Lilliette Grace Taylor

                                                                                          Prologue

        Mother and Father were going on a business trip to Virginia. I would miss them so much, even though they're mad at me (it's a long story). They said they had found a baby-sitter for us. It turned out to be a grandmother.

                          Hi. My name is Alicia. Alicia Tang. This is the story about my life that has happy and sad parts, like mountain climbing; going up and down mountains again and again. This is changed to happy and sad, again and again. This is me; ages 4-10 (preschool to the beginning of 5th grade). If you’re wondering what date my birthday is, it’s June 19, 2008.

                        

        

                                                                                  At the Baby-sitter's House

        We called the baby-sitter grandma, just like we called our own grandma. We slept in a bed in the Guest Room. One night, I was really tired so that in the morning, my 2 year old sister, Julia, had to wake me up by bouncing on my bed. “Alicia, wake up!” she cried, overexcited. “Today's your 4th birthday, remember?” I had almost forgotten! Yawning, I stretched and got up. “Yay!” I said tiredly.

         “I can’t wait to open up my presents. I hope this’ll be the best birthday ever!” Even though I only just lived for four years; I had a feeling this was going to be the worst birthday ever. You’ll see why…

        Soon, we went down to breakfast. “Why are you so late?” said the baby-sitter's 9-year old granddaughter, Casidy, in a sniffy tone. “It's your birthday, you should be excited!” “I am,” I replied. “Yeah, she's just a bit tired from yesterday's preparation,” piped up Julia. “Oh, yeah, I'm sorry, Julia,” said Casidy sweetly. Julia glared at her. I got a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Casidy always seemed to like Julia better than me. She should've said sorry to me, instead. I was lucky that her grandmother and mother told her to be nice. They’re really nice people, but sometimes her grandmother is very strict.

      Since today was my birthday, Julia thought that I would be in a good mood.

   She was very wrong.

 She asked me a million times why we couldn't stay at our house.

  Finally, I got annoyed and told her that Mother and Father suggest we have fun with Casidy.

   They were wrong about that. At least, to me.

   I didn't like Casidy that much.

  I wished Mother and Father were back. The good thing was that Casidy's mother, Katie Sherry, gave us tons of presents, especially on my birthday. Mrs. Sherry bought me the whole series of Tinkerbell, Barney, and Teletubbies, my favorite television movies. Julia and I were so delighted; we thanked and thanked her 100 times. “No problem dears,” she said, smiling. Sometimes, I wished she was my aunt or even mother! After, Mrs. Sherry let us stay up late to watch Teletubbies. Even Casidy and Grandma 2 (that’s what we call our baby-sitter now) let us stay up! Casidy didn't moan or groan, or say, ‘Mom, they're bothering me! The television's too noisy! Tell them to turn it off!’ like she usually did whenever we watched. She just said “Okay, that's fine,” to us and went upstairs to go to bed. Grandma 2 was usually very strict, but she let us watch tonight.

    “I'm glad Casidy's nice to you, today,” said Julia as we watched the theme song of Teletubbies. “I wonder why she's nice to me but mean to you.” I did not like to talk about Casidy, so I said; “Julia, can we please not talk about that right now?” Julia nodded and closed her mouth. She knew not to spoil my special, lucky day. I felt good for my sister. She always stood up for me whenever I get hurt. Julia was the best, never-crying, youngest sister you can never imagine in the whole, wide world. She made me feel a bit better. I turned my head to the screen, again. The Teletubbies were having ‘Tubbie Toast'’ right now. It made my mouth water. “Can I get some toast?” I asked Mrs. Sherry. She was about to nod when Casidy appeared in a nightgown and said, “I'll do it!” She was about to zoom to the kitchen, when Mrs. Sherry said sternly, “Casidy, it's past your bedtime. You need to go upstairs now. Good night. Sleep tight. Don't let the bedbugs bite. I'll get the toast for Alicia.” “Ohon,” said Casidy, looking disappointed. “Okay.”

 Whatever Casidy was doing, I was quite sure she was trying to poison me and was grateful when Mrs. Sherry said she’d do it.

    Casidy stormed upstairs, and I could hear her slamming the door shut as she stormed into her room, muttering to herself.

   Maybe she was just pretending, or else she must've gotten a spell cast on her. I believe in fairies. Grandma 2 went upstairs to her bedroom.

