What do you think of my story?

Just the five of us. Valerie, Shannon, Amanda, Lilly and me, Megan. We were so close, until high school. So we all had completely different interests, but that’s what brought us together. Valerie was so into nature and animals, she loved horseback riding and had a bunch of pets. Shannon was a dancer, a performer, a singer. She was very funny and likable which made her popular. Amanda was so smart, teachers loved her but she had so many friends, she managed to stay a straight-A student but still be considered cool. Lilly was an athlete. Volleyball, basketball, lacrosse you name it she loved it. Me? Well I don’t even know. I wasn’t smart, funny, athletic, I wasn’t special in any way. But my friends loved me and I loved them. We did everything together. I can’t even begin to name some of our inside jokes. At the time nobody would have guessed in just a year we wouldn’t even talk to each other, Shannon would have an eating disorder, Amanda would be taking drugs, Lilly would get charged for underage drinking, Valerie would have nothing, and I would be alone. All good things have to come to an end; I guess our friendship was one of them.


First day of eighth grade the five of us walked into school together strong, confident, and excited. As soon as we got our schedule we compared them to see how many classes we had together. I guess that’s the bad part about having friends with completely different interests as you, we have hardly any classes together. When we got to the lunch period on our schedules we found out they split the lunches according to what high school you’re going to. The way the middle school works here is half the students go to one high school while the other half goes to the second high school. This would be fine but Lilly was going to East High and Val, Shannon, Amanda, and I were going to West High. Lilly stared in disbelief and the rest of us were speechless. This was a disaster our last year together in middle school and we can’t even have our normal lunch period together!


“Well it’s okay. I mean we’ll see each other all the time. In the hallways and we’re having a sleepover this weekend so it’s okay.” Lilly tried to convince her friends as well as herself.


But this was just the beginning, as the year went on we changed, our lives changed, our thoughts and feelings changed.


It was in October when I could first see our friendship failing. The week before Halloween I called up Lilly to see what our planes would be for trick-or-treating. At first she sort of tried to avoid the subject but then went right out and told me; she had plans without me and Valerie and Shannon and Amanda. She was going to hang out with her new friends, Lauren, Lindsay, Mike, and Ryan. Don’t get me wrong, I was totally happy for her making new friends but I didn’t understand why we couldn’t all go together or why she hadn’t told me earlier. To make matters worse Amanda didn’t want to go trick-or-treating. She said she was too old. Valerie, Shannon, and I planned to go together. Halloween day and Lilly was basically ignoring me the whole day and then it happened. Shannon got her first boyfriend. Nick had asked her out and she said yes and when Nick asked to go trick-or-treating together she couldn’t say no. But she did say she already had plans so now he’s coming with us. It’s wasn’t the same as last year when we were all together, now, it was only two of my best friends and a boyfriend. Shannon spent the whole night flirting with Nick. But my night wasn’t the one that made front page on the local newspaper.


Turns out Lilly went with her new friends to a party Halloween night. Lilly, and her friends, Lauren, Lindsay, Mike, and Ryan went to Mike’s neighbor’s high school party and got drunk. No one at the party was of legal age to drink either. To top things off when the police came to the house at midnight Lilly and her friends were so drunk they tried to outrun the cops on foot. When they were caught they were brought down to the police station where they were questioned thoroughly. I still don’t understand what could have happened that made Lilly want to drink. She was always so smart and independent. She had her own style, she never followed the crowd. Lilly was a smart girl who made a foolish decision. Lilly and her friends each had to pay a 250 dollar fine and do 32 hours of community service. Lilly’s parents were furious, apparently Lilly had lied and said she would be trick-or-treating with me then sleepover my house. The party story got front page the next day including Lilly’s picture. No one treated her the same at school and she was very quiet the whole day. She didn’t say a word and I was scared to talk to her. I think Valerie, Shannon, and Amanda felt the same way because they didn’t talk to her either. During lunch, the next day, we were all quiet. It was as if the world had been halted. The next day I waited at Lilly’s locker for her.


