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Prologue
To this day, nobody really knows the real story.
The story about Cathy and Andrea.
Nobody, that is, but me.
There’s still gossip in the halls about what happened, twisted stories people made up as an explanation.
They don’t want to admit that there was some type of magic involved. You see, people these days don’t really believe in the supernatural. But there’s no avoiding it. Once it captures you, you’re entrapped in it, and you can’t get out…unless you decide to pursue it further. Then, it runs away from you, until there are no traces in your life of it ever existing. So, are you in the mood to hear a story? It’s the story of Cathy and Andrea. 2 girls that didn’t really have much of a relationship…..until it was too late to have one. Do you want to find out more? Read on!!!
She was always made fun of . Nobody wanted to be her friend. But she knew who’s friend she wanted to be. Cathy’s. Cathy understood her. She didn’t talk to her. But she and Cathy had a telepathic relationship. Sometimes, when they got close, they really felt each other’s thoughts, feelings, emotions…it was weird, and Cathy didn’t understand it. They both knew they had it….Cathy sometimes saw Andrea’s expression when she was having one, and Cathy had witnessed many attacks herself. Cathy felt Andrea lurking in the back of her mind, but she didn’t interrupt any of her thoughts. And yet, Cathy didn’t make fun of her like all the other kids in the school did. Everybody knew that Andrea admired Cathy, but nobody knew why. Cathy had the most snobbish friends in the school. Cathy was the nicest of the group. She didn’t snub Andrea like all her friends did. But you have to admit, Andrea was weird. She always wore black. Always wore that old-fashioned clothing. Always wore those black skirts. But the most weird was that ugly emerald brooch.
She always fingered it nervously, making sure that it was there. Cathy never admit it, but there was something about that brooch…it just seemed familiar. She had probably bought one for somebody just like it, Cathy had thought, dismissing the thought easily. And even though Andrea liked Cathy, Cathy gave no sign of liking her back. So everyone was surprised when Andrea’s name showed up on the huge list of people Cathy had decided to invite to her Halloween party.
“You’re inviting her? Robin asked in disgust, her green eyes flashing dangerously. Of all Cathy’s friends, Robin had the biggest temper. “Yes, as a matter of fact, I am,” Cathy said, matching Robin’s green eyes with her blue ones. Cathy won the staring contest. But Robin didn’t give up. She grabbed up her mink coat. Cathy stared at the mink coat in disgust. She was a vegetarian. Looking at Cathy one more time, Robin flung the coat over her shoulders and ran out of the house, slamming the door loudly behind her. Sighing, she sat down and started decorating the invitations.
“Cathy, wake up, wake up.” Cathy heard her little brother’s voice ringing in her ears.
“Urrgh” Cathy gurgled.
Lazily opening one eye, she immediately closed it. Her father’s huge mahogany desk was littered with papers, envelopes, invitations, decorations and bunches of other stuff. Her tongue was all scratched, but not as much as her fingers. They were covered in paper cuts, most covered in band-aids.
20 down, 80 to go. She sighed wearily.
Suddenly getting struck with an idea, she ran to the cabinets and grabbed chips and hot chocolate. She quickly dialed her best friend in the club’s number.
Rebecca.
Beep, Beep.
“Hello, Cathy.” (Rebecca had caller ID)
“Hi. Could you do me a favor? Call the others and gather at my house. I need your help finishing up the invitations.”
“What’s in it for me?” Rebecca asked, careful not to sound too interested.
“The cute housekeeper’s over….”
“We’ll be there in 10 minutes.”
True to their word, the girls arrived 10 minutes later on the dot, in Olivia’s black limousine. Olivia’s father was a big Hollywood producer and she went everywhere
in their limousine. Olivia came out first, her silky black hair brushing the seat.
Cathy and Olivia waited for Theodora, Diana, Jessica, Grace, Lilly, Rebecca, Lila, and Elizabeth to walk out. Knowing who was missing, Cathy walked into the limousine and dragged Robin out. She scowled, but her scowl turned into a smile when she saw Adam (the cute housekeeper) dusting the front steps. She flipped her long red hair in Cathy’s face. He waved, she melted.
