Speeding down the sloping field of daisies and grass, you shift your gear to one, letting yourself glide down like a penguin on ice. The tainted spring air whisks by your bike and makes you feel like you’re flying. Glancing around at your scenery, you see the world in a different light- the lights seems kinder towards your eyes, the sun’s dazzling rays less set out to blind your eyes permanently. Digging your overgrown nails into the cushy fabric of the handlebars, you take a deft left, nearly bowling into a tree that was unfortunately standing nearby. You give it a pat before you move on, not willing to create a bike-crash with the quickly progressing Cassie- the brunette. When you finally get into the open air again, you finally take the time to look around your surroundings. There is a vast, open forest of trees on your left, opening up like an underground trench. The rustling leaves sound like people, whispering forgotten secrets of the trees to you. The wind, a soft breeze that carries the taint of Spring whisks by your hair, lifting it off your sloping shoulders. In front of you are rolling hills, a lime green that looks like an emerald. Right in front of you is the narrow walkway that you have been following. The smell of wildflowers wafts up your nose. The beautiful blue sky stretches out towards the end of your vision, never ending. The sun, high in the sky, is a halo of light. It covers you and your friends’ backs like a warm blanket. The fluffy white clouds that look like cotton candy float through the air, as soft-looking as a pillow after a long day. On your right is a great pond that was almost as big as a lake, stretching towards the trees that are farther behind. You see the twinkling of the water that looks like early morning dew drops on leaves. A mother duck is leading her ducklings through the water, making delicate ripples as they are paddling along. Wanting to enjoy the enchanting scenery without getting dizzy, you midge your kickstand to a standing position and wait for the others to arrive, while taking large gulps of air. Tearing your eyes away from the scene, you locate your friends. Cassie, your very optimistic and brunette friend, comes to a lurching stop right in front of you, panting, but wearing a pleased expression. She joins your wait, filling the air with puffs. Finally, the blond, Seacellsa, comes to a fall-halt. Basically, she catapults off her bike. The bike stops and she’s on the ground, but it isn’t the way to disembark that you would find ‘ideal’. Moving quickly, you get the crumpled mess of legs, arms, a head, and hair back into working order.

“I hate biking!” explodes Seacellsa, who is staring at you with a absolutely disgusted expression of pure disbelief. “I knew that this was a horrible idea!”

“Actually, I think that it was a wonderful idea- it’s good to have some fresh air,” replies Cassie pleasantly.

“It’s SPRING! Doesn’t it give a little bounce in your heart, a little spring in your feet?!” you cry.

“Pardon the pun, much, Namour?” asks Seacellsa. “You’re smartness an your cheerfulness give me a headache,” she snaps, rounding to Cassie.

“Well, someone has to be cheerful, don’t they?” you retort. Then you smile. “And it obviously isn’t going to be either you or me.”

You get on your bike again. Seacellsa snorts, but gets on without any further ado. Sharing a nod with Cassie, you push off and feel the wind on your face once again.



When you finally arrive at Second Beach, you are starving and ready to devour everything in your path. You halt and park your bike on the stand. Waiting, you see Seacellsa riding from the distance.

“Seacellsa! Where’s Cassie?” you ask.

She looks behind her.

“I don’t know,” she replies. She doesn’t seem upset that Cassie’s not there. “She’ll probably be here in a few seconds.”

“Yeah... Maybe,” you say. You wish with all your heart that Cassie’s okay.

“We shouldn’t fret so much. I’m starving! Let’s get something to eat while we’re waiting for Cassie. We won’t be of very much use anyway if we starve ourselves!” cries Seacellsa nonchalantly.

“I think we- I think I will wait until Cassie gets here,” you say.

“No. We should eat.”

Seacellsa pushes you towards the line.

“What should we get?” she askes.

“Um... Why not some chicken nuggets?” you offer.

“Sure!” cries Seacellsa with a lot of enthusiasm.

A few minutes later, you are sitting at the bench, eating chicken nuggets by the handful and chattering away with Seacellsa when there is a light tap at your shoulder. You turn around to see Cassie, jeans torn and one of her elbows bleeding.

“Did you forget about someone?” she asks.

“Oh my gosh! What happened to you?” gasps Seacellsa.

“You know exactly what happened to me!” growls Cassie.

You stare at Cassie. She never growls! At anyone!

“Wow, Cass. Loosin’ your temper much? I did no such thing!” cried Seacellsa.

“Cass? You okay? She’s right, you know. She didn’t do anything!” you jump in, defending Seacellsa.

Cassie glares at you.

“Can’t you see-?”

“What?! See what? You are the one that’s supposed to see! She didn’t do anything!” you sputter.

She sighs. “Are we eating, or what?”

“We’re eating all right. Go buy something,” says Seacellsa with mocking generosity.

