They'll Never Hear a Word We Say: Part Eight

It had been a few months since Mel had been living without her friends, and she was as miserable as ever. The only good thing she had gotten out of it was that she had been spending a lot more time with her family than she used to. She once again was laughing with them, playing with them, doing normal everyday life things with them, and they were what made her at least a little bit happier.

    It was a Saturday morning, and Mel had woken up bright and early to go shopping with her owner. Kim had promised to buy her some new jewelry or clothes if she tagged along, so the Usul happily agreed. Grocery shopping wasn't so bad with Kim, since they got along so well.

    As they were strolling down the aisles of the Food Store, Mel had been trying to pluck up the courage to ask her owner something she was dying to know.

    "Kim..." she began, feeling quite nervous. She had never really asked her owner something like this before. In fact, she never really even talked about any of her problems with her owner. She realized that this was the very first time she had ever talked about her school life with the person who took care of her, put a roof over her head, and fed her.

    "Yeah?"

    "Well, I was wondering," Mel started, as she grabbed a box of cereal from one of the shelves and threw it in the shopping cart, "do you believe in true friendships? I mean friends that last forever? Even if you get into fights and make new friends and don't really even talk to each other anymore? I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you had a friend -- one of the best in the world, one that you would do anything for -- and you stopped talking for a while, and didn't really keep in touch, would you still be friends? Sorry if I confused you..."

    "Not at all, Melanie... I've felt like that before. And you know, I do believe in stuff like that. Friendships are really strong things. Through all of the good times and bad, the bond of friendship can last forever. You just have to decide if you want it to."

    Mel didn't say anything more. She thought about those words for a good long while, and decided that what her owner had just said was the best piece of advice she had ever been given.

    When Melanie and her owner finished with all of their chores, Kim took her to the best clothing store in all of Terror Mountain. Mel used her own Neopoints to buy a very pretty and very shiny necklace. It continued in a pattern of a pearl, two small sapphire-colored beads, a pink diamond shaped bead, two more little blue beads, and a pearl again, all the way around. Except in the middle was a charm in the shape of a heart. Mel thought it was very pretty and bought it happily.

    Outside of the store, near a bench by the street, Mel noticed a necklace that looked exactly like the one she had just bought, lying on the ground. She picked it up hastily and stuffed it in her coat pocket, looking around to make sure nobody had seen her take it.

    When Mel and Kim arrived back to the Neohome, Ashli, her sister, a green Kacheek, was standing by the mailbox. She waved to her owner and sister, and then ran over to help them with the bags of groceries they were carrying.

    "Nice necklace, Mel," the Kacheek commented. "By the way, I've got a letter for you."

    "From who?" Mel questioned. "Give it to me, Ashli!" Mel opened the front door with her free hand, ran inside, and set the bags on the counter. She was eager to see whom her letter was from, as she rarely ever got letters. Ashli handed Mel an envelope. The Usul tore it apart and pulled out a folded piece of pink paper. A sticker in the shape of a heart sealed it shut. Mel peeled off the sticker, unfolded the stationary, and started to read.

    Dear Mel,

    We miss you! Meet me at Samel at two-thirty this afternoon. Don't be late!

    -Sam

    Mel glanced at the clock. It was a quarter past two o'clock already. If she wanted to get to Samel in fifteen minutes, she would have to leave right then. She went to the front door and started to put her snow boots back on.

    "Where are you going?" Ashli asked.

    "Tell Kim I'll be back in an hour or so," Mel called to her older sister, and went out the door.

    When Mel arrived at Samel, Sam was sitting in the snow beneath it. Mel joined her under the large pine, glad that it kept the snow from falling on them.

    "Yeah... so..." Sam murmured. "I just wanted to say that it's been lonely without you."

    Mel was going to say that that's what Garret had said to her too, but she caught herself just in time to spare him from getting kicked out of Sam's group. "Yeah... I've been lonely too."

    "So anyway, I want you to come back. Why did you talk to that girl, anyway? You knew perfectly well that you should never talk to anyone like her. You confuse me so much sometimes, you know that? But anyways, will you please come back and be my best friend again?! I miss you so much!"

    Mel was silent for a few moments. Then she stood up, examining the tree. She started to break the sheet of ice that was covering the words they had carved together in third grade. Two years ago. Sam rose and went to stand beside her. The Uni giggled very softly when she saw the words engraved in the tree.

    "I forgot about that," she murmured, touching the bark. To Mel, it felt like it was just yesterday that they had named this tree. Just yesterday that they had felt like nothing would ever destroy their friendship. When they had no worries at all.

    Mel smiled, and remembered what Kim had told her earlier that day. "We're still friends. Best friends. We haven't broken yet."

Reunited

    Mel was welcomed warmly back into the group. Garret and Kira were especially happy. The only one who didn't seem cheerful was Krystal, who was jealous when she found out that Sam had been given the expensive and shiny necklace that was exactly like Mel's.

    "Mel gave it to me as a token of our friendship," Sam had told the red Krawk. Since then, Krystal had barely spoken a word to Mel. When Sam asked Krystal what was wrong, she would shrug and then glare at Mel.

    Mel could tell that Krystal was mad at her. She tried not to let it get to her, however. Besides, she was just happy that she was reunited with her friends again, after being so gloomy without them. She was finally Sam's best friend again.

    The blue Uni and Mel were friends just like they had been four years ago. Sam started coming over to Mel's house nearly every day after school again, or vice versa. They played in the snow and made snowmen and snow angels and talked and laughed for hours and hours until it was too dark outside to see anything. Then they would go inside, work on their homework together, and warm themselves up with a mug of hot cocoa.

    "Just like old times." Mel smiled to herself. She was sipping her hot chocolate, which had a mountain of marshmallows piled on top.

    "It really is," Sam agreed. The two friends smiled at each other and then quickly started on their homework so they could spend the remainder of the night playing games.

    They got Ashli and the rest of Mel's siblings to play hide and seek with them, and Mel found the perfect hiding spot. It was under her bed -- in the trundle under her bed, to be precise. She quietly slid out the trundle bed and slid in facedown, then she grabbed a hold of part of the wood on the upper bed, and pushed the trundle back in. She grinned, thinking of how good her hiding spot was, and then turned her head to the side. Sam was lying right next to her.

    "Ahh!" Mel gasped, surprised to see her friend hiding in the trundle as well. "Darn, I thought I had found this good hiding spot first..."

    "Don't you remember?" Sam questioned.

    "Remember what?" Mel gave the blue Uni a puzzled look.

    "I can't believe you don't remember... this is the exact same spot we used to hide in when we played this game back in the first grade. We would always hide here together. Every time. And your sisters and brother never found us," Sam explained.

    "Oh... now that I think about it, I do remember. Wow, there are a lot of memories that I've forgotten about."

    "Me too," Sam whispered. Ashli had just finished counting to one hundred, and she would be coming to look for them soon. "Oh, yeah... I forgot to tell you that over the summer I'll be in Mystery Island again. For nearly the whole break."

    "Again?" Mel asked, suddenly feeling quite sad. It was already May, so Sam would be leaving in a little more than a month.

    "Yeah. My owner sure loves the place. I love it too; I just don't like leaving here. Life is so boring without friends," Sam admitted.

    Mel thought of how she had felt a few months earlier, when she'd been kicked out of the Cool Kids club. "Yes, it is."

To be continued...