As she finally reached the top of the driveway, Jasmine stopped paralyzed in her tracks. She couldn’t believe what she saw. The bay window to the right of the front door had been cracked open, so vigorously, that there was now a gigantic hole through the center of it. The front door was wide open, and from the light on inside, Jasmine could tell that someone had rummaged through their belongings. Jasmine’s heart started pounding as she ran down the driveway as fast as she could. Filled with horror, she gasped for her breath as she stopped her parents.
“Jasmine, what’s wrong? Are you hurt?” Mrs. Rivers asked, her chestnut eyebrows creasing up, her eyes filled with worry.
Jasmine could only shake her head. A lump filled her throat as she pointed a shaky finger towards the house, feeling warm teardrops running down her face. Mr. and Mrs. Rivers glanced at each other and both quickly jogged towards the house, leaving the suitcases lying on the driveway forgotten. Jasmine reluctantly followed.
“Oh my god...Oh my god…..” Mr. Rivers shook his head as he walked up the lawn, towards the front door.
    “Dad, don’t go inside! What if someone’s in there?” Jasmine yelped, half-crying, half-screaming. Ignoring her remark, Mr. Rivers walked on.
    “Well, are you guys coming or not?” Mr. Rivers asked as he nervously walked through the front door. Helpless, the other two followed. Jasmine walked in, too scared to see what had happened inside the house. As she entered the house, she took a minute to sink everything in.This is all just a dream.… I’m going to wake up any second, and we’ll still be in the Bahamas!Jasmine knew that telling herself that it was a dream wouldn’t do her any good, for what lay in front of her was all too real. 
There were bookshelves strewn across the floor, pieces of glass everywhere, cabinets yanked out, and jewelry hastily thrown everywhere. Her house-her beautiful, elegant house- was left in a complete mess. Jasmine wasn’t sure about her parents, but her heart felt like it would pound right out of her chest. The three stood in silence for a while, not knowing what to say.
Finally, after what seemed like ages, Mr. Rivers cleared his throat and spoke a bit louder than he intended to. “No one touch anything, anything at all. Nicole, call 911 immediately, and let them know that we have been robbed and they need to be here as soon as they can. Jasmine, go up to your room and get started on your homework. Try not to touch anything, and don’t disturb us until the police have left.” Jasmine, about to open her mouth to argue about going to her room, thought better of it and started up the stairs to her room. For the first time, she was sure she couldn’t get what she wanted, no matter how hard she tried. Her dad’s voice had been stern, and slightly shaky. It was a voice Jasmine had never heard her father use. He had always been so brave, so bold, but now standing before her, he seemed just as scared as the rest of them were.
    Jasmine quietly walked up the stairs, trying to listen to her mom’s end of the conversation with the police. She could hear her mom’s shaking voice, “Hello? Uh.. ya. We-well, we think we have been robbed. Yes.. Yes.. Alright. My name? Ni-Nicole Rivers. Yes… 2-5 minutes? Alright, thanks.” Wiping tears off her face, Jasmine opened the door to her room. She sat down on her bed, deep in thought.Who would do something like this? It's not fair… why us? Tears fled down Jasmine’s cheek and her heart felt as if it were melting.
    “Jasmine? Jasmine! Wake up, sweet heart…. It's time for dinner.” Jasmine opened her eyes. They burned as she faced the bright lights shining in her face. She must have fallen asleep on her bed.
    “Wait, what happened? Are the police still here?” Jasmine sleepily asked her mom.
    “No, they left a while back. They’ve-um- they’ve called off the case Jasmine. They couldn’t find a single fingerprint that would help them find who the robbers were.” Her eyes were red and solemn, she was scared too. Jasmine gathered all the courage she could find and asked her mom the one thing that had been bothering her the most.
    “The-the robbers didn’t take much, right? I mean, just a few things here and there, but nothing else? Nothing too valuable?” Mrs. Rivers reluctantly looked away, not bothering to answer Jasmine’s question..
    “It's time for dinner, honey, come on.” Wiping her eyes, she pulled Jasmine by the arm and walked her down the long flight of stairs. As they made their way across the main hall to get to the dining room, Jasmine flinched at the sight of the room. There were still bits of glass and jewelry littered across the floor, although the bookshelves had been put up, revealing deep stains and scratches in their wood flooring.