“Fine.” Cassie leaves with a flourish for the counter. When she comes back, the air is heavy with tension- everything is overly polite. ‘What’s wrong with Cassie today?’ you think.



When you finally arrive at home, you feel the tension slowly drain from you. As you make your way up the stairs, you hear the phone ring. You rush to grab it.

“Hello?” you ask.

“Hi, it’s Cassie,” she replies.

“Cassie, if it’s about the thing at Second Beach, it’s the past, okay? So I’m not going to have this conversation with you again.”

“Fine.”

You hang up. Then, staring at the phone for a little while, I decide that it’s nothing to dwell on and that they are just having a little argument and that it would die down tomorrow. Hopefully. On that thought, you shower and get ready for bed.


The next morning, you feel all refreshed and energized. Plowing through your cereal, you sling your slightly heavy bag over your shoulder and start heading for school, your book in your hand. You figure that since the bus ride isn’t going to get much more fun in your favour, you may as well get a book and try to focus amongst all the fuss and screaming while on it. Finally, the bus arrives at the bus station. Riding there, is Seacellsa. Surprised, you quickly climb on, already shooting her a questioning stare. In response, she just waves back.

“Seacellsa! What are you doing on the bus?” you cry, hurriedly going towards her.

“Namour? Oh! Namour! I finally found you! I didn’t know if I got the right bus,” she says.

“But you always take your car-”

“Yeah, but I had to talk to you about something. Before I tell you, though, you need to promise me not to tell anyone else, okay?” asks Seacellsa.

“Okay...” you say slowly. You are almost absolutely certain that you don’t want to hear this.

“Well, first of all, on the way to Second Beach, you know when we momentarily disappeared from view? Well, I was riding behind you until all of a sudden, someone grabbed my bag. I almost fell down. I had to disembark and try to take the ‘hand’ off. I found out really soon that it wasn’t a hand. It was a branch. By the looks of it, someone had tangled it with the tree. The only person that was close enough to do it was Cass-”

“Are-” you start.

“No. Listen. The only person that was close enough was Cassie. I saw Cassie pedaling furiously towards the wrong path. I called after her, but she just sped off. On this time, I was thinking that it hadn’t been her. Then, as I was walking home after word, something burst right onto my back. It was a water balloon filled with wet paint. I could almost swear that it was Cassie who threw it!”

“Really?” you ask, your eyes wide.

“Yeah. I really didn’t think that Cassie was that kind of girl,” she says with a sigh.

You frown. It was really unlikely of Cassie to do that, but you learned that people could change. You go all the way to school in silence.

When you arrive to school, Cassie is waiting in her usual place. As she starts heading towards you, you strike up a conversation with Seacellsa.

“Are you going to ride the bus back to your home?”

“Huh?” she starts.

“Are you going to ride the bus back to your home?” you repeat.

“Oh. Yeah, probably.”

“Well, wait for me. I might come with you.”

By then, you have already passed Cassie. You look behind you at her, who is now wearing a puzzled expression.

“That-” Seacellsa tries to say.

You look crossly at her.

“Let’s not jump to conclusions, all right? You said that you didn’t know exactly who it was, right?” you point out.

“Yeah...” she replies. “But truthfully. Who else would it have been?”

And you find that you cannot answer that question.


By the end of the day, you are worn down with all the tension between Cassie and Seacellsa. It feels like two birds are trying to pull apart a piece of bread. We can all guess who the bread is...

As you make your way towards your bus, you catch your eye on Cassie. She waves you over. When you look over to Seacellsa, Cassie follows your gaze, gives a terse nod, and disappears into the car. You make a silent vow to talk to her when Seacellsa’s not looking. With that, you stalk off towards the bus where Seacellsa is glaring at Cassie.

“Hey!” cries Seacellsa as you board the bus. She is tossing a soccer ball high into the air. You want to tell her that she’s going to hit someone on the head, but before the words even form, she does it. The kids glares at her, but Seacellsa only gives a nonchalant shrug back. You swallow the words and decide to just reply to her greeting.

“Hey...” you reply with little enthusiasm.

“What’s the long face?” she asks. However, she doesn’t give you any time to respond. “So, what were you talking about with Ca- her?” she asks icily.

“Some things,” you say, looking away.

“Like what?” she persists.

“Somethings are better unknown.” You’re still staring out the window

“Like-”

“You know what? Whatever I say to Cassie is what I say to Cassie. Whatever you say to me is what you say to me and whatever you say to Cassie is what you say to Cassie. You have no need, absolutely no need, to know what we were talking about. So mind your own business.” With that, you stalk off the bus and head towards home. You can nearly see Seacellsa’s intense hazel eyes burning into your back.

As soon as you get home, you dial up Cassie’s number.

