Okay non-existant reader! This is it! The end!
Of everything
Kidding!
It's the last chapter :'(
This is weird. We both kinda agreed that it was seriously about time that we finished this story, and there was nothing more to write, but still, it's weird. We may edit it, we may not.
Let's face it, we're just gonna fume at our past writing and do nothing about it-we're too lazy to actually go back and do something :P
Anyway! On with the last chapter!
Picture: Justin Bieber and Stevie Wonder and I know it's irrelevant but Stevie is superior and Justin is perf-I mean *coughs* totally normal
Video: Honey Bee by Blake Shelton, play this when it goes into the future at the end!
Yes I realise the picture and the video contradict each other but...eh xD
:'(
Never fear, though!
Or maybe you should, if you don't like our writing, but we WILL have a new story coming to this account! Huzzah! We're not gonna say what it is yet because it's still way at the beginning of the planning stage, but if you've ever seen Pretty Rhythm... ;)
Abi xo
Chapter 8
~Melody’s POV~
James:
Scarlette got the treatment.
I sat up straight in bed, staring at the text. A wave of relief flooded over me, my face crinkling into a wide smile.
Melody:
That’s amazing! When do they start? Are you with Lyra?
James:
Yeah she’s here with me, they start next week but Lyra still isn’t talking to her parents:/
Melody:
She’ll come round (hopefully)
James:
Yeah I know. Thanks for all your help, Mel. I know she’d never say it, but she really appreciates it.
Melody:
That’s what friends are for :D
James:
I know :) see you tomorrow!
Melody:
See you! :) x
I lay back in bed and fell asleep, a broad smile on my face.
~*~
“Lyra!” I called, waving vigorously. She was alone by the vending machines and I decided it would be the perfect time to talk to her about getting the money for Scarlette’s treatment-hopefully she’d be a little more approachable this way.
Even with that amount of positivity, I wasn’t expecting what happened next.
“Melody!” Lyra turned around and grinned, waving too. Taken slightly off guard, I looked around for anything that may indicate a prank. Finding nothing, I approached her, though slightly more suspicious than before.
“I just wanted to say I’m really happy for you, what with getting the money for Scarlette and everything.” I smiled and, to my surprise, Lyra jumped forward and hugged me.
Okay, where’s the water pistols? The cameras? The silly string? The grenades? What’s going on?
“I know! I’m so happy too! Thank you for everything you did for us, it really meant a lot.” She drew back and scowled, then punched my arm. “But don’t think this means we’re friends. I just owe you one.”
“Naw, you love me.” I threw an arm over her shoulder and started to walk off to Sikowitz’s class.
“If you ever tell anyone that, I’ll deny it. Then I’ll shoot you and throw your body in a dumpster.”
“Point taken.”
~*~
For the first time in a while, our table was the loud one at lunch.
James was reciting lines from Romeo and Juliet to Lyra, who was laughing and blushing madly-a complete contradiction to the ripe language pouring out of her mouth. He didn’t seem to mind-that boy would do anything for her.
Marcus, Tyler and Cece were engaged in some sort of three-way argument about the nutritional value of candyfloss-Cece was convinced it was one of her five a day, Tyler was calling her some very rude names, and Marcus was fighting logic and facts with hormones, if you catch my drift.
Harley, who was sat opposite me, were discussing when Liam was next going to visit. He flew back home the next day and he was planning on coming up sometime in the summer to visit. I had to admit that it was nice seeing him again-he was pretty much the only person who had stuck by me from back home, and I had missed him. We were all going to go out to a restaurant that evening to celebrate Scarlette’s treatment starting next week, and Liam was coming too.
“Hey, guys.” We looked up as Alex sat down next to me and stole one of my chips. “Thanks, Mel!” He grinned and winked as he popped it into his mouth.
“Hey!” I complained, laughing, butterflies going haywire in my stomach. “That’s my lunch!”
He just laughed at me.
Harley winked at me when he wasn’t looking and I rolled my eyes. There was nothing going on between Alex and I.
Not right now, at any rate.
~1 Year Later~
~Narrator~
“Catch it, Scarlette!” Cece cried, letting the Frisbee fly from her hand.
Scarlette squealed, running across the grass in her bare feet to catch the plastic disk. Her short hair flew out behind her as she reached out her hand and turned around, sending the disk straight behind her to Melody.
“Guys, this isn’t fair!” Complained Marcus. “There’s three of you and one of me!”
“Of course it’s fair!” Melody laughed. “You have Tyler! Besides, being a strong guy like yourself, surely you can take on two short girls and an eleven year old?”
“Tyler is more of a hindrance than a help.”
“Hey!”
“And I’m still outnumbered! Even if I get the disc, there’s no one to throw it to!” He pouted and Lyra rolled her eyes from the picnic blanket under the tree. Even Scarlette wasn’t this childish.
“Be a man, Marcus!” She taunted.
“Come on, James, please help me.” Marcus begged. James looked down at Lyra, who was laid next to him. Lyra glared at him.
“Sorry, Marcus!” He apologised. “You’re only waiting until Alex arrives, anyway.”
“I’m here!” The group turned to see Alex running across the park to them, guitar in hand. “Sorry I’m late!”
“Alex!” Scarlette squealed, sprinting and jumping into his arms to meet him half way.
“Hey!” He laughed, hugging her. “What did I miss?”
“It’s boys versus girls.” She giggled. “We’re beating Marcus.”
“Is that so? Well who has the disc now?” Scarlette pointed to Melody and Alex gave a mischievous grin. “I’ll save you, Marcus!” He yelled, passing his guitar to Scarlette and running towards Melody.
“Cece!” Melody yelled, turning away from Alex to throw the disc. “Catch!”
