The New Year's Celebration

Micaela Reininga |

12/22/2007 - 12/23/07

Second Place, Children’s Stories
Micaela Reininga’s rendition of a day in the life of a young woman explores just about all the emotions a teen could experience in short time span — sadness, fear, mystery, discovery and delight — all topped by the joy of a New Year’s Eve celebration with family.

The car was warm, big soft bags were piled up on either side of me. My eyes were wet, for the sadness of having to leave my mom for the week was not an emotion I could keep bottled up inside of me. My sisters, Adrienne and Grace, were joyfully laughing and literally screaming along with the music. My heart felt heavy in my chest; for a few seconds at a time I could not breathe.

We made a right turn and suddenly the car swung out of control as we swerved on the thick ice. Panic inhabited my body, melting my sadness away. I let out a soft scream.

Adrienne slammed on the brakes, which kept us from ramming into a ditch. There was silence, then she murmured, "Is everyone OK?"

"Yes, we are fine," Grace and I softly answered.

Soon after, we got to my dad's house. The road was dark and eerie. There seemed to be an invisible presence that I couldn't quite make out. My whole driveway was covered in white fluff, untouched. We called my dad and he said we would just have to park the car on the road and walk up the driveway.

We gathered all of the life that had been conveniently stuffed into our many duffle bags and slogged down the icy road. The cars raced by us, and we nearly got blown down. Soon we reached my driveway. It was dark and it seemed like there was something lurking in the darkness. Still, we trudged down the long road. It seemed as though we were walking through honey.

I felt an unexpected burning pain just at the rim of my pink leather boot. The snow slowly crept down my leg, until it melted in to nothing. After about 30 more steps, my shoulders started to ache — to the point where it felt like big bruises had developed on my shoulders. We reached my house — definitely after my legs had started to scream uncle.

The lights of my house were like signs from the heavens. I swear I could hear the chime of "Hallelujah." I found myself start to jog toward my house, and my legs would not stop. I burst through the door and dropped practically dead on the ground.

The house smelled of sweet roses, so I knew that my dad's girlfriend was here. Her name is Stephanie and her personality matches her scent — sweet, just like a bunch of roses. She is a great cook, so I couldn't wait to see what she was going to help us cook tonight.

On the counter was some rice paper, lots of vegetables and some bowls of water: We were going to make egg rolls. I had never made egg rolls before, so it was going to be something new.

Stephanie directed us through putting the vegetables on the rice paper then carefully rolling it up. My favorite part was sticking the egg rolls in these little baskets and dipping them into hot, bubbling oil. I was sticking one in when I suddenly felt a little bit of oil pierce my skin. It hurt a little bit, and it left a big red burn on my cheek. Soon all of the egg rolls had had their turn being dipped in the hot oil and we were ready to taste them. Trust me — the look of them did not do them justice. As soon as you brought one up to your nose, you could tell they were going to be scrumptious.

I walked into the dining room and saw that the whole room was illuminated by candles. There were crystal glasses filled with apple cider and two glasses filled with champagne (for the adults).

We sat down and enjoyed our meal, then I broke into the pumpkin pie and Ben and Jerry's Half-Baked ice cream. The ice cream melted on my plate from the heat of the huge piece of simmering pumpkin pie.

I glanced at the clock and screamed, "You guys — we have 5 minutes."

We all jumped into action. The dishes got thrown into the dishwasher, bottles of sparkling apple juice were grabbed and blankets were torn off the beds. Then we all jumped on to the big brown couch and quickly flipped on the television. Suddenly, Regis and Kelly appeared on the screen and we all heard the words, "Here is the great glass ball, and we have 10 seconds ... Isn't it beautiful?"

We all scream, "10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1, Happy New Year!!!"

After the excitement died down, we told each other our New Year's resolutions. Mine is to drink more water and to at least get 1 hour of exercise a day.

We watch a little bit of TV, but all of us are exhausted so we decide to go to sleep. I go to my room, both of my sisters go to Grace's room (Adrienne is in college and she and Grace share a room when Adrienne is visiting) and my dad and Stephanie go to my dad's room.

I call out, "Goodnight, everyone," and I hear a chime of "Goodnight Micaela." Then I slowly drift off into a deep sleep.

Micaela Reininga, 12, lives in Santa Fe.
She is a seventh-grade student at the Santa Fe School
for the Arts and Sciences.