Prologue
Ever felt the feeling of pure perfection? Standing on this beach, I could feel it. Happiness, perfection; a feeling like no other.
The salt ocean air filled my body. I could hear the sound of birds, chirping in the distance, and the close ocean breeze, which felt as though it had crept up on me, sending chills down my spine. I wiggled my toes in the sand, and shivered when the freezing cold tide reached my ankles. I looked up and saw an island in the distance, covered entirely with wild jungle. I turned around and saw a grand castle made for a princess. I looked next to me and saw my best friend, in any world.
But, my story starts when I was much younger. On the same beach, walked three women. Each woman was strong and powerful, but no woman the same. Notably, each woman had a different hair color. Of the women, there was one brunette, one blonde, and one red head. The three best friends were spending their morning going for a walk. And at their feet, were me and my best friend. We couldn't have been more than two years old. We twisted and tumbled as our feet tried to balance our tiny bodies on the unstable sand. We fell a couple of times, but as usual one of them was always there to help us back up. No matter what, we always kept trying.
We always wanted to be like them. They had a poise and elegance that our little bodies lacked. We would watch them walk, and we would try our hardest to imitate them, but we always fell. And they always helped us back up. That's why we always tried again.
The three friends were laughing and talking like all best friends do. The further we walked, the higher the sun rose. And then, just as we were getting ready to turn around and head home, me and my best friend saw someone in the distance.
"Mommy! Mommy! It's Rina!" I exclaimed, jumping up and down and pulling on my mom's skirt. I pointed to a girl in the distance. Her name was actually Riana, but as a little, little girl I pronounced her name Rina. She was about five years old and she sat off in the distance end of the beach, making a sand castle.
"Can we go play, mommy? Please, please, please!" I pleaded, still tugging at my mother's skirt. My adorable baby voice, long black hair, and big brown unforgettable eyes made my mom cave in.
"Yes honey, its fine with me, at least until we get down there" my mom agreed. She looked down at me, and had a huge smile across her face. I was so adorable.
“Mommy, can I go to?” my best friend asked. Her mom was right next to mine.
“Yes honey of course”
And off we ran, down the long, beautiful beach. But, we didn't make it too far, before we turned around and ran back to our moms.
"Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" I screamed, in a playful manor. My mom watched as I ran towards her and fell face first into the sand. My best friend fell right on top of me. We landed at their feet. Our mom’s helped us up, brushing the sand off our adorable dresses.
"What is it honey?" My mom asked, nearly laughing at just how adorable I was.
"Walk really slow!" I said. All three women broke into laughter.
"Ok sweetheart"
"And mommy"
"What?" My mom asked, bending down so that she was eye level with me. She had such a beautiful smile on her face, and her eyes too were unforgettable.
That's when I leaned in and kissed her on the cheek.
"I love you mommy" I said.
"I love you too" she replied, hugging me.
“I love you mommy” my best friend reciprocated, hugging her mom too.
“I love you too” her mom replied.
And off we ran, down the beach. Little did we know that we would never see them again. And little did they know that we were gone. When they got to the end of the beach, we were no where to be found. We would all spend the rest of our lives trying to find each other. We would never stop searching.
Who'd have guessed that our problems would be solved by such a small accident as this?
Chapter 1
It was a bright and breezy morning in Chicago, Illinois. I was putting the finishing touches on my make-up. After all, I had to look perfect for the last day of school.
Yes, the last day of my freshman year had finally come. That wonderful, glorious, and long anticipated day had been my main focus for the past week. Summer was almost here!
“Oh, I love this song” I said, turning my IPod speaker up. I heard words that I lived my life by. I couldn’t help but sing along.
“There’s only us, only tonight. You must let go to know what’s right. No other course, no other way. No day, but today. I can’t control my destiny. I trust my soul. My only goal is just to be. There’s only now, there’s only here. Give in to love, or live in fear. No other path, no other way, no day but, today. No day but today. No day but today. No day but today. No day but today. No day but today.”
I knew in my heart that this was the way to live life. I had lived life in fear before, and you have to take chances and live life, or you’ll find that you’ve thrown everything away.
I grabbed my IPod and headphones, picked up my nearly empty backpack and headed out the door. No one else was home, so there was no one to say goodbye to.
I left my fifth floor apartment and rode my bike down to school, listening to my music along the way. I knew that if I could just survive this day, that I would be invincible. No more stupid teenage drama and none of these annoying kids for the next three months! What could be better?
But as I knew it would, the sight of the “Northwestern High School” sign brought fear and terror into my heart. The walk from the bike rack to the front of the building seemed never ending. By the time I got into the building, I already wanted to turn around and run home.
As I slowly walked down the hallways, I felt more and more sick. The pale white walls and bright red lockers gave me an instant headache. I just wanted to go home. That’s when I heard… her.