“Hi, girls,” he said in his Southern drawl.
“Hi, Adam,” Gracie replied calmly. Gracie was the only one of the girls that wasn’t completely boy-crazy.
Cathy pulled them into the house, knowing from experience that they would start drooling.
Opening the chips they worked for 2 hours on the invitations. (After all, lots of gossip can happen in 2 hours!)
“Did you hear Lacie (geek) flirted with Tom(cute boy/ radical surfer)?” asked Lilly
“Alicia(geek) fell over the stairs looking at Richard(major hottie)!” Theodora exclaimed.
Cathy poured the hot chocolate out of a gold thermos into 10 silver cups.
They walked into the back-yard with their warm cups in their hands, protecting them from the cool weather.
There was Adam standing over the pool, pulling leaves out of the water.
He saw them and waved.
Gracie looked out of place in front of all the swooning girls.
They all sat on the back-yard swing. And swung.
Out of the corner of her eye Cathy saw Jessica’s fainting look. When she wanted to faint in R.E. or when she had to give in a long-term assignment or to get out of any activity she didn’t want to do, she‘d concentrate, then pale, and then faint. She picked the moment while they were all swinging right on top of the pool and crumpled. As they were swinging, she crumpled and fell, headfirst into the huge body of water, in the middle of 11 feet. The girls knew that they should be scared, because people drown if they lose consciousness in the water. Plus the water was freezing. Cathy had an indoor pool, but her Dad insisted that they have an outdoor pool for special occasions. But Jessica had done this before. Lost consciousness in the water, I mean. She always came back up if not saved for a minute or so.
She was the best swimmer of all the girls .She had started swimming at age 3 and had saved a kid from a shark during a trip to Dominican Republic.
But Adam obviously didn’t know what a girl looked like when she was pretending to sink. He jumped after her, and caught her somewhere at 9 feet. She was a talented actress.
The girls watched, awed while she pretended not to breath and Adam gave her mouth-to mouth resuscitation. She could hold her breath up to 1 ½ minutes. She dramatically opened her eyes, and Adam ran his hand through his hair. She stood up awkwardly, and wobbled a little so that Adam could pick her up and put her on the swing. He did.
The girls sighed.
“Oh, thank-you Adam, you saved my life, what can I ever do to repay you?”
“Just be careful next time,” he said in that wonderful accent of his.
He walked away, water dripping off his shirt.
Jessica gave the girls her twinkling smile, the one that she showed through her eyes.
They all sighed. I mean, come on. Who doesn’t want the local hottie giving you mouth-to-mouth resuscitation?
So, making sure that Adam wasn’t around, they did the best thing they could do in their situation.
They threw Ms.Lucky off the swing and back into the pool. And when she came up sputtering, they just laughed.
The next day, Cathy let all the girls give out the invitations, saving one for herself.
Andrea’s.
Approaching the timid girl while she was twirling her locker combination, Cathy surprised Andrea.
“Hi.” she said loudly.
Andrea whirled around, surprised and frightened. Seeing it was Cathy she relaxed.
Cathy gave her the orange and yellow envelope.
“For me ?” Andrea asked, surprised.
“Of course for you, silly,” Cathy said.
“Is this a trick?” Andrea asked, puzzled but joyful that Cathy knew she was alive.
She touched Cathy’s hair and she let her. Cathy was used to that. Everybody touched her
hair. It was brown and thick and went up to her knees when curled. But if she brushed it, it went straight to her toes. When she was younger she pretended that she was Rapunzel
and threw her hair over her balcony so her brother could use it like a vine and jump into the pool. (The pool was right under the kid’s bedrooms because in case of a fire or emergency they could just jump into it.) It matched her huge, blue green eyes. She was the prettiest girl in the club. And everybody knew it. Robin was completely jealous of her, because she always got her way. She was the 2nd prettiest. She had red hair and it was the curliest in the club. It reached her elbows and spread around them making her look completely beautiful. She had piercing green eyes, and she used them wisely. And evilly.
She was the richest girl in the club, and she didn’t let anybody forget it.
