Sour Mr Cox

Once, there was a very sour old man who lived next door to Kate. She made sure never to bother him because if she did, she was scared of what he'd do. There were rumours circulating around the street of what he'd done to people who annoyed him in the past. There was one rumour that he'd cooked someone, another that he'd enslaved a little girl who accidentally kicked a ball over his fence.

But Kate was the kind of person who, if faced with a problem, wouldn't run away but instead try to solve it. So she sat in her house thinking for days of what she could do. Maybe she could try and befriend the man, Mr. Cox they called him.

Kate was a school teacher and so one Wednesday afternoon after work, she made some muffins. Once they'd finished cooking, she put them all into a basket and went on over to Mr Cox's house next door. "I don't think thats a good idea Kate!" Called Mrs Lucas from next door to Kate on the other side. "He's not a very nice man. I wouldn't do that if I were you. He's not a very nice man!" Kate gulped down her fears and nerves and knocked on the door.

A moment later, Mr Cox opened the door. "What do you want?" He asked, his voice gruffly. "Good afternoon Mr Cox. I made you some muffins." Kate offered him the basket. He took it from her and for a second, Kate let herself think that things were finally getting better instead of worse. "I don't want none of your stinkin' muffins!" He screamed, pelting the muffins back at Kate's face. "Now got off my property!" Kate stood her ground, but not for long. "Go on! Get!"

Well Kate's attempt had failed and she decided that Mrs Lucas had been right. It hadn't been a very good idea at all. Kate heaved a sigh of frustration and realised that Mr Cox would always be grumpy. All she could do was be nice to him and hope that eventually, he might change his ways, if he did at all. But there was one last trick left in Kate's book that she wanted to try.

That weekend, Kate made more muffins and then put them in another little basket, leaving a note on top which read 'You've been nasty to everyone on the street. As they say, what goes around comes around. If you dish out bad to people bad will come back to you. So now its time for you to endure the bad karma you deserve.' Kate took the basket over to Mr Cox's house and left on the front porch,racing back to her house and hiding behind the fence seperating her and Mr Cox's properties. She peered over the top and watched the scene unfold.

Mr Cox came out and found the basket. He picked it up and took one of the muffins, biting hungrily into it. Kate clapped her hand over her mouth to stop herself from laughing so hard that Mr Cox would notice and continued watching. The minute her finished reading the note, he dropped the basket which fell with a loud thumping sound as it hit the ground. Then he spat the muffin he had in his mouth right out and started screaming. Kate watched as one by one, her neighbours all came racing out of their houses to see what on earth had possesed Mr Cox to scream so loud.

Suddenly, Mr Cox noticed Kate peering over the fence. "You!" He screamed, pointing his finger at Kate. "Me? What about me. I was just tening to my hedges. When I heard your scream, I just peered over the fence to see what was wrong. I didn't do anything." Kate lied, smiling at Mr Cox as he stared accusingly at her, still pointing his finger at her and growling at her like a dog does when they spot another dog on their territory.

For Kate, that scream had been one of triumph and of sweet revenge. The minute, Mr Cox disappeared inside his house, all of her neighbours put both their thumbs up at Kate and did a little cheer, celebrating with her on her revenge of Mr Cox. "Told you it would work." Kate smiled at Mrs Lucas from next door.

Autumn vs. Spring

Amber loved autumn. It was her favourite time of year. It had been since she was just three years old. She was now seventeen. Of course Amber was still in school but she often spent her weekends blogging about autumn. She called her blog, 'Autumn Adventures'. She put all sorts of things on there. Recipes, songs, poems, short stories, photos and sometimesm, on very rare occassions a video. But whatever the case, Amber always made sure to post at least once a week. She liked to keep her readers interested and she couldn't let them stray their attention from her blog.

When autumn came round, on the blessed day that it did, Amber loved playing in the fallen leaves with her dog Patches. The fallen, multicoloured leaves were one of Amber's favourite parts of autumn, along with the beautiful weather it brought along with it.

But, her sister Laura was happiest in spring, and jusdt like Amber, she kept a blog all about spring. Poems, pictures, stories, recipes even. She called her blog 'Spring Stories'. Laura was a year younger than her sister at 16, so she still went to school. But in her spare time, she'd go on her blog, making sure to post at least once a week, sometimes it was once a day on weekends or school holidays.

