The Ribbon in Her Hair

Prologue

The school bell rings, and every kid in the room bolts from their chair like bullets.

Except for Julie.

She sits still at her desk as the room empties of the 31 students in her class. "Julie? Aren't you coming?" She glances at the door to see her best friend. "Yeah, of course, Shelby!" She puts on a happy smile and grabs her backpack.

"Are you okay?" Of course, her best friend would know she was not all right, but she thought she might as well try to lie and then tear her friend down with her. "I'm great; why do you ask?" She tightens the navy-blue ribbon in her hair and tries to march forward, but Shelby holds her back.

"For real, Julian." Shelby's serious tone stops her. But she couldn't tell her... "You can trust me. Please, tell me." Shelby brushes her fluffy crimped light blonde hair behind her ears and gives Julie her puppy dog eyes.

"Your big brown eyes don't work on me anymore," Julie tells her, shaking her hand off herself. "Come on!" She laughs. "We tell each other everything!"

"Later," Julie says, not planning on ever telling her.

"Fine. You better, because I'm not forgetting this." Shelby says, running up to her.

"Hey, tardies." Mrs. Brooks says with a smile. "I'll let you girls off this time because Halloween is my favorite season." She nods to their seats, which the girls hurriedly scramble to. "Since Halloween is tomorrow, we will be drawing pumpkins!" Besides her clapping, the room is silent. "Come on, get your stuff." She sighs, "I can't be the only one who loves Halloween, don't you guys? Ky, what about you?" Shelby looks at Julie, and she blushes. Kyle may or may not have been Julie's crush all through high school. "I like Halloween," he says absently. Mrs. Brooks just sighs again.

"You should talk to him," Shelby says as the two girls sit in the back of the school bus.

"No way, I would have nothing to say." And nothing to offer him since I'll probably die, she thinks.

"You so do! For instance, 'Oh hey, I've liked you for more than two years now!'"

"I would never say that!" Julie laughs, and the girl in front glares back at them.

"Don't you want to go to prom with him?" Shelby asks, "You have to be his girlfriend first, and prom is only one year away." If I even get to see prom. Julie shrugs.

"Well, I'm asking Darek out tomorrow," Shelby announces. "I thought the asking out part was the guy's job," Julie says with a frown.

Shelby shrugs. There's silence for a minute, and Julie thinks this might be her time. "Shelby, I-"

"Cmon, this is our stop," Kyle tells Julie. "But..." What was she thinking anyway, that now was the time to tell her with a bunch of kids probably eavesdropping? "All right, I'll see you tomorrow night at the party, and you can tell me then," Shelby says with a smile.

But she never saw her friend again.