RAYNA Chapter 11: Happiness

Everything turns out okay!

As she walked down the hall towards her next class, I stood there perplexed. She had forgiven my apology but she wasn’t mad at Leesa at all for doing this to our friendship? Seriously, ever since we had gone our separate ways, she had changed. My whole plan to bust Leesa was a long process and it took some work.

It all started when I got towed down to the principal’s office. Nothing much happened to me except I got an afterschool detention. When I got out of the office, I saw the video monitors again. One of them had a camera on the entrance to the girls’ bathroom. You could hear two girls giggling in there. They were talking about some loser that got a milkshake dumped on her. Frowning, I tried to get the busy-working co-secretary’s attention.

“Hello, Mr. Lyon?” I asked him reading the plaque sitting on the counter next to a box of tissues.

He looked up from his work and said to me, “Hi. Sorry, my wife is complaining in email about our dog Hershey. He’s such a sick doggy right now.” His bottom lip got bigger and then shrunk again as he looked back at me. And he was telling me this why? It’s not like I cared. I just needed the clip from September.

I cleared my throat. “Um, can you get a clip from earlier this year? It’s really important.”

“Sure thing,” he mumbled still looking at his computer screen. “What do you need?”

“Do you have any clips from September?” I suggested.

He bit his lip. His broad shoulders and wide body turned half way around to face the monitors. “Yeah, what day?” He actually looked at me this time.

“September 16th. By the girls’ bathroom.” I walked behind the desk to look at the computer over his shoulder. “Also in the main hallway,” I added after I remembered she told me she would wait for me in the main hallway.

“Thankfully, we saved that tape because someone had caught another person stealing out of lockers and that day we decided to video tape to see if they’d steal after school.” He showed me the clip by the Girls’ bathroom and then I asked him to show me the clip near the main hallway. Once I had gotten the clips put together in a little show, I thanked him and walked out.

Airyn stood there in the middle of the hallway with a note in her hand. She shoved it in my locker and then started walking away. And then you know what happens. She forgives me but isn’t mad at Leesa. She was the one who made her mad in the first place. Even if I didn’t understand it, I decided to just live with it. At least we were friends again.

 Soon enough, Winter Break came. It seemed like the best two weeks of my life, besides being only a friend to Airyn. Leesa was her best friend now. Anyway, when the first day of Winter Break came, I slept the whole day. At noon, I was woken up by the sound of my cell phone. When I answered it, it was Airyn. She invited me to a surprise birthday for Leesa. Her birthday was in early January but she was too busy then to have her party. The thing is that she didn’t know about the party at all. Airyn said she was going to fly her down to Florida to see her grandparents for her birthday. But the trick was that a whole bunch of Leesa’s friends were on the plane, too. Just not in the same area.

After babysitting a kid across the street for a few hours on Tuesday I met Airyn at the stop sign so she could pick me up. I smiled at her, wondering how I could ever live without riding in her car. It smelled of vanilla and roses and had heated seats. Her most prized possession, a lucky charm bracelet was hung around the arm chair. It was the most expensive piece of jewelry and her favorite. It had read diamonds in it and it had a bunch of charms hanging on it that I gave to her. There were some new charms that I didn’t recognize but I didn’t have to have a brain to figure out who put those charms on.

She smiled back at me like she had before and I felt like crying. But I didn’t. I didn’t want to ruin the moment. “Ready to go to the airport?” she asked.

I nodded and then she sped towards the airport. My stomach felt queasy and I looked at the planes coming in and out of the airport, nervously biting my lip. Before that I had never been on an airplane before because I had always refused. When I watched TV there would always be some show about airplanes crashing. That just freaked me out. Now I was even more scared than I had imagined I would be.

Managing to stay calm, I walked in the airport with Airyn at my side. She giggled as she talked on the phone with Leesa. “I’m getting on my plane right now, Leesa,” she laughed. In spite of her laughing I was guessing she had probably made a joke about the airplanes. To me the airplanes were nothing to joke about. After Airyn comforted me a little, I felt good enought to get on the plane.

We spent a busy week setting up and keeping Leesa from seeing the progress we made. We never actually told her we were planning a surprise party. In fact she didn't even know I was here mainly because I lived in the ballroom, where her party was going to be be, practically the whole week. A few of the nights I actually fell asleep doing the job. Other nights I felt sleepy enough to go into the other room and just lay down for a while. This ballroom was at a hotel and right next store to the ballroom was our hotel room. Usually Airyn would distract Leesa all day, shopping or eating out at a cafe. She actually didn't help a lot; therefore I did most of the work. But at that point I would do anything to make her happy and to be her best friend again.

To keep Leesa away from the ballroom, Airyn had to lie to her and say that the hotel staff just stored a bunch of breakable, old items that haven't been used in years. Apparently Leesa is a curious person and she kept trying to take a peek in there. Fortunately, while I was setting up Airyn was by her side 24/7 unless she knew Leesa was in her room.

After she spent a week distracting Leesa and me setting up all day, everyday, we were both worn out and we both decided everything was ready. It was New Year's Eve that we had decided to throw the party.

At about noon, a hour or so before the party started, we stood around in the hotel room puzzled. "What are we supposed to wear?" I asked, just realizing that I had forgotten to pack a dress in my suitcase. Just as I was about to suggest we throw together some nice clothes and some sparkles to pull it all together, Airyn pulled out two familiar dresses.

"How about these?" The first dress was her pretty blue one and the second one was Leesa's purple dress that looked about two sizes two small. She's a pretty small person for her age. Her height is probably about five feet tall and her dress size is probably about a four or five.

I hesitated and then looked away from her. Instead, I gazed at my outfit I had set out: a purple blouse with a black cardigan and silk pants. "But her dress won't fit me," I mumbled.

Then Airyn pulled out MY dress. It looked perfectly new and like nothing at all had happened to it. I was so amazed but I didn't have time to be amazed. We had a birthday party to celebrate.

When we got there with Leesa and being Leesa she was surprised but acted like she knew all along. Once she was occupied hanging with her other friends Airyn turned to me and said, "This place looks amazing... and your amazing. The most amazing... sister anyone could ask for." She hugged me and then for the first time in a long time I cried tears on happiness.