Today, Cathy had on a red see-through shirt and a black t-shirt under that. (see-through shirts weren’t allowed in her school) She also had on a matching red headband. Her green cargo pants looked stellar with her blue flip-flops. And her purple eye shadow sparkled when she blinked her eyes.
“No, it isn’t, but if you don’t want to go then-”
“Oh, I’ll be there, I’ll be there no matter what!” a smile lit up Andrea’s face. Cathy had never seen Andrea smile before. She looks so pretty when she smiles, Cathy realized.
“The party starts at 7:00, ends at midnight…..” Cathy trailed off.
Andrea swung her locker open and took out her books.
“Oh, I’ll be there.”
She skipped down the hall.
And she would be there.
Cathy sighed and went to the other way to Health Class.
The day that Halloween came, the girls were at work stringing up final decorations over the five-floor mansion and checking the list of supplies and junk food.
“We forgot the 8 cans of dip,” Diana screamed over the sound of Olivia and Theodora
nailing a glowing, evil-looking glass jack-o-lantern to the ceiling. They were not doing a good job, to say the least.
Suddenly there was an ear-splitting crash of glass breaking, followed by several thumps and crashes, and, last but loudest, a wail.
Cathy, Robin, Diana, Lilly, and Elizabeth ran into the living room. They saw Olivia
and Theodora standing in the middle of the orange and yellow decorated room, surrounded by different colored shards of glass, hammers, nails, and something none of the girls could identify. Olivia looked around herself, her eyes filling up with tears. But before they could spill and turn into one of her famous tantrums, Cathy shoved a 20 dollar bill into her hand. She had been prepared for such things. Secretly, Cathy was glad the jack-o-lantern had crashed. It had creeped her out.
“Go buy a new one, k ?” Cathy asked Olivia.
Olivia knew along with everyone else that a glass Halloween jack-o-lantern cost only 15 dollars, and she knew that the cool gold hair-brush she had liked in the store window today on her way home from school was 5 dollars, so she ran out of the room, her long black hair flying after her, before Cathy could change her mind. One scenario prevented, Cathy satisfying left, making sure that Nanny, today’s housekeeper was cleaning the glass shards.
Remembering the dip, she grabbed her coat and ran out the door, because she knew that the other girls were too preoccupied decorating the banisters.
Returning an hour later with 5 shopping bags, she entered the huge mansion and took out
all the groceries and started setting them out on the table. Who cares if she had bought
4 ½ bags too many? She forget that people are lactose intolerant, kosher, vegetarians, on a diet, and other reasons to why they can’t eat all the food she had bought, and had set out and bought last-minute supplies. Moving at hyper-speed she finished everything and ran to her room to pick an outfit.
Cathy’s room was covered in mirrors, so she could see herself at all angles.
She was a fairy.
She twirled around and watched the skirt of her dress billow up.
She was wearing a sleeveless baby rose cotton dress, and it showed her figure and tanned arms. There was a crown on the front of the dress and it was traced in a thin material that felt very soft to the touch.
Her wings were delicate and gold-trimmed. Cathy felt them flap against her back as she moved around.
There was one of those triangular cones on her head, but this one was made of soft material and made her head feel warm . Her curly red hair fell out of it and made it’s way to her knees. Cathy felt it brush against her legs as she ran around the house, making sure that everything was in place. Ding ,dong. Her first guest!
When she flung the door open, she expected it to be Andrea, but she found herself face-to-face with Michael, the cute African-American student that she had a crush on, instead. He had on an Indian costume that showed his muscles quite clearly.
Cathy felt herself blush.
“Why, your cheeks match your costume, Cathy, and you look hot.”
Cathy blushed harder. Then remembering her manners, she ushered him in. Before she could close the door, a carpool of kids ran into the house, right up to the snack table.
For the rest of the hour kids came in and before Cathy could close the door, more came in. Cathy gave up, leaving the door open. She kept scanning the crowd, looking for Andrea. For some reason, Cathy felt….worried for her. Person after person came in, but none were Andrea. Grace, the smartest and most sensitive and emotional girl in the club noticed this and came up to Cathy.
