“Yah-ha-ha! Tee hee! I’ve got you! You’re trapped!” Ruby slowly opened up her eyes, and saw a witch. This witch was not ugly at all. It was actually quite pretty, like the glamour princess, Rosemerta, at Ruby’s school. The only way Ruby could tell it was a witch was because it was wearing a black, pointed hat, which, only witches wore.

“You wanna to go through that portal, right? Well, you can’t! ‘Cuz I’m in charge of it! And I don’t like you!” the witch cackled. “Give me a pair of earrings, and a necklace, and I’ll let you through!” Ruby handed the earrings that the dwarf had given her, and gave the witch the necklace that the troll had given Ruby.

“Well, OK, you can pass. NOT! You think I would let you pass that easily? Well, you were WRONG! I’m never going to let you pass. Ha, ha, in your face!” the nasty witch taunted.

Ruby’s watch beeped. She looked at it in surprise. Then she was frightened. It was 11:58! Ruby had to get home!

Frustrated, Ruby racked her brains of witches that she had read about. The wicked witch in ‘The Wizard of Oz’ had been melted by a vase of water. Ruby couldn’t think of any more.  Dusty from head to toe, Ruby shook her hair, and let loose her ponytail. Little pieces of dust hit the witch.

“Omigod! Look what you did to me! You ruined my dress!” The witch cried in despair. It ran away, sobbing about a dusty dress and a ruined date.

Ruby’s watch beeped again. She had only ten seconds left. Ruby got ready to jump, and dived headfirst through the portal…

The way back was a bit better, now that Ruby was used to it. Her heart beat rapidly as the world twisted and turned around her. Was she on time? Or was she going to be a prisoner forever?

The world twisted and turned around Ruby, causing her to get dizzy. The world tossed and turned. Ruby now knew what it was like to be a shirt in a dryer.

Ruby came to another row of portals. She was sucked into an orange one, and was once again in the sensation of loop-de-loops. She crossed her fingers and hoped that she was going to end up in the hotel.

Oof!  Ruby landed on a hard, spiky thing. She picked it up. It was her comb! Ruby looked around, and saw that she was back in the hotel room. No one had missed her! Ruby jumped for joy. She enjoyed her vacation to Washington D.C. much, much more. Her parents had noticed a difference in her, too. They were quite pleased.

Back at school, Ruby had no taste for all the snobbish, popular girls who shrieked whenever their blouses got dirty. The trip to Mirrorania had changed Ruby’s life completely- but in a good way. The bad thing was, Ruby never did like to go on roller coasters anymore, and hated anything that twirled around.