Laura, the Lonely

      “Eva,” she called to a light faerie with tons of books in her hands. Eva had her hair down and a trading card stuck behind her ear. She looked to be in quite a rush. But she stopped and headed to Laura anyway.

      “I can’t believe school is actually over,” Eva said as she sat on a bench with Laura. She rearranged the books she held. “We have so much reading to do. It’s like they took us out of school just to load us with summer reading. I’ll never finish all these books.”

      “Liar,” Laura said as she poked her friend playfully. “You know just as well as I do you will read every single one of those books in a day. You are the fastest reader in school. You are even better at reading than math, and that is saying something. You’re even better than a water faerie.”

      Eva blushed, and turned away. Then she turned back when the redness on her cheeks had faded away. “Yeah,” Eva said, smiling. “But I am going to be stumped on the essay questions. You are the writing master.”

      Laura smiled. This was her total best friend in the entire world. She knew her inside and out. Or so she thought.

      “Eva,” an earth faerie called to her. The worried faerie’s name was Page, and she was very nice. The earth faerie had super long brown hair put into several braids. A ring of flowers lay on her head, and a classic earth faerie outfit, that slightly resembled an earth faerie that gives out quests, was what she wore. She too carried books and had a slight frown upon her face.

      “Come on,” she said. “You promised you would come over today. I need you. You are the only one that seems to understand these problems I have.”

      Laura froze. The more Page spoke, the more she began to sound like Eva was her best friend. Eva was Laura’s best friend. This couldn’t be happening.

      Eva smiled weakly. “Look,” she said quietly. “I need to go help out Page with some problems. I promised her. I’ll send a message later to tell you when we should meet up. Biyas.” And with that, she was gone.

      Laura sat there as a breeze came by. Everyone else had left now, and she was all alone. She had just about lost her BFF.

      With a single tear running down her face, Laura picked up her books and flew home. She watched as mothers greeted their daughters as they reached doorsteps of houses. She wished that could be her. It couldn’t.

      Her mother had vanished at birth, leaving her orphaned. She lived in a small cloud, and had no one to talk to. Not even a neopet.

      She eventually saw her home in the distance. Her cloud was a tinted blue color, while many others were tinted pink. It was home, but it wasn’t enough.

      She landed on the roof, where she slept on hot nights. She opened a hatch, and flew inside.

      Laura dumped her books on her table, and walked into her tiny kitchen. She made herself some cookies to eat, and then sat down while she waited for them to bake. As soon as she sat down, there was a knock on the hatch. She got up, and flew up and through the hatch and onto her roof. No one was there, until she heard a whimper, and she turned around.

      A tine little Floud was mooing and whimpering as it stood. It looked scared to death, and really hungry. There was a note attached to its worn leather collar. As Laura petted the feeble neopet, she read the note.

     Dear Laura,

      I know you are probably wondering who left you a Floud on your front doorstep. I did! Your BFF Eva! I was at Page’s house when Page mentioned if I could use a companion. I said no, but I knew some one who needed one, and that someone was you! I figured that you should have some sort of companion if you live all by yourself.

      She has no name, so you can name her. We think she is about a couple of weeks old. (She’s only a baby, awwwwww.) She needs to be fed and cleaned. I will supply the food, medicine, and other things for her. My mom said so. Your weekly groceries should arrive any minute now. I hope you love her!

     Your BFF,

     Eva

     P.S.

     Meet me at the Orange Cloud at 11:00 AM tomorrow mourning.

      Laura put down the note, and petted the tiny Floud again. She was slightly confused. Eva said she was still her BFF, but she also sounded like Page’s BFF. It was so confusing.

      She was happy that she got groceries. Eva always felt it was her job to feed her best friend since no one else could. Eva, being one of the richest Neopians in Neopia, had bought Laura her own cloud and supplied her with food every week. If Eva was still sending her groceries, maybe she was still Laura’s best friend.

