Why Don't You Grow Up?

Erica Clark is tired of being a kid. When her teacher, Mr. Morse, assigns a paper on what the class wants to be when they grow up, Erica announces that she has no time for such kid stuff - she wants to quit pretending to be grown up and really be one, with all the fun that comes with it: driving a car, eating whatever she wants, buying whatever she wants. Her classmate Sam Johnson suggests the career fair Mr. Whittaker is holding at Whit's End that weekend, but Erica waves it off as pretend. She has already been acting the part; Mr. Morse keeps her after class because she signed her own absentee note, and he warns her to bring a real one from her parents. At home things go no better. Her mother says no to a long-distance call to Grandma, no to coffee, and no to staying up for a late movie, and Erica storms off convinced that nothing is fair.

So Erica goes to Whit's End and asks Whit for a real job - an important, grown-up job. When Whit gently points out that grown-up jobs take experience and time, and Erica complains that everything she wants takes time, Whit offers her something better than advice: the Room of Consequence, a program that will show her what being an adult is really like. Erica picks the age of twenty-two and steps in.

She wakes up in a messy apartment she shares with a roommate named Sherri, with a burnt pot pie in the oven, a bedroom buried under clothes and dirty dishes, and a car whose engine has given out. Grown-up life keeps refusing to cooperate. Her office job filing papers for Mr. Butcher turns out to be boring, and after she stays up all night watching television, sneaks out for cookies and cola at ten in the morning, makes herself carsick, and finally sleeps until one in the afternoon on a work Saturday, Mr. Butcher fires her. Worse, Sherri announces she is moving out; she is tired of paying the bills Erica runs up and tired of acting like Erica's mom. Even the phone has been disconnected. Erica's job hunt brings one more surprise: the friendly young businessman who interviews her turns out to be Sam Johnson, her classmate, all grown up through years of hard work while she stayed exactly the same.

Humbled, Erica finally starts acting like an adult instead of just playing one. She takes a job sweeping hair at Quick Cuts, arranges to pick up trash around the apartment complex to help with the rent, and swears off late-night movies and chocolate for breakfast so she can pay her bills. The moment she admits that taking responsibility is the grown-up thing to do, the Room of Consequence opens and she is a kid again. Erica tells Whit that she never guessed being a grown-up could be so hard, and Whit agrees that it is quite an adjustment if you try to get there too fast - that is why we need to give ourselves as much time as it takes. When Sam arrives for the career fair and offers her a job in his pretend store, Erica turns him down; she has a paper to write. She already knows what it will say: don't try to grow up too fast. She has been there, and it is worth waiting for.