As she sat on the dining table, Jasmine couldn’t help but notice how miserable her parents were.  Both her parents looked extremely tired and worn out. She was surprised to see that they seemed more worried than she was, which Jasmine hadn’t even thought was possible.  Even the scrumptious looking bowl of macaroni and cheese in front of her didn’t cheer her up. Stirring the dish back and forth, Jasmine heard Mr. Rivers clear his throat. “What?” Jasmine looked up, her innocent blue eyes going from her mom to her dad, and back again. Mr. Rivers turned his eyes onto Jasmine.
“Your mother and I have a few things we think you should know.  After all, you will be 12 soon, and are old enough to understand these things.” Mr. Rivers’s eyes had wandered off towards the window.
“Honey, a lot of our valuable items have been stolen, including a great amount of money. I bet you’ve noticed, but our home isn’t in the same condition as it was before the robbery. The robbery was a shock to all of us, and we need time to get over it.” Mrs. Rivers was obviously trying her best not to look Jasmine in the eye. She was staring at Jasmine’s nose, which seemed a bit strange to Jasmine, but she still didn’t say a word.
“And, there’s one more thing,” Mr. Rivers glanced awkwardly at Mrs. Rivers before adding, “we are going to be closing down our hotel until we have some time to recover from all of this. You know, maybe fix the house back to its original state...before the robbery.” Tears streaming down her face, Jasmine nodded. There was nothing more she could do. Feeling horrible, she took a huge bite of the macaroni, and swallowed. No one said a word for the rest of the night.
    “Jasmine, who was the 29th president of the United States?” Jasmine snapped out of her daydream, her blue eyes staring blankly at Mrs. Hart’s wrinkled face.  “Jasmine Rivers?! I am talking to you!” Mrs. Hart glared at Jasmine, her eyes as sharp as a hawk’s. “You better behave yourself, or I’ll send you to the office…” her eyes shone with anger as she spoke to Jasmine.

“Yes, Mrs. Hart….” Jasmine sighed quietly and did everything she could not to get lost in her thoughts for the rest of the history class. It was 6th period, the last period of the day, and Jasmine couldn’t wait for that bell to ring.
Finally, finally the part of the day Jasmine had been longing for came around. As soon as the bell rang, Jasmine shot through the door, eager to get out of school as soon as she could. She was going so fast, she barely even noticed that the school was shimmering with sunlight for the first time in at least 2 months.
As she ran through the mahogany-painted hallways, she almost ran into something standing in her way.  To be exact, it was a someone. Doing everything she could to stop her momentum from hitting the person, Jasmine halted about a foot away from the person. The figure turned around to face Jasmine
. “Wait, Jasmine?” Savannah Parker stared at Jamine, her eyes wide open. Jasmine and Savannah had been best friends ever since 3rd grade when they had hid from their teacher in the school vegetable patch.
“Um… hey!” Jasmine awkwardly waved to Savannah, giving her her best Don’t-really-want-to-talk-now-but-it-was-really-nice-running-into-you smile, hoping she would get the message.
Of course, Savannah completely ignored Jasmine’s message and blurted out, “Where have you been? I looked everywhere for you during brunch and lunch, but you were nowhere! Do you know how worried I’ve been? I texted you at least a hundred times yesterday, but no reply. I even tried calling you. I was this close to hopping on my  bike and riding over to your house in the middle of the storm!” 
    “Oh. Um… I had homework to do during brunch and lunch…. so ya. And about yesterday… um… I can’t tell you here where there are so many people. Come on.” Jasmine pulled Savannah along with her down the hall and into the gym. Making sure there was no one around, Jasmine told Savannah all about the robbery. Only after she was done telling the story did she realize that she had been longing to let it out for so long. “It makes me so sad to even think about it! I’m so scared, Savannah! What if we can never get our things back?”
Jasmine did not get the reaction she was expecting from Savannah. Instead of telling her that everything was going to be ok and that she would be there for her, Savannah burst out laughing.
“You-you’re scared because of a stupid little robbery? Oh please, you guys are so rich, it won’t even matter to you guys. Besides, you get whatever you want, whenever you want, it will hardly make a difference to you. Wow, is this really all?” Savannah was laughing uncontrollably now. It took Jasmine a minute to register what Savannah had just said.

