Young Writers Society

I had settled into the room that me and Izzy were sharing. She wanted me by her side at all times. Ave and Tim were in their own rooms. Grams was in one of the guest rooms. Yes, one of the guest rooms. They have three. They all have their own bathrooms. And they were all on the second floor including the parents’ bedroom. And the rest of the bedrooms including a huge storage room and extra living room was on the third floor.

Then there was the formal living room, dining room, family room, bathroom, humongous kitchen including a little dining area, which was all on the first floor. Then there was the basement. It was huge. I don’t count it as a floor. The basement is just a basement.

In the basement, there was a room for ping pong. Another room was set up as a cinema type of area with ten recliners. Then another room was the Virtual Reality room. Search it up if you don’t know what it is. It’s. So. Cool! In the ping pong room, there was this storage room with extra clothes, mattresses, toothbrush, chairs, everything basically!

I had also given Tim and Izzy their gifts. Izzy almost died of a heart attack when she saw it. Tim said thanks and left.

“Earth to Julia!” Izzy giggled, waving her hands in front of my face. I smiled at her; I guess I had escaped to Thoughtland.

“You two were supposed to be in bed a while ago.” Aunt Martha scowled playfully when she peeked into the room.

Izzy rolled her eyes, “Yeah, yeah.” she yawned then lay down on her bed. Soon after Aunt Martha had left, she had quickly fallen asleep. And so did I. This had been quite the day.

I had a weird dream that night. I was running. I was in a grassy field. I continued running. Then, I tripped. I then saw a necklace. It was similar to the one Grams saw me wearing. When I got up, I picked up the necklace and there was sinkhole nearby. I walked over to it and there were screams coming from down there. People were screaming for help.

When I woke up the next morning, I groaned as I got up from the carpeted floor. What was I doing? I heard someone giggle. I looked around and saw Izzy prancing around.

“What was that all about?” I asked, stretching.

“What d’ya mean?” she laughed as she saw the state of me. Rolling my eyes, I went to the bathroom to go and freshen up.

My hair was all gelled up to look like a mohawk. There was lipstick smeared all over my face. And lastly, there was red marker on my nose. I guessed it was so that I’d look like a clown. I screamed and raced out the bathroom and tackled Izzy to the ground. We laughed and played as I grabbed a hold of a permanent marker and scribbled WEIRDO on her neck.

Once we were done with our mini fight, I freshened up, this time for real. I had put on a black spaghetti strap shirt and to cover up my arms, I put on one of my favorite blue cardigans with white roses on it. I put on black jeans under that. I combed my hair so it wouldn’t look similar to a nest.

Then, I went down the steps to go to the dining room. Almost everyone was gathered around the table, except for Izzy and Uncle Simon. Izzy was still up changing, and Uncle Sim was at work. He was going to come home at five.

“Morning everyone!” I grinned and sat down on one of the beautiful wooden chairs. Everyone else chorused their good mornings and went back to their phones. Tim was reading, though.

“What would you like to have, Jules?” I heard Aunt Martha ask me. I looked at her. I liked her outfit today. It was a cute shirt that said “Moms Are Cool!”. All the O’s were shaped as hearts. And she had gray sweatpants on.

Breaking free from Thoughtland, I said: “Egg and toast is fine.” I looked back at my phone and went through Instagram. Then I paused. I felt as if I was going to cry. But I was acting like a baby! They could be friends with whoever, right?

To calm my nerves, I counted from twenty all the way to zero. It didn’t help much. I needed to talk to someone. Now.

I got off the chair, “Excuse me…” I said and left. I could see Grams’ eyes going through my head. She was wondering what had happened, and I know it. I burst into Izzy’s room and heard someone following me. Izzy was still in there, braiding her long brown hair. Tears spilled from my eyes. When Izzy saw me, she jumped up from the seat and ushered me onto the bed, making me sit down comfortably.

I looked up at her with teary eyes and saw Ave behind her.

“What happened?” he asked. I shook my head. I’ll tell them later.