“Cassie?”

“Hey Namour. What’s with Seacellsa? She’s completely eschewing me!” cries Cassie.

“Ok. Cassie, think about what you did on our way to Second Beach. You see?”

“No, I don’t see. I didn’t do anything wrong!” explodes Cassie. “And if you’re going to falsely accuse me of doing something wrong, well. Save. Your. Breath.”

“Cass-”

“Whatever information that she’s feeding you, it’s wrong okay? So listen-”

“Honey! Get off the phone! I need to call someone!” cries your mom from upstairs.

“There’s my mom. Meet you tomorrow.”

“Fine.” Then she hangs up.

You go up to your room and peer out the window into the gloomy, dark, stormy night and think over the day’s events. It seems like it has been a week already- you’re already looking forward to Friday, when it is only Monday. All of a sudden, even summer school sounds like an oasis in the middle of a desert.



When you arrive to school the next morning, you find that there is no sign of either Cassie or Seacellsa. Puzzled, you look around. Is it a Pro-D day you didn’t know about? No. All the other kids are here... Have they both fallen sick? No. Definitely not. They had no symptoms of sickness yesterday. Is it a coincidence? Perhaps... Yet your gut feeling tells you that it’s not a coincidence. Something’s up... As you walk towards your locker, you see Seacellsa madly struggling with Cassie’s lock. You decide to walk up to her, stealthily creeping up, your back almost touching the disgusting olive-green walls of the schools that are peeling. However, stealth is one this that is not matching with this school. The boards creak with every shift of weight you put on- with every movement you make. Luckily, Seacellsa is too busy with the lock to notice. Finally, after agonizing minutes have passed, you near her enough to tap her.

“Wha-?” she starts. She jumps, and a huge jar flies out of her hand. You lunge for it, catching it a centimeter from the ground. Straining with the effort and the weight of the massive jar, you lift it up and look inside the jar of brimming black things moving inside of it. Frozen, you look towards Seacellsa, trying to piece the information together. She approaches you with an expression you can not read. Is it guilt? For what?

“Um... They’re for my- my science experiment!” she blurts out, her voice a touch too loud. She seems like she thinks that she needs to give you an explanation. You agree that she should have one ready for you.

“Okay...” However, you’re still not convinced. “Then why were you fiddling with her locker?”

“She- uh....-she wanted me to- um... deliver her her things to her home,” she said, stuttering.

You stare directly at Seacellsa.

“So. She’s sick,” you say.

You notice that she won’t quite meet your eyes, aiming her eyes at your temple instead.

“Er- yes.”

“Alright then. You should probably get her her homework as well, while you’re at it,” you throw over your shoulder. “See you in English.”



As you navigate your way towards your homeroom, you feel a light tap on your shoulder. There, wearing a goofy smile, is Cassie.

“Hey! No hello or anything?” she asks.

“Cassie!” this time, it’s your turn to jump. “Seacellsa said that you were sick! She said that you wanted her to bring your things for you...”

“What? No, I never did! That’s weird- also, if I was sick, I would tell you, right?” asks Cassie. “Anyway, I heard that we were doing an experiment in Chemistry today. Want to partner up?”

“Yeah, sure. We always are, anyways,” you reply.

Cassie gives you a smile. “By the way, do we have any projects? Because I probably didn’t do them... Pretty free over the weekends,” she said.

“No, I don’t think you had any projects. No,” you reply absentmindedly.

“Hey! I was kidding! We had the project for the science fair due today remember? Didn’t you do it?”

“What? Oh, yeah. That project. I’m, done already- I handed it in to him already.”

“Good, I-” started Cassie.

“Then what was Seacellsa doing at your locker?” you ask abruptly, cutting through her talking. “I remember that she was holding a jar full of- no, she wouldn’t...”

You race towards Cassie’s locker, understanding dawning on you. Cassie is racing after you, calling you, but you don’t listen. All that matters at the moment is whether or not Seacellsa did what you think she did. When you get to Cassie’s locker, you fumble with the code. Cassie and you switched codes at the beginning of the year because if one of you forgot, the other would know. As you throw open the door, you see a black mass of crawling spiders all over Cassie’s things. There, right next to Cassie’s coat, is Seacellsa’s massive jar. Opened and lying on its side. You stare at it. Then to the spiders, then to the jar. Cassie comes along.

“Why- didn’t- you- wait- for me?” she puffs. Then she looks at her locker and the tidal wave of spiders crawling over her textbooks and jacket. By then, a group of people have gathered over at what you and Cassie are looking at. Many are whispering.

Then, the most astounding thing happens. Cassie chuckles. Her chuckles get more and more fierce and at the end, she is laughing like a hyena.

“Cassie?” you ask. “Are you okay?”