Now, time for my opinion! Grace is sooooo not nice! She is a complete snob and disses everybody. But, when I talked to Cathy, Cathy confirmed what Robin told me earlier: that Gracie was nice to all members of the club (much good that did to the rest of us).
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” Came the tense reply.
“You sure?”
“Yeah.”
“Positive?”
Cathy turned around.
“Yes, I’m sure. Leave me alone already! This is my party and my house and I said I’m fine!”
Grace left, mumbling something under her breath about trying to help.
Cathy turned her back on her. 7:15, 7:30, 7:45. Cathy watched the minutes tick by, but no Andrea.
Then Cathy started to worry. She honestly didn’t know why. She didn’t care about Andrea that much. Did she? She felt like Andrea’s mother, standing there, not liking being kept waiting, ready to scold Andrea the second she stepped into the door. If only Andrea had a cell phone…but, no, Andrea had strict parents that didn’t allow cell phones or much modern technology. Andrea had no cable, no phone in her own room, and her parents had just recently allowed her internet access. And she didn’t even have Yahoo or AOL! Emotions tumbled around Cathy’s stomach…Anger, fear, and ones she couldn’t identify.
Then at 8:00 p.m. sharp the bell rang. Cathy threw the door open so hard that she had to catch it so that it didn’t hit the wall.
Before she could even look at Andrea, she had a vision
Like I said earlier, Cathy and Andrea had a telepathic relationship. When Andrea felt really hard about something Cathy suddenly felt feelings that she knew Andrea was feeling. She didn’t know how she knew that it was Andrea, but she just did. She didn’t know if Andrea felt the same way, but Cathy knew that she felt Andrea. Suddenly, as she stood there, holding the door open for her late guest, (hint, hint. “Late” has a double meaning. In this case, I meant it as both.) Cathy felt like she was going thru a fast-moving movie, with no control over where the story was headed, she was just the audience. Scenes and images flew pat her eyes before she could fully capture them : a birthday party not attended by any of her classmates…a screaming match between 2 parents….a graveyard…..a red-faced teacher pointing her finger accusingly…Cathy suppressed a gasp. These were her visions! This was an incredible feeling, just like déjà vu. Cathy had gone through all this herself! And yet, the girl in the visions had straight black hair, and sad, gray eyes, and a necklace that had the letter ‘A’ on it. Cathy almost screamed. She had one EXACTLY like it, only with a ‘C’. And, suddenly, her destination was reached. Cathy stood, hovering, over the crowd of people, far away from the party going on around her. In Andrea’s eyes, she saw herself, frozen in a statue of open-mouthed horror. And then, too quickly, it was over.
Cathy felt chills. When Cathy turned around, the sight that greeted her made her blood run cold.
There was Andrea, but not the Andrea that she remembered.
Andrea’s hair was floating around her head, like there was some type of wind was
blowing it. But this was California. There was no wind.
Andrea’s eyes were dim, like the light that kept them alive was extinguished.
Usually when Andrea saw Cathy, her eyes would light up brighter than Manhattan did on New Years’ Eve.
Her whole body was pale, paler than a sheet. Cathy had never seen something so……….. white
Her lips were bleeding and cut, and her emerald brooch was glowing so bright that the
light blinded Cathy for a second.
When she could focus again Cathy noticed a gash on Andrea’s forehead that was bleeding very heavily and the Welcome! Mat had turned from yellow to blood-red.
Her clothes were tattered. A cut on her leg had stopped bleeding, but her leg was slick and wet with fresh blood.
Thinking that this was a Halloween prank Cathy laughed so loudly that she fell
onto her knees on the mat. But feeling the damp red mixture and seeing how real the gash was , Cathy gasped.
Taking Andrea’s bony hand she urgently tugged her in. But she dropped the hand with a loud cry when she realized how cold it truly was.
Taking Andrea by a segment of her shirt that wasn’t tattered, Cathy dragged her in, not waiting for an explanation.
She deposited Andrea on the leather couch, but rethought that when she saw that the gash was still dripping blood. She then ran into the kitchen and grabbed 5 piece or so of Bounty. Then she ran it under cold water and did the same for another 5 pieces. She then ran back to Andrea, placed one on the bleeding gash and one on the leg and quickly wiped the blood up. Then she ran to the table labeled ‘Drinks” and grabbed the hot chocolate with the most steam.