“It’s okay… Whatever it is, you can fight through it.” Izzy soothed me. She could at the perfect age whenever she needed to. If you want an elderly person to comfort you, she’ll be there. If you want a baby to amuse you, she’ll also be there. And if you wanted a prankster like I had this morning, she’ll be there too.

She ordered Ave to go get me water. He did and after a couple of minutes, I had calmed down. Izzy had told the others that I wasn’t feeling well and so Grams gave her my breakfast and Izzy had brought it upstairs for me.

Izzy and Ave sat down beside me. Ave on my left and Izzy on my right. “So, what happened?” he asked. I gulped.

“I have friends at school and one specific enemy.” I started. They nodded in understanding. “I was scrolling through Insta today and…” I choked up. Izzy rubbed my back. I stared at the floor. “I saw Maryam and Ella, my friends, with Maddie, my enemy.” A tear escaped. “There were at the amusement park that me and the girls had been saving up for. We have fifty dollars so far. They said that even if they had a chance, they would never go to the park without me. Even if the president invited them.” Another tear. “And they let me down. It hurt.” I sighed. It felt good to let it all out. “And it was obvious they were having the time of their life. Without me.” Another tear.

“You won’t let them get in the way of your joy, will you?” Ave whispered. I shook my head and looked at him and saw a smile creep up. Izzy suddenly got up. “Let’s go to the park!”

A little while later, I had changed into gray tights and a baby pink sweatshirt and a tee-shirt under, just in case. I pulled on a gray hat and skipped down the hall. I hopped down the stairs and met with everyone at the front. Tim still wasn’t here.

We all had small talk and my mood was light now. A few seconds later, Tim arrived with the car keys. He tossed them to Aunt Martha, “You can drive.” he said.

I hid a smile when I saw that he was wearing the hat that I had given him. He definitely likes it.

We all piled into the minivan and drove off towards the park. I frowned when I saw a little bird bump into a tree as we were whizzing by.

It was cool in the car, so I kept my sweatshirt on.

We were all singing along to When Doves Cry. Me and Grams had never heard of it before, but the others admitted that it was great. Beside me, Izzy suddenly groaned. I nudged her in the ribs. Revenge because off what she did when I woke up.

“School starts on Monday!” she said.

Ave sighed, “Yeah.”

“Aren’t you two excited?” Aunt Martha asked.

Izzy and Ave looked at her, shocked, “No!” They both exclaimed. I laughed.

“Back in our old days, everyone was always excited for school.” Grams explained, looking at the four of us from the rearview mirror.

“Your school starts late.” I told them.

Izzy looked at me, “When does yours start?”

“It already started.” I said sheepishly.

Ave looked at the two of us – we were at the back seats, Tim and Ave were in the middle seats. “So we dragged you out of school!” he said, looking away.

“Detective much?” I said, sarcasm filling my voice. I chuckled and nodded at him. Everyone laughed but Grams.

She looked at us from the rearview mirror again, and our eyes locked. “Julia…” she said in a warning tone.

“Sorry…” I said to her and Ave. Ave chuckled and waved his hand at me saying, it’s fine.

“We’re here!” Tim and Aunt Martha said together. Why in the world is Tim excited about going to the park? He’s eighteen, for goodness’s sake.

The six of us got out of the car and went our separate ways. Ave and Tim found their friends there so they abandoned us girls and ran off. That makes sense. Tim knew his friends were going to be there! Grams said that she and Aunt Martha were going to sit on one of the benches. I nodded.

"We're going to take a walk in the woods." Izzy said and dragged me off. She looked at the soccer field and saw people playing. “Hey, wanna go play soccer?” she asked.

I looked at the players and shrugged, “I don’t really play soccer…” I said then stopped because I was being dragged into the soccer field by Izzy.

“Izzy!” I shrieked. Somehow this ten year old child was stronger than me.

In less than twenty minutes, I was playing soccer like a pro. These kids are so talented! And they teach soccer very well too. So that’s a plus. But the minus is that they forced me to play. But it’s fun. What can I do about that? Nothing. Oh well.

