GLOOMY
“I would have built the biggest snowman in history this year!” said Abigail, with a high pitched, slightly shaky voice. “I wish I was one of those kids outside!” she sighed, “Instead, I have to stay here all alone, and watch them having fun. All because of this annoying fu!” She pressed her forehead against the window and pushed back the tears that were starting to well up. “They should have called me Unlucky! Not ABIGAIL!” She closed her eyes, hoping to get rid of the cold, hard boulder that had come to sit on her tummy. “Brrr! It’s cold!” she exclaimed, wrapping her arms around her legs. A thin, silent veil of FROST was starting to sneak between her little numb feet and soon it would reach her head and mind, freezing any happy thoughts. She hid her head between her knees. “Oh, no! It’s all my fault!” cried GLOOMY, SMALL, AND AS BLUE as ice. “I’m so sorry, my little friend, I couldn’t help overhearing what you just said,” she confessed, coming forward. Abigail felt such a big LUMP in her throat and heavy weight on her chest, that she found it impossible to answer. “Here we go again! Now you’re going to start crying and the TEARS will take you to dark and scary places, where you will feel lonely and misunderstood,” said GLOOMY all in one breath as she went to sit on her little friend’s shoulder. “Yikes, YOU’RE SO HEAVY, GLOOMY!”
Abigail exclaimed while remaining motionless, her arms abandoned at her sides, no strength in her legs. Time seemed to stop still, resigned.
Abigail began to cry. She was sobbing harder and harder, lost her balance and rolled of the windowsill, making GLOOMY FLY into the air as she slipped of her shoulder. Suddenly, SHE STOPPED CRYING and opened her eyes. She looked around her room, saw her drawings on the walls, her box of brushes on the shelf.
“But of course!” she exclaimed and jumped up in a fash.
“GLOOMY, YOU’RE ALWAYS SO CATASTROPHIC! We were so busy looking at what we were missing that we forgot what we have all around us! Come on! We will draw the biggest snowman in history!” and she ran to tell her mom about her brilliant idea.
GLOOMY, however, DIDN’T MOVE. “Pheewww! Luckily, I didn’t do too much damage,” she thought to herself. Reassured by the fact that she was leaving her friend in the hands of a braver emotion than herself, she curled up, and MAKING HERSELF EVEN SMALLER she returned to her place IN ABIGAIL’S HEART.
“You have to snif before you eat something!” added Yucky. “Why do you think they gave you a nose? And your tongue? Do you think you need it just to chat? No, my dear, you also need it to TASTE your food before eating it.” Upset and disappointed, Abigail went back into her house. She was looking in the kitchen cabinets for something really sweet, to get rid of the taste that she had in her mouth. But her stomach didn’t trust her now and sent her a sense of nausea to be sure she wouldn’t eat anything bad. In the end, she made herself a bowl of chocolate cereal.
At frst, she looked at it with slight distrust, mindful of Yucky’s words, but then she started eating with greed to try and forget the bad experience. YUCKY understood, therefore, that he had done a good job. And with his usual annoying pedantry, he found his place in Abigail’s heart
BLUSHY
“Attention, ladies and gentlemen, I will show you an amazing leap!” joked Abigail, while playing with her friends in the puddles. She took a running jump and she leaped with all her energy, but... Splash! She slipped right on the edge of the puddle. The laughter of her friends was deafening! Ouch! That laughter was like a blow in the stomach! She had the feeling that even the leaves, the trees, the stones, the birds, the ants, in other words, EVERYTHING AROUND, WAS LAUGHING AT HER.
Frozen to the spot, Abigail closed her eyes. The heat started to creep up her face, MAKING HER CHEEKS RED. “Shhh! Don’t say anything!” BLUSHY whispered to her, peeping out of a corner, silent and as pink as Abigail’s cheeks. “Don’t raise your eyes, don’t even try!
Everybody’s watching you! Oh dear, how embarrassing!” she said to her, AGITATED and TREMBLING. Abigail felt as though she was in a trap: anything she did could only worsen things.
