“When is your birthday?” I asked.
“November 28th,” she answered.
“Cool, that’s just like a month away,” I said. Amber nodded and for a few seconds, there was an awkward silence.
“Are you also turning eleven?” I asked, not releasing that was the stupidest question ever. “If she weren’t turning eleven, she wouldn’t be in the fifth grade,” I answered myself.
“Hmm yes,” she said slowly and walked away. I looked at her go and begged to have a second chance at talking to her.
“Dude, you hugged the new girl for almost a minute,” I heard Daniel say.
“What?” I asked, trying to sound confused.
“That was the longest hug I’ve seen,” he insisted.
I saw Amber walk away and finally out of my sight. Daniel and I sat in the monkey bars during recess to talk about our hiking trip and planned what to do once we reached the Rockies.
My birthday would have gone perfectly, but Ms. Flowers introduced us to us the devil. Her name was Skylar, and she was the school bully. Not the typical bully, but the intense kind. Rumors said she had dumped a trashcan onto a first grader two years ago and that she had burned the girls’ bathrooms. She had dropped the F-bomb on her previous teacher and for that reason, she was now our new classmate. Ms. Flowers was too nice for Skylar. I felt sorry for her, Ms. Flowers didn’t deserve a student like Skylar and neither did we. Skylar was well known for making fun of everyone. She had the nastiest nicknames for the entire school. The girl was a maniac. Daniel thought differently. He thought she was cute and believed she would change once we reached middle school. I have to be honest, Skylar had the best eyes there could be. Two big blue round eyes and her eyelashes went perfectly with them. But once you stared at her for more than a minute, you could see all the evil inside. Skylar behaved well the first day and the next, on Friday one day before my trip, she tried bullying Caleb by calling him a dwarf but Ms. Flowers caught her and immediately called her parents for a meeting on Monday morning. I knew it wouldn’t be enough to suspend her but I wished it was. I didn’t hate anyone, but Skylar came really close to it.
On Saturday morning everything seemed great. We picked up Daniel at his house and headed for the airport. According to dad, we would arrive in Denver at around two. That gave us an entire two days of hiking. Mom had searched on the internet for the best hiking spots in the area and had found the best. I enjoyed the entire trip and reached the top of each hiking point before anyone did. On the third hiking spot, I saw a young couple at the very top and thought about the possibility of bringing Amber in a near future. On Sunday, after a morning hike, we visited the Denver Zoo and some museums. This had been the greatest birthday present I had received in a long time. I loved Colorado.
Mom took photographs of the entire trip and had them printed out, right after we got back to Boston. They looked great! I had one of Daniel and me turned into a poster and hung it right over my bed. Before bed I heard Nick talking to Judy on our front lawn, I spied on them for a while and after minutes of talking; they kissed goodbye. I was at the age when kissing wasn’t gross anymore, in fact, I was at the age of looking forward to getting my first kiss. I wanted to ask Nick for advice but knew it was dumb; he would probably laugh at me or make fun of the fact that I had a crush on a girl. I did things differently and teased him instead.
“Nick and Judy sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G,” I said as he walked in. I knew love was powerful because Nick laughed instead of kicking me.
“You’re stupid,” he said, walking to his room.
“Nick wait, can I ask you something?” I asked. He nodded.
“Never mind, I’ll ask you later,” I said. Nick looked at me funny and kept walking. I wanted to ask my brother how it was to show your true feelings to the person you liked, but knew it was too soon for me to think I could ever have a possibility with Amber.
Chapter Five
Amber: I had the shortest weekend of my life. Skylar knew my secret, and it was killing me. I spent most of the weekend locked up in my room, with only Ernest by my side. He was the only one who understood me in times like this. When this happened, I didn’t like talking to anyone. It sucked to be made fun of for something you didn’t choose to have. Ernest was the only one that seemed to get the fact that sometimes I just wanted to cry and cry only. Not talk, not feel better, not anything, just cry. I cried myself to sleep on Saturday night and woke up the next morning to Ernest licking my face.
