I walk across the gravel steps reaching up to the mansion, box after box, I am helping my  friend Amber move in to her new house when I hear a voice.

“Thanks for all the help, Genna,”

“No problem Ms. Jamison.”

Then Amber wobbles up the last step her face red, tired as could be.

“Should a house have so many steps?” she asked.

I shrug and kept moving each box inside her beautiful house. I walk inside, sweaty from carrying each box up every step. I look outside to the huge, open yard. There is a pool extending to a garden full of plants, growing, bunnies, joy filling the air. I never really cared about being rich, more about being famous. I wrote about it on my blog how the famous have it so easy. I feel a twitch around my feet; the shock moves them blasting to a jump in the air, I look down at my feet, and there lies a locket. I move to open it, but stutter trying to get it open it, like it’s stuck. I try and try until I hear Ms. Jamison’s voice growing louder and louder. I groan, slip the locket in my pocket, and am on my way.

A couple of moments later, I reach into my pocket, but something’s missing. The locket, it’s gone? I reach in and take out everything. No locket. I feel my face getting redder and redder by the moment. Where could it of gone? It was right here. I am confused. I say goodbye to Amber and her parents after helping with the boxes and ride my bike down to where I live in a little house on a farm. I’m not rich like Ambers family. I can’t just move from one huge house to the next.  My family is actually sort of poor. I have a job at a local coffee shop. I’m 17. I’m not going to college because we can’t pay for it and I have to help around the house. I actually kind of like helping around at the farm. I really love my horse Addelyn. I also love mystery novels. I’m kind of embroiled in my own mystery right now. It’s the locket. I know it’s dumb to care this much about a locket, but when you are poor, everything matters. Hm, it was probably nothing, just fell out of my pocket when I was moving a box.

I shrug it off and grab my bicycle and am off on the gravel path toward town. I finally reach Crazy Good Coffee where I work. I just got there and people are already lining up, wanting their orders. I am getting this man’s iced latte when all of the sudden an image appears through the whipped cream. A heart and then two wiggly lines appear. My eyes go like a bugs. Could this message be about the locket? I am stunned and out of breath, not knowing what to say or do. I glance to my right. My coworker Frank looks confused. He isn’t saying anything, but I know what he is thinking: ”Serve those angry customers.” I look at the long line of heads. The line is so long it looks like a trail of ants. I get back to work and exit my own personal thoughts.

I ride my bike back toward the house when all of the sudden I see a turtle on the side of the road on it’s back, stuck. I decide I need to help my little friend. I walk over and put the turtle back on its feet. Instead of the turtle moving along its way, it opens and the locket appears. I open it and am drifted in to another place. I’m somewhere weird. No one else is here but me. This was a trap to mess with me. Where am I? I look above me, but instead of seeing the sky, I see a blackish/brownish surface. Something falls on to my tank top. I touch it. Dirt? I see words scrawled under my feet. Oh my God, I’m underground. How am I going to survive here? Is there a way? Who would want to do this to me?

3 HOURS LATER:
I am cold and hungry and I don’t know what to do. I feel something dropping down my cheek bone. A tear? Am I crying? Yes, I am I’m just so scared. I’m trapped in my thoughts when I hear crying, but this time it’s not from me. Who could it be from? I walk down a little ways and sitting by a corner is this girl who looks to be about my age. I say, “Hi.” She looks at me kind of scared and then stares at me and gets up.

“Who are you? How did you find me?”

“What?” I ask.

“Are you part of the paparazzi?”

“No, I say. “Why would I be?”

“Oh,” she says and sits back down. “I’m Willow Miles.”

“Genna Goose.”

We talk for a few minutes and I learn this about Willow’s life:
Willow is a singer/songwriter but she hated it and ran away. Along the way, she fell into a hole and has been stuck here for a year. Luckily, somehow she is still alive. I just don’t understand why she wouldn’t want to be famous. Having everyone know who you are and love you. I just don’t get it at all.

*************************************************************************************************************

“So you want to be me, Genna?”

“Well, I mean being famous would be awesome.”

“Right.” She smirks.

“Why are you so unhappy”?

She giggles. “You don't get it do you?” At first, it’s great, then it turns into hell.”

“Well, it just looks so fun and freeing.”

