A week went by and nothing was heard from the contest. Meg was starting to get worried. It was that exactly a week later that they were having breakfast. Meg had the sneaking suspicion that her cereal was tainted with the smells of Peter and Chris' farts. Did she believe it? Yes, she did.

Peter entered the room with a stackful of mail in his hand.

"Hey, Peter. What's in the mail today?" Lois asked at the dinner table.

"I'll check." Peter started reading of the letters one by one. "Bill, bill, bill, jury duty, restraining order, you may already be a winner, have you seen me? Nope..." but he stopped at the last letter. After a small pause, "Who is Megan Schmidt?" Meg's eyes immediately shot open. She realized that it was from the contest, but she still didn't tell her parents a thing. With quick thinking, she got up from the table and snatched away the envelope.

"She's a friend of mine..." she hesitantly paused throughout the lie; "from school... new transfer student... from Canada..." she started to walk away with the letter in her hand.

"Wait a minute." Lois interrupted. "Meg, you have a friend?" She then whispered, "Who are you trying to kid?" Meg then walked up to her, pulled on her shirt and whispered; "Now listen, you just go along with it..." Meg then pulled out a twenty dollar bill out of her purse and continued, "Then maybe there won't be any... accidents." Lois just sat there stunned as Meg walked away into her room. Once in her room she locked the door, hopped into her bed and tore open the letter.

It read...

"Dear Ms. Schmidt,

On behalf of Picture Makes Perfect Nationwide Art Contest, we have humbly accepted your entry into the contest. You are through to Round 1 of the contest in Providence, Rhode Island. Please report to the Charlie Day Auditorium for orientation and the first round in exactly one week.

See you there.

Dr. Filbert F. Fleck,

Executive Producer of "Picture Makes Perfect"

It was at this moment that a large grin grew upon Meg's face. She then proceeded to silently scream in excitement running around her room. That lasted about fifteen minutes, then she came to the realization that something good happened to her. Usually, nothing good ever happened to her. She decided to change all that for the better. 'That old life is gone, the past is in the past', she thought. 'I will never go back to that!'

A knock sounded upon the door. Meg said worriedly, "Who is it?"

"Relax, it's just me," it was Brian.

"Oh... good."

"Peter told me that you went up to your room because you were PMSing or something?" (Typical ass-wipe, Meg thought).

"Oh no, this came for me in the mail!" Brian was handed the letter broke out his reading glasses and started to read it. It took him about 30 seconds. "Oh my God! Meg, that's wonderful! I knew you could do it."

"I know! But... I have a problem."

"Oh, w-what is it?"

"My parents just wouldn't understand, or even give a flying shit about this, and since my parents won't allow me to have a car of my own, I thought... maybe, if you're not doing anything that day, do you think you could accompany me in Providence, you know, for good luck?"

"Well, gee, I... uh... this is surprising," Brian walked toward her window. "Well, I was going to chase that car, bark at that cat, fight that stupid dog who stole my bone... but I guess all that is secondary, if it means I can spend time with my favourite friend's daughter."

"Really?" Meg said, giving Brian a hug. "Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much!"

"You're... welcome." She was hugging him a little too hard for his liking. "You're... squishing... me."

"Huh, oh... sorry." She stopped hugging Brian.

"That's alright. Now you better hurry up, you don't want to be late for school."

"Right, can't be late. See ya." She then grabbed her backpack and ran off straight to James Woods High. Even though that day of school was just like every other day of torment, ridicule and neglect, Meg didn't care. She still kept that same grin on her face (which caused some worry among some people). She knew that that life was only temporary, and that she only had to endure that bullshit for only a couple school days more.