A little while later, we all dropped to the ground. Except for one person – Izzy.

“I’m so tired…” A boy named Merlin groaned.

“What do you mean guys?” Izzy exclaimed, “We were having so much fun and all of you just flop onto the ground!” she jumped around and stopped to playfully glare at the rest of us players.

“I’m going home.” The girl with the blueish-silverish hair said and got up. A few other kids got up and left too.

“Let’s go to the woods.” Izzy said. More like ordered.

I groaned, “How are you still not tired?” I yelled.

"We're not running. We're spying!" she said, superhero-like. She went deep into the woods till I thought we would get lost. Soon, Izzy weaved through some crazy looking trees and finally, we ended up right behind Aunt Martha and Grams – who were sitting on a bench. I frowned but didn’t let Izzy see me as I didn’t want to spoil her day further. I already cried in front of her that morning.

"...She also had the necklace in the plane." Grams was saying. My blood went cold. I reached up for my necklace – more like Grams' necklace. It was still there. I sighed quietly.

"But didn't you save it for her after she got married?" Aunt Martha said. Married? I'm not getting married!

"Yes, but I guess she found it." Grams shook her head.

Aunt Martha sighed, "Will you tell her more about it soon?" What did she mean? Was there a story behind this necklace? I knew that Grams had it hidden under her bed and I took it. I knew she never liked it when I took her stuff. I never knew it was special to her.

But it couldn't be special to her. She didn't even tell me to give it back. She just closed her eyes and left it alone. I can't take this any longer. I need to know the facts. I could feel the stress coming towards me. If I can dodge it and get Grams to tell me more about the necklace, maybe I could – Izzy suddenly got up and scared the two women. I hid deeper under the bench, scooching myself way under. I slid out from the side and ran off into the woods to think over what had just happened. I spotted a big rock and went over to sit on that.

“Hey Jungle Girl.” someone said. The voice was very different. And it sounded mean. But kind of sarcastic, I guess.

I looked behind me, “Who are you?” I asked.

“Who do you think?” he said.

“Um…” Black eyes and black hair. Those are the only things that seemed familiar.

He stepped aside and behind him, I saw Ave grinning at me. “Julia, this is Carter Hill, my best bud. Carter, this is Julia Portman, my cousin.” Ave introduced us.

Carter Hill? How come that name sounded so familiar?

Carter took off his green hat and bowed, “Nice to meet you, Julia!” he said. I smiled.

“He’s the class clown.” Ave whispered to me.

“I can tell,” I whispered back. Then I continued, louder. “Nice to meet you too.” I said and looked at Ave, “How’d you find me? We’re so deep in the woods.”

“Tim said that you ran that way and he told me to go see what had happened. He didn’t want to seem much of a softie, but oh well. You seem sad. What happened?”

He narrowed his eyes, “Is it those girls?” he questioned. I shook my head and so his mood changed from angry to cheery.

“You know I’m still here, right?” Carter said, “And I have no clue what you are talking about.”

I looked at him and totally forgot he was even there, “No, I thought an evil witch had captured you and taken you off to a scary castle that needed a joker.” I rolled my eyes and we all laughed.

I took out my phone and noticed that I had fourteen text messages and a couple of notifications from Instagram.

“We should go now. Grams and Mum wanted to meet us at the car at two o`clock,” Ave said suddenly, “It’s two oh five.” he said, looking at his watch.

“Let’s go then. Wanna come over tomorrow?” Carter asked Ave.

Ave just shook his head, “Maybe after school starts. My cuz is here for a reason!”

Carter and I looked at him questioningly, “Vacation?” I asked. Ave shook his head.

“To spend time with her good ol’ cousin!” he exclaimed.

I knew what he meant, but I decided to tease him a bit. I stared at him, “You mean Tim.” I said flatly, doing my best to be as sarcastic as possible. And… It failed. He shook his head again.

“Me!” he grinned at us and ran off to the park where Grams, Aunt Martha, Tim and Izzy were waiting for us. He’s such a kid at times. But only when he’s in a good mood.