Friends (Title in works)

Prologue

My mind was blank, it had to be, or I knew I’d start crying again. Each step more feeble than the last, my legs slowly melting into the floor as my knees trembled, I slowly made my way down the aisle. All the people turned to stare at me as I kept my eyes on the closed casket in the front of the church, some whispered, some sniffed. All the black seemed to suck me in as I put one foot in front of the other in my purple dress, taking my place at the funeral. I was finally there after years of making my way. As I laid my hand on the smoothness of the casket, my nose started to tingle, and tears welled up in my eyes. Not now, not here. I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath, and my memories attacked. I broke. Tears poured out of me as I sobbed over the casket, remembering my best friend.

Chapter One

It was the first day of school, we all had gotten brownies and some apple juice in the little plastic things. Of course, the juice was frozen. When was it not? So, as any seventh grader who happens to be a picky eater would do, I systematically picked out every almond or nut or whatever it was out of the brownie so I could indulge in the chocolaty goodness of it all.

“Why do you do that every time you get a brownie?” my friend asked.

“I don’t like the nuts, that’s all.” I replied innocently.

“That’s weird.”

“You’re weird.”

“Hey!”

The conversation was over. I looked around aimlessly and spotted a girl at the very end of the long lunch table, sitting alone and, ohmygosh, picking the nuts out of the brownie!

I’ve always been the type to go say hi to the new kid, no matter what, it’s just something I do. Oh, I haven’t told you my name! Ashley Elizabeth Fontaine, that’s what my parents like, especially when they’re mad at me, but I like Ash, it sounds better that way. So, anyway, I’ve always been the one who would be the first person to talk to the new kid, so you can guess what happened next.

“Hi!”

The girl looked up from her brownie nervously, “H-Hi…”

“I’m Ashley Elizabeth Fontaine, except I hate that name, so you can just call me Ash.” I said, holding out my hand for her to shake, most people don’t do that, except grown-ups, that’s why I like to do it.

She looked at my hand, puzzled. “Would you like to shake hands?” I prompted. She understood and grabbed my hand, shaking it vigorously so that I thought my arm would fall off.

“M-my name’s Nibi, you probably don’t want to hear my full name…”

“Sure, why not?”

“It’s Nibi Ahiya'a Amistad, but I prefer Nibi.”

“That’s a weird name…does it mean something? My cousin’s name is Esperanza, it’s Spanish. My grandmother’s Spanish, I never see her though, because she lives so far away…so does your name mean anything?”

“I don’t know…” she said, looking into her mangled brownie.

I wrapped the brownie up and grabbed it in one hand while I held her hand with the other, pulling her down the table towards the other people. “Doesn’t matter, come on, I want you to meet my friends!”

Chapter Two

So, a couple weeks later the fair was in town and, of course, I got really excited at the thoughts of cotton candy, water-shooting games, and, most of all, a big, terrifying, amazing ride called the Terrifying Tower of Screams. I am, to my very core, an adrenaline junkie. I had never ridden it before because I was too short, but I had grown a full inch and three quarters that year and I was determined to get on that ride. I invited Nib, my nickname for Nibi, to come along so she could meet some people and have some fun; she was sort of the studious type, a characteristic that is so unlike myself that there were times when I just couldn’t understand why I seemed to be becoming good friends with this new girl. Anyway, we played some games, got some cotton candy, and before we knew it we were gawking at the gigantic contraption that had filled my dreams for the past week. I skipped up to the platform and the ticket guy gave me a strange look.

“Ah don’t think you’re tall enough little gurl” he said with a thick Southern accent.

“Of course I am, I grew almost two inches this year” I said, flipping my hair triumphantly as if I had something to do with my genetic structure.

The man brought out one of those metal rulers to measure me anyway. To my horror, I was one quarter of an inch away from being just tall enough to ride. Dejected and utterly empty on the inside, I turned to Nib behind me. She was taller than me, surely she’d get on.

“Go ahead,” I said, tears welling up in my eyes, “I’ll…I’ll wait” and I trudged off the platform.

Suddenly Nib took my hand and turned me around, “Wait right here.” She said before she took off. A few seconds later the ride started and I was alone, watching older kids scream and laugh like I wanted to be doing. The ticket guy went on break and was replaced by some fat lady who wore way too much makeup. A few seconds after that Nib returned in sock feet, holding her shoes in her hand. Her shoes had soles an inch and a half thick and looked like they were my size.