“Hey Selena”
I turned around with a slight twitch in my eye.
“Hello Lucy”
Oh Lucy, who thought she was queen of the school. This was the most narcissistic girl I had ever met, and she wasn’t even that popular. In the words of my friend Winona, she had friends but, they were all losers. Lucy thought she was special, because she thought everyone liked her. What I never understood, was that she would always talk about how everyone loved her, and then she’d go on ranting about how ugly she was. She never made any sense.
The only reason Lucy ever talked to me, was if I hadn’t been talking to her. She would say two words to me, but as soon as she got around her other friends, suddenly I was unimportant.
“What’s up? I feel like I haven’t talked to you in forever!”
“Yeah…” I mumbled, hoping someone else would come along and she would run off.
“What’ve you been up to?” she asked, kneeling down to her locker, the one two lockers down from mine.
“Oh you know same old, same old” I said, closing my locker and trying to leave.
“Same here” she answered.
This was my moment of opportunity! I tried to walk down the halls, but sure enough Lucy put her hand on my shoulder.
“What are you doing this summer?” she asked me. She didn’t care; couldn’t she just let me go?
“Oh, going to Disney”
“Cool! For how long?”
“Three months” I said, looking down the hallway for Winona.
“Oh, that’s awesome! Too bad though, we should hang out sometime”
“Yeah, yeah” I said. Finally, I found Winona heading towards her locker.
“Well, I’ll talk to you later but-”
“Nate!” Lucy said. And suddenly I was unimportant, as Lucy ran off to hang with her friends, whom I found less than enticing.
I turned in the opposite direction from Lucy, towards Winona’s locker.
“Hey Winona” I said, leaning up against the locker next to her’s.
Winona was my best friend in the entire world. No one could ever separate Winona and I. She had been my best friend since we met, and had never ever been in a fight. For freshman in high school, a year without fighting is pretty good.
Winona and I were practically separated at birth… so it was good to know that I wasn’t alone in this crazy world.
“Hey sister, ready for tomorrow?” she asked.
“Totally! I’m so happy you’re coming to Disney with me”
“I’m so happy your Aunt agreed to let me come”
Winona and I were heading off to Walt Disney World tomorrow. It was one of our many loves. We both dreamed of working for Disney one day, so sending two Disney dorks off to their true “happiest place on earth” was to perfect to believe.
“Are we bringing our Imagineering designs?” Winona asked, as we left her locker and headed downstairs.
“Yeah, though I’m not sure if we’ll meet any Imagineers other than my Aunt. It’s worth a shot, right?”
“Yeah, totally” Winona agreed. We were referring to our designs for future additions to the Walt Disney World Resort. Imagineers were the people who designed everything and anything in the parks and my Aunt was one of them. It was me and Winona’s dream job and we had worked hard coming up with a couple of different concepts.
“I’m just so excited to be going!” I exclaimed
“Me too!” Winona exclaimed. The two of us sat down at the cafeteria table and began talking about all the fun things we were going to do. That’s when she came back.
“I really think we should go on Haunted Mansion more than once. So much detail to notice” I insisted.
“Well if it isn’t the head ghost now” Winona said, looking behind me. I turned around to see Lucy sit down five seats down from us.
“I hate her so much” Winona said.
“Tell me about it” I replied.
“Oh Winona, how are you?” Lucy asked, walking over to us.
“Look away, look away, look away” Winona mumbled. I couldn’t help but laugh. Winona replied with a smile.
“How are you guys” Lucy asked putting her hand on Winona’s shoulder. I could see Winona’s body quiver.
“Um, great” Winona said with enthusiasm, hoping Lucy would go away. When Lucy didn’t move her hand, Winona moved it for her.
“Great, me too. Winona, we should do something this summer”
“Oh I agree, but to bad I can’t”
“Not the entire summer?” Lucy questioned.
“Nope, going to Disney with Selena”
“Oh, wow that sounds fun…” Lucy said, not knowing what to say. It was the first time in a long time I had seen Lucy at a loss for words.
“Yep” I agreed.
“Winona, I love your hair” Lucy said, changing the subject.
Winona did have beautiful hair. But it never changed, so Winona always said that the complements meant nothing. She had pixie cut dark brown hair that she hardly had to brush in the morning. Her average height, slightly boney body matched her hair, and so did her big brown eyes.
Me, on the other hand; I was not so fortunate. I was a little shorter than Winona and had bob-cut black hair. I was average in weight, but I always wished I was thinner. I also had huge brown eyes; in fact, they were my favorite part of myself.
“Thanks Lucy” Winona said, trying hard not to puke at the thought of being nice to Lucy.
Thank god that just as Winona said that, the bell rang, and we were off.
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I only had this problem, though.