“My sister’s going to throw a temper tantrum at me, but that is the funniest sight I’ve seen so far this week!” she cries. When you look closely, you can see that when you look at it a certain way, it looks like someone is actually wearing the coat. The spiders have tangled so much that they make little chains at the end of the sleeves that make it look like fingers, and they have filled the inside of the coat. You start laughing, and soon enough, everyone is laughing in the hallway. Then, amongst the many laughing people, Seacellsa pushes her way through. Cassie looks at her and raises an eyebrow, abruptly stopping to stare at her.

“Hey, Seacellsa...” she says tensely.

“Oh! Cassie! You’re here!” she says, trying madly to keep her bluff.

“Yeah. I never said that I wouldn’t be here, nor did I say that I was sick,” she replies.

“Why did you leave the jar, opened, in her locker? You didn’t even take her jacket!” you cry.

“Oh, about the spiders. I can’t seem to locate them anywhere,” says Seacellsa.

“How did you know that I was talking about the spiders?” you ask. You know that you have her cornered- the blood is rushing up to her face and she looks as red as a tomato.

“Um... Obviously you were talking about the spiders because you crashed into me this morning, right?”

“First of all,” you point out. “I did not ‘crash’ into you. I called out to you and you started like you were doing something that wasn’t morally correct. Secondly, you told me that Cassie, who is here and wonderfully fine, was sick. Thirdly, you didn’t even take her textbooks and her jacket!”

“Are you accusing me of unleashing a bunch of spiders into her locker?” asks Seacellsa.

“No. She’s not accusing you,” Cassie steps in. “She’s telling you. Also, according to all the clues that are against you, yes. It does seem like you are the culprit. After all, you knew the combination to my locker as well after the incident where you went digging in my pencil case and found the slip of paper that I wrote it on.”

“Ha. You just dug your own grave, as well as Namour’s. You guys know the combination as well. It could have equally been you as me!”

“Wrong again. The number of clues against you are longer than a Christmas wish list of a greedy child!” you say.

“Why are we having this conversation anyway? You can just say ‘I’m sorry’ and I’d forgive you! Now let’s hurry up to English or it’ll be off with our heads with Mrs. Cammolitta!” cries Cassie.

Taking your bag, you sprint ahead towards your homeroom class, which, unfortunately, is all the way at the opposite end of the school. You enter the classroom a minute before the bell, plop yourself on your chair, and start unpacking as soon as Mrs. Cammolitta starts attendance. You tone her out until she gets to Cassie.

“Miss Cassie Raylist?”

“Here!”

“Miss Namour Ruoffonst?”

“Here!”

“Miss Seacellsa Trutsforth?”

There is a heavy silence in the air.

“Miss Seacellsa Trutsforth?” asks the teacher, finally looking up. When she finds that she gets no answer, she walks over to Seacellsa’s desk, where she is hunched over, scribbling madly on a tiny scrap of paper. Finally, still not noticing the shadow looming over her, she whispers:

“Hey, Couriva, could you give this to Namour?”

Couriva shakes her head, no.

“Couriva,” she pouts. “Please?”

Couriva shakes her head, no.

All of a sudden, Mrs. Cammolitta makes her move. Snatching the paper from Seacellsa’s hands, she reads the note out loud.

“You may think that I was the one that put all of the spiders in the locker, but I didn’t. Cassie’s lying. Seacellsa. P.S. please don’t show any of this to anyone else. And whoever read this, if it’s not Namour, you are a sneaky little prune.”

‘A sneaky little prune? What was it last time- a moldy bit of cheddar cheese?’ You look over to Cassie’s face, to see that she’s giggling.

“Really, Miss ‘you-are-a-sneaky-little-prune’? Get out of my classroom and to the office. Now!” thunders Mrs. Cammolitta.

Seacellsa meekly stands up and heads towards the door. A few of the students are snickering at her, and her cheeks are flushing red. Cassie stares after her. Then, she faces you and mouths ‘What was that about?’ You look towards the teacher to see that it is safely away from their direction and mouth back: ‘I have no idea. But you? A liar? Don’t make me laugh.” After all, Cassie is as shady as a Sunday school teacher. Then, the teacher comes over to the front of the class and finishes attendance. Standing before the ugly, dark green old-fashioned chalkboard, she begins her lesson on English.

After that period, you don’t see neither Cassie nor Seacellsa until Chemistry, which is the two lessons after English. The lesson that you have before is History. Half the class is you drowsing through. The only real part that you really listen to is your homework and when Mr. Kricabylot tells you to take notes. Also, whenever you really need some history facts, you find that you can ask your father. Or your brother. Finally, you are dismissed from the longest hour of your life. You find that it really is hard to concentrate when you know that fun is one block away! As you walk into Mr. Gohne’s class, you can see that a lot of people have come to class already. However, you can already spot the new girl. Her expression is one of a mouse facing a cat. She has slightly tan skin and soft features. Her eyes are somewhat small and the pupils a dark brown. She’s slightly round and seems nice enough. You decide to go and say hi.

