A Fate Totally Worse than Death
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A Fate Totally Worse than Death is a book written by Paul Fleischman in 1995.
[edit] Summary
Danielle, Brooke and Tiffany are planning an evil welcome to Cliffside High for Helga, the ravishing exchange student from Norway--until they realize that something ghastly is happening to them, something they'd no doubt describe as... a fate totally worse than death.
[edit] Plot
The book is about three high school girls--Danielle, Brooke and Tiffany, who are all reasonably popular and rich, as well as a bit on the snobby side. When a new foreign exchange student from Norway named Helga arrives at their school and steals the spotlight away from the threesome, they become insanely jealous--as well as the fact that they believe Helga is a ghost because of her pale skin and light hair. Destined to win their popularity back, the girls conjur up numerous ways to torture Helga--one example being cutting off all of her gorgeous, long, flowing blonde hair. However, every time the girls try to "mess up" Helga in some way, a strong force holds them back. For example, when she tries to cut off Helga's hair, Brooke becomes completely paralyzed and limp, disabling her to do anything with Helga's hair.
The paralyzation does go away, but there is another thing wrong with the three that they begin to notice. Tiffany complains of severe pain in her knuckles (which is a symptom of the condition arthritis), and also develops a bladder problem, forcing her to make constant trips to the restroom as well as wear diapers, and Danielle is slowly losing all of her teeth. Brooke complains of losing her hair. The girls also complain of getting liver spots on their skin, as well as other things. It doesn't take very long before the three realize that although they are only in high school, they are aging rapidly as if they are in their mid-seventies.
Horrified of what is happening to them, the girls believe Helga is doing this to them as punishment for their actions. They come to the conclusion that the only solution to halt their rapid aging is to kill Drew--a boy interested in Helga--because they believe after Drew dies, he will become a ghost and reside happily with Helga, making Helga happy and giving mercy to the girls. They arrange for Drew and Helga to meet at the park the next night. However, in their attempt to shoot Drew, the girls accidentally shoot Helga instead. When the girls see Helga bleed, they realize she is indeed not a ghost, which follows a blunt "oops" from Tiffany.
The next scene we see is Danielle lying on a hospital bed, plugged into many tubes and practically dying. An elderly woman that Danielle used to visit named Mrs. Witt talks to her for a while, and then reveals the answer to the girls' aging problem. Mrs. Witt claims that Charity Chase, a girl killed by Danielle, Brooke and Tiffany not too long ago, was her granddaughter. She says her friend's husband injected a potion into the girls, making it so the faster their hearts beat, the older they became, as punishment for killing her wonderful granddaughter. Mrs. Witt taunts Danielle for not being able to move, and also does the same thing Danielle and her friends did in the nursing home when they thought Mrs. Witt was asleep--eat all of her cherry truffles. When the book ends, it is obvious that none of the girls have much time left on earth.