“Fun? Freeing? Whats so fun and freeing about being followed all the time and never having alone time?”

I feel my cheeks get red. Why are you such a downer?” I yell. “We’re stuck here. Stop complaining.”

She then does a half smirk, lifts her arms above and around her head and drifts off to a long sleep. The next morning I wake up and Willow is pounding on the wall, causing dirt to come pouring down the walls onto my big round head, but boy does the brain inside my head feel small today. I ask what she is doing, and she responds that she heard a loud voice coming from the other side of the wall. My eyes fly open wide and my heart races. Willow is scared too. I can see the blood pumping faster and faster in her veins. I throw a punch at the wall. More dirt falls. We then hear a chuckle. Someone is behind that wall, but who? I close my eyes and sit down, devoid of energy. While I’m down on the ground watching the ants swarming around my feet I see something glowing in a pile of leaves. I point and show Willow. We walk over together, slowly tracing each step. I pick it up an object. It is the locket. I try again and again to open it, but nothing works. Willow throws herself to the ground, and covers her face. I start to walk away when I hear a sniffle. “Are you crying”? I ask, my eyes full of worry.

“It’s just so hard you know.”

“What is?”

“Life, all this moving around tour after tour. I just wanted to sing, that was it. I’m 17! I have enough problems. Why do I have to be followed all the time?”

I still don’t get all this.

“But you get to go on tours and have people yelling your name.”

“You think your life is awful because you’re invisible. I would do anything to step into a day in your life instead of my own.”

The dirt flickers like lightning and that’s all I remember.

GENNA’S POINT OF VIEW:
I wake up in an apartment, windows everywhere. I see a face that is sort of familiar, but I cannot remember where I have seen her before. I then hear someone yelling, “Willow?” I then hear a response from the girl sitting next to me. She reaches over and pets me and says, “Come on, Juno.” I glance at an object shining my reflection back at me, except in this view, I’m a dog. Willow grabs me by my fancy expensive collar, but before we even open the door the whole way reporters and cameras come rushing in. Then this so called Willow and I get in to car. It doesn’t take me long to realize by the tinted glass and couches as seats that we were in a limo. I hear a sigh as Willow gets out from the car. She pulls me with her and that’s when I walk along. I’m blinded by all the cameras, and the people asking for autographs. This seems like a piece of cake, at least that’s what I think at first.

WILLOW’S POINT OF VIEW:
I yawn as I am awakened by something, something wet and big, slobbery. . . I close my eyes, hoping to get back to my dream. Then, I realize what it is by the smell the second time. Dog. “Hi, Juno,” I say petting him. It takes me a minute to realize this isn’t my dog. I then sit up, dazed and confused. A sort of familiar voice and face walks into my small cowboy-themed room.

“WAKE UP!” she yells.

“Who are you?”

“What do you mean, who am I? I’m your sister Genna. Are you feeling all right?”

“Yeah,” I nod, very confused.

“Good, cuz you need to help me milk the cows.”

I take a look at the clock sitting in front of me. I roll over tiredly and then fall off the bed, not used to a bed that’s not king-size. “It’s 4:00 in the morning.”

“Are you sure you are okay?”

“Whats for breakfest?”

“Orange juice and eggs.”

“What about coffee?”

“Coffee? What do you mean coffee?” Now seriously, get up. We need to get this day rolling.

GENNA’S POINT OF VIEW:

I walk out of the apartment. Cameras are blocking my path as I’m being pulled on a leash by Willow, but I can see and feel everything. Willow is pulling away as she heads into this round circular theater-like thing. People surrounding us put me in the car as Willow enters the building.

WILLOW’S POINT OF VIEW:
I meet Genna out in the barn. We work all day, milk the cows, take care of the animals, weed… It takes forever and is so tiring. We never even rest because when we go in, we have to cook dinner. Actually, I have to do that by myself because Genna has to go to her job.

GENNA’S POINT OF VIEW:
I hear Willow’s voice charging to the limo.

“That was the worst performance of my life.”

“No, what are you talking about? You were great up there,” another voice says.

“Rachel, you’re my publicist. You have to say that.” I watch her eyes fill up with tears as she hands me to this girl with blue eyes and pink hair.

