Chapter Ten

After all this loneliness and depression, I can finally be with my friends. The ball finally let me communicate with people.

Since I wrote to Kelli everything I knew, I’ve been spending my days with them. We would meet at Leila’s house everyday after school (Kelli has too many annoying brothers, Leila only has one sister).

I sat down on Leila’s bed. Suddenly I felt more serious. Ok guys, this has been fun, but we really need to find out how to get out of here, I wrote.

“I agree,” Kelli said. “Then her hands won’t hurt so much, and we won’t have delays in hearing what she has to say.”

“Well let’s build from what we know.” Leila pulled her shiny red hair into a neat bun. “What we know is that she’s in there because her dad put her in there.”

“But that doesn’t make any sense,” Kelli disagreed. “How would he do that?”

“How do you explain him hearing her?” Leila retorted. “It must have something to do with him.”

“Maybe because they’re related.”

“Her mom couldn’t hear her.”

As they kept arguing, I quickly scrawled something on the paper. He was in a bubble, too. Maybe if that has happened, they can hear all the others in a bubble.

Leila and Kelli stopped almost yelling and nodded. “That makes sense,” they chorused.

We became silent, thinking.

Suddenly Kelli’s eyes lit up. “Sara!” she blurted.

“Sara?”

“Sara is totally obsessed with Sia! Remember? That’s the reason, isn’t it?”

“Oh yeah,” Leila breathed. She paused, then murmured, “So this is Sara’s fault?”

“UGH! She is INSANE! What kind of CREEP obsesses with people like that?” Kelli raged. “I just-- I just hate that girl!”

“I know right?! She has some serious issues,” Leila agreed. “Right, Sia?”

They were waiting for a response, but I didn’t give them one.

“Sia?” Kelli asked worriedly.

Finally I responded. You didn’t read her diary.

A smile spread across Leila’s face. “And what did it say?”

I hesitated. If you read it, you can’t tease her about it.

Leila hesitated, but finally said yes.

I promised to show them at lunch tomorrow at school.

* * *

Kelli peered over Leila’s shoulder as she read the journal. We were at the park near the school reading Sara’s diary.

When they finished reading, Kelli laughed. “What’s her problem? She’s so dramatic! Right, Leila?” Kelli looked at her friend. “Leila?”

But Leila didn’t laugh. In fact Leila wasn’t smiling at all. She stared at the book disbelievingly. She shook her head. “No, no, no,” she murmured. “No!” She got up and ran.

“Leila!” Kelli ran after her, me following at her heels.

“Leila, what the heck?” Kelli exclaimed.

“Don’t you get it?” Leila spat, tearing up. “I’m the monster that got Sia in there.”

“Don’t call yourself a monster!” Kelli cried. “Don’t be dumb.”

Ahhh, Kelli. Always chooses the right words when trying to reassure someone.

I chose to ditch Sara, not you! The note appeared in Leila’s hands.

“I’m the reason you ditched her!” she shouted.

Kelli glanced around in alarm. “Not so loud!”

I ignore her, not you!

Leila didn’t say anything, just scowled. Leila hates it when I'm right. I love it because I'm never right when it comes to fighting with Leila.

“Okay, well pouting here isn’t going to get Miss Cornaccia out of the silent round thing,” Kelli pointed out. “It may be Leila’s fault--”

I groaned.

“--but feeling sorry for yourself isn’t going to work.”

“Well what do you suggest?” Leila muttered.

Um, TALK to Sara? I didn’t think you needed to be Einstein to figure it out, I wrote, grinning.

Leila read it, sighed, rolled her eyes and smiled a bit.

I guess not only you can be sarcastic!

Leila scowled again. “Sara hates me more than ever these days! Sometimes I feel like she’s going to claw my eyes out.”

Kelli chuckled, but I shuddered. They didn’t know the dream I had.

***

Leila stalked over to the rock Sara was sitting alone on.

“Hey, Sara?”

Sara whipped around, furious. “WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME BI....” she stopped herself as a guard walked by with a warning look.

Wow, Leila really made her mad. Sara would never!

“Shut up and listen,” Leila said. I could sense she was already heating up.

“You know what? I’m not going to sit here and be your pet anymore, Leila.” Sara got up and brushed past her, but before she could get any farther, Leila grabbed her shirt and pulled her back in front of the rock. Suddenly Leila was panting, her face full of rage.

