One sunny, beautiful day, a girl named Anna is walking to school. Unlike many people that go to her school, she actually loves her school and all her friends there. Anna is twelve years old, and in the 7th grade. She has lived in Minnesota for the past 12 years and still does. She has brown hair up to her shoulder and big crystal blue eyes. She is also a very, very sensitive girl. What I mean by sensitive is that she can take criticism pretty well, but she always ends up with watery eyes and tears running down her face. Also, whenever her parents fight (which is happening a lot lately) she always runs upstairs, goes into her room, and cries in to her pillow for about thirty minutes to an hour. Anna goes to Providence Academy, a very nice Catholic school in Minnesota. Her school is three stories tall. It is a very large school that holds grades from kindergarten all the way to twelfth grade. She loves her school and everybody that goes there, including all of her teachers and classmates.
Anna was in the last period and her most favorite period of the day which was science class.
“If the whole class does well during class, and did not talk as much as you always do, I will give you ten minutes at the end of class just to chat with one another.” Their teacher Mrs. Brown said. So during class Anna sat down next to her best friend in the whole world, Claire. Since they wanted ten minutes at the end of class, they couldn't talk; Claire passed Anna a note saying that she couldn’t handle the quiet any longer. She also said that she needed to ask her a very important question either in those ten minutes at the end of class, or after school. This note did not let Anna focus during class at all. She wanted to know what the question was. The note did not really say anything that would make someone be so eager, but to Anna it did. The main reason she wanted to know what the question was is because she was afraid that she would ask her about her parents and their divorce, and Anna was not ready to tell her, not right now or today even.
Class was almost over and Anna, rocking back and forth in her chair, was more anxious then ever. Anna was counting the seconds in her head until the ten minutes of talking were allowed in class: ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Anna then stared at Mrs. Bear and waited for her to stop talking, and then she did! Finally!
“Would you like to hear the question?” Claire told Anna as soon as their teacher stopped talking. Anna nodded her head up and down up and down. She did for at least ten to fifteen seconds because, well of course she wanted to hear it, she had been waiting for this question to be told or asked to her for the whole class period.
Claire starts telling Anna the question.
“Would your parents like and want to go on a family cruise with my family just as a family vacation fun?” Although that was a big relief for Anna, she didn't know what to say. What was she supposed to say? Was she supposed to tell her about her parents right now?
“I don’t know, but I will let my parents know.”
“Ok! And don’t worry, my parents will call and let your parents know for themselves.” Claire said just to make Anna feel better. Of course this didn't make Anna feel better. In fact this made her feel even worse. She knew she was going to have to tell Claire sooner or later that her parents were separating, Claire was her best friend and they should tell each other everything. What kind of friend would Anna be if she did not tell Claire?

School was over, and Anna and Claire were walking home together. They both lived down the street from one another. While they were walking, neither one of them talked to the other. Both of them were thinking, but of different things. So many questions were running through Anna’s head. She was thinking and asking herself, does Claire really know anything about my mom and dad? What would she think of me? Would she still like me? Would we still be best friends? As usual Anna was blaming herself for something that was not her fault. Of course Claire was wondering what Anna was thinking and about her long silence.
In order to break the silence, Claire looked at Anna and said, “Are you going to remember to let your parents know about the cruise?” Again Anna hesitated to answer.
“Oh don’t worry; my parents are going to call later this week anyway.” After Claire said that, Anna’s eyes got big.
“Your parents don’t need to call, I will tell them.” She kept repeating that her parents don’t need to call and that they most definitely should not. Now Claire really felt that there was something wrong with Anna.
“When are you going to tell me that your parents were getting a divorce?” Claire said in a very harsh and unpleasant tone. Anna looked at Claire and, as usual, started tearing up. Claire felt really bad. “I didn’t mean to say it in a harsh tone, I just wanted to tell you that I found out and also that I was just really frustrated that you haven’t told me yet, because, well, after all, we were and have been best friends.”
“I am sorry. I wanted to tell you, but I didn’t exactly know how to. I didn’t know how to say it, or if you were even going to care.” Now Claire felt hurt but at the same time she felt bad for mentioning it and bringing the topic or subject up. She didn’t want to hurt Anna, but there had been no other way of telling her.