 Mrs. Sherry toasted the toast, when John Sherry, a jolly, funny, man whose work opened till 9:00, came home, humming merrily to the tune of ‘Have a Merry Christmas.’ Mr. Sherry was the boss of his company, so he could work as late as he wanted. “Hello, Mrs. Sherry, Ms. Tang, and Ms. Tang,” said Mr. Sherry. “Good evening, ladies.” Me and Julia giggled, while Mrs. Sherry looked stern. "John, you know that they're watching Teletubbies," she said. “Be quiet. Jam or butter, dear?” “Butter, please,” I said, while Mr. Sherry said, “Jam, please.” “I was talking to Alicia,” said Mrs. Sherry. “Please be quiet. I'm sorry, Alicia, dear, what did you say?” “Butter, please,” I repeated. Mrs. Sherry spread butter on my toast, and then handed it to me. “Thank you,” I said politely. “No problem,” said Mrs. Sherry.

  I ate my toast while we watched Teletubbies. A half an hour later, the show ended. It was already way past my bedtime, which was 9:00. It was 11:30!

                                  *                                     *                                          *

 Casidy was mean to me again the next day. I tried to be patient and kind to her, but she called me a stinking baby. I felt horrible. I asked Julia to go ask Casidy why she was nice to me. Julia came back a minute later and said that Casidy was nice so she wouldn't get in trouble. I felt even more terrible. “I can ask Casidy why she's mean to you,” said Julia anxiously, looking at the sad and hurt look on my face. “You know, Casidy's horrible.” I knew Julia was trying to make me feel better, but that didn't help. “That would be good,” I said, tears filling my eyes as I tried to blink them away, “when your back, I'll be in my room.” Julia nodded. “Okay.” I went up to my room. I sat on my bed quietly, waiting for Julia to return. I wondered what Casidy was saying to Julia...

                                 *                                     *                                          *

  I peeked around the corner of the doorway leading to Casidy's room. “...why are you asking me these rude questions?” Casidy was saying suspiciously. “I bet Stinker Alicia put you up to this so you had no choice but to listen to her.” Slowly, Julia nodded. “Yes,” she said softly, “and I had no choice but to obey her. I didn't want her to get mad at me.” I couldn't believe it! Julia, Julia my own special sister who had always done good things for me was now admitting the truth to Casidy? I buried my face in my hands. “...but I have to tell her or else she'll kill me,” Julia was now saying. Kill her? Kill Julia, my own sister?

  I would never do that. Never, until now. Pressing my ear against the wall, I listened more, my face red and hot from trying not to cry. “...I wish I could tell her the truth about believing you, Casidy,” said Julia. “I really do think you're very nice.” Nice? Casidy was nice? Seriously? Dread flooded into me. Lowering her voice, so I had to press my ear against the wall, Julia said, “I think she's a stinking baby and quite immature. She's a crybaby.” I couldn't help it. I burst into tears and ran to my room. This couldn't be true!

   When I finished crying, I raced down the hallway as quietly as I could. I pressed my ear against the wall again. “...anyway, thanks, for all the information, Casidy,” Julia was saying now, “I think I'll go tell Stinker Alicia, now.”

             Uh-oh. The conversation had ended. Not wanting Julia to think I was eavesdropping, I hurried to my room. A few seconds later, Julia came in. “Alicia, are you okay?” asked Julia in what I knew was a fake caring voice. “You look so pale.” “Wh- what?” I pretended to look confused. “Oh, I'm fine. What did Casidy say?” “She said that she doesn't like you because you always cry but I don't think you're a crybaby,” Julia replied.

   “Liar!” I shouted. “What?” Julia pretended to look very confused. “I didn't-” “Yes, you did, maniac!” I yelled. “You believe Casidy, You called me Stinker Alicia in front of Casidy, you called me a stinking baby, immature, and a crybaby. Are you very happy about that?” “No-” Julia started to say. Her voice was fake shaking. “Liar, liar, pants on fire!” I screamed and sang, my face burning with tears. It was hard to see because the tears were making it blurry.

   “I know you think I'm a crybaby, I heard you talking to Casidy about it! Plus, you said you had to obey me!”

  “Y-you spied?” asked Julia. “I just wanted to check on you, and I heard you saying bad things about me!” I hollered back.

