Emication

Chapter One - Emma

I had been staring at the blank paper in front of me for the past ten minutes. My forehead was resting in the palm of my hand, and I had been stuck in that position for so long that I knew my hand would leave a red mark. The end of the pen in my hand was all torn-up from me biting on it, something I always did when I was nervous or frustrated.

The reason of my frustration in this case was the essay due later this week for English Literature. "Start on the essay on time", Mr. Bell had said, "1500 words are a lot more than you think." At that moment, sitting there in the cafeteria, I desperately wished I had listened to his advice. Being a procrastinator meant that two weeks later, I had written nothing so far. Not even a single letter. I needed some inspiration, but where did I needed to go to find it?

Without even realising it, I started drawing this stick figure in the corner of the page. It was sitting on the floor, hugging its knees in a puddle of tears and where normally the face would have been, I had just drawn a big scribble.

"What are you doing?", Cali said, interrupting my thoughts.

I snapped my head up and saw her sitting on the opposite side of the table. Cali's gorgeous long red hair - which I was so jealous of - was in a high ponytail and her dark blue eyes were sparkling with curiosity. She was wearing her dark blue hoodie with her soccer number in gold colours on the back. The girls varsity team from Lake High had won the national championships last year and their coach had ordered one of those hoodies for every member in honour of their win. I had been on the team as well until this year. With both hands under her chin and her head tilled a little to the side, she sat there studying me.

"I am supposed to write an essay about my favourite piece of literature of all time, but nothing's come out so far", I sighed loudly and put my head on the table. This is never going to work out.

"What? But you love writing essays? Especially if they are for English Literature", Cali stated.

Yeah, that used to be true. Trust me, a year ago I would have been so thrilled about this assignment. "Well, now I just completely suck", I groaned.

Before I could protest, Cali snatched my notebook off the table which contained the horrible doodle I had just drawn. I tried to get it back, but her arms were longer than mine and there was nothing I could do to reach it. Her eyes scanned over the little figure and she looked confused back at me. "What the hell is this, Em? Is this how you see yourself?", she spoke quietly with a frown on her face, "are you ... okay?"

"It's just a stupid stick figure. I'm fine, Cali, I promise. You don't have to worry about me", I gave her my best fake-smile. She nodded with the frown still embedded on her face as she hesitantly gave me my notebook back.

I know she didn't believe a word I had said. She had known me for too long to fall for my poker face. I honestly can't remember a part of my life where I am not best friends with Cali Parks. We met on the first day of preschool and, because she lived just down the street, we did everything together. From biking to school, to doing homework and going to soccer training together. When our moms got close as well, we even went on summer holidays together. My two big brothers, Caleb and Lucas, always teamed up, usually against me, so Cali by my side was a blessing.

"Hello my loves. I'd say God bless you, but it looks like he already did", Tommy winked flirtatiously while he put his arms around me and gave me a kiss on my temple. Even though I was so frustrated, I couldn't help but crack a smile.

"Oh, please shut up, Easton, you really cannot pull of a pick-up line as cheesy as that one", Piper teased while she slapped him on the back of his head.