asks. “First of all, don’t talk too loud or else someone will come up and tell us to leave since my shift’s over. And second…we could make more dough if you want??” “Fine. Let’s make more dough.” She sounds kind of bored but kind of happy. I don’t know. We make 2 pieces of dough each when I see it’s 3:46.

Since 1 dough elevator can only fit 1 bread, we have to use 3 others to fit in 4. “If we take the elevator, he’ll hear us when we land on the office floor, so we have to take the stairs.” Julie nods. We walk over to the stairs and start walking to the 1rst floor. “We’re here.” I whisper. “The floors get cleaned often here so we have to be careful not to make it squeak.” “Mhm.” Julia nods again.

Just as last time, his door is slightly open. I mean, it’s like he’s just waiting for someone to find out!! But he’s in his 50’s so he probably forgets things already. Even though I’m younger, I’m a little bit taller than Julia, so we can peek on top of each other, since the crack in the door is really small anyway.

“So…Clarissa…still won’t eat the toast?? Aren’t you hungry??” He tells her waving the toast in front of her. “I’d rather be hungry than have you take my soul!! It’ll only make you more powerful!!” she tells him. “Well if you don’t have it, you’ll die of hunger and I’ll just take another person anyway!!” he shouts. “Well, maybe if you don’t want toast, how about some cake??” he tells her again.

Can’t he just take her soul with a wand or something?? Why just food?? I guess I’ll just never understand wizards. “You’ll need more than food to get my soul, Rosmary!!” she tells him. I think she forgot the “mr.” Well since he’s gonna steal her soul, I guess he’s not her boss anymore. “Well FOOD, in case you didn’t know, is-” *Squeak!* Come on!! Why does this always happen?! Whenever I’m about to hear something, some sound comes!!

“Oops.” Julie whispers. I quickly pull her to my hiding place. “WHO’S THERE THIS TIME?!” Luckily a mop slides past us. “Why would you clean now?! Ughhh!! Such incompetence!!” Also luckily, he turns around and goes back, this time closing the door. The mop keeps sliding. “What was-” I start to ask. “The souls. He probably takes all their power and then turns them into some enchanted cleaning materials. Weird.” Julia explains.

“Ohh. That explains why I never see janitors or cleaning people!! But wait…how did you know that??” I ask. As we walk out of the building, Julie explains to me how she was always into magic things. Julia pays for a taxi all the way to my house. “I was thinking, maybe you could stay over tonight?? To you know, talk about all this more?” I ask her.

She lives far away and we had LOTS to talk about. “Sure, I have a week off anyway. And we haven’t finished talking about your boss.” she tells me. “Definitely. I have an inflatable mattress, I could blow it up for you.” We go to the living room and start talking.

“I brought over my book of magic, just in case.” Julie says as she pulls out a thick book. “Oooh!!” I say. It looks so real!! “Let’s see…S, s, s…Here it is!! Soul stealing. Here it says…food is the most common way of taking someone’s soul??” she says, very surprised. “That’s why there was toast and cake!! Now I get it!!” I say. “It also says most bad wizards need a human’s soul every year to keep their powers.”

“But how would he take someone EVERY YEAR without ANYONE noticing?!” I ask. Don’t even Clarissa’s FAMILY remember her?! “Was there any drink a lot of people had but YOU didn’t??” The champagne!!!! “YES!! He gave everyone a glass of champagne!! It must have had something in it making people forget!!! But I didn’t have it so I DIDN’T!!!!” I scream.

“Exactly. Now it says the only way to get someone to get their soul or prevent it getting stolen is-” Julia explains the plan and we get to work. We go to sleep right away since we won’t be getting much sleep tonight.

-

I wake up to Julie whispering, “Wake up!! Wake up, Daria!! It’s midnight, let's go.” We put on some black clothes(in movies spies and ninjas always wear that not to be noticed, and we can’t get noticed either) and get outside. Not many taxis are out late, but we get one to drive us all the way to my work. It’s locked, so we have to get creative.

“Do you have a pin or a hair clip or something??” I whisper. “No, but I do have a pencil.” A PENCIL?? Why would someone keep a pencil in their pocket?? But I guess it worked out!! We try making as little noise as possible when we go inside and walk to the 1rst floor.

I hope he doesn’t have an alarm or anything in his office!! We open the door and walk inside. Phew!! Clarissa’s asleep. I probably shouldn’t wake her up though in case she started screaming at me to save her or something. Something smells familiar…like…THE TAXI RIDE!!