“Stop it, stop it,” I laughed, trying to get him off. Sunday was a tough day for me, some of dad’s new co-workers were coming home for dinner and mom forced me to come out of my room. I tried to not say anything while they spoke, most of it was adult topics, and all Grace and I could do was look at each other trying to figure out what they said. I knew dad had told them about the cancer, the way they looked at me told me they knew about it. The oldest man often looked at me and smiled, but I didn’t smile back. For dinner we had Italian and for dessert, we had pumpkin pie, which was my favorite. I had three slices and the women sitting next to mom started staring at me funny. She was a big woman, so I knew she wanted more pie, but was too embarrassed to admit it.
“Here have some more pie,” I said, handing her a big slice. I knew what it felt like to want more of something and not be able to ask because you were too embarrassed.
“Thanks,” she said smiling. I smiled back and resumed eating my third slice.
“What do you like to do?” asked the big woman. I continued eating, not noticing the question was for me.
“Amber, Ms. Williams is asking you a question,” said mom. I looked up and saw everyone staring at me.
“I don’t do much,” I finally answered.
“Boston is a great city, lots of fun things to do for kids your age,” said Ms. Williams.
“Like what?” I asked, not noticing how rude I’d sound.
“Depends on what you like to do,” she said. I looked at her and tried to tell her I didn’t like doing anything besides reading and staying home.
“I have a gift for you,” said Ms. Williams. A gift?
“Your father told me it was your birthday recently and I thought I’d give you a little something to get your mind distracted for a bit,” she said leaning back to pull something out of her bag. I lifted my head to have a better look but couldn’t see anything over the pumpkin pie. I turned to see mom and dad but they seemed as confused as I was, they didn’t know anything about the gift either.
“Here you go,” said Ms. Williams handing me one of the best cameras I’d seen in my life. The white box had a picture of the camera contained inside. My eyes went wide and my jaw dropped. I picked the box up in my hands and turned around all four ways to see what else I could see.
“It’s great for taking pictures, and Boston has lots of places where that camera could come in handy,” said Ms. Williams smiling.
“Amber, don’t you want to say something,” said mom, turning her face towards Ms. Williams. At first, I was so impressed with the camera but then I understood what mom was trying to say.
“This is really for me?” I asked stupidly.
“Of course,” said Ms. Williams.
“Thank you so much.”
After a few minutes mom pulled out a bottle of wine and dismissed me and Grace to our rooms. I thanked Ms. Williams one last time and rushed out of the dining room. I threw everything off my bed and placed my new camera right in the center. I admired it for a few seconds and finally opened it. I opened each side carefully and pulled out everything inside. I turned it on and saw how great the camera was. I opened my door and whistled for Ernest to come in. He would be the first I would photograph. I placed a chewy bone toy in the corner of my room and Ernest modeled for a couple of photos. Ms. Williams’s gift had made me forget all about Skylar and in a couple of hours, I felt like a professional photographer. I slept late that night and woke up to hit snooze on my alarm twice. Ernest had fallen asleep in my room and mom
came in screaming at both of us to get up.
“Do you know what time it is?” she asked in an angry tone. I looked at my alarm clock and saw I only had time to get ready and take a quick snack before it was time to go to school. Ernest went back to sleep and I hid my camera on top of my closet so Ernest couldn’t come near it. I placed my wig on and remember why my Saturday had been a horrible day. Skylar would tell everyone about the cancer today. My smile from having a brand new camera slowly went away, I was back to reality.
I moved slowly into the car, my face resembled the same face I’ve had on Saturday. I didn’t want to go to school. I was afraid, afraid of Skylar. Mom kissed me goodbye and I walked as slow as possible into the school’s yard. Emily waved at me from the big blue slide.
“Hey,” I said walking up to her.