    “B-but you know I couldn't say anything good about you in front of Casidy!” sobbed Julia. She had to be faking. Julia never cries. Never. Even when someone insults her, she just smiles, and says, “Okay, I made a big mistake,” then goes away. So I knew she had to be faking. “You never cry,” I said to Julia. “Go away.” But I had never meant what I had said, and now it was too late, for I was watching a sobbing Julia storm out of my room. I sat on my bed, staring down at my feet, not wanting to look up.

        And in despair, I thought about what I'd just done. I had now just lost a beloved sister, a mother, and a father.

                                                                       Could it? Would it? Be it?

             I decided to see what Julia was doing. I went into her room. She was making a sign. In big, bold letters, it read, 'PRIVATE DON'T DISTURB'. And okay, it actually says 'PHRIVET DOWNT DISSTERB'. Since Julia was busy with her sign, I slipped behind the velvety curtains. I watched her. No one could see me from this point of view. A few seconds later, Casidy came in. You see what I mean?

          There is always danger ahead. Casidy sat down beside her. “What are you doing?” she asked Julia. Not in a mean way, but in a very kind, caring, way. “Casidy, did I spell this right?” asked Julia. Surprisingly, Casidy tossed her hair and laughed. “No, way,” she said. Yeah, that's Casidy's personality. The ‘I'll-correct-your-mistakes-in-a-mean-way girl.’ “Two-year olds never spell things right. Unless you have this super-power method thing. Here, let me show you.” She tossed her hair again and took the marker from Julia. She crossed out the wrong way to spell it and put the right way down. “I'll hang it up for you.”

              “Thanks,” said Julia, looking a bit disappointed. “Next time I won't need help.” “I'll leave you here,” said Casidy. With that, she closed the door, locking me and Julia alone. When she was alone, Julia screwed up her body, her muscles shaking, her face blowing up like a balloon. Then she exploded. “I-HATE-MYSELF!!!!!!!!!!!” she nearly shrieked. She slammed her fist down on the table and pounded herself until she fainted.

                                 Help! Who should I look for? Suddenly, I didn't care if she was Casidy or not. Mrs. Sherry was out of the house. She had taken Grandma 2 and Grandpa 2 shopping, while Mr. Sherry was at work. “Casidy!!!!!!!” I screamed. “Julia's fainted! We need to help her!” Casidy popped out of her room. Her face was with a worried expression. She took my hand and raced across the hall. “How do you know all this?” she asked. And I explained about sneaking into Julia's room, the fight, and everything that happened here. “I'm sorry,” said Casidy. “I shouldn't have been mean to you. There's no reason to. Let's be friends.” “I forgive you,” I said, and I really did mean it.

                                    *                                      *                                     *

           Julia finally awoke. Her gaze fixed on me and Casidy. “Where am I?” she asked. “Who are you?” “Please don't tell me that she lost her memory,” I said. “I certainly hope not,” Casidy replied. I had never seen her this concerned. After a few words, we knew: Julia had lost her memory. Suddenly, a door slammed shut. “Julia! Alicia! Your parents are here!” called a familiar voice. I raced down the stairs and hugged my parents. I had almost forgotten they were coming today! Then I hugged Mrs. Sherry, too. I thanked her for her kindness then apologized to my parents. Then, I told them what had happened. They ran up the stairs and took care of Julia while I ate the snack my parents had brought for me and Julia.

          I was afraid to look at Julia. When my parents came downstairs, they were carrying Julia. Casidy was walking beside them. “Julia's going to Emerson’s Hospital,” Casidy told me. Tears filled my eyes. They dripped down my cheeks. Casidy knew how much I loved my sister. “Don't worry,” she said. “She'll heal.” But she didn't sound quite sure about that.

                                                                              Hospital? Or what?

      When I got to the hospital, Dr. Louis, our family doctor, told us that Julia's sickness was very strong. Dr. Louis told me that Julia's sickness was so strong, that Julia might die. She had brain cancer! Oh, no! This was my entire fault! If I hadn't let my sister do this... “Next time, Alicia, please take more care of your sister,” Dr. Louis said to me. I hated Dr. Louis a lot, but I didn't want to hurt her feelings, so I didn't mention it. “Okay,” I said, unable to look up from my feet, although there was nothing interesting about them. “I'll be more careful.” Dr. Louis smiled. “It's fine,” she said. “Just as long as you take more responsibility.” “Okay, I know,” I said. I was starting to get a little annoyed.

