Alice was the shyest girl that you’d ever meet. She hated having attention on herself and liked to have a large group of friends so that she could slip in and out without being noticed. She was always shirking away from talking in class. She tried to make herself as invisible as possible.
A few of the people in her very large friend group noticed she was often leaving to go be alone, and they told the rest of the group so. They all decided that they were going to help her out. But they didn't know how. Everyone except for Melody, that is.
Melody was not at all shy. She loved going to concerts and playing the guitar and singing for large crowds. Speeches were even better. She figured she should try to share a little bit of outgoing-ness to this girl. So one Monday after school, Melody approached Alice, who was sitting under a large tree, reading. “What book do you have there?” she asked.
Alice jumped and said, “Oh, I'm sorry. You startled me.” in a very shy voice. She realized she had been asked a question after Melody kept looking at her for a few seconds, and her cheeks grew flaming hot as she embarrassedly said, “ ‘The Princess and The Dragon.’”
“Well, what's it about? You can't say a title like that and not intrigue me.” Melody smiled and sat down, showing that she was intending to stay and talk. They talked for a while about the book and the other books in the series. Alice started to feel at ease talking to Melody and relaxed. Alice’s mom drove up after about half an hour and Alice hopped up to go, grabbing her things. Melody stood and waved goodbye to her. She smiled and felt good. Like a good change was coming their way.
Every day after school now, Melody and Alice talked. On Friday, Melody asked her if she wanted to sleep over that night. Melody saw Alice’s expression and realized she was starting to crawl back into her turtle shell of safety. “Don’t worry, it’d just be you, me, and my mom. Oh and my dog. You'll love him, his name is Knight.” Alice thought about it for a minute and said, “Sure, I’d love to come over.” At that exact moment, Alice’s and Melody’s moms drove up. Alice asked her mom if she could spend the night with Melody. Her mom got very excited and said of course she could!
That night, those two girls had so much fun. They baked cookies (gluten and dairy free, because neither of them could eat gluten or dairy), did each other’s hair and makeup, swam in Melody’s pool, and played with Knight. They stayed up late into the night, giggling and talking. They decided that they should pop in a movie, eat some popcorn, and then go to bed. But then after that, they were still talking. Mrs Melissa told the girls around 1 am that it was time to go to bed.
The girls fell asleep finally at about 2. They woke up in the morning with huge smiles on their faces, and circles under their eyes. They decided to make a new gluten and dairy free pancake recipe that Alice had been wanting to try. It was amazing! They ate and ate those pancakes. Mrs Melissa smiled watching them. She had noticed that Alice was not like any of the other friends that Melody ever made or brought home. Alice was softer, not so loud. Kinder, and had more manners. Not that any of those kids were bad, just it was nice for a change.
That day they swam again, read for a little, and drank tea outside while munching on cookies and talking. They had laid out a picnic blanket and now the two were watching the clouds go by. At 3 that afternoon, Alice’s mother came for her and they waved goodbye sadly.
On Monday morning, Melody waited beside the tree for Alice so that they could walk to their 11th grade history class together, but Alice never came. She walked to the first block alone and saw Alice there. Melody was confused and Alice apologized and said she forgot to wait by the tree because it had been a stressful morning. Melody smiled and said she understood. Once first block started, their teacher, Mr Blandicol but more widely known as Mr B, talked about the partner projects they were going to do.
When Mr B said to go ahead and find their partners, three girls looked at Melody at the same time. She said to the three girls, “Sorry gals, I’m already partners with Alice.” They looked at Alice and each other and slumped in their seats.
Alice leaned over to Melody and whispered in her shy voice, “I… I’ll be fine. You can go work with one of your friends.” and started to move her stuff to make room for someone else. Melody grabbed Alice’s arm and stood up with her.
She said, “I am working with one of my friends. My best friend to be exact.”
Alice looked at Melody and said very excitedly, “You… you mean I’m your… best friend?” Melody nodded vigorously. “I was so worried that I was just a bit of a project to you, to help me get out of my turtle shell, but we are friends now, aren't we? Best friends.” Alice smiled and sat back down. They worked together on that project for weeks and aced it.
They started having sleepovers almost every weekend, switching between houses. They grew closer and closer that year and went into the 12th grade as best friends.
