•Annabelle•

Chapter 1

It was the first day of grade 6 when I met Annabelle, she had her chocolate brown hair in pigtail braids running down her shoulders, and her deep hazel eyes and freckles made her smile bright and beautiful.

She was new here in this small town, and she had moved right across the street from me.

At lunch that day my eyes had wandered to her desk, she was sitting there ever so peacefully, reading the thickest book I had ever seen. It had seemed out of the ordinary compared to all the other girls I had known, while others probably had more seen it as a way of hiding, to me she just stood out. I couldn't help but walk over there and say something.

"Hey, what's with the big book?"

She gave me kind of a puzzled look, maybe it was the fact that I was laughing, but after a while she smiled and answered, "Well, if you must know I think reading is important, it gives you valuable knowledge. And, quite frankly, I'm not really into all these conversations about 'what's the newest cool outfit, or stuff about the hot guy that lives across the street.'"

I couldn't help but laugh, she was quite the character, "Well that's not something you hear every day, but, don't you think it's also important to be a bit social."

She sighed, kind of giving me a look, "Well, honestly, I don't really have that many friends."

"Why don't you hang out with me at recess?" I didn't know at the time why I so desperately had wanted to hang out with her, something in me had just kept seeming to be nagging inside to be around her. I now realize why.

"Doing what?"

"Well, I don't know....," my hand grazed my short dark brown hair, "We could shoot some hoops?"

"I'm not all that good at sports...-"

"Could you at least give it a try?"

She glanced at me, sighed, smiled, and then eventually said okay.

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When we had gone out that recess, I don't want to be mean but, she sucked at basketball! As she threw the ball to the hoop, it bounced off the ring and almost hit a dude in the face.

She sat down at the edge of the court, her hands plastered to her face. I strolled up and took a seat beside her.

"See, I told you, I suck", she said with her hands still pressed to her forehead.

"Well, you do." The minute I said that she gave me a shocked look, so I kept talking, "But that doesn't mean that you can't get better. Come on, let's go do something else."

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That was the first time we met, and after that we grew closer and became best friends, some people called us inseparable. But sometimes now I wonder that, if I had just left her alone that one day, if eventually she would've made other friends; friends that wouldn't be the reason of her death.

Without her nothing is the same, she always had a way of making everything brighter, so I guess I'm just naturally grey inside.