The exact smell!! I follow it and it leads me to a jar labeled “Happiness chocolates”, and they look like the ones at the front desk!! No wonder everyone’s always happy!! We walk to the big shelf with potions and magic powders.

“Let’s see…there’s the anti-magic powders, it should be there.” Julia says in a hushed voice. “Ah! Here it is!” She exclaims. Quietly, of course. “How did you know which it was?!” Julia’s always been the smart one. “‘Ant-soul stealing.’ Really hard.” I’ve always been the one who fails to notice obvious things.

“If he wants to steal people’s souls though, why would he have something against it?? He just keeps doing things to make it easier for us to stop him.” I say, shaking my head. “Wizards should always have anti-potions in case they put a potion on the wrong person.” Julia tells me. “So we just sprinkle it on her and she’ll be protected??” I ask. “I’m pretty sure, yeah.” Julie replies.

She carefully sprinkles the powder over Clarissa. “A-a-a-” Oh no!! Clarissa’s gonna sneeze. “CHOO!!!!” NoOooO!!! “WHO’S THERE?!” Mr.Rosmary jumps into the room!! “Oh no!!!” I shout as I look at Julia. “Well well well. Isn’t it a little too late to be sneaking around my OFFICE?!” Mr.Rosmary shouts back while throwing potions at us. Luckily we skilfully dodge them. I look behind to see if Julie’s ok.

“WATCH OUT!!!” she shouts to me. I look back and see a potion flying towards me!! I duck to avoid the potion. I run over and whisper to Julia, “You find something to stop him, I’ll distract him!!” She gives me a thumbs-up and starts looking. I ask Mr.Rosmary about his “mighty” wizard powers, he loves talking about himself.

Luckily, it keeps him distracted to stop throwing things at me. And it gives Julie enough time to get some magic water to make him turn to dust or something. She sneaks up behind him…and…Mr.Rosmary turns around!! ”Thought you could kill me with that?!” he says holding her on the ground as he takes the bottle.

“You know, this doesn’t only turn WIZARDS to dust, but also PEOPLE!!” he starts to open the bottle. “Noooo!!!” I run and push Mr.Rosmary on the ground. The water starts to go on him!! “Ahhh...” he says as he turns to dust. “Yes!!! We did it!!” I tell Julia. We hug each other. “Well we ALMOST did it. We should probably wake up Clarissa, and free her, and you know. Tell people about him. And what’s been happening.” Julia tells me. “And get rid of the potions!!” I add. “Definitely.”

I walk over to the table Clarissa’s tied on. I untie the ropes and shake Clarissa. “I WON’T EAT IT!!!!” Clarissa says as she wakes up. “Wait- what?? The ropes are untied…I’M FREEEEE!!!!” Clarissa shouts. “Yep. And Mr.Rosmary is dead.” Julie tells her. “Thanks so MUCH, Daria and…um…who exactly are you??” she asks Julie. “Oh, that’s my sister Julia.” I answer Clarissa. It’s still only 2 am so I invite Clarissa to spend the night and Julia goes back to her house. The only problem is, how will our company keep working without a boss??

-

The next day at work, Ms.Liana isn’t there. Me and Clarissa walk up to Mr.Rosmary’s old office. Still messy. Guess nobody was in here since we left earlier today. We go to the speaker and press the button. “Attention everyone!!” I say.

“Mr.Rosmary is gone.” I can hear some “boo”s all the way down here. “But it’s for a good reason!! He was an evil wizard. You may not believe it, but that champagne is the reason you forgot about Clarissa. When she was called to his office, she never came back. And now she’ll tell you why.” Clarissa walks to the speaker and presses the button. “Hi, I’m Clarissa. I was working in the bread station before our boss took me. So basically, what happened was…” Clarissa tells the whole story.

As we’re walking out, I see one of the last not broken bottles labeled, “remember: Clarissa.” Could it be a potion to make everyone remember?? It’s worth a shot. I run back to the speaker and say one last thing. “Sorry to bother you again, but everyone who wants to remember Clarissa, before you were brain-washed, please come to Mr.Rosmary’s old office. We found memory powder.”

We walk out, but as soon as we get to the door there are already plenty of people outside!! We give them all the powder. After everyone remembered Clarissa, we decided to have a party. A party with no magic drinks this time.

You remember the thing at the beginning of this story?? “What could possibly go wrong?” Well, everything. I guess not everyone is who they seem to be.