“Wear it close to your heart. And if you feel alone and want to wish for the stars, just close your eyes and press your fingers against it. You never know – your dreams might come true!” That’s what my Nana said when she gave me the necklace I’m wearing today. It’s simply beautiful – way too pretty for me! I’m not a girl that people pay much attention to. Sometimes I feel like I’m transparent. No one cares for me – except Carrie, the most beautiful girl walking on this planet. And she loves to bully me.

It hurts to be the one everything’s joke’s on because I’ve always been nice and friendly. I’m just too shy to stand my ground, that’s all.

Every time I’m wearing the necklace I’m missing my Nana like crazy, even more than I usually do. She always said that my friendliness would be my fortune some day. But when is that?

I’m taking the bus like every morning. And typically Carrie would come up to me, say something nasty about my hair, maybe steal some of my pocket money and then she would run off laughing. In moments like that I wish for an angel that could just save me from all this embarrassment and pain.

That guardian could be Ryan Edwards, who plays in our school’s soccer team. Everyone respects him, the girls love him. But Ryan would never like me - I look and feel like Kim Gordon! I’m just not cool. How could a soccer star fall in love with a loser like me?

While I plug in my iPod I take a deep breath. My heart is beating, I’m scared and nervous. Every morning I’m happy when the bus pulls up in front of the school so I can escape Carrie and the others. Then I’ll spend the school day hidden away behind my books, spend lunchtime at the library. Books are my friends. Not because I choose them to but because Carrie forced me to.

I choose a calming song by the Beatles but I can only spend one minute of focusing on the melody because then I’m spotting Carrie, looking more perfect than Megan Fox, her eyes shiny, almost evil. I swallow. And then I remember my Nana’s words. I can’t take it anymore so I close my eyes, focus on my wish for someone to save me from the bully and press my fingers against the red diamond hanging from the necklace. The music in my ears gets louder as I concentrate very hard.

Someone is sitting down next to me and I sigh. Everything’s back to normal. That moment of magical concentration is gone and I’m back to reality. Of course it wouldn’t work to make wishes. Of course it would be Carrie to torture me. I open my eyes slowly but I don’t see Carrie – I see Ryan! My heart stops for a few beats. Then he takes my hand. He glances at me and says: “It’s OK. Don’t worry about Carrie.”

If I ever said that wishes aren’t working… I was wrong.