      Laura led the tiny Floud into her house, and set up a bed for the Floud. “ I think I will call her Lulu,” she whispered as she put the Floud to bed. Then she got her cookies out of the oven. She laid them out to cool and flew up to her roof.

      Letting the breeze flow over her, Laura’s eyes began to close. She fell into a dreamless sleep, and didn’t wake up till the next day.

       Laura opened her eyes. It looked to be about 10:00 AM the next morning. She was going to be late for the Orange Cloud. She rushed into her house, to find the Lulu had woken up and ran though her house. It was a complete mess now, and she only had an hour to clean up and get breakfast before she met Eva at the orange cloud.

      She quickly tidied her house, and then made breakfast. She fed her Floud, and then headed over to the Orange Cloud.

      The Orange Cloud was a cafe just for faeries. It was on a tinted orange cloud, and served cheap drinks and was a great place to hang out. It was also Laura and Eva’s favorite place to hang out.

      Laura flew in, and sat down in her favorite spot. Eva wasn’t there, but she must have been running late. Laura ignored the fact that Eva had never been late to see Laura in her life.

      One hour and five drinks later, Eva still hadn’t showed up. Laura waited another hour, but she knew in her heart that Eva wasn’t coming.

      This time, as Laura flew home, she sobbed. Besides her new pet Lulu, she had no friends. Eva had been her only friend, until now. She might even lose her house because of this. It was all too much for her to handle.

      When Laura reached her cloud, she didn’t even go inside. She just lay on the roof to cry. She fell into a fitful sleep. She would always wake up after five minutes of tossing and turning, escaping her nightmares. It was horrible to her. And she still continued to cry.

      As the sun set, she heard the familiar beating of wings heading her way. It was Eva, but she refused to look at her. She buried her face in her arms, and hoped Eva would just go away. Of course she didn’t, and a second later she landed next to Laura.

      “Hey, Laura,” she said brightly. Her smile turned to a frown when she noticed Laura crying. “What’s wrong?”

      “You,” Laura replied, letting more tears roll down her cheek. “You have been ditching me and hanging out with your new BFF ever since school got out. So just go away!”

      “Laura,” Eva said, pulling Laura up so she would face her. “You will always be my BFF. Why do you think I wouldn’t be?”

      “Because,” Laura said, wiping her tears away. She had stopped crying now. “You left me at school to hang out with Page. She said she needed help with her problems, and she sounded like you were her closest friend. Then, you ditched me at the Orange Cloud. How’s that for best friends forever?”

      A look of worry and understanding came over Eva. “You’ve got it all wrong,” she said. “I was helping Page out with her math problems. She was going to have to go to summer school, but I convinced the teacher that me tutoring her would be just as good.”

      Laura nodded a little. That sounded exactly like Eva. She would go out of her way to help someone in need.

      “I guess I should have told you,” she said, apologizing. “I totally forgot about the Orange Cloud. I was hanging out with Page. I brought her to the Orange Cloud before 11:00, to get her to meet some other people. You see, she has no friends, so I thought I would introduce her to some of our schoolmates. I went early so by the time you got there, she would be hanging out with some people. My cousin Kathleen and she began to talk, and then Kathleen invited both of us to her house. I forgot all about you. I came over to say sorry, and that I shouldn’t forget about BFF to go over to a friend's house. Can you ever forgive me?”

      Laura thought for a moment. “It will take me ages to get over it,” she said with a serious expression. Then a smile broke out on her face. “The ages are up. Apology accepted,” she said.

      Laura and Eva hugged, and then Eva spoke. “So how is that Floud?” she said as they began to talk.

      “Well,” Laura said. “There is a whole bunch to say about little Lulu. At first she...” They began to talk and talk.

      And somewhere in Neopia, a friendship had just been renewed.

The End

Author's note: Based on a true story. I want everyone on Neopets to know that friendship is precious and that I got published!