I want

to be NORMAL

By Savanah Williams

I Want to be Normal

By Savanah Williams

Designed to be Worthy

Published by:

Designed To Be Worthy

102 W.McElhaney Road

Taylors, SC 29687

Copyright 2012 Designed To Be

Worthy. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of

America.

First printing May, 2012

Dedicated to

My family who has taught me the

value of trusting that God has

made each one of us to be a very

special creation.

Acknowledgements

I’d like to thank my parents

for urging me to take this writing

course and for getting me there

each week.

I would also like to thank

Vanguard Homeschool Academy, HRC

for the opportunity they have

provided through it’s co-op

classes where I have friends and

good teachers.

Thank you too to Mrs.

Wong,the Director, for all she

does.

Lastly, I would like to thank

Pleasant Grove Baptist Church for

allowing HRC to use their

classrooms.

Thanks to my classmates;

without a class full of people,

I’d have to answer all of the

questions.

Thank you to Mrs.Husman for

editing my novel and for helping

me set up the pages. I have

learned a lot about computers this

year, but there’s a lot more I

need to learn.

Table of Contents

1. The Start

2. Day One

3. Preparation

4. Bieber Fever

5. The Wish, the Dream

6. Normal

7. A Place of Regrets

8. Contrition

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Chapter 1 The Start

It all started when I graduated from

elementary school. After elementary I had

two months until I had to start middle

school. All summer long, I was very nervous,

so I tried to calm my nerves by doing the

stuff I loved to do.

One memorable event was my super

stupid sunburn. I asked my mom if she

would take me to the zoo. She agreed. When

we arrived at the zoo, it was closed because

both of their lions where sick; I was very

upset that we couldn’t go to the zoo. Mom

suggested we could go home and get ready to

go to the pool or we could just stay home.

I cheered, “Let’s just go to the pool!”

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When we got there, my mom said that

she had forgotten the sun block, so we

couldn’t stay that long. After an hour and a

half at the pool, we drove home.

I had to take a shower, and then I

went to my room to rest. When my dad got

home, we ordered pizza.

The next day, I awoke feeling super

sun burned. I looked in the mirror: Ugh. I

was so red and looked super funny. I wished

we had remembered the sun block! That day,

I went to the park alone just to walk around

and be by myself.

When I got home, I found out my

parents had invited my friend Elizabeth to

hang out. I don’t really like her because

sometimes she can be really rude to me, but I

call her my friend. I just knew that today she

would have a rude comment for me about my

sunburn, and she did.

Just as I expected she blurted out a

comment: “WOW! You are red like a tomato!”

Inside, I knew it’s because I had fun at the

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pool, unlike some people who had been stuck

at home. I knew at that moment we were

starting to get in a fight, so I told her it

would be best if she went home. And she did.

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Chapter 2 Day One

Well, summer ended, and my

nervousness about middle school became

reality. Today was the first day of middle

school. And, I didn’t know anyone. My mom

took me to school in our 15 passenger van,

jamming to her oldies. I couldn’t wait to get

out of the car because I didn’t want anyone

to see me in the worst car ever. As I looked

at everyone else getting out of their cars,

they had the most awesome cars ever. Well, I

wished it was still summer. I really didn’t

like school at all.

Ugh! The first class I had was science,

my worst subject ever. After science, I had

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math, history, grammar, and finally lunch. I

didn’t know why I was excited for lunch

because all I did everywhere was embarrass

myself. Well, my wonderful mother had

made me a salad with mushrooms, garlic,

tomato, onions and lots of garlic dressing.

Since I was hungry, I didn’t mind eating it. It

really didn’t taste that bad.

When I saw Elizabeth, I walked up to

say hey. When I did, she grimaced, saying,

“What is that bad smell?”

“ I don’t know?” I tried.

“Is that your breath?”

“ No.”

She played along, “Oh. Okay,” and

rolled her eyes as if she knew it really was.

I finished my orange juice, but as I

went to throw away my cup, the little bit in

the bottom spilled on my pants. I tried to

make sure no one saw the wet spot on my

pants, but of course my old friend Jamie

from 5th grade noticed, yelling out, “Bad

breath Emily just peed her pants.”

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I was so embarrassed my face

turned as red as a tomato. I ran to the

bathroom.

Moving on to my afternoon classes

sounded bad too, but it did mean being closer

to the end of a bad first day of middle school.

It was time for gym period. I was doomed

because t just so happened that the night

before I had run out of deodorant. In a

panic, I asked Mom if she could go get some.

She was busy checking her Facebook and

said plainly, “You’ll be fine, Emily.”

When class started, I hoped he

wouldn’t make us do stuff that would make

us sweat, but he did. First, he made us run

three laps around the outside track. I knew I

smelled badly already, and I knew everyone

else could smell me too. When we got back

inside, he made my group line up on the left.

There was Jamie, and on the right was

Elizabeth. Then he instructed us to do fifty

jumping-jacks. I totally panicked because I

knew everyone around me would smell my

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stink and make fun of me. My plan was to do

the jumping-jacks, but to not really lift my

arms, hoping no one would smell me or see

the sweat marks under my arms. And of

course, they did.