“Hi! Are you new here?” you ask. You automatically find that she ‘has no Engleesh’, not to be mocking or anything. Highest respects.

“I..... Engleesh.... not.”

“Umm....” You try to think of a better approach. “Where are you from?”

She looks at you blankly and then answers. “What.... you call here? Cheenah?”

“Oh. China, you mean?”

“Yeah.... think.”

“What’s your name?” asks a voice from behind. Turning around, you see Cassie, smiling her dazzling smile at her.

“Cheeneese... Engleesh?”

“Whatever is more comfortable for you,” you reply.

“Engleesh.... Lilac.”

“Lilac? L-i-l-a-c?”

In response, Lilac just nods.

“Well, nice to meet you Lilac! My name is Cassie,” she says, introducing herself to her.

“And I’m Namour,” you add in.

Just then, Mr. Gohne rapps his knuckles two times on the table.

“Order to the classroom,” he says in his slightly lopsided way. The way that he says everything makes it seem like a question. For example, right now, it seems as if he just said ‘Order to the classroooooom?’ He has a curly moustache that makes him look slightly Mexican. “Good afternoon everyone! Today I would like to show you...... my new stuffy! His name is Canada and he’s a moose! He’s the new ‘show-and-tell’ of the week!” With that, he put the moose-looking moose doll onto the shelf. Patting it three times on the head, he returned to his desk.

“Anyone like to do attendance?” he asked.

No one raised their hands.

“Alright! I’ll do it myself!” he said, not a notch less cheerful.

As he moves down the list of people, you look around the room. You then notice that Seacellsa isn’t here yet. Finally, he notices that Seacellsa not here. When he asks where she went, the room starts buzzing with whispers.

“She’s ain’t here yet from the princip-a-l’s office!” cries a boy from behind.

“Oooo~! What’d that gall do this time?” cries another girl from the class.

You share a chuckle with Cassie, whom is sitting right next to you.

“Well, other than passing notes and calling Mrs. Cammolitta a ‘sneaky little prune,’ nothing,” replies a girl from the back, snickering.

Just then, there is a little creak of the door and Seacellsa takes her entrance. The room is deathly silent, like a big blanket of sound-blocking material has covered them all up. Even Mr. Gohne can’t give a little chuckle and just opens and closes his mouth like a goldfish out of water.

“So. I take it that you were all talking about me?” she asked coolly.

Lilac finally breaks the unnerving silence.

“And... you... who?”

Such amazing three words never had been found. All around the classroom erupts laughter at the crooked English.

“Oh hello.... You must be new to the class. That was a rather unsettling experience for them, I must think. Me jumping in on them. Now they’re laughing like a pack of hyenas.”

Lilac looks at her in a bored sort of way.

“What?” cries Seacellsa indignantly.

“And... you... who?!” she says, a little more forcefully.

“Me? I’m merely the butt of all the jokes. Yeah. I’m Seacellsa,” she says remorsefully. “Who are you?”

“New... from... Cheena.... Lilac,” she says.

“Well, welc-”

“Hey! She’s from ‘Cheena’! She’s Chai-knees!” cries somebody from the back.

“Wow! Now there’s more Chai-knees people in our school than any other ones!” someone shouts.

“New record!” adds someone.

“-ome. Welcome to the class of Chaos,” she finishes.

When the new girl is settled in, you finally round on Seacellsa. However, when you look at her dark expression that looks like a storm brewing, you change your mind and turn back to your work. All of a sudden, there is a slip of paper that comes from Cassie’s side of the desk. Prying it open, you read it: ‘Hi. I was wondering if you really knew who put the spiders in my locker? Thank you.... ~Cassie’ You scrawl back in your slightly larger printing: ‘I’m pretty sure that Seacellsa put it in, but let’s not jump to conclusions.’ You slide it towards her desk. Slowly, Cassie takes it and you can hear her opening it. Scritch, scritch, goes the blue pen ink on the white paper. You can nearly see her printing in her precise, small writing. She slides it back. ‘I agree. I was just wondering if you knew... :)’ you read. Crumpling the paper, you walk over to the end of the room and dunk it into the recycling bin. When you reach your desk, you catch Cassie’s eye and smile at her. She grins back. However, as you just sit down, you spy at the corner of your eye that Seacellsa is standing up and is making her way towards the recycling bin. You make a quick glance at Cassie and find that she has her brows drawn together and is staring at Seacellsa with foreboding in her crystal blue eyes. She nervously chews on her lower lip. Finally, Seacellsa looks around once, and then quickly ducks and picks up the crumpled piece of paper and walks in a brisk pace to her desk. There, she drags her chair out and plops herself down. Finally, you just stand up and walk over to her desk.