  She. Did. Not. Just. Say.That.“Easy for you to say! I don’t even know why I was stupid enough to confront my feelings in front of someone as selfish as you are. I can’t even believe that I call you my best friend!!!!” Jasmine yelled, erupting with anger.

As she trudged through the golden-brown leaves piled up along the sidewalk, Jasmine couldn’t help but notice all of the negative things in the world. The sky was a dark shade of gray, with storm clouds floating along it. The wind was howling in her ears, and crows were screeching at the top of their lungs. Hadn’t it been sunny only a while ago? Not only that, but Jasmine couldn’t stop thinking about what Savannah had said. Was it true? Was she really too rich for the robbery to matter?  Was this the impression she had made of herself? Jasmine sighed and tried to forget about Savannah for the rest of the day.

That night, Jasmine lay in bed, thinking about what had happened that day. After walking home, Jasmine had done her homework right on up till dinner, which she had forcefully stuffed inside her, regardless of her stomach feeling as it would burst any second. Not just that, but she hadn’t said as much as a word when her parents told her that they might not be able to buy her the new phone they had promised they would get her right after Spring Break. A few days ago, she would have carelessly thrown away her dinner the second she was a bit full, and would have sulked around until her parents decided to get her the phone after all. Today, however, she was trying to be a whole new Jasmine. She had thought about what Savannah had told her, and decided that  she would act less snobby and bratty and try and be a bit nicer. The last thing Jasmine needed was for people to think of her as a spoiled, rich brat who got whatever she wanted.
Yawning, Jasmine pulled out her phone and looked through the pictures she had taken in the Bahamas. They had been so happy then, now everything was ruined. The robbers had ruined her life. There was nothing more to it. As she flipped through the pictures, she stopped at the most recent one. It was the picture she had taken the night before, in the driveway with the fog. The gray honda in the background of the picture immediately stood out to her.Could that have been the robber’s car? The car did seem to have been in a hurry to get away…It only made sense. The car had belonged to the robber’s, trying to leave the scene of the crime before the Rivers’ reached their doorstep. A small spark of light was ignited in her heart, and she realized that maybe there was some hope after all of this. For the first time in two days, she was able sleep a safe, soundless sleep.

However, by the next morning, Jasmine didn’t remember this at all. She didn’t think about it as she got up, got dressed, or as she ate breakfast. She didn’t remember it as she walked down the steps of her house, ready to walk to school. She didn’t remember the gray honda until she saw the exact car jerk up the driveway, just as she was walking down the driveway to get to school. Jasmine’s heart started thumping insanely as she ran up the driveway, eager to see the robbers and catch them red-handed. They sure were dumb for some robbers to come back to their house after the robbery.
The spark of light in her heart gleamed and grew larger as she quickly pulled out her phone, ready to take a picture of the robbers. Jasmine hid behind a tree and watched as the engine of the car stopped, and the right door creaked open about and inch. They would get out of the car any second, and she was ready.
    As the doors were pulled open, Jasmine held her breath. She watched two pair of feet get placed out of the car. As she watched two men get out, she was only slightly disappointed by their appearance. They weren’t wearing all black and masks covering their face. Instead, they were both wearing contractor uniforms and a green cap. They were holding boxes of paint and a few brushes. Wait a second. She knew those people… she had seen them before, but where?
That's when it hit her, those were the same contractors who worked for them! Click. Click. Click. Click.She insanely snapped pictures of the thieves as well as their car. She took a step forward to get a better picture, and- CRASH!!She tripped over a stone and fell flat on the floor. The contactors turned around to face her. One of them was quite larger than the other, with shaggy brown hair strewn all over his forehead. His shoes had holes in them, revealing some of his very round toes. The other was rather skinny, with barely any hair at all, as far as Jasmine could tell. Her heart was beating fast as the two contractors slowly approached her, 
“You alright li’l gir’?” The larger contactor spoke to her, his gruff voice reminding Jasmine of scratching nails on a chalkboard. His eyes moved slowly from Jasmine’s terrified face to the phone tightly clutched in her hand. Seeing the phone, his eyes went dark and cold, almost like he suddenly realized exactly what Jasmine was trying to do. The contractor’s eyebrows tightly folded themselves up above his angry little eyes, and his fists clenched up in tight balls on his sides.
“What ya doin’ with that, huh?” Taking a step towards her, he tried to snatch the phone out of her hand. Jasmine’s heart started thumping harder than it ever had before. It had to have been thumping even harder than an angry parade of elephants stomping around. Pulling her hand back, Jasmine briskly stood up and ran down the driveway at full speed.  She wasn’t sure where she was running yet, but what she did know was that she had to get away from that contractor, and fast.

