Tired from an intense practice match of netball, my friends and I left the school grounds in a loud and raucous group only to be greeted by an even louder crowd of boys. We giggled in excitedly and I fixed my hair, as it was my only attractive feature.
However, as we approached them, I realized they were their attention was taken up by something they were gathered around, because they didn’t answer when we called out to them. Floating above the cluster was a single red balloon.
My heart froze for a moment. It slowly occurred to me what they were doing. I pushed through the boys only to find exactly what I was afraid of. A girl who looked almost like me stood at the centre of the circle with her head drooped and her messy hair covering her face clutching a rose in one hand and the red floating red balloon in another.
“Not again,” I muttered to myself. I marched up to her and grabbed her, by the wrist, and dragged her off.
“Come on, Maria!” I hissed into her ear. “How many times do I gotta getcha outta these things? Stop being such a baby!” I glared at her.
The crowd parted for me, like the Red Sea, and I heard an array of apologies being called after me.
“We’re sorry, Mary.”
“We keep forgetting’ she’s your sister because of that stupid bunch of hair on her face.”
“Let’s go,” I called out to the other girls. We walked off with Maria trailing behind with her stupid balloon and the rose, from her idiotic gardening club, like always.
As we walked home, the girls were bickering away about Justin Bieber and Cody Simpson. Normally I would’ve participated in this conversation but today Maria had had put me in an antisocial mood.
When we had first started school, all of our classmates had found it very hard to believe that we were sisters, let alone twins. Even I often struggled with this. Our parents insisted we looked almost exactly the same, but I have never agreed. Maria inherited beautiful big blue eyes and a small nose. I inherited plain blue eyes and blotchy skin, which I hide with heaps of make-up. I have spent my whole life trying to look more like her, despite being her twin! And Maria just hid her face with her awful hair.
I snuck a peek at Maria, who just happened to be taking a Kit Kat out of her pocket. Her eyes sparkled at the sight of them and she ripped the wrapper off the chocolate and finished it in a matter of seconds. To this day, I couldn’t understand how she could do that. It was like she was years younger than me rather than only five minutes. It didn’t help that she was still holding onto her red balloon and that her rose was just noticeable, stuffed into her other pocket.
Soon all the girls had left, and it was only Maria and I, walking in silence. I knew I should’ve comforted her after the boys bullied her, but hey, a Kit Kat can do better than me, so what’s the point?
Something wet dropped onto my face, and then another drop, and soon it was raining, quite heavily. I heard someone gasp gleefully behind me. I looked back at Maria. Her head was tilted right back, her hair slightly covering her face.
“Mary!” she squealed in her baby voice, jumping up and down, accidentally letting go of her balloon. “Rain dance!”
“No Maria. Let’s just go home. It’s getting dark and my hair’s getting we-” Before I could finish speaking, she started running after her balloon.
What happened next, I couldn’t even process it fast enough. Maria and the red balloon, a light, and a scream. That was all I could remember about that moment.
I ran towards the direction of the scream, and found my sister’s limp body on the black bitumen bicycle lane. The biker repeatedly apologized and sobbed, while checked for her pulse. She was alive, but unconscious.
I managed to call 000 and while waiting for the ambulance, I cried, clutching onto Maria’s cold hands, as my tears mixed with the rain. At that moment, I wondered how scary life would be without her, and prayed that she would live.
* * * * * * *
As school ended, my friends and I were walking out of the school only to be interrupted by the large group of boys standing near the entrance. Like the day that occurred a month ago, they were surrounding something. And like that day, there was a red balloon floating above their heads.
WHAT? What was she doing here? She was meant to be at home resting!
I pushed through all the boys to find my guess was correct. There she was, a girl with big blue eyes shining because of the sun. There was a scar through her right eye though, showing everyone that she had been in an accident of some sort. Her lips formed a smile, as she looked right at me.
“Maria! What are you doing here?” I tried hard to hide the anxiety in my voice.
The girls gasped in shock. The boys had their mouths wide open. I think it was because Maria hadn’t come to school for the past month, or they just didn’t see her face clearly enough before.
Maria only hugged me tightly. She probably wasn’t used to being outside. Yes, not only had she not come to school, but also she never actually stepped outside the house. And during the past month, Maria and I became very close. We would’ve been closer if we had bonded from the beginning, but hey, what’s done is done!
I smiled at Maria as she pulled me by the wrist, indicating she wanted to go home. I followed her out of the school.
“You know, Maria, you didn’t have to come all the way to school just to walk home with me!” I scolded her.
“But…but…but I…” Maria struggled to find words.
I laughed at her childishness, as she just hugged me when she couldn’t finish her sentence. And like that we just walked home.
But not while she was hugging me, that would be very hard. We walked home hand in hand.
You know what they say.
“You don’t know what you have until you lose it” or almost lose it. That is what happened to me. Now I know, Maria is my treasure.