Lilly broke the awkward silence with, “I know what you’re thinking. No I’m not going to drink again. Megan, I made a mistake and I’m sorry but please tell everyone to stop acting weird around me.”


I didn’t know what to say. Well, what could you say to that?


We walked together to Shannon, Valerie and Amanda but Amanda and Valerie weren’t there and we weren’t too surprised to see Nick with Shannon at her locker. They were talking but Shannon looked hurt and Nick looked mad. At first I thought Nick must be breaking up with Shannon. I gave Lilly a worried look and I could tell she was thinking the same thing I was. As soon as Nick left we ran over the Shannon and she started crying just as Amanda came running over.


“Oh my gosh, Shannon! W-w-what happened? Are you okay?” Amanda stammered.


“What did Nick say?” Lilly asked together.


I couldn’t think of anything to say so I just hugged her and Valerie followed.. I couldn’t stand seeing my best friend so upset. She just stood there limply staring off into space. After what seemed like forever she said, “I don’t know.” And walked off. I followed her with Lilly, Amanda, and Valerie just a step behind her. Shannon either couldn’t hear us or ignored us. I called her later that day but she didn’t pick up.


The next Valerie, Lilly, Amanda, and I were afraid of what Shannon might say. We walked to her locker where she was talking again with Nick, this time smiling and laughing. Nick looked so happy to see Shannon smile.


“Hey guys.” Valerie said as we came up to them.


Nick glared at us then gave Shannon a hug and said, “I’ll see you later. Love you.” Shannon looked pleased. Did Nick really love her? That seemed like a big step to me but Shannon thought it was fine so I ignored it.


Never one to work around the obvious Amanda said, “What happened yesterday with you and Nick?”


Shannon looked shocked. “Yesterday? Oh, with Nick? Nothing we just got in a little fight forget about,” she giggled.


That’s the day Nick started sitting with us at lunch, which isn’t a problem at all that’s what all boyfriend girlfriend couples do in our school. Valerie wasn’t afraid to have a bad first impression; she went on with her full lunch complete with a cookie, pizza, ice cream, and fries. Yet she was the thinnest out of the Shannon, Amanda, Lilly, and I. Shannon didn’t eat anything. She ignored us pretty much the whole period, she just talked to Nick but when she did talked to us she talked about Nick. This went on for the next two months. Their relationship was rocky at times but they stayed together. At lunch Shannon talked to Nick or about Nick and never ate. Amanda joined the math team and the science club. Valerie got her own horse so now she could horseback ride even more often and Lilly made the school volleyball team.


It was the holiday season yet the jolly feeling hadn’t quite reached me yet. Teachers didn’t go easy with the homework and Lilly began to hang out more and more with Lauren, Lindsey, Mike and Ryan. I was beginning to miss her. Valerie and I were just talking about what we were going to do for Christmas when Matt, a boy in their grade, walked up to them. He looked nervous and glanced at me, I took the hint and backed away. He stared at Valerie and told her what beautiful eyes she had. She looked surprise but thrilled. When he hand her a bracelet she couldn’t hold herself any longer. She let out a little scream and gave Matt a huge hug. His eyes glowed with happiness as he asked her to be his girlfriend. Valerie accepted graciously. Just then Shannon hopped up to us a shoved her wrist in my face.


“Isn’t it gorgeous! Nick got it for me,” Shannon nearly yelled.


Valerie responded by shoving her wrist in Shannon’s face and yelled, “Me too!”


“Oh my gosh! Who?” Shannon asked.


“Matt, from Social Studies!” Valerie responded and Shannon looked impressed.


Amanda and Lilly came up to them together. “Wow, Shannon, you got so thin!” Amanda said sounding astonished. Shannon grinned. When Amanda and Lily heard Valerie got a boyfriend they were so happy for her. “Having a boyfriend can be great but we’re single and loving it!” Amanda said wrapping her arms around Lilly and me.


Lilly looked confused, “I have a boyfriend.”


“What! Who? Since when?” I practically screamed.


“Steven. Since last month, I must have told you guys a million times,” Lilly responded.


“No, we would remember something like that, Lilly,” Shannon commented.


