Once a ranger always a ranger

Chapter 3 Ariel's new friends

Then it was time to go back inside for our afternoon classes. The next day at lunchtime I was going to throw out my trash when I bumped into Virginia. "Watch where you're going new kid." Virginia said. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bump into you." I said. "Meet me after school. You're gonna pay for this." Virginia said before walking away. Later that day I walked out of the school with my two new friends. "Stop worrying Ariel. She's not even gonna do anything." Bri said. "Yeah, she's all talk. It's like what John said about her, all bark no bite." Alyssa said. That's when I saw her. "There she is." I said. Virginia walked towards me while she slapped her fist into her open hand. My friends and I turned around and ran away. After a while we stopped running. "Ariel, stop." Bri said. "I think we lost her." Alyssa said. But we didn't lose her. "Think again." Virginia said behind me. I turned to face her. "Thought you could run away from me? That's strike two." Virginia said. "Look, even if you want to fight me it's three against one. You'd be outnumbered." I said. "Sorry Ariel, you're on your own." Alyssa said before she ran away with Bri. "Guess your friends aren't going to save you now. This is what happens when you--" Virginia said before getting cut off by Tommy grabbing her arm. "Hey!" Virginia said. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" Tommy asked before letting go of her arm. Virginia turned around and walked away. "That's what I thought." Tommy said. Then he turned to face me. "Are you okay?" Tommy asked. "Yeah, thanks so much for helping me." I said. "You're welcome." Tommy said. Tommy walked me home that day, since Alyssa and Bri ditched me. I know they didn't mean to but I guess that they were just afraid that Virginia would fight them too, or at least beat them up. "You know, Virginia is not exactly the nicest person." Tommy said. "Yeah, I noticed." I said. "She wasn't always like that you know." Tommy said. "Really?" I asked. "Yeah, she was actually nice to people, even the new students." Tommy said. "So, what happened? What made her change?" I asked. "It all started last year when John double crossed her. I guess that he might have told Virginia that he would do something but then he didn't do it." Tommy said. "Only because she double crossed me first." John said as he walked up to us. I looked at John. "How did she double cross you?" I asked. "She was talking about me behind my back. I lost some friends because of her." John said. "She was probably just jealous that you had more friends than her." Tommy said. After we got Tommy home John decided to walk me home. While we were walking to my house Bri and Alyssa caught up with us. "Hey, John, Ariel, wait up!" Alyssa said as she ran up to us from behind. "Hey guys." I said. "Sorry about ditching you back there. We were just afraid that Virginia was going to beat us up." Bri said. "You know that I would never let anyone hurt my friends." I said. "Unless they deserve it." Alyssa said. "Exactly." I said. "So, what happened with Virginia?" Bri said. "She was about to punch me in the face when Tommy showed up and stopped her by grabbing her arm. He asked her why doesn't she pick on someone her own size. Then after that she just left." I said. "So let me get this straight, she left after Tommy saved you without another word?" Alyssa asked. "Yeah." I said. "So what are we gonna do about Virginia?" Bri asked. "I don't know. Maybe there's nothing we can do." I said. "Come on Ariel, she almost beat you up. You can't let that slide." Alyssa said. "She does have a point, a good one." John said. "I know, it's just that I can't come up with something we can do about her. We can't really double cross her unless she double crosses us, that's for sure." I said. "Well, what are we supposed to do?" Bri asked. "I'm not sure, but we will have to come up with something." I said. The next day I noticed that something was bothering Virginia and I wanted to know what it was but my friends might not want me to. I saw that George was trying to talk to her during recess but she was just pushing him away. I was wondering why she was pushing him away. I think that he was trying to help her but it looked like she didn't want his help. After he walked away I walked up to Virginia. "Hey Virginia, can we talk?" I asked. "Why?" Virginia asked. "It just looks like something is bothering you. What's going on?" I asked. "I don't want to talk about it." Virginia said. "Virginia, look, I can't help you if I don't know what's going on." I said. "Okay, fine. I'll tell you. Just promise me that you won't tell anyone else." Virginia said. "No worries. I won't tell anyone." I said. "Okay, stuff in my life is getting out of my control." Virginia said. "That's just how life is." I said.

I don't really know if I could help her but if I can, I will have to do it when my friends are not around. "Hey Virginia, listen. I could try to help you out here but since my friends are around, I can't help you right now. How about you come over to my house this weekend and I can help you then, sounds good to you?" I said. "Uh, yeah, sure." Virginia said. "Great. Do you have a cell phone?" I asked. "No, I'm not allowed to get one until I turn thirteen years old." Virginia said. "Okay, I'll just write my address down and give it to you." I said as I took a small piece of paper out of my pocket along with a pencil. I wrote down my address and gave it to Virginia. A few days go by and Virginia comes to my house, much to my surprise. "Hey Virginia, I thought that you weren't going to show up." I said. "Well, here's the thing. I kind of want to start over with you. You know, become friends." Virginia said. "The only way to become my friend is to gain my trust and not betray it." I said. "Well, what if I do betray your trust or what if more problems interfere with our friendship?" Virginia asked. "Don't worry, I have just the thing for it. There's this friendship spell that I have been working on. I have two spell books and one of them has a friendship spell in it. The only problem is that I can't remember how it goes. So, until I can remember every single word of it you'll be safe from the spell." I said. "Wait, you can do magic? That sounds so cool. Can you teach me?" Virginia asked. "Me? Teach you magic? Are you crazy? I don't think that's a good idea. Considering that most of them are evil, or I think some are evil." I said. "Don't worry, you can teach me the good ones, not the evil ones." Virginia said. "I don't know about this Virginia." I said. "Come on Ariel." Virginia said. She was really starting to pressure me and I might have unknowingly started a spell that I have used before on people who saw me do something that I want them to forget they ever saw. "Take back this moment that has passed. Return it, reverse it--" I said when Virginia cut me off while I was about to say the last part of the spell. "Are you trying to spell me right now?" Virginia asked cutting me off. "It has been so hard for me!" I said. "Yeah, some things are hard. Do you think making new friends has been easy for me?" Virginia asked. "No." I said. "I thought we were doing this together." Virginia said. "Virginia, we are in this together." I said. "But we're not. You've been keeping secrets and lying to me." Virginia said.