Stars

Chapter 1

"Come on, Lila, were gonna miss it!" A girl's voice shouted across the silence of the early morning.
"Coming!" Lila called back, grabbing her surfboard and taking off down the hill before her house. Her toes touched the ground lightly, softly sinking in the cold wetness of sand on the beach. She jumped over a few rocks, dodged a few trees, and met her friend down at the water's edge, clutching her surfboard tightly to her side.
"Isn't it beautiful?" Jess asked.
"It is. I can never get sick of it", Lila answered, gazing in wonder at the dark, star-lit sky, a smile spreading across her face.
"We better get in before it gets too late, li."Jess whispered, walking into the ocean. Lila nodded, running through the water rippling around her ankles. She dropped her board and immediately started paddling out, pushing dry skin through the cool evening sea with each stroke. As she surfed, she couldn't stop smiling. The ocean was like her safe place. The ocean and the stars. And Jess. They were the three most beautiful things in Lila's world. She didn't have an family, they had all gone away on a holiday and had drowned in a tsunami. Lila couldn't leave Jess and her house, so she didn't go. She often thought to herself how different it would have been if she'd gone with them. She might be with them still, in the dead world. She could have given an effort to save them. She could have at least seen them on their last day. She had loved them so much, it was so hard for her to cope with no one left. Except Jess, who came in at just the right time, who always said the right things to make her happy, who made her smile in ways she had never before. Lila mostly stayed at Jess's house, and sometimes Jess's family would come and visit, sometimes they just hung out. But the one thing Lila knew about Jess that was never going to change- was their friendship. They had been through thick and thin with each other, through hard and soft, they were the perfect friends. When Jess's grades at University went down, Lila was there and helped her work them back up. When Jess's parents died, Lila was there for her.  And they both grew stronger as friends and were the best things in each other's lives.

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Lila took her eyes out of the telescope. "I can't believe that you actually designed this WHOLE room, Jess!" Lila said excitedly, "It is so colourful and pretty and majestic and—"  Jess cut her off.
"I didnt design the WHOLE room, Li! I only work on Interior! The walls outside were like, a builder or some shit. I honestly wouldn't know."
"Ok, ok! But it is still amazing!"
"Yeah yeah, you always say that."
"It was!"
"You only like it because its got a see through roof and a telescope," Jess said with a laugh, raising one eyebrow expectantly. Lila sighed. "Fine, guilty as charged.", she answered, smiling sheepishly.
"You need to get on with your homework, though, young lady, or you'll be guilty as charged tomorrow when you forget." Jess told her, putting an emphasis on the forget. "Hang on..... what am I going to forget again?" Lila said, watching her paint mint green around the edges of something that looked like a seaweed statue.
"Your assignment on Galileo due tomorrow. If you don't start now, your never gonna get that degree."
"Shoot", Lila answered with a laugh, "I completely forgot". And with that, she was outta there faster than you could say forget one more time.

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