         Dr. Louis took Julia's temperature. Then she got an x-ray machine. The screen came on. It was creepy. I covered my eyes. “Three broken bones,” she said. My mother sucked in her breath. “Oh, no!” she cried. Casidy was just frozen there, not able to move a muscle. “How we will be healing Julia,” said Dr. Louis, “is to do some surgery.” “No!” cried Father. “Excuse me, Jeff, but do you want Julia to heal?” “Yes, yes, of course I do,” said my father, terrified. “Do what is best for her.”

     “Good,” said Dr. Louis, “Then you will have to have your daughter do surgery.” I gasped. Julia, who was only two, was actually going to do surgery? I couldn't believe it. “You will have to stay at the hospital for... About six years,” she said. “What?!” I cried, not believing my luck. “Yes,” she sighed, “You will have to.”

                 

                                                                     Terrible...Horrible...Very, Very, Bad

              Acton is quite far from Boston. You have to drive one hour to get there. And from this moment on, I hated Dr. Louis more than ever. My favorite doctor, Dr. Columbia, who was actually my doctor from the Acton Medical Center, came over to Emerson’s. “Hi, Alicia,” she said. “Hi, Julia. So, what’s the emergency problem? I don’t see anything wrong except that you’re limping, Julia. There’s no emergency about that.” “Who are you?” asked Julia. “And who is Julia?” Dr. Columbia looked puzzled. “Why, I'm Dr. Columbia,” said Dr. Columbia. “We just met a few days ago, when Mrs. Sherry took you to Acton Medical, remember?” “She lost her memory,” I explained. “How?” asked Dr. Columbia. So I had to tell the story again. I hated every minute of it.

                  When we arrived at the guest room, the story was fully done. The guest room was labeled:

                   THE GUEST ROOM: COMFORTABLE, COZY, AMAZING, GOOD, BIG, INTERESTING, AND CLEAN

   Wow, that was a lot of things. I couldn't wait to get inside. Dr. Louis fumbled with the keys and we stepped into the room. It was more than they had just described. A rainbow spiral staircase stood in the middle of the room. An arch loomed over our heads, glittering as we walked past it. There were gleaming chandeliers, and the floor shown like marble. "Wow," said Casidy softly. I spun around. I had almost forgotten she was here!

                              “You're lucky you get to stay here,” said Casidy, looking miserable. “Don't worry, you can come around and visit,” I pointed out to her. “But Acton's far away,” she pointed out to me. “Are you saying,” I said slowly, “You want to stay with us?” “Yes,” said Casidy, looking a little embarrassed. “You can ask your parents,” I suggested. Casidy shook her head. “They'll say no.” “Oh,” I said. “Then I don't know if you can stay here or not.”

      “Let’s teach Julia about her life,” I said, changing the subject. “You can teach her how to spell, so that way she can get top grades when she gets to middle school.” I felt kind of envious that Julia would get top grades, so I decided to work twice as hard as we are teaching her. “And,” I continued,” I will teach her some simple things. Like what her name is, how old she is, and what a color is, what was her favorite color, and ask if she still likes that color.” “Okay,” said Casidy.

       “I’ll start,” I said. I pulled Julia over and told her to sit. “Hello,” I said. “Hi,” she said. “Me, Alicia,” I said. “You, Julia.” Julia looked around. “Huh?” she said. “Oh, by the way, my name is Ailuj.” It took a while for me to figure it out, but Casidy figured it out immediately. “She thinks her name is Ailuj, which is Julia backwards!” she said. “Um, Ailuj,” I said, feeling crazy, “actually, your real name is Julia. You think your name is Ailuj because it’s Julia backwards. Your mother and father are over there,” I said, pointing to Mother and Father, “and I am your sister, Alicia.”

         “Okay,” said Julia. “But isn’t my last name Gnat?” “NO!” I yelled. I was starting to get impatient. “It’s Tang!” Me and Casidy chorused. “You’re saying it backwards!” “Gnat is a type of mosquito!” said Casidy. “Understand?”

                Well, I learned something too; that a gnat was a bug and it was pronounced ‘nat.’ “You think your name and last name are your real names backwards,” I said. “Oh,” said Julia. “So my last name is Tang.” “Right,” I said. “I’m Alicia Tang, you’re Julia Tang, Mother and Father are Camila and Jeff Tang.

             “This is Casidy Sherry.” Julia looked confused. “If that is our older sister, then why is her last name different?” “She is not our sister,” I explained. “She is our babysitter’s granddaughter.”