“Hey Seacellsa, what’s that slip of paper?” you ask loudly.

“Oh, it’s nothing. I was just going to put it in the recycling bin,” she said, her voice honeyed enough to charm a bear.

“Hey, I was just going to throw this paper in the recycling... Want me to throw yours out on the way?” asks Seacellsa, her voice innocent and helpful.

You can see the display of emotions playing across Seacellsa’s face. Finally, she relaxes, her face a sheet of calm. “Here,” she says, placing the paper in her hands. Cassie smiles, taking it and crumbling it ungraciously in her hands. Then she ripped it up piece by piece, bit by bit. You glance at Seacellsa’s face, but she remains impassive, her expression impossible to read.

“Yeah. So, Seacellsa, can I borrow a pencil?” you ask.

“Yeah,” she says. However, her scowl betrays her calm air. You can tell that she knows that you were talking behind her back. But you pretend not to notice and accept the pencil which you don’t need from her. Walking back to your desk, you see Cassie sprinkling the pieces of paper into the recycling bin. Mr. Gohne doesn’t even look up. When she comes back to the desk, you share a brief nod with her, feeling that finally, things are right between you and her. Unfortunately, you can’t say the same between you and Seacellsa. You wonder why she put those spiders in her locker. Cassie is absorbed in her work, her pencil scribbling madly over the page. Not long after you stare at her, some sixth sense tells her that someone’s looking at her. She catches your gaze, smiles, and starts on her work again. You roll Seacellsa’s pencil in between your fingers, as if it contained her thoughts and if you rolled it enough, the reason for her actions may come rolling out. Alas, no such thing came and you were left as puzzled as ever, and with no work done. Setting her pencil off to one side, you pick up your mechanical one and set to work on the experiment.

At the end of Chemistry, you start making your way towards your locker. Your locker is really close to Cassie’s locker, so you decide to wait there until she comes your way. Unfortunately, Seacellsa’s locker is across the whole school, so there really isn’t any hope of meeting her in the halls. Many students pass by you, their loud laughter echoing down the hallways. Staring at the empty bulletin board, you can see the twisted tacks and broken staples that are hanging from the board like a dangling free-climber that is about to lose their grip on the cliff. Shifting your eyesight towards the absurdly stained lockers, you see a spider scuttle under your foot. Looking towards where they come from, you see that the mass of them are moving from Cassie’s locker, streaming out like a battalion. Cassie has flung the door wide open and is letting the spiders take their time in getting out of there. It seems like there is one stubborn spider that absolutely refuses to get out of the pocket of her sister’s raincoat. You tell that Cassie is thinking about just scooping up the spider and setting it on the ground, or just leaving it as it is in the coat. She is quite in favour of the former option, as she never wishes to run anyone from their home, even ants, which, in your point of view, are completely useless and there are too many of. Also, no matter how much she loves living things, she does not know whether or not the spider is poisonous, nor wishes to find out. Nor do you- it wouldn’t be a nice thing to see your friend get bitten by a poisonous spider that you are almost sure that your other friend laid in her locker. Not a very promising start of a week. Grabbing your lunch from your locker and making your way over to Cassie’s locker, you notice that the wave of spiders is gone already and there is only that certain spider left. You reach Cassie’s locker as soon as she manages to push the unwilling spider out of the pocket and onto the buttons of the coat. It scuttles down the rest of the coat and races after the others. Just as she starts to turn around, the bell rings, signalling the start of lunch for you and Cassie. She grabs her lunch and races towards the cafeteria with you hot on her heels.

As you settle down to eat, you notice that Seacellsa is making her way towards your table. You beckon her over and point to the chair across from you. She asks if the one next to you is taken and you tell her that Cassie’s sitting there. Just then, Cassie pops up right behind you, her juice box in her hand. Seacellsa raises her eyebrows the tiniest bit and takes the seat in front of you without further ado. You share a look with Cassie, but Cassie just takes a bite out of her sandwich. You try to make small talk, but at the end, your attempts are lost in the ice between Cassie and Seacellsa. You all eat in a stony silence. There is a lot of chatter around the tables, except for the table you are sitting at. The only break of the unnerving silence is to hear and comment on the announcement that Mr. Gohne is to be in the office in five minutes.

“Good riddance,” mutters Seacellsa. Meanwhile, Cassie just raises an eyebrow. You totally ignore him and continue eating your lunch. Cassie and you finish eating at exactly the same time, and take your exits together, leaving a growling and scowling Seacellsa alone in the lunchroom. Finally out of the cafeteria, you make your way towards the library with Cassie.

