It’s been 3 years since we’ve been best friends and she stood by me no matter what even when Kaylee’s scooter was stolen…

    I had begged over and over to borrow Kaylee’s scooter over and over again until she finally weighed in. I kept “forgetting” to give her scooter back and had left it in my garage for a while now. And Kaylee’s reaction was making everything worse. At school, Kaylee was starting to complain,

“ Justineeee, I want my scooter back. It’s mineee.” Kaylee whined.

“ Kaylee, I’m busy. Maybe next time.” I said.

    Kaylee had mocha skin with a puffy ponytail. She gave me her annoyed face, she glares at me then tops it with a sprinkle of curved lips and a cherry of flared nostrils. It was like a big annoyed sundae except not so sweet. I gave her an apologetic face then looked back to what I was doing.

7 hours later… I was arguing in our very, very cramped garage. 

      
         “NO JUSTINE! It’s dangerous you shouldn’t ride.”

My Dad looked at me as if I was crazy. I glanced at Rachel to help me out but she looked at us silently. Rachel was MY BEST FRIEND, if there was an event we had to go too and we had to go somewhere I’d bring her along. She was that friend that you can be mean to them and they won’t be mad.

“ Please Dad! I really wanna ride, WE really wanna ride. We’ll be fine and if worst comes to worse we can sprint away and if Rachel’s being her slow self I’ll carry her.”

Rachel glared at me through her maroon MIT hoodie but said nothing. My Dad looked at us both, using a series of please faces. He weighed in but before he said yes he warned us.

“Ok girls, but if the tires get slashed or something happens to it. It’s your responsibility. Now get your helmets quickly before I change my mind.”

We nodded excitedly. I first grabbed my small green bike then Kaylee’s scooter.
“Kaylee’s scooter huh?” Rachel snickered.

“Yeah, Jeremy’s scooter’s all weird. And besides I have to take advantage of the fact that I have Kaylee’s scooter.”

I picked up a cardboard box using it as a step stool and swiftly got two helmets. I jumped down from the squashed box, then handed Rachel my light blue GIRO helmet. I immediately slipped on my brothers oversized helmet, then ran onto the scooter.

       “Well that was fun. But what the heck with that lady. I shoulda yelled I’m biking here but oh well.” I said.
“Eh...it doesn’t really matter——I cut Rachel off before she could talk more.

“Anyways we should park it here!”I pointed.

“ Hmmmm...lemme see. Ok fine. But——-“

I cut her off(again)  “ Got it. I’ll do it.” I grabbed the scooter from her and went through the gates of Monta Vista.
      Rachel ran to me slowly then  glared at me and remarked,” Quit interrupting me PLEASE.”

I nodded slowly then dropped the scooter and ran to the bike racks. I parked the bike near the end of the bike rack and Rachel parked the scooter right next to me. As we thought about how to lock it, a teenager emerged from behind the door near the water fountain. He was meh sized with a navy blue hoodie, with black jeans. And kept his hoodie on his face. He looked like those shady characters in the movies who wanna kidnap kids and sell them.  He asked if we were watching the game.

We both nodded yes in fear as he said,” Me too.”

I said,” Well we better get going the lines are gonna get longer.”

Then, I walked away trying to be calm while Rachel sprinted away already yelling,” RACE!!” I gave her a disapproving look, then looked back at the teenager he had already walked past the bike racks, glanced at the rides then walked away. Strange I thought to myself.

    *BURRRRRR* the alarm had buzzed for halftime, they were up 13 points. I looked for Julie. Julie was a pale girl with black hair, Taiwanese I think. She was also very annoying in some cases but she was fun to chat with sometimes. Ah there she was… she was wedged between her parents. I pushed past annoyed fans as I dragged Rachel along.

“Hey Jules! Wanna ride?” I asked.

I could tell Rachel was about to intervene but Julie mumbled out a yes. She ran saying bye to her mom and dad sweetly.

We walked outside of the gates to the bike and scooter and yelled,” Let’s ride! You guys can ride Kaylee’s scooter!”

“Justine, you haven’t given it back yet! She’s been begging for it for like forever!” Julie exclaimed.

“Eh… I’ll give it back after.” I said half lying. I was gonna give it back after some point but not after the game.
Julie looked at me, then ran up the ramp to go down the scooter. Rachel rode the bike as I raced them down the ramp. I tripped over thin air, scraping my knee. We burst into laughter, I thought to myself *such great friends, see nothing bad is gonna happen.* The dramatic irony would hit later. Yikes… 13 seconds till game starts as the fans chanted 10, 9, 8 . We ran down the ramp and “locked our bike and scooter” I just placed it there because it’d be safe, hopefully.

     “I’m bored they're going to win anyway no point in watching the rest.” I whined.

“Ok.. let’s ride then!”

      I walked out the gates for the 3rd time. Julie already left with her parents so it was only me and Rachel. As I walked out, I could feel something was wrong. The wind crept up my back and sent me goosebumps, making me spasm. I went to the bike racks, the mistake was visible now. The scooter was missing….

        Wait.. where’s the scooter, I thought. Panic surged through me, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. This can’t be happening...it’s not even mine. This has got to be a joke, someone’s probably pranking us like Julie or Grey.
Rachel finally gasped,” Where’s Kaylee’s scooter?!”

“I DON’T KNOW, MAYBE JULIE HAS IT OR GREY?!!” Trying not to sound to panicked.

“But Julie left after halftime, and you know she’s a goody goody in front of her parents. Maybe Grey has it.”  Rachel said.

“Why would he?! He doesn’t care,” panic surging through my voice. We exchanged panicked looks, then split up through separate quadrants. We met back at the bike racks, we don’t even know where it could be I thought. I felt my cheeks get hot as tears welled up in my eyes. Why’d this happen to me I thought.

Rachel spoke softly,” It’s okay, Justine! I’ll take the blame so you don’t get in trouble and I can dig into my birthday money for a new scooter.”

“But Rachel, you’re the guest. I should’ve been smarter but I didn’t listen. It’s not your fault, I locked the scooter and didn’t do it right. You don’t deserve to be in trouble. I’ll do whatever I can.”

I didn’t get why I rejected her help. Tears welled up in my eyes, I tried to blink them back failing.

“Justine, stop. It’s okay, your parents won’t get as mad if I say it was me. It’ll be fine just calm down.” I tried to calm down but my parents emerged from the gates suddenly, triumphant about the game. I told them...it was my fault. They scolded me but my Dad gave me a hug that he’s glad I told him. Rachel gave me a thumbs up. Ah..life needs more good friends. She’ll always be there for me I can feel it.