It is Friday morning, the last school day before the weekend and Jannie is at the front of her high school class, standing at the podium. You can tell she is nervous, her breathing is skewed a bit and she is starting to get a little shiny as her pores began to moisten. However, she holds herself together. It’s been silent now for a little over a minute and Jannie still hasn’t started her speech on drug awareness, yet. She is short for her age, only 5’0”. Her skin is hazelnut colored and her eyes are light brown. She has long light brown hair that matches her eyes. She can barely see over the podium because she is too short. All of her friends and classmates are staring at her, waiting for her to begin. Her two best friends are Mannie, a bronze skin toned teenage girl, and Rickkie a fair skin toned teenage boy. Finally after her nerves calm down she grabs the edges of the podium and begins to tell her story. All eyes are on her, she thinks to herself no pressure, everyone will love you because you’re the one who is up here, not them.
“My big drug awareness story starts out at Rickkie’s house. Mannie and I were sleeping over at his and his sisters’ house because the next day there was a Back to School Party that we all wanted to go and Rickkie’s house was the closest to it. We decided to stay at his house hoping that it would be the best four day weekend ever, especially because we were being supervised by Rickkie’s older sister Diane. Who by the way hates all of us and expects us to be old enough to take care of ourselves. We stayed awake until at least 4:00am; we could tell that Mannie was getting more and more exhausted by the minute because she always got loopy when she was sleepy. Rickkie and I thought about how we could have kept Mannie up longer. One way was by telling her scary stories, and another way was by watching all of her favorite movies. We also knew that she would get mad if she fell asleep at the party because we kept her up too late the night before. So to avoid a cranky overtired teen, we all went to sleep around 4:30am.
We didn’t get up the next day until 1:00pm. It was okay however because the party didn’t start until 8:00pm. We woke up, ate whatever was in their fridge, sat around for a while and didn’t realize that their parents had been at work the entire time we were there. They trusted us including Diane, to be mature young adults. We were young adults, until about 8:00pm at night, then we were wild beasts. Rickkie’s older sister let Mannie and I go to the mall with her, we wanted fresh outfits to wear for the party, and we threatened to tell her parents that she left us at home alone most of the time. So she was instantly over-joyed to have us come along. Rickkie didn’t want to go because he had to keep up a manly reputation, even though his best friends were two teenage girls. We went to a couple of stores and found Mannie a cute white shirt with a vest, to go with some black skinny jeans. I got a halter dress with flowers on it, adorable! We both were ready to party! Even Rickkie’s sister, Diane said we looked good, and she never compliments us. So we knew we must have looked good.
We got back just in time to change and get ready for the party, my make-up felt like it took a life time to put on because Mannie and Rickkie were all ready to go. I finally finished the last line right under my left eye. And I was ready to party with my friends. “Onward and off”, Mannie said aloud. I suggested that she never should say that again and of course she said it again. We all laughed. The house was a couple of blocks down, and we made it late. Around 8:30pm which I thought was alright because we had to be fashionably late. However, Rickkie and Mannie made the point that it was different when everyone was trying to be fashionably late.
We went into the house and everyone was there. The cheerleaders, football team, and a couple of other cool obnoxious people. We got welcomed with a big HooRah! Every time someone came in, that was their greeting. We went to the party unaware that there was drinking. People had beer bottles everywhere. When I went to get soda it was in the fridge. Of course Mannie and Rickkie knew better, but of course I was the one that got peer pressured into drinking a little bit and I passed out. I was always the shy one, who could be peer pressured into doing something. I noticed some friends from school and told Rickkie and Mannie that I was going to the bathroom when I really wasn’t. They started asking.
“Hey Jannie, you wanna try some?” Joey asked.
“No thanks,” I answered.
“Come on, it’ll make you feel better,” He said back. Then his friends started handing bottles to me. I gave in, and junk some. Then I couldn’t stop myself. It felt so good, to be so free.
I think Rickkie and Mannie figured I lied because they came outside and grabbed me.
They said “We are going home, now!” They said at the same time.
Although, I forgot that I had taken some Alive before we left because I had a really ghastly headache.
Mannie and Rickkie got really mad at me and wanted to take me home. So we left. We were walking back to Rickkie’s house to be picked up. It was 11:00pm and we weren’t the only people who were leaving the party. Other people were leaving too. Mannie told me to walk on the side of the road that was farthest away from the cars, so that I wouldn’t get hit. I could tell I was out of it because I was stumbling all over the sidewalk due to the drinks I had. My hands felt like nothing, my arms I barley hand control over my arms. It was as if my arm would just go numb because they wouldn’t cooperate. A car was coming and I saw it but for some reason I felt myself walking toward it. I felt light headed; all I remember was Mannie and Rickie shouting, “Look out.” Then, nothing. I guess I passed out in all the hype and excitement because the next thing I know, I was in a hospital bed and my parents were sitting next to me. My mom was crying and my dad was pacing. I asked them what had happened and they told me that when the car came Mannie pushed me out of the way before it could hit me. It was going so fast that it swept her in the air and she came back down with four broken ribs one broken leg and her left wrist was broken.
I was truly heartbroken, because I had almost killed my best friend. My sister, Mes amis, my chica. I don’t know what I would have done if I would have lost her. I could feel the tears starting to fill in my eyes as a sea them started to wave down my cheek. I got out of my bed and sprinted into the hallway looking for Mannie’s room. I found her. She was in what looked as if a body cast. She looked so fragile, all covered in white casting. It was as if even me looking at her was breaking her. I just left and started pouring down tears and began to apologize to everyone for what I had done to my best friend. Then it hit me. I had almost killed my friend, would she forgive me? I didn’t mean to, I needed to stop. This would never happen to me or her again.
I went out into the waiting room to apologize to more people. The waiting room was filled with everyone from the party and pretty much the entire school was there waiting to hear the results for Mannie and I.
“I’m sorry…I’m sorry… I’m so, so sorry.” I shouted over and over again. Tears rushing down my face. People needed to know that I didn’t mean to cause any harm to anyone.
Rickkie saw me and he looked away, it broke my heart. What had I’d done? I stayed at the hospital with Mannie for three days. Rickkie came in during the day and left at night. He said it was because he was tired but I think it was because he was still mad at me. She was allowed to go home, and I went home at last with her. I still to this day feel in debt to her, and I learned to never drink again no matter what. I could never imagine hurting someone else for my stupid actions. Most importantly, I learned to never doubt my friendship with her. She will always have my back and I will always have hers, even if it is a full time job. Thank You.”

She went to take her seat. She was proud of herself. At that point everyone in Jannie’s class was still laughing at Jannie’s joke, about it being a full time job. Mannie was looking confused. Then Jannie saw Rickkie whisper into her ear. Mannie made an “Ahh, I get it” face and then looked at Jannie with a playful, but mean face, then laughed it off. The class understood that it took a lot for Jannie, to have to admit what she had done and to do it while her friend was in the room. At that moment Mannie, Janie and Rickkie knew that they would forever be eternal friends.