Chapter One

Introduction to characters.

                “Get out! Get the hell out of my house, Bonnie! I never want to see you again! I never want to see you face ever again! How could you do this to me? Didn’t I raise you well? Didn’t I give you everything you could ask for and more? And you do this! Just. Get. The. Hell. Out.” Tears streamed down my face as I pulled out my phone.

                “Aunt Cara? Can I come over? And… I need to bring a friend.”

6 Months Earlier

           Bonnie woke up with a start. She’d just had the most amazing dream. No, it wasn’t amazing. A dream about her best friend was not an amazing dream. She didn’t need to ruin her friendship because of a stupid crush. Her mother interrupted her argument with herself with a loud yell up the stairs.

“Bonnie! Girlie, what’s taking you so long? It’s time for school! Your bus will be here in a few minutes and I’m sure not driving you! Hurry up!” Bonnie’s mother, Enya, yelled up the stairs. Bonnie hurried down to the kitchen and looked at her mother. Enya’s bright red hair was pulled back into a ponytail, covered by a handkerchief, and she was wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt. Her feet were completely bare and her oversized glasses were about to fall off. She rolled her eyes slightly behind her mother’s back.

                “I’m hurrying, Mamai. It’s only seven. Bus doesn’t come for another fifteen minutes. Besides, I’m not done putting on my makeup,” Bonnie complained, heading toward the bathroom.  She knew it was stupid, but she wanted to look good. For herself. For her friends. For her.

                “Makeup! Hah! You don’t need makeup. Why, when I was your age, I didn’t even know what makeup was! You know what I should do? I should take you to Hollymount sometime. I think you’d like it there. I sure liked it there. It rained a bit, but it was pretty. You should try it sometime. It’s really little, but it’s nice. Everyone knows everyone. Growing up, I think there were only about fifty of us in the whole town. It was nice. We’ll go there sometime.” Bonnie rolled her eyes. Her mother was forever going on about Ireland and Hollymount, her hometown. It really sucked sometimes how conservative Enya was. She often found herself feeling a barrier between herself and her mother.

                “All right, Mamai. We’ll go there sometime. But right now I’m getting ready. Enya waved a spoon in the air.

                “That’s what I’ve been telling you! Yes, hurry up! I’ve got to go to work!” Enya clucked. Bonnie sighed and went back into the bathroom. She grabbed her foundation and blush, desperately trying to cover up her awful freckles. She ran her fingers through her curly red hair, the hair that every Meagher woman had. After putting on the silver bracelet the she’d be given from her friend for her birthday, she ran out the door, checking her watch.

                “Bye Mamai! I’ll see you later!” Bonnie yelled as she closed the door.

                “Bye, Bonnie! Be good, work hard! Pick up a newspaper after school, will you? Bye!” Bonnie felt herself rolling her eyes once again. She loved her dear mother, but sometimes the woman forgot that she was living in America now. She still had a heavy Irish accent and Gaelic terms that, over the years, Bonnie had learned to understand. Enya was still known to confuse strangers, though.

                Bonnie walked down to the bus stop, looked both ways, and kept walking. She hadn’t gotten five feet when her friends, Tasha, Lee, and Manda, popped out from behind her.

                “Bon! How’s it going?” Lee called, her wavy copper hair flowing as she walked. Bonnie grinned. She and her best friends, Natasha Garcia, Natalie Rivera, and Amanda Webber, were part of a circle often referred to as the “Frightful Five”. Catherine Matthews was also a part of the group; they’d meet up with her in another block or two.

                “So, missy, how have you been doing?” Lee asked her friend, linking their arms playfully. Bonnie giggled and pulled a banana out of her bag.

                “You mean, how have I been doing since you saw me last might?” She joked as she took a bite of the banana. Tasha leaned over and took a bite. Catherine walked over to the group of friends with another girl they didn’t recognize. Lee gave her a questioning look.

                “Hey, Cathy. Who’s this?” Manda asked, a fake smile filling her face. It wasn’t that the girls didn’t like new people, they did, they were just apprehensive.

                “This is Madison. She just moved in next door to my house. I thought we could welcome her to the city,” she explained. Leaning in, she whispered, “My parents wanted me to walk her to school today.” Everyone nodded sympathetically. Lee took a sip of her coffee before handing it to Tasha.