         “Who is our babysitter?” asked Julia. “Ugh!” I said. “I’ll tell you later. We’re focusing on who you are and what you like. Do you know what a color is?” I asked. “No,” said Julia. “Look,” I said, pointing towards the wall. “See? Isn’t it pretty?” “Yes,” said Julia. “That is called a rainbow. It is made out of six colors, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.” I got out my markers. “These are different colors,” I said. I got out a piece of paper. I drew a rainbow. “Which color is your favorite of the rainbow?” I asked. “Hmmm,” said Julia. “This one.” She pointed to the green.

        “Do you know what color that is?” I said. “No,” said Julia. “I think it is red.” “No, it is green,” I said. “You like green. That is your favorite color.”

           “Casidy, it's time to go!” called Mrs. Sherry. “Bye,” said Casidy. “Bye,” I said. “Bye,” said Julia. I was kind of glad that Casidy was gone. I continued to teach Julia about the colors. “So what is your second favorite color?” I asked. “Um… I think it is purple,” said Julia. She pointed to the purple.

             “Yes!” I cried. “You’re right! It is purple! Next!” I made Julia point to the colors of the rainbow until her least favorite. I taught her a lot. “That is only the colors of the rainbow,” I said. “This is brown. This is black. This is white. This is pink. This is magenta.” I scribbled the colors on as I named them. “So what is your favorite color out of all of these?” I asked. “Green,” said Julia. “Okay,” I said.

       I was getting tired of teaching Julia, but I promised myself that I would teach her until she learned about herself. “You know what an age is, right?” I said. “Yes,” said Julia. “Do you know how old you are?” I asked. “Yeah,” said Julia. “I’m twenty.” “You’re saying it backwards again!” I said. “You’re two, not twenty. I’m four. Mother is thirty-eight, Father is forty-four. Casidy is nine, going on ten.”

       “What’s ‘going on’? asked Julia. “Like, turning, or going to be,” I explained. “Oh……” said Julia. The next thing I knew, Julia had fallen asleep on the marble floor. I hoped she remembered the stuff I taught her the next morning. I told Mother that Julia had fallen asleep and she carried Julia upstairs.

       I found my room on the third floor. I had a bunk bed all to myself, while Dr. Columbia shared a room with Julia so she could take care of her.

           I've heard that Dr. Columbia is really good at fixing up memories. I was glad. The next morning, I played with Julia and tried to tell her a bit about her life. She gazed at me, nodding, and saying things like “Oh yeah” and “I remember now.” Goody. Julia was almost back.

                                                                                                Growing Up

              My fifth birthday came up. We had a family party in the hospital. Dr. Columbia came, too. I went to my preschool, Junior Mix, because it was very near. I made friends with this girl named Michelle Luo. She soon became my best friend. I decided to invite her to my party. She came to my party. My other friend Abby Jackson came too. We had a good party. I forgot to tell them about Julia losing her memory. When Michelle was about to leave, she said “Get well soon” to Julia. Abby gave Julia a little present. Julia thanked them and went up to her room. Michelle headed towards the car. “Wait, Michelle!” I cried. But it was already too late. The engine had started and the car pulled away from the parking lot. Abby was the only one remaining. “So… Can you tell me what you were going to tell Michelle?” asked Abby. “Sure,” I said. “It’s about—”

           “Hello Abby,” said Mrs. Jackson. “Alicia, here’s a little gift, and Abby, we’ve got to go. You’re ten minutes late to your gymnastics class.”

                            “Sorry, Alicia,” said Abby. “Bye.”

                              I sighed. I didn't tell Michelle and Abby about Julia's memory. God. Michelle and Abby only knew about Julia’s broken bones. Throughout the year, I kept reminding myself to tell Michelle, but I always forgot. Soon, me and Michelle had to separate to different elementary schools. I said good-bye to her but forgot to tell her. Ugh. I decided to invite her to my 6th birthday party.

                      *                                                        *                                                            *

                  I pushed open the classroom door. “Sorry I'm late, Ms. Silver,” I said shyly. “No problem,” she said. “Come and have a seat.” It was the second day of elementary school. And when they say ‘business’ they mean it. Ms. Silver said that the work was wayyy harder in 1st grade and up. I was glad I was still in Kindergarten.

                           “Today we have a lot to do,” said Ms. Silver, writing some words on the chalkboard. “I'm sure you know about old time history. For example, knights and kings and queens. And princesses.” We all nodded. “We'll be making some knights today,” she said. “So first of all...”

