‘A good girl’

Elsa rode her red bike feeling very different; she had a big smile on her face. She felt free.

She could not stop thinking about the party. Although she was 18, this was her first one.

Most of her teenager life was spent doing man’s work: cleaning the barn, feeding the pigs and picking up eggs. To her father she was “one of the boys”, because she grew up with five brothers and her mother had died recently.

One cold morning an invitation arrived to the farm. It was from Mrs. Mars , owner of the Majestic Hotel. The invitation said, that Elsa´s presence was required at the hotel; on Sunday afternoon at seven pm. Elsa showed it to her father, during supper that night.

‘Honey, I am not sure if you should go. You don’t know anyone there. Besides, there is still a lot to do in the farm’

‘But, dad! Mrs. Mars is going to be there. You know her. She invited me. Please, I have never been to a party before’

“Okay, you can go as long as you are back in time for breakfast. You know these roads are not safe if you come back late at night’

‘Thank you so much. It means the world to me’

Before the sun set that Sunday, she said goodbye to her father gave him a kiss and got on her bike. When she was at the bottom of the hill, she got off and looked back at her house. A feeling of great excitement ran through her skin.

The street lights were on when she entered the small town of Forks. As she reached the Majestic Hotel, she headed to the back and entered through the back door.

Two girls rushed to the door in that moment. One was Viola and the other Olivia.

“God! I thought it was someone important,” said Olivia while Viola giggled, both of them hated people from the countryside. The girls whispered to each other when they saw her dress.

Mrs. Mars came into the kitchen where the three girls were.

“Elsa, I’m glad you came, these two girls are no use at all. Now, I need you to set the big table in the dinning room and light the candles on the hall. This party needs to start right away”, Mrs. Mars explained rapidly.

When Elsa realized she was given work to do, she felt frustrated.

“What is going on? Am I not a guest? I didn’t come here to work!,” she thought to herself.

Meanwhile, the town girls shared jokes with each other, giggled behind Elsa’s back and ordered her around like a servant. She did everything she was told.

“I’d come for a party! I wished I were at home right now,” she whispered, angrily.

For a moment she had the chance to sneak between the doors and saw the party at a distance. People were eating goose; men were getting drunk and laughing.

‘Elsa, come here! We need more wine! ,’ Mrs. Mars cried.

‘Who is this beautiful young lady? I could use some help at home with an exquisite creature like her’, said the tenant, sitting next to Mrs. Mars.

‘What a rude person you are, Mister!’, Elsa answered back.

‘Elsa! This is not the way to talk to this man! Go back to the kitchen! I don’t want to see your face for the rest of the night’.

She was furious by the way she was treated. She went to the kitchen and sat near the window while she wiped her tears.

The party ended at midnight; Elsa was glad and decided to go to bed.

“Now I know what parties are like,” she said to herself.

At sunrise she woke up and was eager to go back. She found her bike, pushed it and walked rapidly towards the exit of the Hotel. She did not feel tired, but simply pleased to be outside. Mrs.Mars woke up at eight and did not find Elsa. She asked Viola and Olivia if they had seen her.

“Maybe she ran off, before we were up,” they said.

Elsa was half a mile from home, sitting on the grass by the side of the road, with her bike next to her. In the end it did not matter. The first ray of light gave the sign that a new day was going to start. She could see her house, now waiting to receive her.