Just as she let go of the Frisbee, Alex collided with her, sending them, laughing to the ground.
“Jerk.” Melody, laughed, trying to get up. Alex had his arms around her, pulling her back down every time she sat up. “Scarlette! Help me!”
“Melody!” Scarlette skipped over and grabbed her hands, pulling Melody to her feet. “You’re mean, Alex! You should have joined our team!”
“I’m sorry, Scarlette! I’ll make it up to you, I promise!” Alex knelt before her and took her hands, the others watching, amused. “I’ll buy you ice cream! And sweets! And cake! Lots of cake!”
“Alexander Blake Sirreous!” Lyra yelled from across the grass. “Stay away from my sister! I don’t want you corrupting her!”
“I was just offering her ice cream!” He protested.
“And sweets.” Cece put in.
“And lots of cake!” Scarlette reminded him. He rolled his eyes.
“Yes, alright, my wallet isn’t bottomless, you know!”
“Are you gonna argue all day, or do you actually want some food?” James raised his eyebrows. It wasn’t even noon yet, but all morning they had been running about, playing games. Being eleven, Scarlette didn’t get tired very easily, and being teenagers, everyone else was in a constant state of lethargy.
“Food!” Scarlette and Cece shrieked, in unison, and sprinted away. Marcus, Melody and Alex walked more slowly, laughing at their immature friends and basking in the warm summer sunlight.
“Ooh, guys, we have to take a picture for Harley and Liam!” Marcus reminded his friends, getting up off the ground and pulling his phone out. Harley was spending most of the summer in England, visiting Liam, so Instagram had become the middle ground of their relationship.
The group-minus Marcus-clumped together somewhat awkwardly so that he could fit them all in the picture. Once he’d taken it, they relaxed into their previous positions, helping themselves to the food, laid out in the middle of the blanket.
Once he had finished eating, Marcus got bored, and ran rampage with his camera, taking embarrassing pictures of everyone eating. Well, everyone except Lyra-she threatened to cut off his nose with her scissors and he wasn’t willing to take the chance.
Eventually, everyone else had eaten their fill, and sat back on the grass, talking as the sun rose. Alex brought out his guitar and the cheerful sounds of Blake Shelton filled the air.
Lyra took out her mirror to check her hair. She was different now-stronger. What she once thought meant strength, power over other people; that meant nothing to her now. Sure, she enjoyed teasing, tormenting and threatening-who didn’t? But she no longer needed to stand alone, at the top of the pyramid. She knew where she stood, surrounded by good people, her friends, and, of course, her family. Her precious sister. She didn’t need to hide behind an act anymore, lying to people about who she was useless in her eyes-she’d been through the storm and she had come out the other side, changed for the better. That was true strength.
“Hey, can I borrow that?”
“Sure.” Lyra tucked her hair behind her ear and passed the mirror to Melody.
Melody took the mirror with one hand and plucked her lip-gloss from her handbag with the other. She was lighter now, more carefree. She wasn’t scared of speaking out anymore, or of singing or saying what she thought. She had learnt not to let the past tie her down or let other people to control her-she was entirely her own person now. Most importantly, she had learnt to forgive herself. A great weight had been lifted from her shoulders; she no longer blamed herself for the past. She had made it through the woods, and she was finally completely happy.
“Thanks.” Melody grinned and put the mirror back into Lyra’s bag.
Mirrors aren’t what lie to you. They show fact, the physical, what you can touch. A mirror is a glass surface, a ‘looking glass’. It’s what you see in a single glance, the first impression. They don’t lie to you-it’s all about how you interpret what you see. Just because you don’t like the person staring back at you in the mirror, doesn’t make them bad. Just because you’re looking in the mirror, doesn’t mean that the person staring back at you is who you are. You are lying to yourself believing that.
Breaking the mirror means to love yourself, to be unconditionally you and to make a decision not to pay attention to whoever is looking back at you. If you break that mirror-whether physically or metaphorically-it is to learn to not care about what other people see when they look at you, but to care about what they find when they look beneath the surface.
Dearest Reader, it’s been quite a journey getting here! This is Abi speaking, and quite honestly, I want to rewrite pretty much all but the last four chapters of this story because it’s been going that long! When I started writing this last chapter, I was very much ready to say goodbye to this story-I was sick of it! But now I’m kind of sad. When we first decided to write this book together, we wanted a deeper meaning to it. Okay, I lied, at first we wanted to write something a bit like the TV show ‘Victorious’. But anyway, when we really got down to planning it, we wanted this story to mean something. No matter how funny we made it, how random, how weird, we knew it wouldn’t be any good if it didn’t mean something personal, and that’s where the whole ‘Girl In The Mirror’ idea came from. Nikki got that idea from the song ‘Believe In Me’ by Demi Lovato and it really seemed to work for the story. I’m making it sound like we wrote some great literary work and honestly I do not think that-like I said, this needs some serious editing and rewriting!-but what I mean is that we wrote about something important, issues that needed to be dealt with, and something generally important to us. I think in a way, definitely for me, this story made me think about myself as a person and about being who I am, even though that wasn’t always the main focus of the story. But anyway, to the few of you out there that have read our story and to the even fewer of you that have read this to the end, thank you, and remember not to base your opinions on the surface.
Thank you,
Abi
So I think Abz has said enough for the 2 of us but I just wanted to come and tell you guys that if you've stuck with us til now then thank you. Seriously, thank you it means a lot. I'm sadder than I thought I'd be to see this book end but now Abi and I can move on and start a new project together and we will keep improving :) So I guess as we close this book, we're going to be opening a new one soon enough.
Thanks again guys,
Nikki