                “Why exactly do you eat their food instead of bringing you own?” Madison laughed, flipping back her platinum blonde hair. Cathy shot her a look; her hazel eyes on fire. Lee and Manda both groaned quietly. Bonnie put her arm around Tasha, who was looking down at the floor.

                “My kitchen is empty,” Tasha said shortly, not looking up. Bonnie squeezed her friend’s thin shoulder gently. Madison didn’t seem to get the hint.

                “What? Just go to the grocery store, silly! Of course, my parents don’t go grocery shopping; the maid does! But it wouldn’t take too long for you to go!” No one answered. Cathy mouthed a small ‘sorry’ to Tasha, who didn’t see it. They should have known. The glamorous Cathy lived in a very well to do neighborhood, to say the least. She wasn’t stuck up, in fact, she was a bit on the wild side, but most of her neighbors snubbed people with less money. Tasha, on the other side, lived in a small trailer park. Lee, Bonnie, and Manda were somewhere in the middle.

                “You know what; I just remembered that I left something at home. I’m going to run back to get it. You wanna come, Madison? Cathy asked. Madison looked at her, a wide smile on her face.

                “Yeah, sure! Well, I’ll see you guys later! Go to the store, it’s pretty easy!” A few seconds later, the two girls were gone and Lee, Tasha, Bonnie, and Manda were alone again. Several minutes went by and Tasha didn’t say anything. Bonnie gave her friend a small kiss on her head.

                “Ignore her, honey. We’re happy to share.” Manda and Lee nodded in agreement. Tasha didn’t say anything.

                “Tasha? Sweetie, don’t listen to her,” Bonnie tried again. Tasha shook off the redhead and walked ahead. Motioning her friends to stay behind, Bonnie jogged over to Tasha, who ignored her.

                “You wanna come over tonight?” Bonnie asked. Tasha looked at her.

                “You know I can’t leave Jacob and Hanna alone,” she replied. Bonnie sighed. She knew that Tasha hated leaving her siblings home alone with their parents. She gently grabbed Tasha’s hand.

                “Honey, did he hurt you?” Tasha didn’t answer, which Bonnie took for a yes. Tears gathered in the young girl’s eyes.

                “What’d he do?” Tasha looked away and shook her head, wiping away her own tears. Bonnie gave her friend’s hand a gentle squeeze, but she still didn’t say anything. The two girls kept walking and, a few minutes later, Manda and Lee caught up.

                “I wonder how long Cathy’s going to have to carry around that b***h,” Manda mused bitterly. Lee groaned.

                “I know, right? She’s so annoying. I hope we don’t have to put up with her very long,” Lee added. Bonnie noticed that Tasha wasn’t really paying attention, but she decided not to call her out on it.

                “Do you think she’ll find friends quickly?” Manda smirked.

                “Ha! Why exactly do we really care?” Bonnie asked.

                “Because. The sooner she gets friends, the sooner she’ll leave us alone.” Lee nodded in agreement.

                “Right. Like that’ll happen. That b***h won’t get friends for ages. Who would want to be friends with her?”

                “A lot of people, I’d imagine. Look at the school. Half the girls are b*****s. She’ll be gone pretty soon, I’d bet.” All too soon, the girls approached the school. As they were walking into the building, Lee received a text.

                “Excuse me, Miss Rivera, but cell phones are not allowed during school hours.” Lee had to stop herself from rolling her eyes. Ms. Washington was the school’s principal. She had moved to Seattle from London a few years ago, and her return hadn’t been well received. Charity Washington had been born in some small town in London. When she was fifteen, her parents had moved to the United States. She grew up in Indiana and ended up getting married in college. After graduation, her husband moved her to Seattle, his hometown. When they divorced, she moved to London. She had been a teacher before leaving; in fact, Cathy’s mother had had her. Now nearing sixty, she had decided to crack down on everything that went on in the school.

                “I’m sorry, Ms. Washington,” Lee recited, putting away her phone. The elderly woman frowned, but left a moment later. Clearly, she had better things to worry about. Lee giggled and pulled the phone back out.

                “Cathy wants to know if we want to have lunch today. Without Madison, of course. What do you guys think?” Manda shrugged.

                “Why not? Sounds like fun. Bonnie? Tasha?” Bonnie looked at Tasha, who was frowning.

                “Maybe tomorrow…” Bonnie interrupted her friend.

                “I think it’s a great idea. It’ll be fun, Tasha. We all hate school lunch anyway. What’d you say?” Tasha thought for a second.

