Unexpected Connections

One day an old woman was sitting by a fire at a campsite. She was humming and obviously deep in thought. A child ran up to her, about 7 years old, and was about to shake her shoulder when an older kid stopped him.

“We cannot wake her from her dreams,” said the elder child, whose name was Kramiah. She released the child’s shoulders and sat down in front of the old woman. Crossing her legs, she looked back up at the child. “Eli, sit down and wait. You’ll get a story soon enough.”

He sat down reluctantly, crossing his legs like Kramiah, and removing his shoes. “I still want a story though,” he complained sullenly.

Just then the woman opened her eyes and stopped humming. She smiled at the kids, and spoke. “Kramiah, you must be nicer to your brother than that.  And yes Eli, you will get a story, just wait. It will take a while, so if you don’t get the point, be patient. This is how it goes.” Kramiah and Eli perked up, and tuned out everything else.

“There was once a girl, in the ninth grade, who did not have many friends. One she did have had been by her side since kindergarten, and she thought that they had the tightest bond you could ever have between people who were not family. She had never kept any secrets, and expected that her friend had done the same. But there was one. And it came out in an explosion like the devil from hell and tore them apart. It almost tore the girl apart, she who had trusted her friend.

“It was during the lunch period, and there were some new kids by them, apparently just interested in eating lunch. Erin, the girl who had no secrets, was reading a book she had picked up at the library and needed to return the next day.

“Erin!” Ashee exclaimed, being impatient with how deeply her long-time friend had delved into the book.

“Hmmm?” Erin asked. She looked up from the book. “Ashee! I was just at a good part!” Distress emanated from every word at being torn from the make believe fantasy painted by the author.

“Get out of the book! You know it annoys me how much you talk about them. If you’re not talking about them, you’re reading! Stop with the books!” Ashee did sound incredibly annoyed, but Erin couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“You don’t really mean that, Ashee,” Erin said almost pleading. Fear about losing her oldest friend consumed her, but she could feel the cloth of friendship woven between Ashee and herself unraveling.

“I do!” Ashee returned nastily. “Do you really think I kept you around because I liked you? I kept you around so I could get good grades and information when I needed it. It was a lot easier than using the encyclopedia.”

Erin couldn’t believe it. She had truthfully liked Ashee, with her attitude and similar likes except for books, which should have rung a bell, being as Erin’s most valued possession were her books. “If that is how you feel, then why did you put up that front? It would have been much easier to be acquaintances and still get the information you wanted. I’d help you if I could.”

Ashee smiled patronizingly. “Because you have trust issues now. I was truly your friend until two years ago when we had that big fight. You might have forgiven me, but I didn’t forgive you. Go away. This is my spot and I don’t want you near me from now on!” The sugary-sweet smile stayed as she banished Erin from where she had been for the past ten years.

Erin stood. She silently picked up her belongings and left the table, heading back to class so she wouldn’t have to find a new spot with people she didn’t know. “Good-bye Ashee,” she said, after walking a couple feet. “I hope people are smarter than me and see through your charade.” Erin didn’t like to be catty, but she could be catty in the extreme, so with one last withering look at Ashee, she twitched out of the cafeteria.

When she reached her homeroom, Erin laid her supplies on her desk. She looked at the chair attached to the small table like structure, and then collapsed  into it. Pushing all the school stuff into one corner of the desk, she laid her head in the now-open area. Tears leaked from under closed eyelids, and Erin roughly brushed them away.

The door opened and someone came in. Erin sat up and tried to look busy.

“Hey. Are you okay, Erin? I saw you leave the lunch room in a temper, and thought I should come check on you.” Erin looked up. The speaker was Arema, the transfer student from Albuquerque. Erin suddenly found herself sympathizing with Arema more than she would have thought. Both of them had almost no friends, and fit in nowhere.

“No, I’m not okay,” Erin replied, deciding to tell the truth. “Ashee had been using me for the past couple years or so. I just learned today. Have you been finding your own friends?” Erin didn’t want the conversation to be about her.

“Yes. Or, well, sort of. A couple people have been nice to me, but no real friends have popped up. I kind of relate to what you’re feeling.” Arema smiled wistfully, turning a curl of blond hair around her fingers.

“Well, we both have no friends; we feel the same way about that fact. I just have one question.” Erin smiled. “Do you like books?” She unconsciously gripped the one she had on her desk, Shadow by Jenny Moss.

“Yes! I absolutely love books! Especially the one you have now, Shadow. Don’t you just hate the part when Kenway acts like a knight instead of what he was before when he finds out she is the queen?” Arema sounded extremely passionate when she talked about the book, her eyes alight with happiness.

“Then maybe we should be friends ourselves?” Erin asked. The answer was rhetorical, for even though the bond between Ashee and Erin had been strong before the fight, it had been woven there with time. The new bond with Arema was already ten times that strong and it had been only a couple minutes.

“Friends,” Arema confirmed with a grin.

The old woman came out of her story-telling reverie, and smiled at the kids in front of her, with their jaws agape. “Did you like the tale, little ones?”

“Yes!” Eli shouted. But then he sobered. “But why would Ashee use Erin like that, and why did they fight?”

“I was wondering that too, grandma. Why did Erin and Ashee fight so violently when their bond was that strong? It doesn’t seem right.” Kamiah stood and stretched.

“They fought due to a silly project Ashee’s friend had proposed. Erin didn’t approve. That is why Emily and I still don’t get along.” The woman smiled mysteriously.

“Wait, you were Erin?”

“Yes. And Arema was based on Nicole. It is a true story. I hope you see that looks can be deceiving.”

“Puzzles again!” Kamiah muttered. Needles crunched underfoot as someone approached and she turned around. “Oh! Hi, Mikay!” she exclaimed as a girl came up. “Do you want to go and ride horses?” The girls ran out of the tent. Eli followed soon after. 

“It happens again, with a betrayed youngster and a new girl.” The woman closed her eyes and fell asleep.