The picture book

After doing my homework that I had gotten from Denise I ran downstairs to call my new friend.

“Hey Laura, how would you like to hang out?”

Though I never got to hear a reply, my mother wrestled the phone away from me and hung it up. Her face was a bright red and was practically yelling off my ear. It was a scary sight seeing her in that rage.

“Your not going to hang out with anyone young lady! I got a call from the school saying how you didn’t show up today. Your going to be grounded for a fair amount of time!”

My face fell.

“But mom, I knew there was going to be no way for me to make it to school on time. So I headed out to the hospital so I can work there after school. You always said that you wanted me to have a job. This will be great practice for the future!”

She gave a look at me.

“Your still going to be grounded, but I will let you see your friend. There’s no point of being rude.”

I picked up the phone again. Mother certainly had been moody lately. I was sure Oliva’s plan would of gotten me out of being grounded.

“Sorry about that. My mom just found out that I skipped school after forgetting to set my alarm yesterday.”

“Ah, well your welcome to come over if your not in trouble for skipping school.”

“OK, so where is your house?”

Laura gave me her address, it seemed she didn’t live far away. I decided to walk there since I had a feeling my mother wouldn’t drive me down there anyways.

I knocked on the door, a pleasant looking woman answered the door. She seemed a little bit tired though. Sort of like my mom after a hard days work. I give a little smile and a wave at the woman.

“Hello I am Ayita, here to see Laura?”

The woman nodded and pointed upstairs, her voice was quiet and whispy.

“She is in the first room that you come to.”

I nodded my thanks and jumped up the steps. The house seemed strangely quiet. Wonder what the rest of the family members are up to, I thought as I opened the door to Laura’s room. It seemed a heck of a lot more girly than mine. She had a lot of pink ruffles and stuffed animals sitting on her bed. Mine was mostly decorated with Native Amercican sort of things.

“Nice house, though it seems rather quiet in here. There always seems to be something going on where I live. Perhaps because my sister is in my face all the time.”

Laura had implied her sister was a pain when we met, if I remembered correctly. This place sort of reminded me of going to my grandparents house. The most noise was a steady tick of an old clock.

“Dad is still at work, my sister is...off somewhere. My mom has been a bit depressed lately and she likes the house to be quiet when I am feeling down. Me I like my music loud when I am in a bad mood. It really annoys my mom.”

I cast down carefully on her bed, it was so neatly made that I was afriad to sit on it. Her room was much more neat then mine. I wasn’t very good at that sort of thing, and Denise had a habit of throwing her stuff over my room when I didn’t wanna deal with it.

“Ah well I guess your glad your sister is off since you said she was a pain before.”

She nodded, seeming a bit uncomfortable about the topic, so I decided to change it.

“I guess you go to Franklin High? I haven’t seen you around school before.”

“Yeah, I used to go to a private school but I transferred since I couldn’t handle it.”

She picked on the ground, I seemed to be barging up topics that made her uncomfortable.

“Maybe we can hang out during lunch or something...”

Laura just nodded a little, then flicked on the radio starting to play some music. What was going on here? When we met at the hospital she seemed really friendly. But she seemed really distant now. I couldn’t help but wonder if something was up.

“Is something wrong?”

She turned off the radio.

“Eh... just sick of being stuck inside. Let’s go over to the park or something. I am sick of these walls!”

“Um sure, OK.”

We went out to the park. It was pretty pleasant though Laura still seemed rather distant. It reminded me of Oliva somewhat. We parted ways and I couldn’t help but wonder if this friendship was going to work.

I ran upstairs without saying anything to my mother and sister who were sitting in the living room. Snapping open the picture book I watched as the familiar form of Oliva sprang up from her home.

“Why did you pick her to be my friend? It doesn’t seem like she is really interested in me at all!”

Oliva waved her arms around.

“What! You spend time with her for only an hour and you figure out that! She was probably just tired from working in the hospital. Maybe if you catch her on a weekend she will act more friendly. Perhaps you could invite her to do something. Like going to the mall, or maybe mini golf or something.”

I picked at my bed and sighed a bit, Oliva was right I wasn’t giving Laura enough time.

“Sorry I am just not used to making friends. Denise has it so easy. I wonder what her secret is?”

