THE FRIENDS WHO WEREN’T

7:45 am. A dry hand reaches out to open the glass door. It was cold out. A morning filled with fog, and dew. The parking lot was sprinkled with students wanting to go back home. She was a small girl. Barely four feet. Though Garnet never wanted to get up in the morning, she knew today would be a good day. Even the weather smiled at her! It was only November, and it was starting to get cold! Maybe, it would snow soon, and she wouldn’t have to go to school. The thrill of Christmas kept on tapping her on the back, as she counted down the days until winter break. Tangled in her thoughts, she almost forgot a huge line was behind her. Slowly she pushes the handle. She steps in, but is pushed back by a hyper child. After a big herd of students, the girl finally comes in. She wears a toothless smile. She walks slowly to a wooden door, and she is again pushed back. Finally, she gets in. She is blinded by a white light. She looks over at two girls sitting on the ground. One is happily chatting away, her deep dark brown hair swaying behind her. The other girl has a sneer and is adjusting her rhinestone encrusted necklace. The girl staring at her friends happily skips to them, her long black braided hair hitting her festive backpack.

The happy girl spots her, and yells,”Hey Garnet! Over here!” Garnet walks to her friends and sits down.

The girl adjusting now, her hair, gives  Garnet a reluctantsmile.”What’s up, Sapph?”, exclaims Garnet. 

Sapph ignores. Hapi, the girl with the dark brown hair, starts talking about the upcoming fall party. Since, her day was already kind of a blow, Garnet decide to brighten up her day, and everyone else’s, so she cracked a joke.

“Hey, Sapph! Mrs. Ivey’s standing above you!” Sapph looks up, scared, and realizes that the teacher wasn’t looking at her.

Garnet laughs and says,”Made you look!”

Sapph bangs her fist on the gym floor, and screams,”You’re a liar, Garnet! Heads turn to the two arguing girls.. An echoing ‘ooooooh’ is heard throughout the gym. The loud bell pierces the noise. Sapph slams into Garnet, as she stomps to class, Hapi trailing behind her.

Sapph yells to Garnet,” You’re gonna get into BIG trouble at recess!” Garnet catches a lump in her throat. She tries to swallow, but it doesn’t help. Her face had lost most of the sunshine she had. She tried to blink back tears as she walked to math.

Sapph is seen pushing Garnet to Hapi, who has an evil smirk, that is so unlike her. Hapi pushes Garnet back to Sapph. Garnet is stuck in a never ending metronome.

“STOP!!” Garnet’s voice echoes throughout the playground. No matter how much she pleads, she is stuck in the infinite metronome. A woman’s voice pierces her screams.

It gently calls,”Garnet? Garnet! GARNET!!” Garnet opens her eyes, and sees pitch black. She lifts up her head and sees Mrs. Ivey glaring at her. Garnet instantaneously picks up her pencil, and scribbles aimlessly.

“What do these numbers mean?”, she said, inside her head. Her thoughts were interrupted by an ear splitting noise. Garnet wakes up from her deep immense thoughts, and warily walks to the lunchroom.

An aromatic smell drifted through the cafeteria. Kids scrunch up their noses, as the smell passes.

A girl with chestnut hair disgustingly asks Garnet, ”EW! What is that!

Garnet sneers and says,”Its unique food that I like!” The girl gives a weird grimace, and turns her back. No kid would sit with Garnet, because of the food she brought to school. Garnet turns her stare to her two friends, sitting at the next table. Hapi is chatting away with a red head. Sapph is checking her reflection in her container lid. She puts the lid down, and looks at Garnet. She gruesomely smiles.