Next thing I know, Jamie loudly

whined, “What is that? It smells! I think it’s

Emily.” And everyone laughed.

I felt tears run down my eyes as I

asked coach C. if I could go to the bathroom.

He nodded. I ran.

I plopped straight to the floor, crying

my heart out. Eight minutes later coach sent

Cole Jonson to come get me.

She asked softly, “Are you ok? “No…

I hate middle school. No one likes me, and

they hurt my feelings.”

“ That’s not true. I like you,” she

confessed. “Dry your tears and give me a

hug.”

I knew from that point I had found a

friend for life.

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Chapter 3 Preparation

After the worst day ever at school,

decided that I definitely didn’t want to go

through that any more. After I did all my

homework, I insisted my mom get some more

deodorant for me for tomorrow. Also, I

carefully picked out my clothes. I picked out

my purple skinny jeans and my Justin

Bieber t-shirt I got from the concert I went to

last year. Then, I made sure to pack my own

lunch and even asked Mom if I could walk to

school. She agreed. That night, I went to bed

knowing I had done everything I could to be

ready for the next school day. When I

woke up, I was ready to get dressed. I got my

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book bag and lunch and other stuff together

and I said, “Goodbye.”

I left for school an hour early to make

sure I would be there on time. Walking

along, I saw Cole up ahead so I ran and

yelled, “Hey Cole.”

She smiled, “Oh, hey Emily. I had no

idea you walked to school.”

“Oh. Yeah, I just started,” I admitted.

“Oh, cool, I love your shirt; I love

Justin Bieber too.”

“Awesome. He’s the best.”

So we walked together all the way to

school. We got there thirty minutes early. So

far, so good; I hadn’t been made fun of or

anything. I was kind of normal.

Mom had said I could have someone

spend the night, so I invited Cole. She said

she would love to come. After school, we

walked to my house. The worst thing ever

began our overnight --my dad was making

dinner. I didn’t want Cole to have to go home

because she had gotten sick from eating

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dinner, so I begged Dad to bake a frozen

pizza. He caved.

We had a great time until my parents

started to act a little weird. Well, not that

weird, just annoying because they were

listening to their old people music. Cole

didn’t seem to mind, though, so everything

went well and we had an awesome time.

In the morning, Cole had to go home

right away because she had to hang with her

family. That left me to hang with my

abnormal family.

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Chapter 4

Bieber Fever!

Soon, I’d celebrate my 13th birthday. I

knew what I wanted: I wanted to go to the

Justin Bieber World Tour Concert and I

wanted to take a friend. I knew who I would

take-- Cole, of course, because she is my best

friend for life. Besides, she really likes Justin

Bieber too. We would have a terrific time.

When I asked my parents, they said

they wouldn’t mind as long as we stayed

together and did the buddie system.

Cole and I had become great friends,

so at school the very next day I told Cole

what I had planned for my birthday. She

agreed it would be awesome and she loved

the idea of going with me.

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That same night her parents gave her

permission to go. While our moms worked

out the details, we texted. We texted until

11:30 when finally went to bed.

When I awoke, I remembered it was

Sunday. Sundays are good because Cole and

I go to the same church. We hung out at

church and then our parents decided to get

together for lunch. After lunch, they invited

meto their house to hang out for a little bit.

When we got there, Cole asked if I

would like to watch television, and I agreed,

so for two hours we watched the new

Twilight movie Breaking Dawn that she just

bought yesterday because it had come out on

DVD. It was the best one yet. Cole is on team

Edwards’s side and I am on team Jacobs’s

side. The whole time we cheered saying, “No!

She’s going for Edward,” or “No! She’s going

for Jacob.” We went back and forth the whole

time; it was so fun. I had an awesome time!

Finally, it was the night before the

Justin Bieber concert and Chloe was

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spending the night again. I had planned an

awesome sleepover. First, we would watch

the Justin Bieber movie on my family’s 3-D

television. Next, we would listen to Justin

CD’s while coloring signs for the concert.

After the movie, which made us cry a

lot, we put on the music. The signs were his

favorite colors -- red and purple. They looked

awesome; they were just the best. After all

that, we showed each other what we are

going to wear. She was going to wear her red

skinny jeans, a t-shirt with Justin’s face on

it, and a red jacket. I thought it looked

awesome. I was going to wear purple skinny

jeans, a t-shirt with Justin’s face on it, and a

purple jacket. We pretty much had chosen

the same outfit, just different colors. We

looked great. Our tickets where on the first

row, and we jumped and clapped to the

music until the concert ended.

After the concert it was so late that, as

planned, Cole spent the night again! It

wasn’t a problem with me.

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At home, my parents embarrassed me

again. I wished they would just be “normal”!

I hated when they acted like themselves; it

made me so mad.

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Chapter 5

The Wish, the Dream

Before I slept, I made a wish. I

wished that God would make me and my

parents normal so I wouldn’t be embarrassed

by anything anymore.