“Hey how was your weekend?” she asked. But before I could answer I saw Skylar walking behind us and she giggled as soon as she saw me.
“Would you be my friend no matter what?” I asked Emily. She looked at me funny but ended up nodding.
“Of course,” she answered.
“There’s something I haven’t told you about me and can’t tell you just yet,” I said.
“Okay,” she answered. We walked in to find Skylar sitting in front of Ms. Flowers, and as I passed by I heard her still giggling at me. The bell rang and Ms. Flowers began her class. Every three or four minutes I saw Skylar turn around to see me and laughed directly at my face. The tears were filling up inside my eyes. I didn’t want to be there, I wanted to run out and not stop. I saw Skylar pulling out a second notebook from her backpack and she began drawing. She stared at me for a few seconds then went back to drawing. After a few minutes she folded the paper into four parts and handed it to Sara the girl sitting behind her, Sara passed it on and whispered something onto the boy sitting behind her. The piece of paper finally reached the boy sitting in front of me.
“It’s for you from Skylar,” he said handing me the folded paper. I looked up at Skylar and saw her trying to keep her laugh together, I was afraid of what was inside. I raised my hand and Skylar began panicking.
“Yes, Amber?” asked Ms. Flowers.
“May I go to the restroom?” I asked.
“You may go,” she answered. I walked past Skylar and I saw the sign of relief on her face. I reached the closest restrooms and unfolded the piece of paper in my hand. Tears immediately rolled down my face, I tried hard not to cry but the picture Skylar has drawn of me is too much. I wiped my tears and throw the drawing of my bald self onto the toilet and flushed. I hated her. I hated her more than anything. I wanted to run out of school and never come back, I wanted to be home-schooled like dad once suggested. I’m trying hard not to cry but the tears exit my eyes without me knowing. My eyes burned and my head wanted to explode. “Stop crying,” I thought. “Don’t let her hurt you like this.” I looked myself in the mirror and saw my eyes swollen. Anyone who’d cried before would know I cried when they saw me. I exited the bathroom and found Noah walking my way.
“Is everything okay?” he asked. I nodded ‘yes’ in reply afraid my voice would reveal what I had done in the bathroom.
“I once dared to go number two in the third grade and there wasn’t any toilet paper,” he said.
“I had to wait until my friend Daniel came and saved me, just making sure the same thing hadn’t happened to you,” he added. I couldn’t avoid laughing.
“No, I was just bored in class and needed a little time off,” I answered.
“Okay, I’ll see you later,” he said. I walked back into the classroom and found Ms. Flowers reading from a textbook. I avoided looking at Skylar but when I passed right by her I heard her stupid laugh. I took a seat and Emily tapped my leg to find out what had happened.
“I’ll tell you later,” I whispered. At this point I begged that Ms. Flowers didn’t ask me to read from the textbook, I pretended to follow along as she read but the truth was I didn’t have my textbook on the same page as everyone else. I couldn’t concentrate. All I could think about was that stupid drawing Skylar made of me. I closed my eyes trying to forget, but the image kept forming in my head. There I was in drawing formation, she even took the time to color the drawing exactly how I was dressed today. The drawing looked exactly like me except it had no wig. I wanted this day to be over, I pictured myself at home photographing Ernest and staying in my room the entire day. I saw Noah come back and I smiled remembering about his restroom problem when he was in the third grade. He stared at me the whole time as he walked to his spot. He finally sat and I turned my eyes onto my textbook.
“Students, I will be leaving you to work on page number seventy-eight. I’m running to the principal’s office and will be back shortly,” said Ms. Flowers. I turned to Emily to figure out what we have to do since I had no idea what the text we had just read was about.
“What was the text about?” I asked Emily.
“It was about-” Emily stopped talking and soon focused her eyes over my head. Before I could ask what was wrong I felt two cold hands on my shoulders. I turned around and found Skylar standing in front of me with a wicked smile. I looked at her with some fright. I didn’t know what she wanted. She stood there smiling and looking at the door.