Garnet warily walks down the hall, tears rolling off her cheeks, and landing onto her black puffy jacket. She is shoved by a rosy cheeked blond boy, who doesn’t even stop to apologize. He smacks her water bottle out of her hands. It rolls onto the floor. She grabs it and wipes her tears, and she pushes the handle to the playground. The sun blinds her instantaneously, and after several seconds of pitch black, she could see again. Garnet could see children on the swings. Children running and chasing each other. Teachers talking and gossipping. Garnet walks, almost forgetting that she was about to told on. Garnet prays to god, that Sapph wasn’t there, but she is walking toward her, with an evil smirk on her face.

Sapph looks at  Garnet, and tells her,”Now you’ll stop being such a liar!” She sashays away and grabs Hapi by the elbow. Hapi looks like she’s about to hesitate, but she shuts up. Garnet curses in her mind.

”What a friend!”, she says internally. She sees them walking to Mrs. Schuster. The teacher beckons to her. The world fades…..

Garnet stands before the teacher. Mrs. Schuster stares coldly into Garnet;s deep black eyes. Garnet could feel her amber eyes staring into the depths of her pupils. Mrs. Schuster has a delicate smile. She claps Garnet on the back.

”Make sure not to lie Sweetie, lying is bad!”, she gently speaks. Garnet stares at her dimples, her white teeth, polished with deep brown lipstick.

Garnet feels her heel turn, and she is walking away. She needs to get to someplace, anyplace, with no one or life. She wanted to go away forever and sulk, for the rest of her life. Garnet saw a secluded yellow tube with an assortment of plastic windows. She slowly walked to the tube, unable to hold back tears. As she took steps, she noticed Sapph and Hapi at the corner of her eye. Sapph had a satisfied smile. Hapi’s face was red. She had tears, all over her face, knowing she just lost her very first and best friend. Hapi is so disappointed in herself. She questions herself.  She wants to rip Sapph into a billion little pieces. She wants Sapph to get into trouble, not Garnet. She wants to walk up to Garnet and give her a big warm hug. But she can’t. She knows that Garnet won’t be better. Garnet won’t be comforted.

After walking for what seemed like forever, Garnet finally reached the tube. She climbed in and sat on both knees. Her red pants had drops of magenta, from her tears. Her tears ran down her face. All she wanted was to forget what happened! To wake up and it was all just a dream. She sadly stares out the window. She sees Sapph and Hapi through the window. Sapph is soaring to high heights on her swing. Hapi’s face is barely seen, her brown hair covers her face, as she slumps on the swing.

Garnet refrained from thinking about anything. There was no more happiness left in her. She stares out the window again, and sees Mrs. Ivey scolding a blonde boy. She didn't even laugh like how she would've done. She stopped staring and thought about hatred. She hated everything at that moment. She didn't think about how her family would welcome her home. Or her pregnant mother who would smother her with kisses.or her little sister would playfully punch her. She couldn’t think of any of that. That happiness was far from consoling her. It wouldn’t help. She sulked in that lonely tunnel, knowing that no one loved her. No one would care! Not a soul would sit next to her and comfort her. Oh, how she longed for that warmth!

A soft tender voice came out of nowhere. “Hello? Are you ok?”, it gently pondered. For a split second, Garnet thought it was her own voice. She looked around. No one was there. She longed to hear that voice again. Something about it had a tiny shred of hope. She needed that hope. A small hand reached into the tunnel. It was followed by a tender face, laden with brown eyes, that twinkled, as light danced in them.

Her big chocolate eyes were curious, as a single strand of frizzy hair, fell on her brow. Garnet focused on the girl’s naturally rosy lips, as she spoke.

Garnet thought it was cute as she stuttered. “H-hi! My name’s  P-peridot! But I guess you can call me Peri!”, she rambled. Peri stuck out her bracelet clad hand. Garnet shook it, glumly. Peri’s eyes grew big with curiosity, but the light stopped dancing in them. She was serious.

