“Harlie is a loser! Harlie is a loser,” chanted the crowd in the cafeteria.

Harlie was a loser. He had no friends. People had tried to be friends with him, but he kept turning them down, thinking they weren’t good enough for him. He had one green eye and one brown eye that wanders behind his thick glasses. He had thick light hair and a head brace which covered most of his jaw.

One night while Harlie was out walking his dog, he tripped on his own foot and fell down on his face. As he got up, he looked into the sky to see a bright star, weaving among Orion’s Belt. Since it is a very rare occurrence to see a weaver, Harlie took the opportunity to wish upon it. He had a deep, dark secret that no one knew or was ever supposed to know.

Harlie’s deepest wish was to be a dancer, not a jive, slow, artistic, or jazz dancer, not even a graceful ballerina. He wanted to be a hip, new, popular dancer with a little bit of Michael Jackson style and break dancing combined. Harlie admired the popular guys with the best moves at the dances. Oh, how he wanted to be like them.

That was Harlie’s wish, but since he knew it could never come true, he left it in the back of his mind. “I wish for a new pair of shoes,” Harlie shouted at the stars.

Now we all know that if you say your wish out loud, especially with neighbors eavesdropping all over, your wish won’t come true. But Harlie must’ve forgotten that, and no magical new shoes fell from the sky.

Without expecting anything more, Harlie went back inside his house, not aware that his guardian angel could read his thoughts, even the thoughts at the back of his mind.

The next morning, Harlie was awakened by his dad pounding on the door, reminding him he had a day of appalling appointments. When Harlie went to look in the mirror, he realized he forgot to put his glasses on. When he slipped on his glasses, everything went blurry as if it was too strong of a prescription. Taking them off, he realized that he could see fine without them.

As the day went on, great things continued to happen to him. Harlie found that he no longer needed his head brace. At the doctors, they found a way to treat his wandering eye. Yes indeed, things were definitely starting to look up!

After a spring break of transformations, Harlie went back to school with new clothes and an all new look. Most people mistook him for a new kid, and by the first bell, half of the popular group had introduced themselves. Soon at the "Back to School Spring Dance," Harlie made his debut as a dancer. He shook up the place with outstanding moves. He made it look so easy but still intricate. With half the school crowded around him, he started showing off everything he used to wish he could do. All the other pro-dancers backed off when they saw Harlie do back spins, head spins, stalls, the coffee grinder, and more like the classic moonwalk or the worm.

Harlie now felt that his life was complete. He became a regular at all the school dances in the district. He became known as the best dancer in own.

One day, someone who used to invite Harlie to sit with him came over to watch Harlie dance. Then Harlie remembered that a few short weeks ago, he was like him, a loser, a geek without friends.

Harlie went home after that and realized that he was becoming one of those people he used to idolize, admire, and…hate. He couldn’t stop thinking about how much he had changed. He used to be one of the geeks, now he was insulting them and teasing them. He discovered he liked the person he was before, without the big ego. So he made a plan to sit with the people who had tried to be friends with him before he was popular and be their friend.

That night he took his dog for another walk. He revised who and where he would talk to people. When he wasn’t looking, he tripped on his shoelace and fell right on his face.

“Wake up! Wake up, Harlie! Come on,” begged Violet, the neighbor girl who found Harlie the next morning.

Harlie had had a bigger fall than he expected, and he was still lying, knocked out, on the sidewalk. Harlie slowly got up, smiled at Violet, thanked her for helping, pushed his glasses up on his nose, and straightened his head brace. Together they walked to the bus stop.

“I’m really glad you came and got me. I had the weirdest dream that I thought I should tell you…”