Even though her bleeding knees were spreading the searing pain across her legs, Jasmine didn’t stop running until she reached her light periwinkle blue bike, waiting at the very bottom of the driveway. Hopping on her bike, Jasmine  started pedaling with all her might towards the police station as fast as she could. Thats where she would go, the police station… she could show them her evidence! This was it, this was her chance. Its was her chance to get her life back. Getting to school on time was definitely on the bottom of her list of priorities right now.
Jasmine precisely guided her bike through the tiny open crack in the large gates guarding their driveway and set off towards the station. Biking as fast as her legs could carry her, she was forced to dodge all of the potholes lined up on what seemed like every street she passed. The harsh wind blew against her, while the trees danced around the roads. Almost there… just a few more turns…Finally, the cream-colored building came into view. The words, Michigan State Police Station were neatly written across the top of the building. Not being able to wait much longer, Jasmine pedaled harder than she ever had before and worked her way up the slightly slanted road to get to the front of the station. Slamming the break of her bike, Jasmine breathlessly ran into the police station, panting heavily as she took each step.
A police officer walked up to her the second she set foot into the building and asked her why she was here. Jasmine explained everything to the very suprised police officer, who was looking quite shocked to be hearing a girl probably no older than 12 give him such serious information. She showed him the picture of the gray honda zooming passed her on the day of  the robbery as well as the pictures she had taken today. “Hmmm. Yes, yes, I see. Let me keep your phone with me for a day, I want to have a chance to look over the pictures properly. We’ll get back to your family soon after a bit of investigation. This really is great evidence. I would never believe that a girl your age was capable of gathering all of these pieces and putting the clues together.”

“Jasmine, we have good news... ” Mr. River’s eyes were twinkling, for the first time in days.
“What is it?” Jasmine ran over to her dad, eager to hear the news. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Jasmine was sure she knew what the news would be but wouldn’t believe it until she heard it from her dad’s mouth. She held her breath, waiting for his answer.
“You’ll be glad to hear this. I just hung up with the police.” The police? Could it be-Jasmine waited to hear what her dad had to say. “They know who it is… they’ve found them, they’ve found the robbers. We’re going to get all our stuff back, and everything's going to go back to normal. And that's not all. They told me that you helped them out big time with all of those pictures on your phone” Jasmine’s heart filled with joy. A sudden warmth came upon her, and when she turned towards the large bay window, she saw that the entire room had filled with sunshine.
“YIPEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Jasmine couldn’t control her happiness.  As if on queue, the entire  world appeared to brighten up around her. The trees outside elegantly swayed back and forth, the sparrows melodiously tweeting away. The fluffy white clouds arranged themselves beautifully in the late afternoon sky, all happily gazing down at Jasmine.  Now, all of this would be over. She had gotten her life back. Finally.