“That has to be the quickest I’ve ever eaten!” she exclaims.

You groan. “That sandwich had close to no taste.”

“Mine either. And it had ham in it! My favourite kind as well! At least we’re full,” she points out.

“Yeah, right,” you scoff.

As you enter the library, Ms. Cavayai turns to acknowledge their entrance.

“Good afternoon, girls,” she whispers.

“Good afternoon, Ms. Cavayai,” Cassie obediently whispers back. Instead, you just smile. As you make your way towards the back section of the library, where you find all your favourite books, you think ahead towards the summer vacation and summer school. Cassie isn’t going- she passed every subject, but you and Seacellsa have to go because you both flunked History. You sigh. History is your least favourite subject and you’re far from good with it. It seems pretty useless to you- whenever you try to study, all of a sudden, it seems like you have ADHD- the words swim across the page, you have trouble focusing, and you can barely keep still. This term, you didn’t try at all, and the results showed in the report cards. Therefore, you had to ‘pay’ for your ‘lack of attention’ and be sent to summer school. What a bummer. When you finally decide to quit looking for books, you glance around to see that Cassie is stumbling around, arms loaded with books. You hurry over to help her carry her load.

“What did you do? Empty out the whole fiction portion of the library?” you cry.

“Tone it down,” warns Cassie. “I only took fifteen books. I’ll have to visit the library again over summer break in about one week.”

You stare at her. “You are so weird,” you say.

Cassie pretends to get offended. “Hey! It doesn’t take that long to read a book, you know!”

“Yeah. One book. And that, that, heap, is not one book,” you point out.

Cassie just rolls her eyes and sighs. “You don’t have a reader’s sense, do you?” she mutters. She leaves to get the books checked out. You shake your head and follow.

As you get close to the checkout desk, Ms. Cavayai raises her eyebrows. However, she doesn’t say anything about the huge load.

As you both totter through the hallway, arms filled with books, you find that people are crowding around Seacellsa’s locker. There, spray painted on her locker door with neon pink, is the picture of a spider. Under that, there is: ‘I know you did it...’ Looking over to Cassie, you see her starting at the locker with utter disbelief. Right then, with the expression on her face, you can tell that it wasn’t her. Even without the expression- she had been with you the whole entire day. However, Seacellsa didn’t know that. However, before you can even utter a word, Seacellsa throws an accusation.

“How could you, Cassie?” she screeches.

“I did nothing, what are you talking about?” she cries, skeptically.

“Yeah, Seacellsa, what are you talking about? You’re the one who shoved a bunch of spiders into her locker!” cries Lumma, stepping out.

Cassie smiles thankfully at her. Lumma winks back.

“Ganging up on me, aren’t you? Well, no one can counter against the evidence!” she snaps.

“What evidence? You could have spray painted on the wall, for all we know, so that you could get Cassie into trouble,” one of Cassie’s other friends, Aluura coolly replies.

There are faint murmurings through the students.

“You’re just trying to stick up with your sister, Aluura. Can’t you decide on something on your own?” snickers Jakie.

“Is there a problem with Aluura not disagreeing with her sibling?” challenges Lussie. “I think it’s marvellous.”

There is so much bickering going on that the students don’t even realize that the principal has been listening for quite a long time.

“Now, what is going on here?” he asks.

There is a stony silence, and then Cassie speaks up.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Godwick, but there seems to be a little problem between Cassie, Seacellsa, and I. We shall fix it promptly. I am sorry for bothering you.”

You hear someone mutter from behind you: “Leave it up to Cassie to not make even one single grammar mistake even when she’s getting busted and to speak like a spokeswoman all the time.” You smile.

Mr. Godwick grumbles a bit, but we all know that the battle is lost. No teacher has ever been able to worm out of Cassie’s innocence- they all have a reputation of loving Cassie.

“Very well, then, Miss Raylist. I trust you to clean this mess up? Thank you, then,” Mr. Godwick replies. He moves on towards the library.

Seacellsa is the first to speak.

“You guys? I think that was a little too close,” she says.

For the first time in a long time, no one has anything to say against her.

The next few days pass blissfully quickly and before long, it is the end of school. Report cards are handed out and students are clogging the hallways, rushing through to get home and to start their summer vacation at least five seconds early. You load your sac of schoolwork onto one shoulder, and amble out of the room, feeling slightly foolishly like a Santa Claus without the white beard, the reindeers, the outfit, and the fat. Also known as a normal person with a huge Santa Claus bag. As you drag it along, you spot Cassie’s sleek blue Lamborghini, parked in the flimsy school parking lot. You see Cassie getting in, her normal-sized school bag seeming light and airborne compared to yours. Unlike you, she has been thoughtful and organized, not cramming everything into the back of her locker like you and Seacellsa did. You sigh and search the vast parking lot for your boring old green Land Rover. Instead, your eyes settle on the sparkling red Lexus that you immediately recognize as Seacellsa’s. Just then, Seacellsa’s mother pops out. She is wearing a loose t-shirt with light grey capris. She smiles at you and waves you over. Trotting with the weight of your school things still pressed to your back, you make your way towards Seacellsa’s car.