“Oh, well now you know,” Lilly said a little coldly.


Valerie, Amanda, Shannon, and I were still in shock. How could she not tell us? I thought we told each other everything. Apparently Amanda got out of her state of shock faster than the rest of us because she was angry. “You never tell us anything anymore! You only hang out with your other loser friends! Lilly, you never hang out with us anymore or anything!” she yelled. Lilly was stunned, she gave Amanda the coldest, meanest look she could and walked off. Amanda walked in the opposite direction, but Valerie, Shannon, and I still stood with our mouths open in shock. We were speechless.


When New Years came around we had our annual party at Shannon’s house, only Lilly wasn’t invited. None of us had talked to her since the last incident. She just changed so much since she met her new friends. Lilly never even smiled at me in the halls and she still gave Amanda nasty looks whenever she saw her. I really did miss her but I couldn’t talk to her Amanda would get so mad and I did sort of agree with Amanda for getting so upset. Getting a boyfriend is not something you just forget to tell your best friends. So, anyway, we had the New Years party at Shannon’s house without Lilly but with Shannon and Valerie’s boyfriends. At the party there was tons of food and Valerie and Matt were all over the place trying to stuff their mouths with as much food as they could. I guess they did have something in common. Shannon didn’t eat anything and I was starting to worry. She hadn’t been eating very much at all during lunch and now that think about she hardly ate anything. Shannon got so skinny and she always looked sad or scared. Valerie and Matt were talking and they were both laughing. On the other side of the room Shannon and Nick were talking but they weren’t laughing in fact they looked like they were arguing. This didn’t surprise me they had been arguing a lot lately. Amanda began to walk over to Shannon and Nick but stopped when she saw they were arguing. I went up to her and told her how they had been arguing basically the whole party, we started listening to their conversation.


“Shannon, I just don’t want to be embarrassed by you!” Nick whispered sounding frustrated.


“You shouldn’t be! What am I doing, Nick?” Shannon pleaded.


“You have to stop! You have to stop eating so much. I don’t want a girlfriend who’s fat!” Nick said furiously


That’s when Shannon started crying, she mumbled something about apologizing for being so ugly but then Nick hugged her. Amanda and I marched right up to them and stood in between them. Amanda yelled loudly at Nick and wasn’t afraid to cause a scene. Everyone stared I hugged Shannon as she sobbed. Nick slapped Amanda hard across the face and stormed out of the house.


“How long haven’t you eaten?” I asked Shannon quietly.


She mumbled a response that I couldn’t understand. Eventually she spoke clearly and said, “Three months. But I’ve been eating some salad without dressing.” I was dazed. Three months! That’s horrible!


“Oh my gosh! Shannon, you have to eat something now!” I pleaded shoving a cookie in her face. She smiled a little but shook it away. “Shannon, I’m serious! I have to tell your mom she’ll get you better help.”


“No! You can’t! I don’t want to be fat and ugly!” Shannon exclaimed.


“I have to,” I began walking upstairs to Shannon’s parents.


Shannon grabbed onto the back of my shirt and stopped me. Her eyes burned with anger. She begged me not to go but I had to. I loved Shannon and I couldn’t stand to see her get hurt.


“But I love him!” Shannon blurted out and ran outside to Nick, she flung herself in his arms and he held her tight.


I didn’t know what to say. Did she really love him? That was a really big step. But I had to tell her parents no matter what Shannon said. Nick was not being good to her. As much as I didn’t want to admit it Shannon was becoming anorexic and was in a horrible relationship. I told Shannon’s parents about what had happened and now she’s not allowed to see Nick anymore and she has to quit dance and see a therapist until she’s not anorexic anymore. Shannon hasn’t talked to me since. Whenever I try to smile at her or say hi she ignores me. I messed everything up! Why do I always do that?


