Unforgivable

      It all started way back when Quinsos, a quiet, but really quite funny green Lupe, moved. Once she was gone, our group at the lunch table seemed empty. We searched for a new member to make us seven again. Audrenas and Mariella came close, but then drifted away to Sunset and Dawn.

      Leila came to school at the start of January. She was in all of my classes except for one. She was shadowing my best friend, Firecloud_Amber, a red Lupe.

      “Hi,” I introduced myself that first day. “I’m Jessie.”

      Leila flashed me a super-star smile. “Hey,” she replied. “I’m Leila.”

      Amber, as I said a simple red Lupe, had been talking to my four other friends, Katelyn (a blue Lupe), Marinara (a fire Peophin), Julie (a green Uni), and last but definitely not least, Alexandria, a shadow Kougra. “Hey!” she shouted, waving her fluffy tail. “Jessie! Leila!”

      We walked over. In the distance I could see Kylsi the pink Uni look rather envious. Personally, I didn’t care at the time.

      Julie jumped all over Leila, introducing herself and ignoring everyone else. Alex, Marin, Katelyn, and I rolled our eyes at each other.

      Throughout the whole entire day, Julie blew us off for the new purple Eyrie by the title of Leila. After a week of this preposterous stuff, Julie finally asked me for a pink highlighter.

      Since in the past week Julie had “borrowed” Amber’s literature paper and hadn’t given it back, I was a little hesitant. But I relented in the end. “Sure thing.”

      After that class, I forgot to ask for it back. It stayed with her for two whole days. Finally, I remembered.

      “Hey, Julie!” I called in the hall. Julie turned around, her silly grin vanishing from her face as she did so.

      “What now!?” she asked heatedly, as if I had broken into an important business conversation.

      I resisted the urge to roll my eyes in front of her. “I need my pink highlighter back,” I said without a hitch in my voice.

      Julie’s face contorted as she tried to decide what to say. “I gave it back.”

      I sighed, flicking my Faerie Zafara tail. I replied, “Julie, I’m not going through this. I KNOW you didn’t ‘forget’, like you ‘forgot’ you had Amber’s paper. Give it back; I need it.”

      Julie gave me an impish smile. “I don’t have it,” she repeated.

      The rest of the next two weeks, Katelyn, Marin, Alex, Amber, and I discussed Julie’s attitude. She’d not replied to Amber's neomail, ditched Marin and Alex, and stole something from both Katelyn and me.

      “In one ear and out the other,” said Katelyn with a shrug.

      “I can’t take it,” said Alex. “She’s evil.”

      “Thinks the whole world of Neopia revolves around her,” piped up Marin. I nodded in total agreement.

      Finally Amber said, “She’s really, really close to losing my trust forever.”

      The rest of us chorused, “Never had mine.”

      “She is simply immature,” was my mother’s telling. “Talk to her when she talks to you. Can you picture Kylsi or Kayla or maybe even Katie doing the things that Julie and Leila do?” My reply had been a definite no. Julie had grabbed one of Amber’s pens and run off. Such immaturity scared me, quite frankly.

      It just got worse and worse. Leila became a sassy, bossy liar. Julie already had those traits in her character. I guess she just knew she was going down and decided to bring Leila down with her.

      Leila lied to us all the time and casually.

      Julie ignored us completely.

      The evidence that Leila was a liar was very clear. She had told us we would all be invited to a birthday party. Then she told us she couldn’t have it, for she was going to take “Modeling School.” I still don’t know if that part was true, but we heard from Amber (who tells the truth when necessary) that she and Julie were invited to a party that weekend hosted by Leila. Of course.

      I found, with a bit of research on Alex’s part, that Kylsi and Julie had a history. Julie had called Kayla and Katie nerds; Kylsi had told them; Julie had a grudge against Kylsi.

      Then it struck me just how mysterious and plotting Julie was.

      Kylsi had tried to tell Julie that Lily, her [Julie’s] now former best friend, did not like her. Apparently Julie knew this. She cried, giving Kylsi a bad face.

      I couldn’t stand it. It was terrible. The pains Amber went through. The horrifying waiting we all went through. Julie and Leila would pick on Amber when the three of them were alone.

      Finally, I had enough courage to take a stand. Leila had bugged us all day. It was over. The whole friendship came crashing to an end. Now that I think about it, it never really was a true friendship at all. We were all merely acquaintances with the Terrible Two.

     Anyway, I stopped Julie in front of her locker, before she could run away from me. I knew that what I said would strike her the hardest because I had known her since kindergarten.

      “Julie,” I said solemnly, “I would’ve been your friend to the end. I would’ve waited, in the distance, giving you your space and time. You’ve taken all your time. Time’s up. You’ve insulted my friends in front of my face, and that’s not okay with me. You had Amber’s complete and total trust. You lost it by lying to her. Marin and Alex were blown off. Katelyn and I were stolen from by you.”

      I could see Kylsi and her two best friends Kayla and Katie listening. I didn’t care any more. “You know, Julie,” I continued, “I never get mad. Never. Now? Now, I’m mad. You don’t care about anyone else. You eat your words all the time. You lie. You cheat. You steal.”

      She looked as if she was about to deny it, but I stopped her before she could. “Don’t even go there,” I said, shaking my head. “It’s too late. You’re... you’re...”

      I shook my head again, turning away. “You’re Unforgivable.”

      I walked away.

      Kylsi the pink Uni became best friends with us over the last half of the school year. Her friends Kayla the Christmas Zafara and Katie the brown Uni, Kylsi’s twin sister, eventually became our friends, too. Now we are eight. Eight loners that floated together.

      Julie and Leila went on vacation together with their families and never came back. None of us are in touch with either of them. Julie drifted away, while Leila never even came close.

      My head still throbs when I dwell on these happenings. I’ve prayed and hoped, hoped and prayed; but nothing, nothing at all, can bring Julie or Leila back.

     Even if they did return, they would be the same. The same controlling attitudes. The same teasing. The same bullying. The same horrific things that just happened to be in the package with Julie and Leila.

      I feel badly for what I have said even now, three years later. It’s like I didn’t go to the doctor (peace) and the broken bone healed, still bent out of shape.

      Julie and Leila, I’m sorry for what I said and did. Nobody is Unforgivable. Everyone should be able to forgive. I am sorry I called Julie Unforgivable.

      I still regret that I did that, even though she was.

The End