The Amulet of Kryshar

Chapter 3

"Did you study for the math test?"

"Test? What test?" I desperately tried to suppress a grin. Poor Carlson. He didn't know what he was in for. "It was supposed to be next week Thursday. Not today!"

"I know, right? I thought so too!"

"She didn't even teach us all of the stuff we need to learn for the test. How does Ms Rose expect us to be able to pass?"

I was just about to contribute my own complaint to the chorus of laments surrounding me when I heard footsteps approach my desk. I slowly turned my head towards the sound. Suddenly, the throbbing intensified to a burn. I winced at the pain. Or maybe just at the sight that greeted my sore eyes.

A short girl was resting her elbows on my table, while one hand was twirling a strand of blond hair around her finger. Amazing, how she could do that without getting it all tangled up in a gigantic knot. Although I would pay to see that happen. My hair always gets tangled for no apparent reason even though it isn't even very curly. On my good days, my hair falls down my back in soft waves. At least, that is how it is supposed to look like. It's as if a ghost is playing with my hair while I'm not paying attention. Either way I spend too much time during the mornings in front of the mirror, working out the knots by hand. I mostly couldn't be bothered to brush all the knots and tangles out of it though, so I tie it up in a hasty ponytail. Looking up at the blond girl right then, I envied her: her hair had the same slightly wavy curls like mine, but she managed to let it cascade in soft blonde waves down her back. "You don't look so good, Ruby. Oh, wait, I forgot," she smirked at a tall red-headed girl standing beside her, "that's your normal face, isn't it?" They both giggled. The red-headed girl offered the blond girl a high five.

I frowned at the one with blond hair. "I think you need to get your eyes tested, Melanie. I'm not a mirror after all." Tiffany, the girl with the red hair, gasped and held a hand before her mouth in a desperate attempt to smother her laugh. It ended up sounding like a pig snorting. It almost made me burst out into laughter myself. Melanie almost became as red as Tiffany's hair. Still snorting, Tiffany left Melanie to fend for herself.

Melanie sputtered. "You— tha— that's so cheap!" She clenched her fists and jutted out her pointed chin. I couldn't resist grinning in triumph. Beat that, Melanie. Yes. That's the Melanie I was talking about earlier. The one who was my best friend until my ninth birthday. She, Lena and I used to be inseparable. I actually knew Melanie before I met Lena. When I thought about it, I actually didn't remember a time when I didn't know Melanie. Even as toddlers, we would always stick around each other. She, along with Lena, also knew about the dreams I started getting that night. I didn't know what on Earth I did to her that suddenly made her hate me so much. When she first started distancing herself from us, I thought that she was still angry about the fact that I smeared some toothpaste onto the floor, right in front of the bath room door. I will always be proud of that prank. Melanie's shocked squeals made Lena and I burst out into fits of laughter. She had stepped right onto the dollop of toothpaste with her sock and was then jumping about the room, waving her arms above her head and screaming our names. It was amazing. But then, a couple of days later after that sleepover, she still didn't talk to us. By then Lena and I agreed that she couldn't still hold a grudge against us about that mishap. After all, Melanie did end up laughing along with us and we helped her clean the sock until there wasn't any trace of toothpaste left, except for a residual minty smell. Since then she stopped talking to us entirely and seemed to avoid me most of all, more than Lena. In the recent years Melanie also started behaving like a bully. A really bad one, but still a bully. She started insulting us and acting as if she were better than us. Sometimes, in moments like those, I wonder what would have happened if Melanie, Lena and I were still the close group of friends we used to be. We would have laughed together, studied together, gone out to watch a movie, grab dinner and had fun. I would never admit it to Melanie, but I missed the times when we were still friends with her. Whenever Lena and I complain to each other about Melanie's silence towards us, Lena would mostly get a sad look in her eyes and remove her glasses to rub at them with the edge of her T-shirt. I could tell that she also missed her old friend.