The Enmity

An Enmity

By: Abigail Fishbein

CHAPTER 1

I walk into class with my binder and my survey sitting on top. I sit next to my best friend, Jade, and shove the survey in my binder before she hastily says,"What's that?". Jade grabs her homework, pulling the sheet sticking out of her binder. I forgot to do it, busying looking over the eight page survey, reading everything, making sure every word or answer is the best it can be. This survey needs to be perfect. My life depends on it. The teacher bangs her hand on the desk a couple of times until the loud conversations flourish. She writes the assignments on the board. I space out, thinking of my chances of getting in, or even them looking at my survey, impressed. The chalk scraps the board like the kids drawing on their desks. I start actually paying attention and then a crumbled up piece of lined paper hits the back on my neck. Good thing I'm near the back so the teacher doesn't notice me picking it up and opening it. The paper has many rips in it, it doesn't look like I was the only one who's opened it. I carefully open the paper without making a loud noise and start to read it. "You are not the only one holding a secret, meet me in the hallway, near locker 302." On the bottom were names with check marks next to them. I see my name "Nellie Ply" on the bottom right hand corner. I do not recognize any names on the list but "Collin Abbott" whom was in my class last year and we talked, but not much. Most of the people on the list I think are 8th graders, like me. I grab a dull pencil on the floor that was slid to me when the paper was thrown at me. I put a check mark next to my name. On the back it says,"Please put outside the door when you leave". The bell buzzes and I walk outside. I put the crumbled paper on the floor outside the door and go to my locker. I feel a hand touch my left shoulder and look over, Jade. "What did the note say? Was it a crush?". "No, it was...a..uhh", I struggled to answer. "Come on, can't you tell your best friend, anything?", Jade says while tugging on my arm. "Ok, it said, it was a flyer for trying out for basketball", I lied. "Oh, well meet me on the bus, it leaves at 3:00", Jade says. She grabs her backpack and slams her locker and goes running to some boys. I grab my backpack and look at my watch, 2:50. I have ten minutes to hear whatever this is, so it better be fast. I walk past the lockers skimming the lockers looking for 302. 289....297...299...300...and then I was a gang of people near locker 302. I join the gang. I hear mumbles. "Ok, ok is everyone hear, this when just take five minutes, my name is Nicole Adoms and I'm here to talk to you about your surveys, now one thing you all should know, we are all on the same team, signing up and stuff. We must meet every Thursday after school and I have cleared it with the teachers, they think it's a dodgeball fun game. You must remember, we all have to take this seriously and don't underestimate the changes of getting in because I guarantee that 5 out of 15 of you will get in, thanks for your time". My body is stiff. I don't think I knew what I signed up for when I wanted to prove I was stronger than I look. Everyone flourishes and I run to the bus. I check my watch, 2:58. Good, if I miss it Jade would kill me. I run on the bus and find Jade. She is waving both her hands rapidly, like she's having a secure. "Hey, where were you, I almost had to let a sixth grader sit next to me!", Jade complains. "A teacher wanted to talk to me, about my quiz grade.", I hesitate between every word. "Well let's talk about my crush, so I saw him this morning...", Jade blabs about her amazing social life while I think about my survey, will I be good enough to get in? "NEL!", Jade yells while shaking me. "Are you even listening? You've been acting very strange lately, are you ok?", she says. When I'm about to answer the bus door opens and the bus driver yells," stop 16!". That's me. I say bye to Jade and hop off the bus. I walk to the small apartment I live in. My dad is there, on his computer. "Hi sweetie, get your homework done and then get your coat on, we need to go to pick up some paperwork from my clients", my Dad says while typing something on the computer. I tell him I don't have anything even though I think I do but don't care. My dad knows about the survey, because I told him about it, and I tell him about what happened today. "You can go just be careful, I don't know these people so don't trust anyone you don't know.", my Dad said. I grab my coat and my Dad and I walk to the subway. I live in New York, and my Dad is always very busy with work. We look at the schedule. We go on subway number 3. We walk on and there are a lot of people on as usual. We hold the bar coming out from the ceiling and stare out the window. New York is always so glooming. It always rains and it is never bright. We get off at the next stop and my dad and I walk to blocks and come to a brick apartment center called "Oak Hill" but the letters are so faded it looks like it says "Ok Hl". We walk in and we walk up two flights of stairs and find apartment number "6C". Dad knocks on the door and waits. A man opens the door. He has brown hair, and blue eyes and some aftershave specs forming a beard. He looks in his mid 30's. He gave a hand gesture to come in. We walked in slowly. The apartment is very dull and empty. Only a couch and a kitchen and a bed in a different room. We sit down on the couch and the man gets out a banilla folder and opens it. I shock. It says one name in it I haven't heard in a while and didn't plan on hearing. "Kelly Ply" my mom. She died three years ago, in a car accident. My dad looked like he knew the situation. There was a picture of her, she was so pretty, very light brown short hair her big brown eyes. The picture was her on the beach, with a sundress on, she was smiling, oh her beautiful smile. A tear started falling down my cheek. I wiped it with my sleeve. My dad and the man started talking. I wasn't listening that much, only thinking about my mom. Then I heard those words. "We couldn't find her body in the crash so she might still be alive". More tears fall down my eyes. My dad talks more with the man. I look at the paperwork. "Kelly Ply died of age 37 in a car crash on route four. The car lit of fire and the car that crashed behind her lit her car on fire. Her body was not found but because of the situation she was pronounced dead on March 17." More and more tears fall down my eyes on my cheeks. Then I go to grab a tissue because I spot them on the table near the bathroom. I squeeze. I cry. I repeat. Why had my dad asked me to come? He's left me home alone before. He knows how I am during this situations. A mess. "Ok well we best be leaving", Dad says. He grabs my arm and waves goodbye. We walk back to the subway. We wait. I finally say something. "Why did you bring me there?". My dad answers,"Because I thought maybe it was good to hear the news about mom". "You could have just told me, you know how I am when we talk about mom, I didn't want to seem like a baby". Dad pauses then answers,"Nel, everyone has lost someone in there life, it wouldn't be acting like a baby if you cry, when I first heard the news on the phone, I cryed". I start to cry again. "I hope she is". Dad nods. The subway comes. I wipe the tears with my sleeve and walk in. We wait for the subway to stop. I think about mom.