Now Anna and Claire both walked to the stop sign together and then left each other because from there they would walk to their houses alone. Claire, walking back to her house, was a little grumpy but then would change to embarrassed because she didn’t know if she had just embarrassed herself or her best friend, Anna. She kept telling herself that she shouldn’t have just came out and, in a way, yelled at Anna like that, but there was nothing else she could do and now there is nothing she can do. She was disappointed with herself because she knew how hard it feels for someone to have their parents fighting all the time at home and not want everyone at school to know. She would just have to call later and apologize, or wait for the following day.

Anna, now walking to her house too, was walking slouchy. She was shocked that Claire found out and didn’t even tell her, just shouted it at her. Yes, she expected it in a way, but she could have said it in a more soothing way. Well, Anna would have to deal with this now and maybe tomorrow she can talk to Claire about this situation. She will probably need to apologize for not telling and trusting her from the very beginning.

Anna was at home now. Her home is two stories with three rooms. Anna is an only child. Her room is purple and pink. All over her room she has pictures of her friends, her parents, her family, celebrities, and a big picture of Jesus.
“Hi mother. Hi father. I am home.” Anna said to her parents, grumpily and rude, right when she got home. They were both in separate places of the house; her mom was in the kitchen and her dad was in the living room. Right after she said hi she ran upstairs so neither one of her parents would ask why she had tears running down her face and who made her cry. Once Anna got to her room she jumped right on her bed. Then she just sat there and thought. How did Claire even find out that my parents were splitting up? What can I do to make my parents not split? Anna kept thinking and thinking. Then she kept praying to God asking for His help. Finally she found a few solutions. Initially she came up with a solution that if she stayed at Claire’s house for a few nights and left a note to her parents explaining why she doesn’t want to be home then they would understand and double think of splitting. But then she rethought that idea and she felt like if she did this she would be very weak and would be taking the easy way out. She didn’t want them to split but she didn’t want to take the easy way out, so that idea was gone and out of her head completely. The second idea came to her when she asked Jesus for help on what to do. The idea she had was to have a family fun day either out somewhere, on the cruise, or right at their home. This way she would have to have her parents talk and hopefully they would laugh together and eventually they would not think and want to split up.
At that, she started crying because she knew that these solutions might work but most likely and probably wouldn’t work. There was a picture of Jesus in her room that she was looking at, at this moment. While she was crying she went up to the picture, went on her knees and started praying asking for help and what to do. Her voice, while she was crying, was very loud. Anyone could possibly hear her from outside.
“Please God, help me. I ran out of ideas and you are the only one that can help me get through this tough time.” Anna said barely understanding what she said herself because of all the crying she was during her small little prayer.
While walking up stairs by Anna’s room, her mom heard her crying. She walked into her room quietly and saw her crying in front of God’s picture. Her mom held Anna very tight.
“Why on earth are you crying? Is there something you need to tell me?” Anna’s mom asked very surprised and urged to know. Anna didn’t know how to respond but she finally answered.
“I am crying because I don’t want you and dad to split up.” Anna said making her mom make face trying to understand her words. “I have also been praying to God asking for help.”
Her mom held her tight. “Don’t worry, I am sure God will listen to your prayers and do what her needs to do. Immediately, Anna’s mom went downstairs. She talked to Anna’s dad.
“Look Rob, I know that we haven’t been getting along very well, but I think we are hurting our precious little daughter by all the fighting. Anna’s dad got all confused.
“What do you mean?” Anna’s dad, Rob, asked all confused.
“The whole thing for us splitting up and getting a divorce made Anna very upset and cry.” Anna’s mom explained. Now Anna’s dad understood.
“We are back together and no matter what happens between us, instead of fighting, we should always just ask Jesus and figure things out.” Rob says with a big smile across his face.
Suddenly, the telephone rang. Anna was still crying in her room upstairs, but she heard the phone ring. She stepped out of her room and she heard her mom on the phone.
“Yes, we will gladly come on the cruise with you.” Anna thought about this because she was a little confused; but then she realized what cruise her mom was talking about and with whom they were going with. Once Anna heard this, and thought about it, she ran down stairs and gave both her parents a very big hug. Her parents looked at one another then smiled.
“I love you guys very much and I am terribly sorry for always running to my room and crying.” They felt bad and felt like Anna shouldn’t be the one apologizing here.
“No, we are sorry too for letting you be so concerned about us getting a divorce, and no one there to comfort you.” Her dad said while her mom was nodding the whole time.