Mega Millions Imaginings

This is a guest post by Jillian Frisch, a sophomore at Eastern Regional High School. It was originally written as an English class assignment, and previously appeared in the Courier-Post.

I knew it was going to be an unusual day when my mom came into my bedroom and shouted, "We won! We won the Mega Millions!"

At first, I thought she was just pulling a mean prank on us, but when her tears of happiness began to fall down her cheeks, I realized this was real. My brother jumped out of bed, asking right away to buy all the Legos in the world, and my dad was ready to go to Best Buy to get a new flat screen television. We skipped school, and went out for the most expensive breakfast buffet we could find. I'd never been so full and satisfied in my life.

My mom took me shopping for the day, while my dad and brother went off to do their own thing. Buying anything and everything I wanted, and not caring about the price tag, was a whole new experience. After the long overwhelming day of spending money, I went to bed, but I tossed and turned for hours, too excited to sleep.

"BEEP.BEEP.BEEP!" My alarm woke me up, and sadly I realized I'd have to wake up for school today, although I was excited to wear my new clothes. I threw on a pair of white skinny jeans and a flowing pink top. I curled my hair with my new curling iron, and neatly applied the new make-up products I bought at the mall. Before leaving for school, I stood in the mirror looking at my new Louis Vuitton bag laying on my left shoulder. Hearing the car horn on my dad's new Mercedes-Benz sports car, I knew I should hurry up. We stopped at my favorite place for a morning snack, Starbucks, and I bought five coffees, for me and my good friends.

Our names were on the local news last night, and I could feel thousands of eyes staring at me as I walked down the halls to my locker. 

"You look so good! How are you?"

"Where'd you get that shirt from? I'd die to borrow that sometime."

"We haven't talked in forever, but we should grab lunch after school today!"

Random people would approach me, as if we’d been friends forever. I never received so much attention in my life. I ran into Jessica and Megan, my two best friends, and they were so happy for me.

The rest of the day seemed to fly by.  It seemed even my teachers were treating me more kindly.  The work they gave me was less challenging. My grades improved, thanks to the tutors my parents hired for me. I felt like a celebrity, with all the money in the world, and now, many new friends.

Some days I brought some of them home from school with me and showed them my newly re-done walk-in closet. They gasped in jealousy at everything I now owned.  Part of me felt bad for them, and I realized how lucky I was. Later that week, my family donated money to several good causes all over the world. Our names were in the news again for this. 

While I was on the computer chatting with some friends, my parents called me downstairs.

"You have to delete all of your social networking accounts," my dad said.

This upset me, so I asked why. They explained that it wasn’t safe to keep my Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts up, because people could find us easily, and we were vulnerable to have money stolen or scammed from us. I understood, and disabled all the accounts where I used to spend so much of my time.  I realized as I did this that I was losing vital connections to all of my friends and relatives.

The rest of the school year, I struggled to determine who were my real friends and who were fake friends. I was invited to every birthday party, because everyone knew I’d bring a great gift.  Also, they knew that if I went, many others would too.  

Everyone seemed to have a hand out. Acquaintances began asking me to pick them up food in the morning, and invited themselves over to borrow my expensive clothes. They wanted to go out to eat with me after school, because they knew I’d pick up the tab.  They asked me to shop with them on the weekends, because they figured I would buy them some clothes.

Throughout the year, my school friends tried hanging out with me more and more. Although I enjoyed the popularity, I couldn’t help feeling they were only treating me like this because of my money. I felt hurt, and confused. When people asked me for things, a voice in my head instantly began debating whether to help them or not. Sometimes I’d get stuck on who was really there for me or who was using me for my money. This debate in my head lasted for months.  But suddenly I realized that my real friends were the ones that were there for me before my family won the lottery and became rich.

“Jillian, hurry out of bed,” I hear my mom yell up the stairs.  “We might have time to go to Starbucks on the way to school. I have a coupon for buy one get one free!”

I roll out of bed to notice that my walk-in closet is gone, and there are no expensive clothes or Louis Vuitton bags. A dream never felt so realistic.  I felt relieved.  I’m pleased with the life I have. It’s nice knowing who your true friends are, and not having to question anyone’s motives.