She handed the shoes to me, “Switch with me.”

Cautiously I took off my tennis shoes and handed them to Nib while she handed me hers. When I put on Nib’s shoes, not only did they fit, I felt like I was seeing the world from a whole new perspective.

“They fit!” I exclaimed, examining my foot.

“I hoped they would.” Nib said quietly with a smile. “Let’s ride.”

We walked up to the platform again and the lady gave me that same look and brought out the ruler.

My heart was beating wildly as I looked at the end of the ruler right under my nose.

“Okay, you can go.”

My heart soared as I skipped to one of the seats around the Terrifying Tower of Screams, with Nib close behind. We sat together as we screamed and laughed louder than we had ever before and from that moment on we were inseparable.

Chapter Three

Skip ahead to sophomore year of high school, because nothing in between seventh grade and tenth grade is really that significant anyway, at least for me it wasn’t. Nib and I were best friends by now; yes, we had gotten in a fight once in eight grade, but nothing too bad. Nib was in all advanced courses and was a well-established genius while I was failing Geometry…for the third time. She tried to help me understand it but I just couldn’t process numbers and formulas and all that like she could. However, I was pretty good at art, I wanted to be a fashion designer when I grew up. Nib wasn’t very good at art or really anything artistic but she was good at pretty much everything else. Everyone was sure that she was going to go to Harvard or Columbia or even Oxford and then cure cancer or something. Well, this year Nib came over to my house everyday after school and helped me through my homework while she did hers at the same time. She usually stayed for dinner too, my parents considered her the third daughter they never had. Oh, speaking of my parents, lemme give you some background. Okay, so, my mom owns this store that sells art supplies and my dad is a…”struggling artist” who sells pacemakers on the side. Very weird combination, I know, but they dated all through high school and college and have been married for 20 years, it’s kinda cute actually. I have a sister, Nina (she’s in college, Hendrix in Arkansas), and two brothers, Will and Mark. Will is in eighth grade and he’s really annoying, always whining about stuff. I think the last time I heard him speak without whining was…oh, NEVER. It’s sooo annoying. Mark, he’s 5 and he’s adorable but I’m a little worried about him. He wanted to be a ballerina, but when we told him ballerinas were girls he said, “Then I’ll be a girl when I grow up”. And he is definitely fulfilling that, he loves Barbies and doing my hair—and he’s actually pretty good at doing my hair, which sorta scares me. Oh, by the way, I’m clinically ADHD or legally or whatever, is it legal or clinical? Anyway, I’m on medicine and I should get better, just bear with me. I know a lot of people think it’s just an excuse or whatever, but it’s not. Not for me at least. Oh, right, so anyway, Nib came over everyday and dealt with me, my homework, and my inability to pay attention. I still don’t know much about Nib’s family. So, the typical day at my house went like this:

“Mom, I’m home!”

“Hey Ash! Hey Nibi!” Mom refused to call her Nib, she said it didn’t suit Nibi, with her grace and charm and blahdy blah blah. As for me, I waddle like a duck and have two left feet when I try to dance.

“Hey Mama”, that’s what Nib called my mom.

“How was school?”

“Boring” Me.

“Good” Nib—always positive.

“Anything interesting happen?”

“No.”

“Well, today in Pre-Cal,” Nib would say, or “Today in Physics…” And then she would talk about something funny that happened and then my mom would go back to whatever she was doing and me and Nib would head to my room to start homework. Except on one particular day, something very interesting happened. I was lying (lying, not laying, it’s grammatically correct) on my bed and Nib was sitting up against the wall as she sat on the floor across from me.

“Nib, what’s the thing for the volume of a box?”

“Length times width times height”

“I knew it was something like that. So, guess what’s coming up next Friday……?”

“What?”

“The Spring Dance!!!”

“Ash, I…”

“This year we’ll find the perfect dress for you!”

“What about you?”

“Oh, I have mine, made it a month ago. It’s pink and it’s really elegant looking, I used some really soft fabric that looks like chiffon but it’s a little thicker and a lot less expensive, it looks sort of like that Gwyneth Paltrow dress I showed you a couple of days ago, except not as poofy and not as long. And I have these fake pearls that I’m going to wear and I took a couple off and used them to decorate this pair of old shoes from my mom’s closet. I look like a princess.”

