As Jennifer walked out of the forest, she told the sticks, " Be quiet, sticks. My parents might find out about you guys."
By the time she got out of the forest, all of the sticks were silent. " Sorry. I couldn't find any good sticks," she told her parents
" But what about us?" One of the sticks asked.
" Be quiet," Jennifer said to the stick.
" Who was that?" Jennifer's mom asked.
" That was me. I was just remembering something a character from a book I read said."
" What was the book about?"
Jennifer knew that she would have to make a story up so she replied, " It was about a girl named Isabel who had seventeen friends, but she told her parents that she had no friends."
" Well, that's an interesting story."
Again, Jennifer could not believe that her mom had believed her.
" By the way, Jennifer, it's okay that you didn't find any good sticks. I found a bunch of sticks in the grass near the forest," Jennifer's dad said.
" Okay." Jennifer replied. She still couldn't believe that her mom kept believing her.
Jennifer went back into the forest and asked the sticks, " What would happen if I did let my parents burn you?"
One of the sticks asked skeptically, " Why would you want to know that, though?"
" I'm just wondering. I'm not actually going to do it, though."
" Okay, then. We would put an evil spell on you and your parents."
" Wait, you have evil powers?"
" Yes. Each of us has a different evil power. The evil powers we have are the power to control the direction that fire spreads in, make people have terrible nightmares, duplicate objects, become invisible, get larger, get 10 times stronger, make things levitate, move extremely fast, control people's minds, and when we get in a battle, we can get 10 times more powerful than our opponent, or opponents."
" I promise that I will not let my parents find out about you, or let my parents burn you."
" Okay."