                “Ohh! Cathy say’s it’s on her. She feels really bad about Madison this morning.” Manda smiled. This was what set Cathy apart from other girl’s in her neighborhood. She cared about people. And not just her friends; she was a generally kind-hearted person.

                “Well, I’m definitely in now!” Manda joked, her blue eyes twinkling.  Tasha sighed.

                “Why not?” Bonnie grinned and put her arm around her friend. The girl’s sweatshirt hung loosely around her skinny shoulders, hiding the dark spots that Bonnie knew littered her arm. Her dark brown hair was straightened, her long bangs hanging over one eye, shielding and protecting her from the outside world.

Bonnie looked around at her friends. Each one was different. Natalie with her gorgeous wavy brown hair, slender body, and Italian complexion; Amanda, an athletic looking blonde who almost always had her hair pulled up so she could run in a hurry; Cathy who was constantly changing her hair color in an attempt to piss off her parents; Tasha, whose Mexican background left her with dark features. They were an unlikely group of friends, many of them having different interests. Lee dreamed of being a journalist, never without a notebook in her bag. Manda was the best player on the soccer team. Cathy and Tasha both dreamed only of getting away from home. She herself wanted nothing more than to be a librarian.

The shrill bell rang and the group of friends disbanded. Unfortunately, the girls didn’t have homeroom together. Homeroom, which might as well have been called ‘play time’, was everyone’s favorite class. Besides the daily announcements, they hardly did anything. On a productive day, they did homework. Sometimes Bonnie wondered if she and her friends had been given different homerooms on purpose. Although, most of the time they texted each other under the desk. Homeroom flew by and before she knew it, Bonnie was on her way to English. Brit Lit was her favorite class, partly because of her teacher, Ms. Lefevre.

                Ms. Lefevre was a petite woman with sparkling blue eyes and coppery brunette hair. Today her hair was pulled back into a loose bun, layers falling down around her face. Bonnie had never seen her without a smile on her face. Except, of course, when she was reading. When Miette Lefevre was reading, you never knew what expression would cross her face. She adored her novels and poetry, and it came through when she read.

                “Good morning, class. Allow me to take attendance and then we will begin our reading.” She looked down at her record book, calling out each name.

--Jacob? “Here”

--Abby? “Here”

--Chris? Chris? “Ok, no Chris”     

--Lexi? “Here”

--Olivia? “Here”

--Bonnie? “Here”

                Several names later, she put down her record book and pulled a book of poetry off the big oak bookshelf lining the wall. Bonnie could see that it was a collection of Dickinson. Taking a deep breath, she began reading.

                “You left me, sweet, two legacies,--

                A legacy of love

                A Heavenly Father would content,

                Had he the offer of;

                You left me boundaries of pain

                Capacious as the sea,

                Between eternity and time,

                Your consciousness and me.”

               

                A small smile on her face, Ms. Lefevre closed the book. Bonnie was amazed by how the young teacher could capture the attention of everyone in the room. Then again, Ms. Lefevre’s voice was captivating, mesmerizing.

                “We are going to be spending the remainder of our time together analyzing Ms. Dickinson’s poem, “You left me”. Is there anyone how would enjoy sharing their opinion? What do you ladies and gentlemen believe Ms. Dickinson was trying to convey in this piece of work? Any ideas?” Bonnie closed her eyes, enjoying the sound of Ms. Lefevre’s voice. She had moved to America from France when she was a child, and although she didn’t retain much of an accent, she spoke with a certain amount of eloquence.

                “Nobody would like to share? Very well, I will help you begin. What do you believe when she says someone left her….” As Ms. Lefevre droned on, Bonnie let her mind wander. She could analyze this poem in her sleep. Instead, she found herself thinking about her best friend.

Author's Note

Enjoy. Be honest.

Reviews

[Melanie Jane Boicourt S..]

Okay, I am captivated by your story. Now what am I going to do. I guess I could ask you to message me when you have some more. I like the character development so far. I am curious as to what will happen next. I did find a few misspellings that would not be caught by spell check because they are still words so you might double check that. Great job so far.

[Klpindc12]

Good job w/ the new begining :)

[Alex Thomas]

It needs something to draw people in. The first paragraph had me reeling. The rest was a little bland. You capture emotions really well. I like the theme of deep friendship.

[Klpindc12]

Its good :) I think the beginning needs a little more spice though. When I'm choosing a book/story to read the begininng is a make it or break it thing for me. But its a good story! chapter 2 plz