Winter in July

by Kwake, with help from Ndarya, who is the narrator

Hi there! You may know me as Ndarya, one of the daughters of Kwake. Yeah, how are you? I was really sad after my breakup with one of my best friends, Rebecca, so Kwake told me to write it down. It’s what Kwake always does! Write feelings down on paper. So that’s what I did, and I’m here to share with you a story of friendship and what it feels like to lose and gain it back.

Rebecca and I were best friends since third grade. I was a quiet Yellow Chia; she was a beautiful Uni whom many boys liked. I guess I’d always have been jealous of her in some ways: Her ability to talk to people, her shy way of speaking, but then launching into a rapid conversation. I was never the social type. Rebecca and I were complete opposites, and yet we still maintained a wonderful friendship up to fifth grade when everything fell apart. First it came in July, when everything was hot and sweaty. I myself had hair puffing up all over the place, while Rebecca stayed as clean and pretty as ever. She met some new friends behind my back; I didn’t know about it until we entered Mystery Island Middle School (we lived on Mystery Island). Rebecca was hanging around this Usul named Maple, and I decided to go over and make friends:

“Hi! Rebecca!”

She turned around. She didn’t say anything. Rebecca and Maple walked away from me. Away. From. Me. I was Rebecca’s best friend, and she was choosing to go with some pretty Usul than me!

At first I thought that I had mistaken someone else for my former best friend. No, I was right. That was Rebecca all right, sitting there with a cute guy whom I liked, flirting, and knowing that I liked him. And we were only in sixth grade. She started making friends rapidly; I was still getting over our breakup. There were no arguments, no fights that led to our separation. Just… Poof!

“Hi Rebecca!”

She walked away. That image will always stay fresh on my mind. It was like an ice cold arrow had been plunged into my soul, and then someone stuck their paws in and wrenched it around and around until my soul was a mess of tangled memories and words that no longer held meaning. Things got worse during the end of the year. I called her at night trying to get some answers, and she said, “Hold on, I’m like having a b-day Party right now, so like call back lata, kay?” My ears then felt the stinging cold of the dial tone.

A month later I confronted her in the hall when everyone had left. I sent Maple away by threatening to beat her to a pulp. I was training with my brother Kwake_II (I usually call him Kwake. He was named after out dad), and had gotten pretty powerful, so she consented.

“What’s wrong, Ndarya?”

“You know what’s wrong. Why have you been ignoring me these months? We used to be best friends!”

My eyes stung as I said this to her, but Rebecca’s face remained as stone cold as ever. “Sorry girl, things change.” And she left, her hooves clomping on the ground, the sound echoing along the empty corridor. Clomp… Clomp… Clomp… I was shocked. “Things… Change?”

That night, I couldn’t sleep. Instead, I stayed up and cried until Kwake_II held me down with a pillow and threatened to hug me if I didn’t stop crying. I couldn’t, so he hugged me and told me that everything would be all right. Big brother would think of something. He did; however, it didn’t work. He stepped in front of Rebecca the next day and told her off in front of everyone, making her cry. Then, she finally came over and talked to me, calling me very rude names and blaming me for making her cry.

I hated her at that moment. And to think, we used to like each other! After we completed sixth grade, nothing happened over the summer, except I didn’t invite her to my birthday party. Then, when we entered seventh, something miraculous happened: Maple_Honeybun, the Christmas Usul whom Rebecca was always hanging out with, was going to be thrown into the adoption center. Her owner had lost their fortune on the stock market and keeping an Usul would be too much work, or so she told Rebecca.

Instead of sympathising, I saw Rebecca snort in Maple’s face and walk away. She then returned with a beautiful, popular Shoyru named Missy, who was going to be her new best friend. I went up to Rebecca and slapped her in the face right then and there, telling her how disgusting she was. I spit on her expensive Wellington Boots and told her that that saliva was what she was: a disgusting lump of liquid stuck in my throat that I had to get out. She started crying, and I snorted in her face and walked away. In the corner of my eye, I saw Maple gaping at me.

That afternoon, I begged Kwake (my dad) to come to the adoption center with me. Sure enough, Maple was there, crying in a cage. He paid the necessary fee, and we walked out hand in hand, her hat quivering. For a moment, Maple didn’t say anything. Then, she turned around and smiled. “I… I guess this means we’re sisters, right?” I smiled back at her.

We talked a lot about Rebecca. “How did she treat you?” I asked Maple.

“She was really snobby. I tried to get out of that friendship, if you would call it a friendship, but every time I tried to do it she started crying,” Maple sighed.

“The only reason she was my friend was because I was rich. Now…” she trailed off, “You can be my friend, Maple.”

Her eyes lit up. “Really?”

“Sure!” I exclaimed. “I’ll let you meet my big brother." (We hadn’t adopted Bullwinkle960 yet, that story will come later)

Maple, Kwake_II and I got along very well; she got accustomed to the fact that she was no longer living in a huge house with servants, and I got accustomed to the fact that Rebecca was not really my best friend.

It turned out that when Missy had an accident with her golden scooter and damaged her face so it wasn’t pretty anymore, Rebecca left and sought out a new pal. I will always hate Rebecca for being the person she is: a conniving little Magtile that will leave others for her own sake and not stand up for her friends. I know that there will be others to fall into her trap, but it is Rebecca that we should all feel sorry for, regardless of whether or not we hate her. For her, her soul will always be locked away in an everlasting winter of fear or being rejected, fear of being unpopular, fear of falling down the social ladder. Even in July, she will carry that winter in her heart until she outgrows it, or until her owner loses her money and she herself is transformed into one of the lower classed Neopians. For Rebecca, it will always be winter.

But for Maple and I, things have changed. We’re best buds; you’ll always find us together, playing Cheat! and Go! Go! Go! And having great adventures. In July, it will be spring, and it will stay that way as long as we’re alive.

The End