She asked,”What’s wrong?” Garnet did not want to reply. After several seconds, of silence, she raised her hand and pointed a trembling finger at the two girls on the swings. Peri seemed to perfectly understand. She gives Garnet an unexpected hug. The hug was warmth. Garnet liked the warmth. She hugged Peri as hard as she could. Then suddenly, a spark! A burst of light. The light that would lure her from the darkness. Garnet felt it burn her heart. She liked the burn. She wanted to follow its command. Garnet wiped her tears, with one swipe of her jacket. Garnet attempted to lift her numb legs.                 And for the first time, her first words to Peri were,”Come on! Let’s get out of this miserable place!” With that, she stepped out, Peri trailing behind her. She knew that she should’ve done this a long time ago!

Garnet felt happiness. She felt courage. She could not believe she was about to do this! She trudged to those two girls, along with Peri. She saw Sapph eyeing her, as she got off of her swing. Hapi got up too, her hair shading her face. Sapph stomped to Garnet.

“Well, if it isn't the liar! Why are you here? Came to tell yet another lie?”, she cackled. Garnet felt her cheeks getting hot. Garnet shrugged off the fury. Garnet regained her step, and went right up to Sapph and Hapi. Except that Hapi had distanced herself away from Sapph. Hapi didn't even want to look at Garnet. She crumbled under the pressure.

Garnet yelled. “A friend is one who cares about her buddy. They make her laugh. They pick her up when she’s fallen. A friend is someone who you trust your life with.”, Garnet added slowly. Hapi trembled and whined as she stood in the shadow of her own shame. Garnet turned her stare to Sapph.

She deliberately spoke,”Sapph! You were never my friend! What kind of friend are you? What kind of friend ditches her friends? What kind of friend frequently discourages her friends? Or in this case, ex-friends!” Sapph tries to hold her sneer, and her mean composure, but it was clearly visible that her emotion was drastically changing.

Garnet forgets about that mean old Sapph! She turns to trembling Hapi. Garnet holds back her tears as she spoke.”Remember that day, i came into preschool, for the very first time? Remember when you gave me a hopeful smile. Told me, that i was going to be okay. Well, look at me Hapi! Do i look okay to you! Tell me Hapi, tell me!”, Garnet cried as she looked deep into Hapi’s once lively eyes. Hapi runs up to Garnet and wraps her arms around her. She whispers into her friend’s ears,”I’m so, so sorry! Garnet didn’t want to hear it. But she hugged Hapi for one last time.

Garnet turns her heel, and slowly walks away. Tears roll down her cheeks, as pictures came to her mind. A little girl blows out her candles, as another girl stands next to her. Two girls playing hide and seek. A big hug shared by two girls. Just two. “Just two, she whispered as she walked. Her tears stopped as more pictures came to mind. Two girls hugging. A girl breaks the hug. Garnet’s friend goes to the girl. Garnet feels her feet crushing the mulch. A girl under the spell of popularity. Garnet wants to look back but she can’t bring herself to do it.

Garnet takes Peri by the hand. Kids are lining up to go inside. Garnet and Peri walk to the line, as if they were escaping an explosion. Garnet knew that she wouldn’t sit with Sapph and Hapi tomorrow. She would never ever sit with them again. Though many might say Garnet was foolish to take such a little thing to heart, it is not foolish.

Garnet’s friends did much more, that was too painful to think about. Being only a second grader, Garnet took the decision to leave her friends. Though it ached her heart, she knew it was what she needed to do. Garnet and Peri reached the line. Peri squeezed Garnet’s hand. She gave her a warm smile. Behind them, Sapph and Hapi trembled, as they limped, arm in arm. Sapph had finally started crying. Sapph would never forgive herself. Hapi had straightened up, as she comforted Sapph. Sapph and Hapi would start their own story. No Garnet. Just them. Two girls. Garnet was happy to be out of that miserable friendship triangle. The bell rang.

Garnet and Peri said at the same time, to each other,”Let’s do this!” Garnet did not know it, but Peri would be her best friend for the next five years. But that’s another story!

Manushree Navaneethakrishnan