typical Texas high school. The majority of students were big on football or sports in general. So if you weren’t on a sports team, a cheerleader, or in marching band you were nobody. At least you felt like a nobody. Everyone pretty much ignored Lily. She didn’t mind too much. She figured being ignored was better than being bullied. It was certainly better that being picked on by the notorious Dean Brady and his gang of bullies. They were such jerks. Slade Turner, one of Dean’s closest friends, was probably worse than he was. Last semester Slade had made it a habit to be especially horrible. He decided to infiltrate the cafeteria with something smelling of rotten eggs. The source still hadn’t been located. Luckily, the smell was tolerable thanks to the cheerleaders. They took it upon themselves to save the school from nostril peril and bring gallons of perfume and body spray to make the place bearable. Poor Jason Hadley has to eat in the teachers’ lounge because the perfume gives him an asthma attack. And then there was the time it was picture day, and Slade somehow ended up in every class picture. Nobody knows how he managed that one. The list went on and on. Dean and his gang bullied the “nobody’s” incessantly. The gang never tired of the tried and true, so shoving ninth graders in their lockers was a daily occurrence. Slade’s girlfriend, Amberly, was almost worse. She would never play pranks or bully people physically. She bullied people emotionally. She could destroy them if she wanted to. Her targets were mostly girls, but there was that one time when Jason Hadley, who is pretty much the biggest nerd in school, swore that she asked him to be her boyfriend. Everyone laughed at him, of course. No one let him forget it for a full semester. The thing is she did ask him. There were witnesses. Best guess was that he wouldn’t let her cheat off of him in algebra and she was getting back at him for it. That’s how Amberly works. She knows the most damage can be done on the inside of a person. She could rip your emotional heart out of your chest and leave it writhing on the floor, and she wouldn’t even care. She was brutal.
“Wow, I think this is the latest I have ever seen you here.”
It was Malaya. The only person in the world she could really talk to. Lily had met Malaya freshman year and they were instant friends. Malaya had been the only one from school to come to her mom’s funeral. She was the only one to sit by Lily’s bed at the hospital for hours on end after the car crash. Malaya was always there for her in her darkest hour. Malaya was the best friend a girl could ask for. Lily had only known her since the beginning of high school, but it seemed like they had known each other since the beginning of time. They were more than best friends, they were soul sisters. Lily wheeled herself steadily along beside Malaya.
“I know. I had this crazy dream, and I kept hitting the snooze button. You’ll never believe who was in it.”
She paused and looked at Malaya’s blank, puzzled expression. When she realized the look on her face wasn’t disappearing any time soon, she continued.
“My parents were there. Both of them! I was surrounded by these gorgeous trees, almost like Bradford pear trees, but fluffier, and different colors, and….”
“I want to hear all about it, but we are already going to be late so….” Lily understood.
“I’ll tell you the rest at lunch.”
“It’s a deal.”
***
“And then they were just gone. It was like someone had sucked them into a vacuum and shoved them in a closet where I can’t see them. I still can’t believe my dad was there, and why do you think I couldn’t remember them?”
Malaya was staring at her tuna sandwich intently, but her thoughts were clearly focused on something else. After a brief moment of quiet meditation, she took a small bite of the sandwich, chewing thoughtfully.
“It’s hard to say,” Malaya said after swallowing her mouthful. “I mean, it could just be your subconscious mind missing your parents, or it could be a deeper message for your life.”
“Yeah.”
“Maybe the reason you couldn’t remember them was so you wouldn’t talk to them.”
“What? Why?”
Lily wasn’t following the tangled maze Malaya’s thoughts were rushing through.