Magical Ring

Danny Stallings and The Bewitched Ring

Long ago, before TV, computers, cell phones and cars lived a Princess named Danica. She lived on a long line of hideous, boring, hairy, carless, strange, crazy and awkward queens. But despite all their faults it never dampened on their big generous hearts. One day Danica was doing her daily deeds for the towns people when she over heard a toddler whining to his mom about Danica, complaining how strange and weird-looking she was, how he wanted a new princess.
Danica was horrified! She had no awareness that people talked about her behind her back, that people thought so little of her. So as a result of her low self-esteem, Danica ran, she ran as fast as her long awkward legs would let her until nightfall. Then she collapsed on the grassy riverbank and cried herself to sleep.
The next morning she was awakened by the shining reflection of light coming from something in the riverbed. She stood up to try and find the source of the glare that obnoxiously woke her up. She saw the light but she couldn’t quite make out what was causing it, so Danica dove in the water to go check it out. What she brought out of the river was a beautiful golden ring decorated with an opal stone in the center. Taking this as a sign that her life was about to turn around she put the ring on. I was way to big at first but just as she was about to take it off, the ring started glowing, it magically adjusted perfectly to her finger. It was a magic ring! At this point she was convinced that it was meant for her, that the ring was looking for her. When Danica got back she didn’t expect anyone to rush at her worried where she was all night but was still excited to share of her new discovery. She walked in and everyone was looking at her in aw, soon she felt more coordinated, more in control. She ran to find the closest mirror and looked at what everyone was staring at. Danica was beautiful. From that point forward she wore the ring everyday, and shared the miracle with all of the towns people, the miracle of the ring that made all who wore it beautiful and talented. The towns' people grew to love Danica and appreciate her large generous heart. When Danica died she passed it down to her ugly, boring and awkward daughter so the town may respect her as they grew to respect Danica through the rings powers. When Danica gave her daughter the ring, she had one request: lend the ring to anyone in need and pass it on through generations to come so our descendants can be respected as I was.
3,000 years later…
"Danny Stallings? Danny Stallings?!" called the ninth grade English teacher at Ridgewood high. "Tardy again, how is that girl not expelled." She notes under her breath. Then crashing through the door and falling over herself Danny bursts into the classroom, "Here! Danny Stallings is here Mrs. Mathews!" The class giggles to themselves at Danny, "LOSER cough, cough" "HAHA OMG look at her outfit" "What a freak" Danny looks at the many rows of desks in the classroom but only see's Rebecca White, the most popular girl in school of course leading the line of insults. The teacher doesn’t even say anything to stop the kids, she just watches.
"Mrs. Mathews? Are you hearing this?"
"Hearing what Danny? Please go to your seat I've heard just about enough of your attitude."
"My attitude?! Why do you hate me so much? I haven’t done anything wrong besides coming late to class, I'm even getting an A!"
"I haven't figured out why I hate you yet Danny there's just something urging me to bully you everyday, I can't stop it."
Danny grabbed her bags and ran out the door, her thoughts were racing. How could her favorite teacher Mrs. Mathews hate her? She even admitted it in front of the entire class, as if they don’t make fun of me enough already. She sighs, "Huh, I need a miracle."
She came storming into her house on the verge of tears, her mom sees her and knows exactly what's going on. She gives Danny a big hug.
"Another bad day at school hun?"
"Everyone hates me, even Mrs. Mathews, I can't play sports, I'm not funny, I'm not pretty, and I don’t have one talent."
"Honey buns of course your talented, you're very smart…"
"That’s not a talent mom! That’s a quality. I'm talking about things like sports and dancing; like Rebecca White she's an amazing singer and dancer, she's gorgeous and because of that, she is the most popular girl in school. How did I turn out so awful if even you are beautiful and talented"
Danny's mom looked down at her hand, the only piece of jewelry she wore, shining in the light on her pointer finger; a golden ring with a centered opal stone.
"I new this day would come, its time you new the truth."
Danny's mom takes off the ring and hands it to Danny.
"I'll let you figure this one out on your own"
Danny's mom leaves the room, no instruction just the ring. 'This is ridiculous' Danny thinks to herself, 'it's just a ring' and she throws it under her bed. All of a sudden she feels and hears a rumbling sound shaking her whole room, then she sees a bright flash of all different color coming from under her bed. As abrupt as it began the supernatural events were over and Danny rushed to get the ring to reinforce that what she saw was real. It was glowing under her bed, freaking out with so many questions needing answers she yells for her mom.
"MOM! IT'S YOUR RING! PLEASE TELL ME WHATS GOING OON!"
Right away as if she was waiting outside the door her mom entered the room. But it wasn’t her mom this woman was disgusting. The beautiful and perfect mother she had grown up with was gone, she was hairy, gawky, dirty, warts and pimples covered her face, she was, me.
"Mom? Is that you?" Danny asked in complete shock.
"Yes muffin, its me. Don’t be alarmed"
"What happened to you? Is it the ring? Tell me how it works. I wanna use it!"
"Yes it is the ring but before you use it there are some thing you should know that may affect you in crucial moments if you don’t follow them correctly."
Danny nodded her head as if she was listening but couldn’t wait to get that last chance of hope slipped on her finger. Finally her mom was done with her long instruction and handed Danny the ring. She shuffled around to get the ring on as fast as she could then rushed to the bathroom to see the improvements. What Danny saw in the mirror, she couldn't believe, every single bad characteristic about her vanished and all that was left was a perfect teenage woman.
That week was great; people started respecting her and began to like her more, including her teacher. The week after that she made multiple new friends and was already being invited to their houses. The next week she made the varsity soccer team started getting invited to parties. The following week she began hating on all the people who had once been nice to her when she was an ugly nerd and she got asked to prom! Every night Danny takes the ring off and puts it on her bedside table then first thing every morning she puts it on so she wont have to see herself as she once was.
Danny's popularity was growing rapidly and so was her ego. Her mom couldn't even recognize her anymore: Danny couldn’t go one hour without criticizing someone or complimenting herself. Almost as if she forgot that not to long ago she was one of those "ugly nerds" that have nothing but intelligence.
Prom was right around the corner and the cutest guy in school, Adam Bartlett, asked Danny to go with him. Danny wanted to be the hottest girl there so she got an extremely expensive dress from Black and White, a spray on tan, and $150.00 diamond earrings. Her mom was furious,
"You STOLE my money so you can look hot for one night?"
"Ya what do you care. Besides it wouldn’t kill you to take some of these steps either, ugly." She says as she scoffs at her own joke.
"I don’t even know who you are anymore! If you keep acting like thins I don’t know how long that rings going to last you, remember what I told you?" Of course Danny didn’t remember because while her mom was telling her she was busy staring at the ring. But she didn’t care; she just kept getting ready for prom that was following night. The next morning she woke up and did her routine of putting on the magic ring then going to the bathroom to admire herself, but she wasn’t beautiful, on the outside or the inside…
To be continued…
Suzanna
What special trait/thing about yourself made you want to write your short story?
The special thing about myself is that I strive to make everyone happy. I wrote this because maybe if everyone didn’t care so much about their outer appearance and did their best to be nice to everyone than we could have a happier world.