“It’s time everyone knows your secret,” she said looking down on my wig. “She won’t do it,” I thought.
“Come on tell all of us what you have been hiding!” she screamed.
“Please don’t,” I whispered slowly for just her to hear me.
“I can’t hear you,” she said laughing. I tried standing up but she blocked my way and placed her hands on my shoulders again.
“Nice hair Amber,” she said. My eyes are filled with tears. Everyone in the room is looking at us. I’m getting ready to cry. I tried to be strong but it’s too late I feel Skylar’s hand on top of my head, she pulled hard on my wig making it fall off. I felt naked, insecure. Skylar laughed but not many others did. I heard whispers but I couldn’t tell what they said. Skylar spun my wig in the air for everyone to see. I was in tears.
The noise inside the room became louder and soon I was able to hear a few laughs and others questioning Skylar on why she had done this. Skylar’s stupid laugh was the loudest in the room and it made me angry to hear it.
“Amber has cancer,” she said, laughing.
“Come around and I’ll tell you your future with the crystal ball Amber has for a head!” she screamed. I tried to look for my wig but it was no longer in Skylar’s hands. I pushed Skylar out of the way but a small crowd has formed around us. ‘Fight, fight’ I heard some say. ‘Look at her bald head’ I heard others. I looked around for Emily hoping she can do something to help me but she isn’t, she’s was the type that would avoid a fight at all cost. Skylar is getting ready to say something else when I see a boy finally stand up for me, it’s Noah. He’s making his way through the small crowd screaming her to stop. Skylar opened her mouth to say something but before the words could leave her mouth Noah pushed her to the ground. She slammed onto a desk and then hit the floor.
“You can’t hit a girl, you coward!” screamed a boy standing next to Skylar.
“Yes I can, and I can hit you too!” screamed Noah punching the boy in the face.
“Noah! What are you doing?” screamed Ms. Flowers from the door. Ms. Flowers rushed towards Noah and pulled him away. Ms. Flowers knew what was going on as soon as she saw me wigless.
“What happened?” she asked trying to get more details.
“Skylar is making fun of Amber!” shouted Emily. Skylar stood up from the ground and before I knew she had scratched Noah in the face before Ms. Flowers could stop her.
“Skylar!” screamed Ms. Flowers from the top of her lungs. Her scream had made the teachers in the nearest classrooms poke their heads inside.
“Help me take this boy directly to Mrs. Jones’s office!” she screamed pointing at Noah. The teacher next door walked out of the room with Noah by the hand. Emily handed me ba
ck my wig but I didn’t place it on. I didn’t feel like hiding anymore, Skylar had crossed the line. I saw Ms. Flowers exit the room grabbing Skylar with one hand and the boy Noah had punched on the other. I felt horrible. In my mind, I was planning to tell mom and dad I wanted to be homeschooled. I wouldn’t be able to feel the same with Skylar around. I wanted her expelled.
Chapter Six
Noah: Telling Nick about my crush on Amber was much harder than I thought. Every time I got ready to tell him my brain would send out different commands. He told me all about how great Judy was and how well they got along. I was happy for Nick.
Nick wasn’t the most popular in high school, and a girlfriend got his mind off a lot of things. He hadn’t made Judy his girlfriend yet, but she did seem to act like it.
On Monday morning dad discussed to all of us the possibility of him getting promoted at his job, which was great according to mom.
“We could use some extra money around here,” she said, serving scrambled eggs onto our plates.
“Yeah, maybe we can finally move out of this house,” said dad.
“It’s getting crowded in here,” he added.
“Move out? We can’t move!” shouted Nick.
“Sure we can, when your mother and I got married we decided this would only be our home for a couple of years.”
“But Judy lives next door,” said Nick. I was glad Nick was standing up to the possibility of moving, because moving meant possibly changing schools, which meant no more Amber.
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