That’s it we were slowing growing up and apart. I hated it but I guess it was fate. Valerie and Amanda didn’t talk to me as much but they were still close as ever, I thought they just ditched me. Amanda started to hang out a little more with her math and science friends and Valerie joined the science club with Amanda. I wanted to join too but I didn’t want to seem too clingy or needy. Valerie and Amanda’s friends were so smart, some were geeks but some were actually pretty popular kids. I always loved that about Valerie and Amanda. They made their friendships not according to popularity and looks but to personalities. Amanda had reached her peak intelligence level when she started to drop. Her grades dropped, her energy dropped, and now she didn’t even talk to Valerie anymore. I didn’t want to get involved I had done enough of that. Apparently Valerie wasn’t afraid to get involved. She talked to Amanda trying to get her to tell what was bothering her. Valerie even pried through Amanda’s things until she found them. At first Valerie didn’t believe it, she told me and I didn’t believe it. But it was true. Drugs. Illegal drugs. Marijuana to be exact. I tried to tell Lilly and Shannon but they refused to listen. I didn’t want to listen either to be honest. I wished it would all just go away and that Lilly, Shannon, Valerie, Amanda, and I would be back to the way we used to be last year. Amanda was one off the smartest people I knew. She was known for her intelligence and I know she knew how horrible marijuana was for her. So why? I didn’t want to make things any worse than they already were. Valerie was the on to confront Amanda on the drugs.


Amanda was so embarrassed when we told her we had found the drugs. She turned bright red kept looking away and mumbling something under her breath. All we wanted to know was why. Valerie and I weren’t going to tell anyone else if she promised to stop.


Finally Amanda answered, “It’s because I’m stupid. I’m stupid, stupid, stupid. Everyone in the math and science clubs were so much smarter than me, and they were all taking marijuana. I was stupid and thought that that’s what made them so smart. So I tried it.”


“Amanda, first of all you are not stupid. Stop saying that. Second, the other people and the math and science cannot possibly be that smart if they’re taking drugs.” Valerie pointed out.


I was afraid to talk so I basically just watched. Valerie reminded Amanda of the dangers of taking illegal drugs and so I was the only who noticed Lilly and Shannon walking by with their boyfriends talking and laughing. Shannon had ignored her parents’ rule of not being allowed to see Nick anymore. They shot me a mean stare. Great, so now two of my best friends had teamed up on me. Amanda wasn’t like that though. She actually tried to stop taking drugs, it took her a couple months to stop completely but she did it and I am so proud of her. In those few months Lilly and Shannon had become best friends and for some reason grown to hate Valerie, Amanda, and me. I don’t why or even what we could have done.


One day Lilly and Shannon approached Valerie, Amanda, and me. I was so hopeful, I really wanted them to be my friends again. But the words Shannon spoke were not the words I had hoped for and far less what I had expected.


“What do you have against us? Why are you doing this to us?” Shannon said to us.


“I-I-I don’t know what you’re talking,” about I managed to stutter. I honestly had no clue what they were talking about.


Amanda looked disgusted and just started to walk away but Lilly stuck her foot out and tripped her. Apparently Lilly and Shannon found this really funny, they were laughing so hard. Valerie pushed Lilly and Lilly looked disgusted. Lilly was never one to let something go. Oh no! I knew where this was going but for some reason I couldn’t bring myself do say or do anything. I just watched like a loser. I watched Amanda ready to jump on Shannon to bring her to the ground I watched Lilly aim a hit at Valerie. I felt like I was in a dream, watching from outside. Finally the principal noticed the fight but not after enough damage was done. The principal, with the help of a few teachers, tore the girls apart. Shannon looked furious, Amanda and Valerie were ready to cry, but Lilly had a big grin on her face. I couldn’t believe it, this was Lilly, my best friend, the girl who stayed with me when all the other kids made fun of me, the one who I had helped to the hospital when she broke her leg. The same girl was standing in front of me looking thrilled to have hurt a friend. I couldn’t accept it. This was possibly and probably the worst day of my life. I walked Valerie home. I loved Valerie’s house, it was almost like a cottage with so many trees around it, it was so peaceful. She still had tear stains on her face, I didn’t realize then how many of those tears I would see later on.