That night I thought a lot about this

wish. I so wished it would come true. How

awesome it could be to be normal and have

normal parents who did normal things. That

very night, I dreamt.

In my dream, I was wonderfully

popular and normal, and my parents were

normal too. It was weird and surprisingly, I

didn’t like it at all. You could call it a

nightmare!

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Chapter 6 Normal

When I woke up, I found that my

dream had sadly turned into real life. Here’s

what my wished-for normal looked like.

. The next morning, the first thing I

noticed was that the house was really clean

and redecorated too. Then, while browsing

in the pantry for breakfast, Dad, Mr. Notta

Cook, interrupted me, offering an omelet

with a side of jelly toast and a glass of orange

juice. He was dressed up in a suit. My mom

was also dressed up in a nice skirt and

blouse. They both looked nice, but why would

they be dressed up? My mom was a stay-at-

home mom and my dad was an exterminator.

Well, after breakfast, they each kissed me

and said, “We love you.”

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Mom told me, “Dad will be picking you

up from school today because I have to work

late.”

“Um. Well? Mom? I thought to

myself. Aloud I said, “Um, Mom. You don’t

work.”

“Of course I work, Honey. I’m a

fashion designer for Kim Rogers.”

“What!” I thought to myself. “My mom

has always been a stay at home mom.”

All I said was, “Oh. Yeah. That’s what

you do.”

“Dad? Why are you so dressed up for

work? I asked, trying to get a hold of this

new normal mom and dad.

“Sweet Pea, I am a part-time owner at

BMW sales.”

“Oh. I guess I forgot all about that,” I

responded, now really confused.

“Anyways, we should get going,” Mom

and Dad said together.

Not much was different, just a few

new things popped up each day, little things.

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Chapter 7 A Place of Regrets

A few weeks later, the car line lady

announced, “Emily Huffman’s ride is here.” I

looked everywhere for my car, but I didn’t

see it.

Next thing I knew, a super nice

Bugatti pulled up with the window rolled

down. It was my dad.

“Hey, Honey, did you forget what kind

of car I drive or something?”

“Yeah, I did. Sorry. I am just really

sleepy,” I lied.

“Well, try not to be so tired because we

have a very nice dinner with the other part-

time owner tonight, and I want everything to

go well.”

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“Ok. I will be on my best behavior,

Dad,” I spoke up.

“Oooo-kay, sounds good,” he smiled.

That night at the dinner party, I was

so confused. I had no idea what had been

going on, and I didn’t like it. I never got to

see my parents much anymore and I had to

be by myself a lot. I didn’t like it and I

wanted my old life back. Too many little

changes had piled up, making everything

bad, although probably very normal-looking

to everyone else. I was so crushed that I was

willing to do anything! Yes, anything!

That night, I prayed and then cried

myself to sleep because I didn’t want my

parents to be that way. After a month of this

going on, I had had it! I had been ground to

pieces and broken. I was truly sorry for my

wish.

When I prayed, I prayed and prayed

that when I woke up, God would have

changed my parents. I felt better, and then I

fell sound asleep.

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When I woke up the next morning, my

parents were the same. So was I.

“Why God? Why would you do this to

me? Why? How am I supposed to be happy

with who I am and how my family is, when I

am not? Am I stuck with the parents I don’t

want to have because I’m not being happy? I

poured out my questions to God, still

regretful for my wish.

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Chapter 8 Contrition

A second night went by of me crying

and praying, “Why God?

God answered me. It was like He

struck me on the head. With a new heart, I

realized that I had learned that I should

have been happy with what I had before I got

my wish. I also realized that what I had

wanted because of my own greediness didn’t

get me anywhere but a place of regrets.

When I woke up the next morning, my

old parents were back! I was so happy.

I promised to never again wish for

anything better because it can’t get better

than THIS. I know why God gave me that

lesson: it was to show me that I should be

thankful for what I have and I shouldn’t

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want anything more because that is greedy.

Next time I feel like I want more, I plan to

remember that I already have everything I

need.

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Author’s Note Broken Vessel

Isaiah 66:2

New International Version (NIV)

2 Has not my hand made all these things,

and so they came into being?”

declares the LORD.

“These are the ones I look on with favor:

those who are humble and contrite in spirit,

and who tremble at my word.

About the author

Savanah Williams is an outgoing,

energetic middle school girl. She

enjoys sports, music, and friends, as

well as being a big sister to her

younger siblings. This book has been

an exploration into her abilities as a

writer, and it has shown her that she

has the ability to encourage others

through her heartfelt writing.

From Wikipedia: Contrition or contriteness (from the Latin contritus 'ground to pieces', i.e. crushed by guilt) … sincere and complete remorse.

Savanah Williams’ story I Want to be Normal takes the reader to a place where matters of the heart are solved. It begins with Emily Hoffman living out a very real life of an almost-middle school girl: she just wants to be normal! She wants her parents to be normal. After Emily wishes this, she dreams a different reality. When she awakes, it is real. Maybe normal isn’t so good. Savanah has captured a real teen’s frustration and the beautiful end of the story provides a valuable lesson for the heart: be happy with what you have been given and who God has made you to be.