One thing Laura loved about spring was the flowers and the little garden she grew out in the back yard. All year round, Laura, her kanine companion Flora by her side would tend to her garden in preperation for spring and blooming season. Just for fun, Laura had a sale once every Spring holidays selling all things spring. Flower bouquets, recipe books, poems and stories, even some of her pictures were sold.

Amber and Laura were always, constantly fighting to see which season was better. It was one of their parents who broke it up, telling both girls, "Both Spring and Autumn are as good as each other. Neither season is better than the other. They are both of equal standing and both lovely seasons." Both girls dreamed of their futures, and just like any ordinary girl would, their weddings. Amber dreamed of walking down the aisle on a carpetr of fallen leaves, surrounded by autumn trees. Laura on the other hand dreant of walking on a carpet of flower petals and being surrounded by flowers.

It was an ongoing fight between Amber and Laura. But both sisters loved one another despite their differences and knew deep down that neither season was better but that instead they preferred that season as apposed to the season their sister liked best. We all have our differences. We all like different things. Ultimately, in life, its about finding the people with whom we have common interests and grasping on to the relationships we have with those people in both hands, as not to let them slip away.

Bliss Gardens

Abigail worked at the local gardens. It was a beautiful place that had flora of all kinds. Everything and anything you could imagine. She was a tour guide in the gardens. A normal day for Abbie involved showing social groups of seniors around or a class full of uninterested school kids for whom she had to stop often so that their teacher could calm them down and they'd resume listening to her.

Her best friend, Melisa worked in the gift shop, an equally borimg position in Abby's mind. Both Abby and Mel were at uni and longing to get out of their part time jobs at the gardens. There were two things each of them thought when they got sick and tired of working there, they thought of two things. Firstly, at least they had each other to help them through and secondly, they were getting cash for wasting their time there.

Outside of work, Abbie and Mel lived together. Mel was studying to be a lawyer, and Abbie, a doctor. When they weren't working or studying, they were either out shopping, at dinner or lunch or at a movie or at home, hanging out, lazing around and just plain spending time together.

Abbie went on holidays with her sisters one weekend and she came home to Mel who smiling gleefully announced that she'd met someone while Abbie was away. A male someone. But, she wasn't exactly dating him. It had just been a one night stand.

Abbie and Mel had had their jobs at Bliss Gardens eversince they were 15 and in year 9 back in high school. That had been where they'd met and the rest had been, as many say, history. Abbie and Mel had been best friends eversince.

In some ways, both women lacked something. Many things in their lives. But in another way, they had other things not many people had. Although they'd missed out on some things in their lives, they'd gained other things that without each other they wouldn't have. Mel and Abbie would be lost without eachother and now, they realised, they only had the place they both hated most in the world to thank for it.Bliss Gardens.

Chelsea: Hidden Love

There was the one guy at Chelsea's work at the local newspaper that she had had her eye on for ages. The only problem was, every single other woman in the office was also after him. Well every available woman anyhow. Little did Chelsea know, despite all his loving, adoring fans, Chelsea was the one who Mitchell wanted more than anyone else.

Chelsea's best friend and work mate Jennifer was the only one who knew of Chelsea's little crush and her longing to be with the man she'd loved for so long. Every time she saw him, Chelsea gazed at him and the long trail of girls running after him, desperately wishing that she was the girl who had her arms linked with Mitchell's. The source of all the other women's jealousy.

At the work christmas party, Mitchell finally admitted to Chelsea his true love. For her. Under the missel toe in the very middle of the room ,they kissed and then they leftm seperately of course. To keep their newly ignited relationship a secret. At least for now.

Over the annual christmas and new year break, Chelsea and Mitchell continued seeing each other. He took her to the movies and to dinner and shopping. During the last week, they both met each other's families. First, Chelsea met the Johnsons and then a few days later, Mitchell met the Hariss's.

Chelsea returned to work the next week with a big, gold ring on her finger with a diamond on it. Jennifer was ecstatic when she heard Chelsea's news and all the other girls were as jealous an anything when they learnt that Chelsea and Mitchell were an item. Many of them gave Chelsea dirty looks and others threatened her on the way out of the meeting. But Chelsea just shrugged it off, knowing that she had the msn she loved ,ost in the world by her side, his arm round her shoulders and with his other hand, he held Chelsea's. When everyone had left the room, He pulled Chelsea round and kissed her. Chelsea had achieved the fantasy shhe'd always wanted and to her, that kiss felt like triumph.

