“Mom,” Danny called, searching through the kitchen cupboards, “where’s the box of popcorn?”
A few seconds passed before Maddie responded. “In the bottom left cupboard, sweetie!”
Danny walked toward the cupboard his mother had indicated, opened it, and rummaged through until he found the popcorn box. He quickly grabbed a bag out of the box, took the plastic off the bag, and set it in the microwave.
Just as Danny was about to press the start button on the microwave, Jazz walked into the kitchen. “So,” she said smiling, “I heard Mom and Dad talking upstairs. You’ve basically lost all of your hope on having a fun summer-,”
“Yes.” Danny replied.
“-so now you’re going to call some phone number you saw on the TV-,”
“Uh, huh.”
“-to try and win tickets to a camp you never even heard of until just this afternoon.”
Danny nodded. “Yep! You’ve got that right sister!”
Jazz laughed. “Danny, you’re so strange!”
“It may sound a little strange, Jazz, but I gave Sam a copy of the number. She’s gonna try to win too!”
“Wow,” Jazz said sarcastically, “that’ll really increase your chances of winning!”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Danny asked, madly.
“It means, you’ll have a point two percent chance of winning the trip. That also includes the time it takes for you to dial the number.”
“Don’t worry, Jazz! I have speedy fingers!” Danny wiggled his thumbs.
“Yeah, speedy thumbs from playing all those Reptar video games!”
“Hey!” Danny cried. “Those are Reptar collectables! You can’t just buy the video games and not play them!”
“Whatever, Danny!” Jazz said, grinning, as she started walking out of the room. “Just don’t get your hopes up!”
Once his sister was out of the kitchen, Danny turned back toward the microwave. “That’s weird,” he exclaimed, staring at the fully popped bag of popcorn, “I don’t remember pressing the start button!”
Danny suddenly remembered that the microwave was having problems ever since his dad had ‘fixed’ it. Danny had heard his Mom talking about it the other day with Jazz. Whenever someone would leave something in the microwave for a few minutes, it would start automatically. The only thing was, he didn’t hear the microwave go off.
Danny looked at the clock and shrugged. He would worry about that later. There was only five minutes until he could call in and try to win the contest.
Danny quickly took his bag of popcorn out of the microwave, ran into the living room, and plopped on the couch. Reaching over to a small round table to his right, Danny grabbed the phone off of the receiver, and dialed Sam’s number.
Three rings went by before Sam answered. “Hello?”
“Hey, Sam, there’s only,” Danny checked his watch, “four more minutes until we have to call S.T. Sohg! Are you ready?”
“Don’t worry, Danny, of course I am!”
There was a pause.
“Danny?” Sam asked. “Are you still there?”
“Oh, yeah,” Danny said, twisting the phone cord with his index finger, like he always did on the phone when he was anxious or nervous. “I’m still here. I was just thinking, what if we don’t win? Then what will we do for the rest of the summer?”
“Don’t worry about that right now! Just do what I do when I’m in doubt.”
“What’s that?”
“When you call tonight,” Sam said slowly, “just put your chin up high, close your eyes, and keep your fingers crossed until your call is done!”
“That’s all I’ve gotta do?” Danny asked.
“Yep!”
“And you really think this will work?”
“I don’t know! But you can at least try it. It sometimes works.”
“I’ll try it, Sam! Thanks!”
“No problem!”
Danny put the phone back on the receiver and picked it up again. There was now only one minute until calling time. He quickly dialed the number.
First ring….
Danny was looking upward.
Second ring….
He closed his eyes.
Third ring….
Then he finally crossed his fingers.
The forth and final ring…. “Hello?”
Danny opened his eyes. Did he actually make it through? “H-Hello?”
“Congratulations!” S.T. Sohg cried. “You’ve won eleven tickets to Lake Eerie!”
“ALRIGHT!” Danny cheered, into the phone.
“What’s your name son?”
“Danny Fenton!”
“Well, Danny, thanks for calling, and you and your family and friends have a safe trip!”
“We will!”
Danny slammed the phone down on the receiver, and dashed upstairs to Jazz’s room. His sister looked at him when he appeared in the doorway.
“Sam was right.” Danny said trying his best not to smile.
“What?” Jazz asked, looking back at her book. “That you couldn’t win this contest?”
“No.” Danny said grinning. “She gave me some helpful advice, and I won.”
Jazz lifted her head back up to look at him.
“We should be leaving in about a week, so start packing!”
A smile appeared on Jazz’s face when her brother said that. “Unbelievable!”
Rugphan
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