                       *                                                      *                                                              *

               At my 6th birthday party, I was excited to see Michelle and tell her the story of Julia. But Michelle's mother apologized because she couldn't go. What the heck was wrong? But my birthday party was still fun.

               My other friends, Giana Hang and Hanna Chen came, too. We played Hide and Seek with Casidy (she had to find us). We hung around Julia and taught her how to spell. We even convinced our parents to have a sleepover! (Of course, Casidy didn’t sleepover. She went back home around ten ‘o clock.)

                                 We stuffed ourselves with mashed potatoes, shepherd's pie, lasagna, pizza, pasta, and macaroni. For breakfast, we had cereal, pancakes, and waffles. We ate so much that I thought we were going to explode. “You girls ate a lot,” said Mrs. Chen. “Are you sure you’re going to be fine?”

            Fortunately, we were fine. We took turns taking pictures. On June 15th, Kindergarten ended. We had summer vacation in China. I got to see my cousins; Coco, Nancy, and Kevin. I saw my uncles, Sam, Police Officer (because I didn't know his real name and he was a police, after all) and Michael, and my aunts, Cara, Diana, and Lauren.

                  My favorite cousin was Coco, because she was a big caretaker (at the age of 17), and I didn't like Nancy that much because she spat all over us and kicked and punched us in the stomach. (I heard a lot of ‘Ow, that hurts!’ and ‘Ewww! Gross!’)

                              But she was only 1, after all, so I couldn’t blame her too much. Kevin was my age and we played together a lot. Uncle Sam kind of creeped me out, but he was also funny. Me and Kevin couldn’t help laughing at his jokes. (Sam and Lauren are Kevin's parents, Police Officer and Diana are Coco’s parents, and Cara and Michael were Nancy’s parents. Nancy was spoiled a lot.) Of course, I had more aunts and uncles.

                            So many, that I can't even name them! I had to say good-bye to Chengdu and we headed to the train to go to Leshan, and in two hours, we arrived. I had too many relatives there. My grandparents were also there. After Leshan, we went to Beijing, where Michelle and I met. I tried a million times to tell her about Julia's memory, but Michelle was too busy playing to pay attention. Ugh. When was I going to tell her?

                              We stayed in Beijing for five days and went back to Chengdu, where my relatives welcomed me. I spent my time with Cousin Coco, because Kevin had to go to school. But Nancy had to play with us. She screamed, spit, kicked, pinched, and punched. No kidding, but that's a lot of things.

When we went back to America, my summer attitude hadn't recovered yet. I woke up at 6 o' clock in the morning. I was very tired. I started taking the bus to school. My bus was bus #19. I didn’t have a birthday party; just a small one that was having a humongous playdate with Hanna, Giana, my new neighbor; Claire Sippy and Melissa Rowbert, who was from Texas and was having a short visit with her aunt and cousin, Claire. It turned out that Claire and I didn’t have much in common; and even though we were neighbors, we didn’t talk much or play together. By neighbors, I mean hospital neighbors.

    Well, we have that driveway and parking lot to the hospital. There is a road crossing with the driveway and on the other side of that small road where cars don’t come that often, lives Claire Sippy.

     Ms. Silver was right. 1st grade was so much. My teacher, Mrs. McLean told me that I was bad at cutting. I had Hanna to comfort me.

                   On the 10th day of school, we made the characters of a book called 'Owl Time'. Me and Hanna worked together on an owl. But we were talking so much, that Mrs. McLean said that we should separate and never be friends again. Hanna, as if reading my mind, helped me complain. And thanks a lot to my new best friend, because I wouldn't have survived 1st grade without her. Hanna was a really good friend to have around.    

                    

                             *                                                *                                                *

One day in first grade, it was picture day. The most popular and meanest girl, Caradine Stonyfield, showed off her beautiful sweater-dress with a ribbon in her hair. Caradine was carrying a ‘bouquet’ of  fake flowers; probably to give to her teacher or something, but she took the picture with them.

              Caradine doesn’t wear a smile. She barely even smiled as the camera captured her at the wall. I was so stressed out about Caradine’s outfit; I could just die. Me, being compared to her, was a total mistake. I was wearing a sloppy T-shirt that I had painted in Kindergarten, that looked like mustard, relish, and ketchup had spilled over it. Then it got plastered by a few smushed blueberries and lime water got squeezed. And some cherries, prunes, and bananas had been lying on my T-shirt, and accidently got stepped on. It LOOKED like that. Maybe it really did happen.

