Once there was a girl name Hailee. Everyone loved her, and in return she loved everyone. I had a friend named Hailee. Next year, she died.

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Ever since the beginning of seventh grade, life have changed among us. When Bella, Lizzy and I found out that Hailee was going to be in the other class, we were devastated. All through sixth grade, the four of us had been a really close knit group of friends. Though Hailee liked to talk to others from time to time, it was mainly just the four of us.
At the start of the school year, Hailee and I had been very good friends. We hung out at least thrice a week; our separation had made our friendship better. Sure; Lizzy and Bella also talked to her every so often, hung out, but I felt as though I was the closest to our lost friend. Through the first few months of school, our friendship was fine. We were perfectly happy, enjoying our lives. But somewhere in that time, people were changing. They were minor changes, that no one noticed. We just thought it was a part of everyday life, a casualty that we looked by. When we noticed, it was too late. Hailee was different.
Instead of friendly greetings at school, we sadly looked as she went to join her ‘new’ friends, squealing happily. Lizzy and Bella had completely grown apart from her, and only a few measly threads were connecting me and Hailee. Slowly, our friendship went downhill from there. I constantly fought with Bella, and at those times Lizzy joined her. I grew apart from them too. These fights usually lasted only a few days, but each one was worse and worse. We fought over the tiniest subjects, not even worth thinking about. When we weren’t fighting, it was all negativity, negativity, negativity that I heard. Lizzy complained to me about Bella, about school, other unimportant events. Bella, the same. The thread which tied them together was their sudden hatred for Hailee. With Bella, it was mixed with sympathy, and with Lizzy, a desperate wanting for things to be the same again.
By that point, everything had changed. I was separated, lost, and I blamed Hailee for causing all this. I fought with her several times, drawing in Lizzy’s and Bella’s thoughts into the whole thing. Each time our connection faded a little more. I never really hated Hailee though. I loathed the fact that she had changed, left us. We all felt abandoned, but I mainly felt lost. My connection began growing back with Hailee, but that was only because of her aid to me as a psychologist. I was going through a hard time in life, and she was always there to listen. She listened to my endless babbling, and gave me advice when I needed. She was worried, worrying about the things I never said to anyone else. Inside of school, it was like I didn’t exist.
Now, near the end of the year, is when everything really start to fall apart. Hailee is a changed being, our connection slowly becoming friendly again, but each time she lies, each time she says that she has plans when she actually doesn’t, it saddened me a little more. Hailee was the best person I knew, the one I could trust to be there when I needed someone. But it seemed like she didn’t need anyone any more. At least, none of us. She was living the life of popularity in the other class.
Bella and Lizzy were in a rage, hating her completely. I went along, adding to the hatred, but the thing I wanted the most was for everything to be back to normal again. Then, the most unexpected thing happened. We started fighting with Lizzy. The one always the most agreeable, but the one feeling left out. Bella and I had patched up our choppy friendship, and we tried not to fight. However, that led to leaving out Lizzy. What with my temper, I ended up insulting her in moments of rage. Why? I didn’t know, but she all of a sudden drove me crazy. Despite my new found friendship with Bella, I felt myself getting sadder and sadder about Hailee. Soon however, that sadness turned to loathing, and a final wanting for her to change.