“I’m not your publicist,” the girl with the pink hair says. “And I thought you were great up there.”

“Ha, Molly, you’re my best friend. You have to say that too,” Willow replies.

“Well, George doesn't have to say that.”

“Who’s George?”

“A fan who wanted your autograph.”

I look at Willows face she has a smile on her face, but I can tell how hard she is trying to hold back tears.

WILLOW’S POINT OF VIEW:
I wake up in the morning and take a walk down the hall I have to go somewhere. I can’t be in my room or Genna’s sister Mia’s room. I find a trail of ants scurrying across the floor. Not that this life isn’t great for some people, but not for me. There’s also the issue of breakfast. I mean the food tastes great. I just don’t know the last time I had to prepare my own meals. I still am scared to move because I feel like someone’s watching me ,even though I’m not Willow anymore. Gosh ,I wonder how Genna is taking it being me or whoever she is in my life. I almost don’t get it. It’s like we are each other in an event that’s already happened, like it’s the thing that happened right before we both were sent underground.

GENNA’S POINT OF VIEW:
Isn’t it so crazy how all those people just wait outside her door, but I mean she’s totally loved right? Isn’t that why everyone stands outside her door? She puts me on the floor and goes and sits on the couch, pulling her face in her hands. I still am not sure why she is making this life out to be so negative, but then all of the sudden Molly marches in the door her smiling face until she closes the door and then her expression changes to a red glare.

“HOW COULD YOU WILLOW?”

I am so in shock she came from being her best friend to this. I open my mouth to speak but then realize I’m a dog.

“Wwwhat?” Willow stutters, as her face starts breaking into tears.

“YOU TOTALLY LOOKED SAD OUT THERE AND THEY CAN TOTALLY TELL!”

Willow looks so sad right now; it’s awful to watch.

“WILLOW, THEY ARE STARTING TO QUESTION HOW GREAT OF A FRIEND I AM TO YOU AND THIS IS NOT GOOD FOR MY REPUTATION, YOU HEAR??”

That is the last straw according to Willow’s eyes right now. She takes a step closer and just when I think she is about to hit Molly, she gets this stern look on her face and purses her lips together. I really want to help so I start barking like crazy. Security comes in and offers to take me, but Willow shakes her head as Molly rests her arm on Willows shoulder. Then the security guys leave and Molly rips her arm off of Willow’s shoulder and starts glaring again, except this time with more of an evil eye. Willow is glaring now too but instead of yelling she chuckles a little and then says,“You know what Molly? You’re right.You should be the star.”

Molly has this half-glare and half-confused look, but just as she is about to speak, Willow takes her sunglasses off her forehead and hands them to Molly. Molly grabs the glasses but Willows not done. “Put on the superstar life .I do not want it”. Come on, Juno,” she says, gesturing me to follow so I get up and I am out.

WILLOW’S POINT OF VIEW:
Wow, this life is harder then expected ever since Genna and Mia’s dad passed away in a car wreck. Her mom or if this doesn’t change my mom can’t work because she has a family to take care of. She’s super smart though. She used to be a writer. Best selling novels but then she had to take care of her two daughters and help around the farm.

GENNA’S POINT OF VIEW:
I wake up dazed and confused in a tiny space with spiders everywhere. There is a familiar face in front of me. I tap Willow on the shoulder and she looks at me. We exchange looks and say nothing for a while until she finally goes, “I’m so sorry.”

I look up  and ask, “For what?”

“I didn’t believe you. I’m really sorry.”

“No, are you kidding? I’m the who should apologize.” I look down then finally say, “If you ever need someone to vent to or lean on, I’m only a phone call away.”

She looks at me and smiles we then hug. I feel something burning in my hand. I look down and my hand is on the locket.

So I guess that would be the biggest lesson I have learned in life. You can’t judge anyone by what you think their life is like until you actually experience it.

Thank you. Please think about me. I would love to go to Harvard University.
Genna

2 Years later:
I am doing well in Harvard, where I am studying pre-law. I actually love it here. Okay, here’s an update. I’ve been texting Willow and since she can’t run away from the spotlight, she’s going to face it and figure out who her true friends are. I also met this great guy named Chad. Well, I will tell you the rest later, but for now I say goodbye.