We got to Lilly’s house and there was nothing. Ashes. That’s all that was left. Fire trucks were in front of the ashes but I guess they didn’t notice, they didn’t say anything. I began to walk forward towards a fireman but Valerie stood still as if her feet were glued to the ground. She didn’t speak, she didn’t move. I felt like crying, I can’t imagine what Valerie must be feeling now. Her house was burnt down, her family nowhere in sight. It felt like a lifetime when we stood in front of the house. Valerie showed no emotion what so ever. I asked her if she wanted to go talk to the firemen and see what happened, I couldn’t stand the silence any longer. She burst out crying, I couldn’t talk to her. Finally one of the firemen asked us if we knew who lived there, I told him Valerie did. The fireman explained to us that someone had left a candle burning and one of Valerie’s pets must have knocked the candle over. Since Valerie’s house had so many trees around it, the fire spread quickly and her house was so cut off from the others that no neighbors could have seen the fire before it was much too late.


Valerie didn’t say a word but I could tell what she was thinking. “How is everyone, is her family okay?” I asked.


The fireman looked Valerie right in the eye and said, “Your mother was taking a nap when it happened. She had no escape by the time the fire reached her bedroom. Your sisters and brother are okay though, they’re over by the fire truck. I don’t know where your father is yet.”


Valerie was silent. I started crying but she stopped. All of a sudden she ran, she just ran off. I tried to follow her but she was so fast. I didn’t know where she was going, I chased after her for minutes after I lost her but realized it was useless. I called her cell phone over and over but it didn’t surprise me that she didn’t pick up. Valerie’s father had died a couple months ago in a car crash. Valerie and her father had been very close, and I loved him like a father as well. He was a great man. I talked to Valerie’s younger sisters and brother. They were all crying and couldn’t say much. I was so happy they were alive. I cried with them as if it was my home and my family. Valerie came back at midnight. I was waiting for her with my mom. We had taken the younger kids home already, they would stay with us until the police could find a proper home for them. When Valerie did come back she didn’t say a word, I felt like crying just from looking at her. She didn’t say a word for the rest of the week but she didn’t cry either. It was as if she wasn’t here, she was here physically but mentally she wasn’t.


A month passed before we heard back from the police. I didn’t think about what they might say before, I tried to avoid the topic all together. I didn’t want to face reality. The police called sounding like they had great news but the news they brought was no where near great, it was horrible. Valerie and her siblings had been adopted by someone living in Mississippi. They had to move there. The police said there was no way they could find a person to adopt five young children in New York State. Valerie still showed no emotion, she didn’t care she was leaving, she didn’t care about anything. When she left the next day my world turned upside down yet Valerie seemed untouched, unaffected. I never heard from her again.


Amanda stopped talking to me when Valerie left. I thought Amanda was my friend but apparently she just hung out with me to be with Valerie. Amanda made new friends, and Lilly and Shannon were still best friends, but I never got over it. I never made new friends.


I am writing this in tenth grade looking back on eighth grade. It was the worst year of my life. There was no happy ending. I never made new friends. I did find my passion though, writing. As soon as Valerie left and my best friends turned against me I started writing. I wrote poems, stories, songs, anything. This wasn’t a fairytale, this was real life, and for this story I never got my happy ending.

What do you think of my story?
i think you shouldnt end the story so soon, keep going rather tahn say u made no friends and just became a writer. i was so into it but the ending dissapointed me, thats my suggestion, u dont HAVE to follow it, but it would make the story much more interesting. but its really great!
Reply:Very detailed!
Reply:I think it%26#039;s sad and so typical of how friends you thought you knew you find out you never really knew them at all. It%26#039;s so sad for Valerie losing everything she holds dear for her. I and I%26#039;m sure so many others had the same drama unfold in middle school. My closet friends then, turned against me and we%26#039;ve never talked since. Their lose, not mine. I like the story b/c these are the things that happen in middle school, unfortunately.
Reply:the valerie part touched me the most. but shannon is a loser and amanda is to but you we%26#039;re the problem you have to make friends if you just let them alone you would still probably talk to them I%26#039;m glad you took up writting just I%26#039;m sure you have friends that%26#039;s like impossible that you don%26#039;t,and it doesn%26#039;t matter if ther losers(no offense)



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