         But I was still proud of my T-shirt.

            

       In second grade, me and Hanna had the same teacher, same classmates, except some new ones. It turned out that you have the same teacher(s) for two years except in Kindergarten. For example:

 

       Kindergarten: Myrna Kordeil, Lee Ponon, Alison Paradise, Cara Silver

       1st-2nd grade: Linda McLean, Anne Soble, Kaitlen McKenzie, Karen Jelinsky

       3rd-4th grade: Anne Soble, Leah Rimitate, Kate Richardson, Michelle Dart

       5th-6th grade: Colum Tart, Tom Balhead, Mary Synoprice, Fioan Pomegranate 

      

      In 2nd grade, we bought lunch. All we had to do was enter our code. Mine was 5112. I asked Hanna what number she had. She grunted, “5208.” On Friday it was always something to do with pizza. You can't have regular pizza on Pizza Day.

                         It’s kind of hard to explain, but you can have Lunch A (main lunch), bagel, pizza, grilled cheese with chicken soup, and Lunch B (sandwich of the week). Lunch recess was the best part of school. It was 45 minutes long. I played with Giana and Hanna. We hunched up into a ball and managed to fit inside a huge squirrel hole! By the time the whistle blew, we were covered in dirt and grubs.

                                                The squirrel’s house was up the tree; and good news we brought flashlights. We brought squirrel toys and the squirrel made friends with us! She chittered and chattered with us.

               The squirrel gave us berries to eat. They were delicious. Of course, we washed them with water, first.

          Smack on my birthday, I had a huge party. We went horse-back riding. I cantered, trotted, and walked the 27-year old horse, Abby. I was a lucky girl to have my parents afford all this, and I should be thankful.

                                 On November 2, 2016, the temperature had dropped down to 23.4 Fahrenheit. We slurped up our spaghetti and headed out in the cold. I looked for Giana. “Tracy!” I called. “What?” Tracy was a friend of mine in Giana's class.

                                                  “Have you seen Giana?” I asked Tracy. “Uh-un.” “Is she here?” “Yes.” Tracy looked at me with curiosity. “Are you going to play the Squirrel Game again?” “No,"” I answered. “I have something really important to tell her.”

                                                               “Oh, okay. I'll tell you if I see her.” “Thanks!” Me and Hanna headed off. “I wonder what Giana is doing,’ I wondered out loud. “Did she stay in for recess to do homework?” I knew that was unnecessary, but still.

                                                                “I don't think so.” Hanna Banana looked worried. (Ha-ha, I just made up that name for Hanna. Isn't it funny? Okay, actually, Mrs. McLean called her that, but I got so used to it I just call her it.)

                              “Hanna, let's just go play. Forget about it.” The truth was, I was mad at Giana. No second grade teacher ever made students stay inside. Giana was playing with someone else. Without even telling us!

                Hanna looked at my face. “You look mad. Are you okay?” I shrugged. “I'm-mad-at-Giana-because-she-went-off-to-play-with-someone-else-without-telling-us!” I blurted out before I could stop myself.

        “I don't think she'd do that,” said Hanna. “Oh yeah?!” I said. “Then explain that.” I pointed to Giana Hang and another girl. I recognized the other girl immediately. Caradine Marissa Stonyfield? Was she kidding me? Caradine was the worst, bossiest, meanest girl in the grade.

                                                          Hanna stared. “I can't believe her,” she said. “She's going off to play with another girl without even telling us, and it's the meanest girl.” I nodded in disbelief.

            “Hi guys!” Giana had just caught our whispering to her attention. “Wanna play with Caradine and me? It's super-duper fun. We're doing cartwheels in a fashion show, not like the boring old squirrel game anymore.” Had Giana just turned into a Giana Caradine? 

                                        We used to love the squirrel game. Even Hanna looked surprised. “Giana!” I shouted angrily. “I can't believe you! Just because you run off with another person doesn't mean you have to call our game boring!”

                          “Well,” said Giana, “I'm sorry, but the squirrel game is stupid. Me and Caradine have been doing a fashion show and I'm the best so far. Correct?” She nudged Caradine. Hanna gasped. Caradine nudged Giana back. “No,” she said, “Look at me. I'm the best so far.”

                                                It was true, Caradine's pink and white knitted poncho covered her white sweater dress with pink leggings underneath. Her earmuffs sparkled in the sunshine. Giana had on a plain pink T-shirt.