***************


“Ugh, look what she’s wearing” Bella whispered as Hailee walked in. She was wearing white super short shorts and one of those weird baggy tank tops that was purple and orange striped. She was looking in our direction, and I waved. She flipped her hair, and walked away. When Hailee’s back was turned, I turned to Bella with a very confused facial expression. She shrugged. “What happened to her? Did you see the shorts that she was wearing? They’re like underwear!” she fumed.I patted her shoulder, thinking the same thing.Hailee walked over to her new friends, jumping and squealing like stereotypical teenage girls, the kind that you see in movies that have jumping, squealing girls.
“She’s changed so much...” I sighed. And she really did. Last year, she was so kind, so compassionate. She would always be there to listen, you could always lean on her (metaphorically). She never showed off too much, and was the maturest of us all. At the beginning of seventh grade she was like that. But they’ve changed her. I don’t even know the person she’s turned into, it’s a combination of the personalities of her three new friends.
A while ago, I was having some troubles with life. I didn’t really have anyone to talk to about it, so I consulted her. She helped me get through it, but shortly afterwards, we stopped talking entirely. Sure, I made conversation with her every so often, saying hi on Gmail chat, but it just ended in awkwardness. I trusted her with all of my worries, secrets, thoughts, and for what? To get let down, forgotten about. Bella, Lizzy and I were always there for her when she needed it. So what had happened to our great bond? Where did the friend that I trusted to much leave? Why? For what? A bunch of squealing, childish friends? To slowly become popular (Bella, Lizzy and I were never much of it)? My biggest guess was that she was embarrassed to have us as friends. We were the ones that people consider a bit strange, and no one really noticed us too much. But I couldn’t believe that she would do such a shallow thing.
“I miss the old Hailee” Bella murmured regretfully. I completely agreed. Old Hailee. We had so much fun... The door to the school opened once again, as Lizzy walked in. She was in her usual attire, nothing special.
“Hi guys!” she chirped excitedly. I waved unemotionally, and turned to have a conversation with Bella. “Why are you ignoring me? Why do you hate me so much!?” Lizzy complained, standing with her hip cocked to the side and her arms crossed. Great. More to put up with. Lizzy had gotten this crazy idea that Bella and I were ignoring her, excluding her, hating her, ect. It was incredibly annoying. Of course, we grew really tired of this, so it didn’t make us want to pay any more attention to her than she thought she was getting.
“Look Lizzy, we’re not excluding you, how many times do we have to explain this? Sometimes we have a personal conversation” Bella explained harshly.
“It’s time to go to class, bye...” Lizzy walked away in a huff.
“Ugh... she’s so annoying at times!” I complained when Lizzy was out of hearing range.
“I know... so annoying” Bella mimicked.People... why even bother with them? They’ll always annoy you.
“We really should go to class Bella; we’ll be late”
“Okay, let’s go”. We walked to the classroom, sitting down in our hard chairs. I zoned out for the rest of the classes, not really thinking of much. Math Computers, Science, English and Activity period went by in a breeze. I slowly made my way out of the computer lab, where we were watching an interesting but slightly weird movie. I picked up my lunch and went up the stairs to fetch Bella and Lizzy from extra art.
I walked into the room, where they were cleaning up their projects and putting away materials. I walked towards Bella, who was wiping a paint stain off of the table.
“Hi” I greeted.
“Oh hi Delilah! Could you please put my painting on the drying rack?”
“Sure” I answered, and picked up the wet sunset painting that she drew. Fairly nice. I walked to the drying rack and set down the picture, walking back to Bella. Lizzy walked past me in a huff. I guess she was still mad that we were ‘ignoring’ her. Bella thought that she was maturing, going through adolescence, but I think Lizzy was always like that. If she wasn’t and she’s only starting... I’m terrified of what’s to come. We all walked out, Lizzy ranting on and on about the science teacher’s new annoying project. Same old, same old. I didn’t really mind too much.
“Come with me, I need to go to the bathroom to fix my hair,” Bella ordered. We walked to the nearest one, going in. I looked in the mirror and checked my own hair, which was relatively fine. Bella was looking in a mirror, and Lizzy was anxiously bouncing on the balls of her feet.
“Come on guys, let’s go to lunch. I want to eat” Lizzy complained.
“You can go if you want, we’re not asking you to stay,” Bella said, flipping her hair forward and putting it into a pony tail.
“You’re just trying to get rid of me!” she insisted. I sighed, prepared to explain the long story of how we’re not trying to get rid of her.
“Look Lizzy, we’re not trying to get rid of you. I won’t explain it again,” I curtly spat out. I flicked my hand in her direction jokingly, shooing her off. She replied by shoving her hand in my face and flicking, then stomping off in a huff. I could see a pattern in this.
After a few minutes Bella and I walked to lunch, taking our time. We sat down at the other side of the booth, away from the monster that had arisen in Lizzy. Hailee was at the table next to us, laughing about something with Marielle, Michelle, and Maya, her new friends. I looked sadly at them. Really Hailee? Them? For what? Weren't we good enough for you? Didn’t we appreciate you enough? We were kind to you. So? What’s the real reason?
“Delilah!” Lizzy and Bella yelled at the same time.
“What?” I replied, snapping out of my momentary space.
“You weren’t replying...” Lizzy murmured. I shrugged, standing up and cleaning the remains of my lunch back into my bag. I looked regretfully at Hailee. I didn’t know this person I was looking at. Once there was a girl named Hailee. I looked up to her. I trusted her. I believed. Once, I was friends with that girl. She’s gone to me now. In place, is a squealing, childish, selfish teenager. I was friends with the girl in the beginning. She acted like Hailee, looked like Hailee, talked like Hailee. I thought she was her. But no. It wasn’t.
I was believing it was her for a while. But my secrets were told to a different person. I was suspecting it was a different person, but I began believing it was her again when we hung out every so often. It reinforced my belief that she wasn’t that different, that she just had different friends. I desperately wanted to believe that it was her. I did everything I could to keep thinking it was so. I can’t believe I was so stupid.
Lizzy and Bella had already noticed something was wrong. I didn’t see anything, I thought it was same old, same old. That we could somehow change her back. I was hope so hopeful. So young, so clueless. I really wanted for this horrible friendship to change back, for it to be nothing but a nightmare. It is was a nightmare, but the nightmare went on and on. Hailee. Once my friend. Once the one who I trusted. Once the person I told everything to. Once the best person in the world. Hailee.
She’s gone.