The Power Of invisibility

Chapter One

I walked into my first class late, as usual. Only by a minute or two, but I managed to sneak in before anyone saw me. God forbid I can be one minute late to gym when no one starts changing until we're twenty minutes into class, anyways.

I watched all of the seniors sit there, drinking their Starbucks coffees. I remember when they were juniors and I was a freshman. They hated me so much... Well, they still do. But I'll never have to see their faces again after this year. Two weeks. Ten days.

I walked over to the bench where my best friend sits every day- Skylar. We'd been friends for as long as I could remember. Eighth grade year was the best. I was in a circle of the best four people you would ever meet. We went everywhere together. I wasn't very close to Skylar in the beginning, but it didn't take long to realize how alike we were. I guess you could say that Skylar and I were the "brains" of the friendship. We were the first ones to say "stop" when things got out of hand. And of course the other two, Dana and Sam, were the "guts" of the operation, always ready to take new risks. It was perfect for a while... Until Skylar sunk into depression. She didn't want to do things anymore. It was in the middle of our freshman year when the inevitable happened. 

Skylar tried to talk to Dana. She would tell her what was wrong and for a while, Dana listened. But after the calls got more frequent, Dana couldn't handle it anymore. She screamed to Skylar through the phone to grow up and get professional help. She called her crazy.

It eventually got worse, until Skylar stopped doing anything with us at all. Dana began talking about her behind her back. I still remember it very clearly. I had lunch with Dana and Sam. They would talk about her constantly and I would bite my tongue, hoping that they would stop. I just lost it one day.

I slammed my hands on the lunch table and started shouting everything I had wanted to say to them. I can't remember much of what they yelled back, but I do remember running out of the cafeteria because I was crying so hard. And they didn't even care.

They did everything they could to make my life a living hell. They ignored me when I told them that I wanted to fix things and threatened me when I defended Skylar. They even got a senior to come after me. Every friend that I had turned against me that year. I had no one... but Skylar. It wasn't long before I fell into depression myself. Skylar tells me that everything happens for a reason. I guess God knew that Skylar and I were meant to be best friends.

If you're wondering what happened to Sam and Dana, they had no one to stop them, anymore. They went out, got in trouble and got in to the wrong crowd. Now they hang out with the druggies, finding solace in drinking. It's sad, really. I could've saved them, but I guess they didn't want to be saved.

I guess no one really wants to be saved. Except for Skylar.

I threw my books on the floor and they landed with a bang. Everybody jumped and looked at me- fantastic.

"Hey," Skylar said, flipping a piece of her long, brown hair out of her eyes.

"How've you been?" I was hoping that she would say that she's been alright.

"Stressed. I want to go to the lake."

"We'll go the first day of summer vacation." I looked up and saw disappointment in her eyes.

"Promise?"

"Promise."  I hope we make it until summer...

Our stubby gym teacher walked into the locker room. She picked up her little paper and began reading off the names.

"Skylar?"

"Here." She rolled her eyes as she said it. I laughed.

"Felicity?"

"Here," I mumbled.

I looked at Skylar. It was going to be another ten minutes until she finished taking attendance, so I figured we might as well leave that disgusting locker room.

"You wanna go out to the gym?" I asked her.

"Yeah, let's go." She stood up and pushed the door open to get into the gym. I could feel everyone’s eyes on my back as we left.

We walked over to the far wall of the gym, as far away as you can get from the rest of humanity, and sat down on the floor. I hugged my knees into my chest.

"It needs to be summer," Skylar said, bluntly.

"Is it just going to be us this year?" I hadn't thought about it before.

"I mean, we'll have fun…” Her voice drifted off. I knew what she meant.

Usually we brought Dana and Sam. This was the first summer that we'd be on our own...

"Should we find somebody else?"

"I mean, it would be fun to go a few times alone, but we need somebody else whose fun." She started to think of people we could bring.

“I don’t like anyone else,” she laughed.

“I’m sure we’ll be fine. This is the way it was meant to be.”

Skylar leaned her head against the wall.

“God, I miss the lake so much,” she said.

“Me, too.”

We stayed quiet for a while, just thinking.

The lake was the only place that I felt truly happy. All year, we’d suffer through stress and constant rejection. By the last day of school, every year, we’d leave through those doors with no confidence. We would hate ourselves. Then we would go to the lake and everything would be different. Guys would talk to us constantly, our depression would fade… We’d feel wanted again.

I don’t know why it’s so different. Maybe it’s because we feel free, like we have a fresh, new start. All we are to these people are two tall girls with a pair of blue eyes on each. One blond, one brunette.

And we would live at the lake house, again.

My grandparents built it together. It was small, with two bedrooms and a bathroom, but it was all we needed. The rest of the house was sectioned off into the living room, kitchen and dining room. After many years, people had sold their houses or had them torn down from being so outdated, but not ours. It was in a constant upkeep, always being worked on. It wasn’t long before we were the only ones left, and we got to keep the private beach.

The beach was small, but it was enough for me. Half of the sand on the left side was covered with huge rocks to stop the erosion, and white shells covered the sand in piles. I remembered everything so vividly…

The bell rang.