           She plucked some daises from the ground. Giana held them out to Caradine. “Daises in the fall,” she said. “Cool,” said Caradine. Then I noticed something. Giana was wearing a T-shirt?! In the fall?!  “Aren't you cold?” I asked coldly.

                                   “Of course not,” Giana answered. “That's what fashion models are for.” I rolled my eyes. “Come on,” I said to Hanna. “We can't stay here forever. More than half of recess passed.” “So you're not playing?” said Giana. “Of course not,” I said. “Who would like the dumb fashion model game, anyway? That's what sassy people are for.” Giana looked upset. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. “Think about it,” I said quietly.

              “If you were our friend, we would have agreed on everything.” I stared at her for a moment. “Go have fun with your new best friend.” With that, me and Hanna turned and walked away. “Wait!” Giana called after us.

                  “Who cares about them?” I heard Caradine say. “Yeah, um, who cares?” said Giana, even though she didn't sound so sure. Ha! If Giana cared about us, it served her right. Just then, Caradine turned around and looked at us.

                               She whispered something to Giana, and she nodded. “Walk faster,” I said to Hanna. We speed-walked all the way to Acorna’s house and dodged inside. (Oh, yeah, Acorna is the squirrel's name.)

          “Acorna!” I called once we were inside. “Chit!” Acorna answered from a dark corner. “Over there,” I whispered, pointing. Hanna and I crawled to the space which was where we usually met. The space was actually the inside of the trunk.

                                     “Hi Acorna,” I said, taking a flashlight out of my pocket. I shone it on the floor, finally finding Acorna nibbling at Hanna's feet. “That tickles!” giggled Hanna, jumping back. I smiled. Just as we were about to sit down on the carpet we had left there, we heard voices outside. “There,” I heard a whisper. Hanna was still giggling. “Shhhhh,” I said as quietly as I could into Hanna's ear. “Listen.” 

                    Giana and Caradine’s voices grew louder as Giana started telling about the tree and how stupid our game was. “Then why did you join the game?” asked Caradine. “I knew that Alicia and Hanna wanted to be my friend, so I played with them.” Giana sounded guilty when she said that. Wait- what was going on with my best friend?

                                                    Where was the Giana that used to love to play whatever we played? Where was the Giana that had gone to my birthday party and had so much fun with me? WHERE WAS THE OLD GIANA?!

                      “Sit down,” I whispered to Hanna. I couldn't stand another minute standing. “Okay,” Hanna whispered back. We plopped onto the carpet, just in time to hear Caradine say, “You didn't have to if you didn't want to.”

                    Giana sounded really embarrassed as she said, “I just wanted to be nice.” “Don't be nice next time,” said Caradine. “Defend yourself!” “No wonder you have no friends,” I heard Giana mutter. “What?” said Caradine.

                          “Oh, sorry,” said Giana quickly, “I heard Alicia say something about her friends all saying bad things to her and all she did was not give them candy apples.” What?! That was not true. I hated Giana more than ever.

                        How could I have been friends with her? Giana was so mean. Just as we were going to play with Acorna, the recess bell rang. We sighed. “Bye, Acorna,” I said. “Chit!” she replied. Hanna and I slumped our shoulders and headed out the hole, just in time to see Giana and Caradine run to their line.

"We'd better hurry before we're late,” Hanna whispered. I nodded and we took off running to our line. Mrs. McLean stared at us for a second with her sharp, cold eyes. “Line order,” she snarled. I was at the front of the line while Hanna was all the way in the back. I felt angry at everybody except for my family and Hanna- for this was the worst day yet.

              A loudspeaker went on and the principal announced that it was school picture day. I couldn’t believe it was school picture day today. Noooooo! How could this day get any worse? In line, I was right behind Caradine. Oh, just my luck. “You dressed up perfectly, young one,” said the lady.

        She told the man named Todd to change the picture on the wall into a winter scene. It was blue with white snow. “Pose!” said the lady. Caradine used her sweetest smile ever and the camera clicked. I was next in line. Moan. I couldn’t even smile! I try to smile, but it becomes a complete failure.

       At least I was wearing my black sweater-dress with a silver sweater over it. It was purr-fect. “You look simply gorgeous!” said the camera lady. “Thanks,” I said. I smiled and later on in the year, was surprised to find that this picture was not that bad. I looked simply gorgeous, just like the camera lady had said!