The ghost shrugged a bit.

“I don’t know your sister so I can’t say. But...we are becoming pretty good friends don’t you think?”

I reached out a finger towards her, watching as it passed through her body.

“Slowly but surely. You have so many secrets kept away from me. It is hard to say that I am really your friend. All you do is help me. I want to help you!”

Oliva smiled brightly.

“But you are helping me Ayita, in ways you don’t know. Things will reveal to you in time. Just try to be patient with me will you! Oh I have something in store for you. I certainly hope you will like it my friend. But for now I must go.”

I watched her disappear. Though I felt me and Oliva were becoming closer. In a way, we seemed to be drifting apart at the same time. She had so many secrets. Was poking in her business dangerous? Just what was I getting into?

I awoke to the sound of my alarm beeping at me. I grumbled and slammed it off. A piece of paper floated down as I did so. I bent over to pick it up, noticing there seemed to be the heart locket that I had retrieved from the tree inside. There also was a note: Ayita, please wear this to school today. I promise you that you will be pleasantly surprised. Your friend. Oliva.

Well I might as well bite. I didn’t usually wear jewerly that wasn’t Native American but the locket was pretty nice. Putting it on I admired myself in the mirror. I didn’t look too bad I thought to myself. Maybe Denise was right about me not being so bad looking. I couldn’t help but wonder where she had been. I think I was too preoccupied by Oliva to notice what she had been up to. I never thought I would miss having her camera in my face!

Well I would have to figure out what she was up to after school. I was grounded still, I wasn’t going out any time soon. My classes were pretty boring as usual, except for history (my favorite subject) I was starting to think I wasn’t ever going to see the reason I wore that necklace...and then at break I ran into a guy who kept staring at my chest.

“Excuse me?”

He blinked and blushed a bit.

“Oh sorry I didn’t mean to stare. Um, just that your necklace reminded me of something...”

Yeah right, he was looking at my necklace. That was the oldest line in the book. But then I remembered the note. Could this be the surprise she was talking about? A boyfriend? I was jumping ahead of myself here.

“Oh and what did it remind you of?”

He shuffled his feet.

“Uh, a friend I had when I was growing up. She looked somewhat like you actually. Unfortunately she died in a fire.”

I blinked, with this whole thing with the ghost keeping so much away from me I wasn’t used to people just blurting out such information.

“Wow, that is really sad. Well maybe hanging out with me will help ease your pain a bit.”

He blushed, with a shy look on his face.

“I...I would like that. Um my name is Greg, what is yours?”

“Ayita...”

What a strange way to meet someone. I couldn’t help think this had a good start. By the way he looked at me he was attracted to me. But, I couldn’t help wonder if his love was really for that poor girl who died in the fire instead.

Greg and I parted ways, most of the rest of my classes before lunch seemed to be in a daze. I just couldn’t really pay attention to what my teachers were talking about. As lunch finally creeped in I searched the courtyard for Laura. I finally found her at a table sitting by herself. I joined her giving a little sigh.

“Do you have a boyfriend?”

Maybe Laura knew more about the subject of boys than I did. I just really didn’t feel all too comfortable talking about my sister about it really. Laura took a bite of her sandwich and made a weird face.

“Um, well sort of. He is in college so I am not too sure it will work out really. Um, why do you ask?”

I gaped.

“He is in college? How did that happen?”

I paused a bit poking at my milk carton.

“I have my first crush. But I think he has lingering thoughts for someone who is...” I took a sip of my milk thinking about Greg, it would be a bit strange to say I thought he might be still in love with someone who died so I gave a little white lie. “gone.”

Laura laughed seeming to ease up a bit.

“I met him when I was a junior and he was a senior. Humm, well I would give you advice to just take it slow. I mean you don’t even know if he likes you yet!”

With a blush, I flattened the carton as it was emptied.

“Well he gave me that look.” I smirked a bit. Maybe I was just putting too much in too how Greg was acting but it certainly seemed like he had feelings for me too. “So...tell me all about this college boy of yours?”

We gabbed all through lunch time. I was feeling much more comfortable with her. Maybe Laura was just feeling tired from volunteering the last time we hung out?