“Surprise, surprise.” Nib said laughing as she wrote took notes from her history book.

“Nibi Ahiya'a Amistad! Why aren’t you excited? This is the first year we get to go to a real high school dance!”

“What about that one that was around homecoming earlier this year.”

“That one doesn’t count, it was informal. This is a semi-formal, which means it’s semi-like Prom! And because it’s semi-formal, that means that we get to dress up and that means…”

“Ash...No…please…”

“SHOPPING!!!!!” I said with a squeal, clapping my hands.

Nib sighed, she knew there was no denying me when I wanted to go shopping.

“We’re going Saturday, I’ll pick you up from work at one and we’ll go to the mall. Don’t you get off at one?”

Nibi nodded as she closed her history book and reached in her backpack for Hamlet, which is what her English class was reading.

I continued, “So, at one I’ll pick you up, we’ll go to the mall, I know a couple of stores that I think you’ll like. Around three we’ll eat at the food court and then at four we’ll go to see that new movie that you want to see so badly.”

“I was wondering when the concession to my own desires would be met.” She said, eyeing me from her book.

“Well, I mean, of course we’ll get popcorn and stuff.”

“What?”

“You said something about concessions right. Isn’t popcorn and stuff concessions?”

“Well, yes, popcorn and other overpriced foodstuffs ARE concessions, but that’s not exactly what I meant. Have you even gotten through your geometry yet?”

“My what? Oh, that. What do you think?”

Nib sighed and shook her head, smiling.

“So, Nib, I saw you talking to Jake at the beginning of lunch.”

Nib raised her book over her face, but I knew she was blushing. I slid off the bed and scooted over to where I was right in front of her, staring at the spine of Hamlet.

“Oh, did I say ‘talking’? I meant…” I pulled the book away revealing Nib’s flushed and grinning face, “FLIRTING!! You were flirting!” I said in a sing-song voice. And, I might say, you were doing a very good job at it too.” I jumped up. “Nibi and Jaaake, sittin’ in a tree…”

“Stop!” Nib managed to get out between giggles.

“Heehee, you like him, you like him, you like Jake, you like Jake…” Nib blushed even more, her caramel skin turning almost completely red.

“And you know what? I think he likes you too!”

Nib gasped and giggled, “Really? You think so? Why?”

“C’mon Nib, it was so oblivious!”

“You mean obvious?”

“Yeah, whatever. It was really cute,” I said with a grin as I got back on the bed.

Nib grinned and buried herself in her book again, “I don’t think so, he’s too cute to like me, I’m just a nerd.”

“What? What is that supposed to mean? You are one of the most gorgeous girls at school, and I think deep down you know that too. Anyway, do you have each others numbers?”

Nib blushed again and nodded quickly.

I squealed and we giggled for almost an entire minute, which is actually very long in giggling time.

Suddenly, we heard something vibrating. Nib looked at me with a hopeful smile before she dived into her backpack and fished out her cell phone.

She looked at the little screen in front and said, “It’s him!”

We both squealed for a second and then quickly quit as Nib opened the phone and said, “Hello?”

I could hear Jake on the other line. Personally, Jake’s too smart for me, but he definitely is very cute. He’s one of those guys who you would expect to be a jerk because they’re so good-looking, but they’re actually a gentleman. He always opens the door for people, always helps girls carry books and stuff to their lockers or cars if they need help, especially Nib; he went out of his way to help Nib or be with Nib, it was pretty much adorable. He was pretty much the perfect guy…for Nib, like I said, he’s too smart for me.

Anyway, after letting my mind wander in a multitude (big word, see, I can be smart) of different directions, I heard a timid little Nib say, “Okay, bye”. And then close her phone.

“Well?” I asked anxiously.

“He asked me to go with him to the dance next Friday!” Nib said with an uncontrollable grin. I jumped off the bed and hugged her tight as we squealed—we did that a lot that day.

“We sooo have to find the perfect dress for you now! And to think, you weren’t even going to go.”

Nib just smiled as her eyes twinkled like the most beautiful stars to ever grace the night skies.

Chapter Four
...coming soon