They now had a secret handshake, nicknames for each other, and shared every single secret. The first Friday of school, they were planning to go to Melody’s house after school to have a sleepover. Melody’s dad was at home when they got there. He said, “So, what's the plan for today’s sleepover?”
“Oh, we don't really know. Maybe just hang out, swim.” Melody said while looking at Alice and she nodded.
“Well…” her dad started, “I was going to go back to work… but Ithought maybe you girls would like to go to a movie? And then out to eat?” His eyes twinkled. The three of them scrambled to the car to get shotgun. Alice got there first and said, “Haha!” triumphantly. They laughed and drove to the movies.
At the movies, there weren't many options that were age ok, but there were four good ones to choose from- The Avengers, The Sound Of Music, The Princess Bride, and Milo and Otis. The girls looked at each other and said, “Princess Bride!” and their dad said “As you wish.”
They ate movie candy and raisins during the movie and then they went to Chickfila for dinner. They also stopped by the store to buy some sleepover essentials. When they got home, it was already 9:30. Her dad and mom went to bed early because they had a big party planned for the next day for a friend from church.
The girls stayed up a little later. Alice showed some of her poetry to Melody and it was gorgeous. After talking for a while, they decided to go to sleep.
Melody was drifting off to sleep when all of a sudden, she remembered a poetry contest that was happening next weekend. “Ali!!!! Wake up! I just remembered something important!”
Alice bolted up and said, “what is it, Mellie?”
“There's a poetry contest next weekend! Saturday at 10! You should go!!! And enter a poem and read it out loud! Your poetry is absolutely beautiful and amazing.”
The introverted shy Alice looked scared about the idea of this, but she wanted to make Mellie proud, so she was torn. She said that she would sleep on it, and all that week Melody was coaching her on public speaking. Friday afternoon came and Alice finally agreed. They decided not to have a sleepover so they could both get good rest for the next day.
In the morning, Alice scardly got up and got dressed in something cute but not too fancy. Melody did the same, but with more confidence. They had decided to meet up at the school around 9:30 so Melody could help Alice out.
Alice knew as soon as the clock hit 9:45 that something was wrong. She could feel it. Melody still wasn't there. She called her about ten times by the time it was 9:55. She decided it must have been something that Melody had planned and she must be there in the auditorium, waiting to cheer her on from there.
Everything was a blur until her name was called. She stood up. Alice looked around and could not see her friend anywhere. She thought it must have just been part of Melody’s plan, and she recited half of her poem, until she saw an ambulance passing, lights on and they were speeding.
Her attention was distracted from the poem and she stood there for a minute or two before she could think properly. Someone cleared their throat and her heart stopped. She was so so embarrassed. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she ran off stage. Her best friend hadn't even shown up to her biggest event. She had finally opened up, and Melody wasn't even there. All of a sudden she remembered the ambulance.
Alice ran to her car and started driving to the hospital. When she got there, she saw Mrs Melissa’s and Mr Kevin’s car. She called them and said she was on her way in.
Melody had been driving down the road when all of a sudden a car was being recklessly driven. The drunkenly driven car swerved right into her car. Alice looked at her best friend in that hospital bed, so still and small. When she had gotten near, Melody’s parents had warned her through tears about what she looked like. Her left leg was missing, and her left arm was broken. She had a few bumps on her head and was in a coma.
Alice was there through everything for Melody. Every day after school Alice would sit there and talk to her. She even brought Knight in when she could. But Melody never woke up from that coma. She died two months after that car crash. Alice went to the funeral with tears in her eyes and so many memories in her brain.
Mrs Melissa and Mr Kevin wanted to give Knight to Alice as a thank you and he was Melody’s dog. They knew she would have wanted Alice to have the pup. Alice was there for Melody’s parents and they were there for her.
Alice’s first friend died too soon. She taught Alice so much. About love, friendship, and life. She vowed to take care of Knight for all of his days, and she took excellent care for him. Somehow he knew that Melody was gone. And he took care of Alice until his last breath 13 years later.
For Alice, so much had changed, and she missed Melody every single day. It was a chunk of her heart that would always be missing. But she would be ok, because she knew that, even though Melody died, she had an amazing friendship. It was a friendship fulfilled.
The end.
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