A Second Chance

A Second Chance 

By: Haripriya 

I was bored. I mean, there was NOTHING to do. Sure, it was Autumn at all, but it was cold outside! There was nothing to play with, other than leaves, and leaves, and leaves, and... well you get the idea, don’t you? I don’t really get why people make such a big fuss about fall, and how pretty it looks. I don’t see the beauty. All I see is a bunch of leaves in the front yard, which means so much raking to do, that’s all. Many people say that the leaves look pretty, but so what if they are red, and orange, and yellow, they are all just colors. Nothing so special about red, orange, and yellow. You see? If you think about it, there isn’t anything special about Autumn in any possible way! But fall has just started, and it won’t end until late November, which means 2 and a half months of just cleaning the front yard because of the littered leaves. From what I see, these leaves are just a pain in the neck, not magical or beautiful in any angle! 

Now some might just call this moaning, or whining, or groaning about Autumn, and I guess that’s what I am doing. But I just had to say this! Unfortunately, to make all my problems with Autumn even worse, my birthday is in Autumn. So, I will surely be looking forward to that, won’t I? Anyways, coming back to reality now, I had absolutely nothing to do at home. I was bored and reluctant to go outside (as I had mentioned earlier for why I didn’t want to go). Looking outside for 1 hour wasn’t so entertaining either. I was also starting to get a little tired for some reason. Wasn’t there anything that I could do? 

I got an idea. I could invite my two friends over and play with them until, you know it is time to sleep. 

“Can I invite Amara and Kiara to our house? It has been about 2 months since they have visited here... please? Also, I am really bored today, and in an hour, it is going to start raining really hard.” I had pleaded my mom to let me invite them. 

“Yes, they can come.” she replied. 

“Thank you!! I will mail them right now!” I told my mom, and then quickly rushed into my room. 

“Ok, all I have to click is the ‘send’ button and click! I really hope they see this on time.” I said.  

Instead of continuing to look at the gloomy outdoors, I decided to read a good book. Though I had read “When Stars are Scattered” almost 5 times, I thought I would read it again. It was my favorite book anyways, so why not? I almost hadn’t even realized how quick the time had gone by! It had been 1 hour since I had started to read, and that wasn’t even the most surprising part. It was that it looked like it was 11:00 pm when it was only 5:00 pm! I glanced at the clock again, it was starting to get a little late now.  I got a little sad. Now, I had no hope that they were going to see this mail and come, but I heard no response from either of them. I sighed heavily and decided to read more of the book. Each time I flipped a page though, I knew exactly what was going to happen. But every time I read this book; I would find something new which I hadn’t found out last time. That was the true beauty of this book.  Sometimes I would even find some drawings that I hadn’t even noticed before! Though re-reading might sound boring, it was beneficial!  

Suddenly, I heard a knock on the door. I didn’t know who it was, it could have been anybody.  

“Go open the door! Quickly, I am working!” I had heard my mother holler across the hall. 

“Fine!! I will go and open the door!” I screamed back, hoping that she would hear me.  

When I opened the door though, to my surprise, I saw my friends. 

“I had been waiting for you for such a long time!! Why didn’t you respond to... any of my mails that I had sent you two?” I interrogated them, looking suspicious.  

“Sorry! I came to your house because... well I was bored too! While I was coming, I saw Amara come, and then we both entered, that’s all! Also, I didn’t have time to check my mail anyways. What do you have planned?” Kiara had asked me. 

I sighed and responded, “If you had checked your mail, I had told you that I too was bored and have NOTHING to do. Do you have any plan Amara? Or, are you here because... well you’re bored too?”  

“No, I have a fun activity that I planned for all of us to do. My mom told me to use all the construction paper since there was loads and loads of it in my room. Also, the amount of these paper I have is just... crazy!! So yeah that is why I brought my backpack. I thought that we could make some fall decorations with these!” Amara told us.  

“I guess... well if that is the only thing we have, then I am all up for it. Let’s start making these decorations. I am guessing that the paper is in your backpack, am I right?” I asked her. 

“Yes, you are, now let’s go and make some fall decorations!! Who is with me?!” Amara shouted, trying to inspire us.  

“I am with you!!” Kiara shouted. 

“Let’s do this!!” I too hollered. 

Though I wasn’t much of an Autumn fan, I guess trying something new would never hurt, right? This would have been my last, and only option. Anything to get me out of this boredom. Which means doing things that... I potentially might not like.  

I let my friends inside and closed the door, it was getting cold. 

Amara laid all the 20 different colors of construction paper in front of us. All the colors together, it made the paper itself look much more valuable. 

“The plan is to cut and make any fall decorations. You can make jagged leaves by cutting the paper like that. Also, try to put many colors and detail into it, that is when you’ll have the maximum amount of fun, trust me.” Amara suggested. 

Kiara and I stared at each other and looked down at our papers. We both started getting back to our decorations. First, I had made many of those color changing leaves. They were the easiest to make. Next, I moved on to the jack-o-lanterns. Honestly, they were the hardest to make. To make those pumpkins aren’t as easy as just saying the word ‘pumpkins'. But, after I had made one, I had a lot of fun making more of those.  

I realized the reason why Autumn made everyone feel happy and calm. It was about spending time with friends and family. Making these fall decorations helped me realize that. Now, every fall, I would remember to make all my decorations with my friends.  

~The End~