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This is the 8th in a series of short stories based on the faces of That's Life! Magazine

Lydia: Finding Purpose

In highschool, Lydia had a circle full of many friends. As time went by and they all grew older, Lydia's friends all slowly figured out what it was they wanted to do with life after education. Dylan was going to go on radio, Sarah was going to be a model, Jada was going to go live in the US and try and make big bucks. But as her friends around her all figured out their next moves, Lydia still had no idea what she wanted to do.

The idea came to her in year 11 when she fell in love with weddings after being a bridesmaid at her aunts wedding and then again at her sister's later on that year. It was then that she decided that she wanted to be a wedding planner.

She told Jada at lunch. "Jada!" She beamed as she walked toward her. "I've finally decided what I want to do after school!" "Lydia!" Jada smiled. "That's great! What is it you want to do exactly?" Jada asked. "I've decided to be a wedding planner."

After Lydia and Jada finished their HSC's the following years, they made plans to find a cheap apartment over in Beverly Hills and agreed to rent an apartment together, acquiring another roomate when they were settled over there.

Two years on and Lydia is a sucessful wedding planner living with Jada and their new found American roomate, Bree a stylist in a small apartment in Beverly Hills. Jada was starting to make good money as an agent and Bree made a load whenever she got a new job modelling for a magazine or book cover or calender or whatever the shoot was for. Lydia realised she was the happiest she'd ever been, living her dreams in Beverly Hills.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------This is the 7th in a series of short stories based on the faces of That's Life! Magazine.

Dianna: In the Spotlight

Dianna had never really popular when she was young. Her best friend, her only friend was her pet dog, Lilly. No one at school liked her, they all teased her and every day whenshe came home, she'd tell Lilly all about it. Dianna was a nerd at school and very much a goody two shoes in all sense of the word. Dianna distracted herself from all the teasing by studying hard each and every day.

After she graduated from university, she moved out to Beverly Hills, taking Lilly with her of course and made it big as a stylist. She styled all the big name stars like Jennifer Lopez and Julie Andrews. She even styled Abigail Breslin once when she was a little girl. Now, Dianna realised, it was her turn to be in the spotlight and one day at an awards night for fashion over in Hollywood, Dianna won best stylist for the maternity outfit she'd designed for Angellina Jolie to wear at an awards night.

Dianna got up on that stage with every one clapping and cheering and she took the microphone to make her acceptance speech. She firstly thanked all the people who had helped her and then said something she'd been wanting to say for years. "When I was younger, I used to get bullied. Many people don't think that celebraties and big stars get bullied, but they do, just like everyone else. And you know what? Their the losers after high school, they get the bad lives, and us, the losers in high school. We become the winners and we make it big. The amount of awards given tonight just shows that. So, to all the people who bullied me, I feel really sorry for you now, what ever has happened to you, I don't know and to be completely honest, I don't really care. But what I do know is, I feel sorry for you because if whats happening to you is half of what happened to me, you've got some really bad times ahead. Because now, your the losers and I'm the winner, karma has turned. I was nice all throughout highschool and nothing but filth came from any of you. So now, its your turn to get the bad karma and finally my turn to get what I deserrve. Good karma."

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This is the 6th in a series of short stories based on the faces of That's Life! Magazine

Gina: Making A Difference

Gina had had a brother with cerebral palsy. All her life, Gina had watched him struggle to do simple everyday tasks Gina did without even thinking about it. She took for granted things that her brother would cry over finding ways to do. Whenever she watched him struggle, she felt guilty that she had two hands when he only had one.

When she graduated from high school, many years later, she became a carer. Gina was determind to make a difference in the lives of people with disabilities through helping them do what they couldn't. When Gina was caring for these people, she felt a sense of purpose and at the end of the day, she felt fulfilled and satisfyed at the work she was and continues to do.

Gina believed that everyone has a purpose in life, something that they were meant to do and it was for this reason that the part Gina loved most about her job was when she helped her younger clients set goals for the future and decide what it is they wanted to do with the rest of their lives. When Gina did that at work, it was those days that she came home the happiest at the end of the day.

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This is the 5th in a series of short stories based on the faces of That's Life! magazine