She brought it to Andrea, who gratefully accepted it. She sipped it quietly, deep in thought. “You figured it out, didn’t you?” Andrea asked quietly.
“Yeah, I did.” Cathy looked down at her shoes.
“I always was envious of you. You got the rich, nice family. And you became popular, I was the outcast. I didn’t think it was fair. You got all the luck. I didn’t know what you had that I didn’t.”
“Andrea….I didn’t know.”
Andrea stared into Cathy’s eyes, identical to her own.
Cathy shivered. Was it her imagination, or had the room become colder?
“Yes, you did. You felt it. Deep inside, you knew all along. You just chose to deny it. Cathy, didn’t you ever wonder? Didn’t you ever wonder who your real birth mother was, who your siblings were? Don’t deny it, you did. I came here, Cathy, because I tracked you down. I had it all going for me in my old school. Cheerleader, honor student, student body president….I came here because I wanted to see you! I gave all that up, and you didn’t even acknowledge me in the halls! Think how I felt!
“Andrea, I-”
Andrea held up a hand.
“Cathy, it’s too late for apologies. I just want you to know that I love you, and the times that we did share were wonderful.”
Cathy felt tears pool in her eyes.
“Cathy I have to go.”
“Don’t go, you just got here!” But hearing the urgent tone in Andrea’s voice, Cathy knew it was useless talking to her sister. Her mind was made up.
Andrea put down the mug.
Very carefully she took off the green emerald brooch that Cathy knew meant so much to Andrea.
“I want you to keep this, to remember me by.”
“But, Andrea, I’ll see you in school tomorrow an-”
“No, you won’t. Goodbye, Cathy. And if you learned nothing from me, remember this. Cathy, don’t deny yourself. Don’t lie to yourself. Your conscious knows what’s right and what isn’t. You’re not fooling anybody. Not even yourself. ” Andrea had interrupted, something she wasn’t known to do.
Before Cathy could ask what she meant, Andrea was out the door, but without her emerald brooch.
Cathy ran out the door, but Andrea was nowhere to be found.
The palm trees surrounding Cathy’s house rustled, as if pointing in the direction Andrea had gone.
The next day in homeroom, the homeroom teacher, Mr.Homes waited until everyone was seated until he cleared his throat.
“Children, I have an announcement to make.”
Everyone quieted down, as Mr. Homes rarely made announcements.
“We will have one less student in our Homeroom,” he started and that’s when Cathy looked over and saw that Andrea’s seat was vacant.
Cathy’s train of thought took off, and there was no stopping it. Her mind went of in a billion different directions, and Cathy didn’t like the way any of them were headed.
“She’s just late, she’s just late, she’s just late…” Cathy muttered. Who was she trying to convince? Herself, maybe? But no, Andrea had given her only one piece of advice, not to deny herself. She knew the truth. She could face it.
“Yesterday, Andrea wanted to go to a Halloween party, but her parents didn’t allow her to. She sneaked out and was running across the street, hurried because she was late.”
Cathy knew what was coming next. She didn’t want to hear it. But Mr. Homes confirmed her fears.
“And then at promptly 7:30, the truck hit her.”
What? She was at my party at 8:00. I saw her there. I touched her. She gave me the brooch. Cathy turned to see several people gaping, because they, too had seen Andrea.
Tears slid down Cathy’s cheeks. No! She wasn’t ready! How could this be happening to her? She had just started to enjoy Andrea’s company, and had something to look forward to! And she was already being taken away! Why did this always happen to her? How come whenever Cathy discovered something she loved, it was taken away from her? Her mother and father, those 3-D chips that are out of sale currently (um, actually, that was me…), and now Andrea! She wasn’t ready! “Dear God, please don’t make me face the world without my family! Please!” She prayed, something she had never done before. The tears slid further, harder, faster, and then they hit the brooch. Suddenly the brooch pulsed with energy, letting Cathy know that Andrea would always be there. No matter what.
Note: I read a similar, 2-page story a while back and decided to improvise, because the old story had no details. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
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