I heard a saying before that luck comes in threes. In my case, my worst bad luck cases happened three times as well. The first one was on my 13th birthday. I was walking home from school, completely minding my own business, when a beehive fell from a tree exactly where I was standing. At first, I didn’t know what hit me. But suddenly, I heard the sound of buzzing. It got louder and louder! Then the bees attacked!With honey oozing down my face, the bees swarmed around me and stung me so many times. Iran home, flapping my arms over my head. When I got home, no one recognised me! My face swelled up like a balloon.Aunt Carol had to bring me to the hospital because I was in so much pain. Uncle Ken grumbled when he had to shell out a lot of money for medicine.“We’re spending so much money on her,” he said, not caring if I heard. “We just can’t afford this!” It hurt to hear that. It hurt even worse that the bee stings.When I turned 16, Aunt Carol said that she wanted to give me a “sweet sixteen treat.” So we went out for ice cream, just the two of us. I guess she felt bad that I was always the least important person in the family.She hoped that I would grow up to be a good person.But I told her that I was so very unlucky.“Don’t be silly, Penny,” she told me that day. “We make our own luck. If you try to become a good person, you can be lucky!”That night, I decided to cook dinner for everyone. I wanted to give them all a gift, even if it was my birthday. I was trying to be a good person, like Aunt Carol said. But while I was getting all my ingredients from the basement pantry, somehow I missed a step. I fell down the stairs! When they found me, I had already broken my arm and my leg. I had to wear a cast for months and I was in bed for weeks!“Poor child,” Aunt Carol told me while sitting beside my bed. “A lot of bad things seem to happen to you!”I felt so miserable and unlucky. But I was feeling scared, too. Two big things already happened. The third one was probably going to be disastrous!Uncle Ken didn’t have Aunt Carol’s bedside manner. He didn’t like it that he had to bring my meals to my room. “I know you didn’t mean to fall down the stairs,” he told me. “But please be more careful, Penny. We barely have enough money to feed everyone, and now we have to take care of you, too.”I cried a lot after that. I knew I was such a burden to them! I had a lot of time to think while I was stuck in bed. I knew I had to do something the moment I got better! So the only thing I could do to save money was to get a scholarship. For that, I had to study really hard.So I did. Somehow, my bad luck didn’t affect my grades anymore. I started to get A’s instead of C’s in my classes. When I finally turned 18, I was feeling pretty good about myself. I tried not to think of the 3rd big bad luck that was coming! I got a scholarship to college. It would pay for everything!When I got to college,I got assigned to a dorm room and I was going to have a roommate. I prayed that she was going to be a good one.I was wrong. Jenny wasn’t just a good roommate. She was a great one!We became best friends right from day 1. Jenny liked to talk, but she also liked listening to me. She’s the only one on campus who knew about my Unlucky Penny nickname. I told her about bad luck coming in threes. She told me I was being ridiculous! “If you keep thinking about it, then it will certainly happen! So stop thinking about it!” she told me
constantly. “Only think happy thoughts!” After a while, I finally did.We made our dorm room the best in the building.We both made sure to keep it clean and tidy. We never got into any argument about whose turn it was to vacuum. It was the perfect living arrangement! Jenny was the best friend I could ever hope for.A few months later, Jenny turned 18 herself. She treated me to dinner. She wanted to do something that she couldn’t do when she was just a minor.“I know what to do,” she said. “Let's buy a lottery ticket!”I was excited! I never did that before!“Let’s do it!” I cried.So we went to the nearest convenience store and bought tickets for each of us. When it came to choosing the numbers, I decided on the dates of my birthday. Jenny just used random numbers for hers.We were excited for the results but the draw was in a few days. Meanwhile, we spent a lot of time dreaming about the things we would buy if we won the lottery.Apart from the usual shopping sprees and exotic trips, mostly I thought about helping Uncle Ken and Aunt Carol. Although Aunt Ken complained a lot about me, the fact still remained that he let me live in their house. They still clothed and fed me.
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