The Gift of Gab

Vanessa was walking home from school one day when suddenly a car zoomed by, splashing her new jeans and boots with muddy water. The car then came to a stop and slowly backed up to Vanessa.

Vanessa was just about to let the driver have it when the window began to roll down, revealing the driver to be none other than her sister, Lauren.

"Sorry about that, Nessa." Lauren said with a chuckle. "I'd offer you a ride home, but A, this is a new car and I don't want you getting the second most beautiful thing you're seeing dirty."

"And B?" Vanessa spat, glaring angrily at her older sister.

"I don't want to." Lauren said, mockingly sticking out her tongue before speeding off again, once again soaking Vanessa's shoes and jeans with mud.

Vanessa stood there, shaking in rage as she watched her sister speed off. This was yet another in a long line of Lauren using her as some sort of punching bag! If only there was some way that she could make Lauren pay. Humiliate her and maybe bring her down a peg or fifty!

"Wow!" A high pitched voice called out in amazement, "What an evil little witch!"

"Oh, you don't know the half of - " Vanessa began, only to stop mid-sentence as she looked around. "Who said that?"

"Wait," the voice said, "you can understand me?"

"Of course I can understand you!" Vanessa snapped, looking around again as she saw nothing but a blue bird perched on a bus stop bench. "We're speaking the exact same language!"

And then something happened that Vanessa would have never expected...

"Funny," the bird said, "I never met any other human who can speak my language."

Vanessa blinked once. Twice. Three times. After her fourth blink, she screamed as she quickly turned around and ran home as fast as she could.

"Was it something I said?" The bird called out to the eighteen-year-old.

Once she got home, Vanessa slammed the front door shut, hyperventilating as she replayed what had just happened. She had just had a conversation with a bird. And it conversed back with her!

"This has to be some kind of dream!" Vanessa muttered to herself as she walked past her mother's fish tank.

"What kind of dream?" A voice gurgled. "The kind where you wake up next to a side of fries, cole slaw, and tartar sauce? I hate those dreams."

Vanessa paused in place for several seconds, turning on her heel as she saw her mother's fish eyeing her, almost as if it was waiting for a response. After a few seconds however, the fish got bored and decided to go back to...what ever it was that he was doing.

Vanessa pinched her arm as she turned back around, flinching as she felt the pain. Nope, this wasn't a dream. She was talking to animals, and they were talking back!

Suddenly, an idea popped into her head as she walked up the stairs to her room. If Vanessa could talk to animals, then she could convince them to do things. She could convince them to anything! Like helping her get **** on her enemies!

"Or rather, enemy..." Vanessa said out loud to herself, chuckling darkly as she knew exactly who to test these new abilities on.

Lauren would be in for a big surprise tomorrow...