“You sure have a lot of things on your back!” she cries. “Here. Just put it in the trunk. I’m driving you over to our house with Seacellsa. You guys are scheduled to have a sleepover until your summer school tomorrow.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Trutsforth. It’s very appreciate it,” you thank.

“Hey, my pleasure. You’re a wonderful girl. Now what is taking Seacellsa so long? It’s really hot. I’ll turn on the air conditioner for you- you much be really hot!” she fusses.

As you wait, you have the air conditioner blasting at full into your face, your hair waving around you like a bunch of seaweed. Smiling, you enjoy the wildberry scent of the car as you wait for Seacellsa to arrive with her baggage of stuff.



When you get to Seacellsa’s house, you find that her house is a lot cleaner than yours. The books are actually on the bookshelves and knives aren’t lying around on the kitchen counter. There isn’t an overdosage of dirty plates, cups, and cutlery crowding the sink and the cups, plates, and silverware are all in their places. Climbing up the stairs towards the stairs leading to Seacellsa’s room, you notice that even the carpet doesn’t have a dust speck on it. You stare at the carpet, causing Seacellsa to cast a strange look at you.

“Is something wrong?” she asks.

“No... It’s just that the carpet is so spotless,” you reply.

“Nah... You should come over some day during the summer. You should see the house then!” she chuckles. “It looks like a tornado hit it or something.”

Looking at it now, you find that it is hard to imagine it so. As you get settled into her room, her mother comes up the stairs, carrying a bowl of popcorn. Thanking her, you get back to the topic of summer school.

“What are we going to do?! We can’t really drag through this this time or we will flunk. Really flunk. This makes me wish Cassie were here,” you reply.

When you see that Cassie just shrugs her shoulders nonchalantly, looking more focused at the popcorn than ever, you finally try to dig deeper. Clearing your throat, you think of a way to approach it. At the end, you settle for the direct way.

“Why- What is wrong between Cassie and you?” you blurt.

You can tell that you have caught Seacellsa off guard.

“What?” she asks.

“I mean, you don’t ever talk to her very much, and you always seem like you don’t like her or something,” you explain.

There is a pause. It seems like Seacellsa is choosing her words really carefully.

“I mean, I want us all-” you begin again.

“I know what you mean, Namour,” she says quietly.

You take a fat pause as you wait for Seacellsa to continue.

“It’s just that...” she trails off. Then she starts up again, seeming to gather more courage. “I never had real friends. I was always moving. Never really got to settle in one place and make friends. And if I made friends, always second-best to someone. I was never friends with anyone that really knew me. But when I came to this neighbourhood and saw you, I hoped that we could become really good friends. When I found that Cassie was really close to you as well, I found that I felt like I was being pushed out of a group. Again. So I vowed to myself that I would become closer to you. Only yesterday did I notice that Cassie was really nice and she really wanted us all to be friends.”

I stare at her. “Why didn’t you tell us?” I softly utter. “We could have helped you.”

“I was being stubborn. As always,” she said, smiling.

Smiling back, you say: “Cassie never wants to cause anyone harm. She never does.”

“I know.”

“Yeah... What really happened between you two during Second Beach?” you inquire.

She looks up and gives a slight chuckle. “You never really believed me, did you?”

“No,” you reply sheepishly.

“Yeah, well, I thought so. You didn’t seem the type. I don’t really want to talk about it, but let’s just settle that that was a lie.”

“So can we be all be friends now?” you inquire.

Seacellsa lets out a full-fledged laugh. “Of course.”



After summer school, Cassie, Seacellsa, and you all hang around the neighbourhood, pointing things out to Seacellsa and going on a few bike trips all together. You share great times together and before long, summer is over and it’s time to go back to school. However, Seacellsa finds that she is departing for Calgary and only has numbered days left to stay. You devote the last hours to listless wandering and a trip to Second Beach. Finally, Seacellsa takes her packed bags and waves farewell at the the gate of the airport, leaving bittersweet memories behind. You and Cassie never forget her, and you all talk over email and the phone several times, but you never get to see her again. Little do you and Cassie know that somewhere in Calgary, Seacellsa is looking at the same stars, the same sky, thinking of Cassie and you. It’s a small world. And friends are like stars. Even when you can’t see them, you always know that they are there.

Beside each other
Or miles apart
Friends are forever
Close to your heart