Friendly Fire

In front of the old rusty and dilapidated house, surrounded by fog, which made the ambiance even more creepy, stood Stella. This was her childhood home. The place brought back so many memories, both good and bad. Tears rolled down her eyes, wetting her dry cheeks and slowly moving to her rosy lips. Come to think of it, it was the place she had spent most of her happy childhood in, now having to see it all destroyed…all because of her. Ten years ago, she had done the unimaginable…the unforgivable.

She remembers it like it was yesterday….

“Stella, hurry up, we’re going to get late!” cried Jen, Stella’s best friend. Jen was a beautiful girl with long, blonde hair and mesmerizing sky-blue eyes.

“Coming!” exclaimed Stella, her brown curly hair flying into her face and her emerald green eyes glistening in the sun, as she rode her hot pink bicycle at full speed trying to catch up with Jen.

Speedily, and panting, they rushed into Jen’s house walking into their parents chatting away…as usual.

After grabbing a quick snack, they ran off to their parents with their maths test paper’s results rustling in their hands and smiles of delight on their faces.

“WOW! 100%,” exclaimed Stella’s mum. She then looked at Jen and said, “You should help out Stella in studies too, and hopefully, maybe just maybe, one day she’ll be as intelligent as you.” This was nothing new. Even though Stella had gotten a 92% in her test, her parents never looked so disappointed. She noticed the frustration behind her parents’ voices. Even though a huge burden, Stella was used to it and it didn’t bother her anymore…at least until then.

The following day, as Stella descended the winding staircase to grab a glass of milk, still in her nightdress, she stopped in her footsteps as she heard her parents having a conversation in the living room.

“I don’t understand,” said Mr. Miller, Stella’s dad, “They’re the best of friends yet so different from one another.”

“I know, it worries me too, how I wish Stella could be more like Jen. Her mum told me she got an academic scholarship for the next year and is the captain of the netball team!”

Those words cut her like a knife. Not wanting to hear anything more, Stella made her way up the staircase, a disappointed look on her face as drops of tears of sadness descended down her face. Once in her room, she looked at herself in the mirror, still hearing the echo of her parents’ discouraging words. Her messy, curly hair; her short stubby feet; her neck as long as a giraffe; and the disoriented look on her face. In comparison to Jen, she felt like she was nothing less than dirt, Jen being a million times better than her.

After what seemed like hours of trying to cry herself to sleep, she stood up. ‘Enough is enough!’ she thought to herself. She couldn’t let this break her. From the bottom of her heart, she knew she was good at plenty of things, it was just a matter of whether she believed in herself or not.

With a new sort of energy, she wiped away her tears and washed her face in order to hide the rose-red colour of her eyes formed from crying profusely.  She jumped into her uniform.

She sped down the stairs, for breakfast, her long navy-blue pinafore flying behind her. Not wanting to look at her parents in the eyes, she sprightly said bye and rushed out of the house.

On their way to school, Jen talked to Stella about how excited she was for the upcoming netball tournament.        Stella hardly listened, as she was going through some spellings in her head for the finals of the Annual Spelling Bee. Jen and she were the finalists.

The spelling bee was to take place during the first lesson, so as soon as they got to their class, they dumped their bags on their desks and made their way to the front of the class.

Fortunately, the first few rounds were as easy as ABC. However, once they reached round seven, Jen, once again, spelled the word flawlessly… but Stella…made the simplest mistake. She doubled the wrong letter!

Everyone rushed to Jen, to congratulate her and the teacher announced Jen as the winner. Not a single person even noticed Stella’s teary eyes as she ran out of the room.

Although she should have been happy for her friend… she wasn’t!

Even as they headed for lunch everyone crowded around Jen, Stella lurking behind in sadness. Finally, after half an hour everyone departed, leaving Stella and Jen to finally talk. As they talked on and on, Stella’s jealousy slowly simmered into resentment. She heard a mutter…

“I pity Stella. The two of them are best friends but Jen always beats her narrowly.” Those words stung like a bee.

Suddenly a thought snuck into her head, ‘I wonder what my life would be like without her!’. ‘No! No! I can’t think like that; I mean after all she’s my best friend.’

Through her mind, these thoughts just kept rushing back and forth.

She couldn’t help but wonder how much better her life would be without her. She’d get her parents’ undivided attention and would be their number one. In order to get those thoughts out of her mind she decided to go home.

CREAK! The door opened as she walked into her house, walking into her parents putting a liquid spray under the couch and other pieces of furniture.

“What are you guys doing?” she inquired.

“There was a rat in the house, so we are spraying this under the furniture, so that if it comes back…it won’t survive!” Stella nodded and absent-mindedly ascended the stairs into her room.

Suddenly, she got an idea. A bulb lit up in her head, “I wonder… if the spray could kill a rat, would it work on a human?” She thought about it for some time. She knew what to do.

At around 10 pm, when she knew her parents were asleep, she sneaked downstairs and took the bright red spray bottle, and hid it under her bed.

The following morning, Jen came over to Stella’s house for breakfast. As she washed her hands, Stella did the unimaginable. She spiked her glass of milk with the rat poison and offered it to Jen.

Not suspecting anything, Jen gulped the drink and the two of them headed to Stella’s room to play a game. However, as they continued talking, Jen instantaneously felt dizzy and a pounding headache began to rage.

Stella’s plan was working.

Within the shake of a duck’s tail, Jen fell to the floor, her face pale and white bubbles coming out of her mouth.” MOM! Dad, hurry up come to the room. Something has happened to Jen!”, exclaimed Stella as realization struck her of what she had done. Within a blink of an eye, Stella’s parents barged into the room. Flabbergasted by Jen’s condition, called an ambulance and Jen’s parents.

Not long after, Jen’s parents came and fell to the ground sobbing near their daughter. Ambulance sirens could be heard, approaching the house. Jen was rushed to the hospital accompanied by her parents.

Still in shock about what just happened, Stella’s parents bombarded her with questions. Stella, however, was not even listening. She tried to recollect her thoughts about what just happened. She came to her senses as realization struck. Her best friend’s life was in danger all because of her.

Before she knew it, the floodgates opened. She confessed everything to her parents, before breaking down into tears.

Even though shocked, her parents comforted her and told her that she would always be their number one.

Unfortunately, Stella’s parents couldn’t keep it a secret and would have to tell Jen’s parents. Dread engulfed  Stella’s mind as the phone rang. Stella’s mum went to talk to Jen’s mum in the other room and when she came out, she had tears flowing down her face.

Stella was going to Juvenile Detention for attempted murder.

Diva Raithatha