“Shut up and listen RIGHT NOW or you’re about to be a very harshly abused pet! Understand?” she spat.

I whimpered. Leila was mean, but I’ve NEVER seen her this scary.

Sara’s face still showed anger, but she sat down reluctantly.

“Good,” Leila said, grinning. “Okay, guess what? It is your fault Sia’s missing. NO,” Leila stared at Sara another warning look as Sara opened her mouth to protest.

She just shifted the blame so quickly!

“She disappeared because you wouldn’t leave her alone when she made it clear she didn’t want anything to do with you. It’s not her fault she disappeared. But you know what? You can meet up with her when you go home. Yes, It’s a little confusing, but believe it, Sara. You will actually get to talk to her. And no, it’s not because you’re special. Even though you definitely are,” Leila said with a smile. Sara smiled too. “Of course, being special isn’t always good,” she added with a smirk, then sashayed away.

Sara slapped her forehead. I laughed loudly, and so did Kelli.

***

So you know that Leila has softened up to me, right? Well, she’s gone back to herself, but five times worse. So today at school…

I was at Sara’s house, watching her write more dumb things about Leila. But at that moment, I knew I had something to do. Something for Leila to keep her word.

“Leila is such a liar!” Sara whispered.

I took a deep breath, then began to write.

Hi, Sara., It’s me, Sia. What Leila said was true.

I watched Sara read the note that appeared in her hands. I watched with widened eyes as I heard her heart beat faster, louder. I watched her soft hands shake and drop the note.

“Oh my goodness,” she finally managed to croak. Suddenly eyes started to close, and her body lowered onto the bed.

My eyes managed to widen even more. Then sleep strangely tugged me into unconsciousness as well.

I found myself in a huge, round, blue ball, nothing like the one I was living in. It seemed brighter, and more open, like I finally had space to breathe. The other bubble had become more stuffy, and it started to seem slightly harder to breathe in there.

“Sia?”

I turned towards the voice and saw Sara fling her arms around me.

“Sia! Where have you been?”

“Everywhere,” I muttered, but Sara didn’t seem to hear me.

“I’ve missed you so much! Who kidnapped you? Is this some kind of dream?” She pinched herself and flinched. “Whaaaaaat is happening?”

I looked at her straight into the eyes. “Sara,” I began, “I have a lot to tell you.”

I began to tell the tale of me disappearing. It sounded pretty crazy saying out loud again, but it was true. Sara listened seriously. At the end, she looked thoughtful.

“So to get out, you have to…” Sara looked at me expectantly.

Before I could ask, my song, the song of my new life came on. “I’m in here, can anybody see me?” I looked up. “Can anybody help?” This time it was Sara’s voice. It echoed around the ball.

Then I knew what it was. “Fine. We needed to talk?”

Sara’s piercing blue eyes flowed with emotion for a second, then closed them, and opened them again. “I reread my diary recently. I went all the way back to Grade 5, the day I turned ten years old.” Sara looked right into my eyes now, straight into my soul. “They day our friendship ended.”

I narrowed my eyes.

“It ended because of a stupid game of tag! I mean come on,” she ranted. “We could’ve been friends still.”

All the sympathy I had felt for Sara vanished. “How could I be friends with someone who picks on my other friend?” I pointed out.

“So why did you become friends with Leila?” she raised her voice. “You didn’t need to, did you?”

“Don’t I have a right to become friends with whoever I want to?” I raised my voice, too.

“Don’t I have a right to stay friends with someone?” she shot back, looking hurt.

I was getting angrier. “Well if one person doesn’t like the other one, it’s not a friendship!”

“Oh I think you know that it was Leila that persuaded you not to be friends with me!” Her voice raised to a yell.

“If at first that was the case, I’m pretty damn sure now!” I screeched.

Sara opened her mouth to object, but when nothing came out, she closed it.

My voice lowered back to normal, but still in a furious way. “If you still like me, even if I might not like you, you wouldn’t have been harassing me to get my attention all the time!” I ranted. “And I think I made it quite clear that I wasn’t interested in your notes!” I looked at Sara’s sad face. “But I guess everyone deserves to be heard.”

Suddenly the blue ball vanished and we were back on Sara’s bed.

Sara sat up. “Did that really happen?” She murmured.

Yes.

My former friend stared at the note, then nodded.

I guess everyone deserves to be heard. It rang in my ears again.

That was why I got into this bubble.