RAYNA Chapter 9: Evidence

Rayna usually spends the holidays with Airyn but without her she's alone and miserable.

When Mom returned home, I threw my magazine on the coffee table and ran over to her. “What happened?”

“Well, she said that you haven’t been very loyal to her lately and she thinks you don’t really think of her as a friend anymore,” she mumbled. She obviously didn’t want to do this but she sort of had to. Mom liked Airyn, too. Airyn is an awesome baker. I thought it was just fate that her last name was Baker and she was a good baker. When we were best friends I mostly got the cookies so that’s how Mom got to taste them. She seemed so happy when she ate her cookies but now she just seemed plain distressed.

Thinking about what she said, I went back to school on Monday ready to confront Airyn demand what her problem was. I knew there was more to the story because last I heard I was a very good friend to her.

She hung around her group of friends near her locker as I walked past, glaring at her. She looked like she was about to cry. Looking away, I hurried to my locker and stuffed my binders inside. Her coffee-bean colored eyes followed my every movement. Her feet were moving. Towards me. Defending what she was going to say, I slammed my locker shut and walked to my next class.

“Rayna.” Her voice saying my name sounded strange to me. The only people who have said my name in the past week was my parents. Since I was a loser with no friends, they were the only people who said my name. The teachers could have said my name too but being a friendless loser gets you down and you really don’t participate in anything.

I spun around to see her up close. “Yeah, what?” I snapped. Standing two feet from her face made me uncomfortable but I had to squeeze the truth out of her. I had no choice but to make her uncomfortable.

She chuckled. “Chill out, Rayna,” she chortled. “I came here to say that I’m sorry.” My frown soon turned into a warming smile. It was a little different than our usual arguments but I was just glad we were friends again. Maybe she was kidding me. Maybe she didn’t want to actually be my best friend again.

“Really?” I asked frigidly. Putting my hands on both hips, I gave her a smirk. 

“Yes,” she replied. She handed me a picture frame with the glass smashed and a mustache drawn on my face.

I pointed to it with my mouth hanging open. “See? I knew you didn’t really want to be my friend anymore. You’re just faking it!” The books that were in my hands slipped out and I kneeled down to pick them up.

Airyn argued back harshly. Her words stung badly. “Really? That’s what your empty head came up with? I came here to show this picture because Summer drew on it. I was angry with her because I missed you. I missed your memories.” She hung her head in disappointment and started walking off.

“Do you still miss me?” I whispered like a timid mouse. I realized I had made a very big mistake. I had ruined our friendship and I was the one to blame if anyone asked.

She turned around and flicked the words at me like darts. Those words hurt, too. “Yeah, well, not anymore!” She flipped her hair over her shoulder like some princess and stormed off with Leesa. This time she glared at me. Walking to my next class was no picnic. Airyn walked right past be, bumping into my shoulder and making me spill my books all over the floor. There was five seconds until the bell rang. There wasn’t any point in hurrying so I took my time picking up my books.

Even though I was going to graduate in two years I still had a devious mind like I had in first grade. There was a runaway hall pass lying on the floor. Erasing the other person’s name and putting in mine I walked into class.

Luckily we had a substitute that day so she didn’t know much about this place. She took my hall pass. “What’s this for?” she asked, raising her eyebrows.

I laughed. “It’s just a hall pass. It means I’m late for class because I was with other teachers.” She shrugged and slipped it in her binder. After she put it in her binder I lingered around her desk for a while watching to see if she’d mark me tardy or not.

Airyn was nearby watching me. Her friends were chatting about Thanksgiving Break. It was only four days long and almost five weeks away. Halloween was less than three weeks away. Usually for Halloween I would go over to her house and we would eat candy from the bowl. When we were smaller we usually went out trick-or-treating and when we came back to Airyn’s house we would trade candy. Usually she liked the chewier candies and I liked the candies with gum or some sort of treat in the middle so we knew what each other wanted. For Thanksgiving she usually came over to my house with her family and we would extend our table so all the nine people could fit. She sat on the right side of me when we whispered to each other and her mother sat on the other side of me. Hopefully I could switch things around for us by Halloween and keep things that way until Thanksgiving and Winter Break.

My plans failed. On Halloween, I sat alone in my own home while Mom and Dad went to a Halloween party for their business. They asked and begged of me to come with them so I wouldn’t be so miserable but I just told them I just wasn’t in the mood for partying.

When Thanksgiving came, the Bakers had their Thanksgiving celebration with the Galligans. Mrs. and Mr. Baker were surprised Airyn changed her plans. They called our house a few times but all that my mom said when she picked up was “They’re in a fight.”

The last day before we went back to school after Thanksgiving, I knew that I had to be the one to apologize. At about eight at night, I wrote more ideas.

  5. I accused her of lying to me when she was about to fix the whole problem.

6. I ignored her for some time.

7. I forced my mother into going to her house, interrupting her crazy sleepover.

8. She thinks I’m not being loyal.

9. I don’t seem like I want to be her friend as she says it.

This list of reasons why she hates me now was getting longer and if it had got any longer it could’ve perished our friendship. It already had ruined. I ruined it and I knew it.

At school the next day, I tried to do the same thing as Airyn. Spy at her from behind my locker and then walk over there casually. “Hey,” I greeted her with my voice cracking. I swallowed and then said hi again. She turned and looked at me with an ugly frown on her face.

“What?” she snapped.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, looking down at my feet. I was wearing red converse sneakers and silvery blue jeans. Those were probably the only jeans that made my legs look good.

“I’m sorry. But saying sorry isn’t going to work. You’re going to have to do much better than that.” I walked back to my locker in defeat. So she can apologize and I can’t? I thought thinking about back in the first week of October when she was about to apologize to me but then I wrecked it.

When she walked to her next class which was also my next class, I chased after her. “Why can’t you accept my apology?” I yelled out. A teacher nearby tried to calm me down. “No, I don’t want to calm down! I was about to accept her apology last time and then I was going to let her. But she made it look like she was lying!” The teacher hauled me into the classroom and she had a little talk with me about screaming in the hallways. I didn’t care. I kept shouting out hurtful things at Airyn.

Eventually I got sent to the principal’s office and I wasn’t too thrilled about it. Arriving into the office though, gave me a brilliant idea. When I saw six different security camera TVs set up near the secretary’s desk, I saw six different locations in the building. The front door, the back door, the main hallway, the second main hallway, the boy’s bathroom entrance, and the girl’s bathroom entrance were all displayed on the TVs. It was not only the girl’s bathroom, but it was the girl’s bathroom that Leesa and I had gotten ready in for Airyn’s birthday party. In those brief seconds of walking past the TVs, I knew I had evidence.