No Boys Allowed
1
Elena Collins met her best friend Natalia Marsden at the age of twelve and formed the N.B.A. club which stood for no boys allowed. They used a lean-to deep in the woods near Natalia's small, modest home and made a sign for it and painted in red letters N.B. A. Since Natalia liked to be in charge she made the rules. Especially since the club was her idea. They would meet three times a week afterschool and all activities were kept a secret. What occured during the meetings would vary. Natalia often carried a deck of Tarot cards with her. So, hours would be spent asking the cards questions and having them interpreted. Elena figured Natalia's mother, Krissoula, must be partly an influence on her since it was rumoured that her mother read Tarot cards and performed other forms of divination for money. People in town also said she did scandalous things for money. No one really knew what her mother's questionable form of employment really was.
No friends were ever invited to these meetings. It was always Elena and Natalia. Elena wasn't as dedicated as Natalia at attending these meetings because at the age of twelve back then, it was easy for Elena to become distracted by things in town. At times, walking home from school, passing by the library lured her in for an hour or two to see if any new books had come in by her favorite authors or she would browse the shelves and there would be books that would capture her attention. Other times she would find herself stopping to watch a baseball game in progress where her brother Jake and his friends played. Any missed meetings would be considered a " curse " by Natalia. She'd call Elena everytime one was missed and force a promise out of her not to miss the next one. Looking back at that time in her childhood, she realized that's when Natalia's obsessive personality had always began to enforce her to follow rules adamantly and expect others to follow her example. Elena was just a twelve year old girl then. What did she really know ?
Elena's brother Jake had tried to warn her about Natalia. He said she should stop hanging out with her and bringing her over to the house because it was rumoured that her mother was a witch and could place a curse on anyone and could make sure she never had a boyfriend. She never took it seriously and paid no heed to what her brother said. Her friendship continued on with Natalia. During the many Tarot reading sessions, one day stood out differently than the other days. One day Elena asked Natalia if the cards would indicate when they would get married. As she shuffled the cards, spread the cards out and turned them over to interpret them, she nonchalantly said, " No marriage because of the N.B.A. club." Elena tried to explain to her that it couldn't be forever because everyone grows up and someday gets married. Natalia just kept murmuring insistently, " N.B.A. "
One day Elena finds a stray kitten and brings it home to take care of it and names it Spunky. She adores it and Natalia becomes secretly envious of the attention she was giving it and starts to think she is being replaced by the kitten. Elena starts bringing the kitten to their meetings till Natalia starts expressing her dislike for the cat and started doing Tarot readings concerning the cat and told her the cards indicated that her kitten would not be around much longer. Elena asks her for more detailed informaton but she just gives her a vague, mysterious anwser. Elena starts to feel uncomfortable and starts to head for home. Natalia tried her best to persuade her to stay but Elena has made up her mind to leave for home out of concern for her kitten, Spunky. She had grown tired of the Tarot card routine and was starting to feel like she was also starting to outgrow the N.B.A. club too. Even the sign thay had painted letters on was even starting to fade which seemed like a sign to move on from the N.B.A. club, eventually.
Later at one of the club meetings Elena shows up to tell Natalia her cat Spunky was having kittens and asked if she wanted one. Natalia went on to complain that cats were just smelly, lazy and she did not want anthing to do with cats. She starts looking through her Tarot cards and and said the cards indicate something unfortuneate might happen to her cat. She just remains in the spot that she is continually shuffling the cards in a daze murmuring anything could happen to a cat, anything at all. She dosen't seem to notice Elena rushing off to check on her cat who had been missing earlier in the day. By the time she arrived at her house, Spunky was still not home. Jake made outspoken comments that indicated that Natalia might have had something to do with it. Elena became so mad she had an angry outburst at him. Their mother tries to smooth things over by reassuring Elena that perhaps the cat would be home soon when it got hungry even though her mother didn't seem all that sure herself.
Another day passes and Spunky still dosen't return. Elena's father tells her that it might have run away. Elena dosen't believe that though because of the close bond she believes she formed with the cat before it dissappeared. Sunday comes around and there is still no sign of her cat. She starts to have a bad feeling about it. Her father offers to look for it after church and insists Elena stay home with her mother even though Elena wants to help in the search. Did her father possibly somehow know something bad had happened to her cat and didn't want to see the possiblity of a dreadful sight in case something had happenned to spare the pain ? Elena's father, Jake and his friend, Lucas searched all thoughout the neighborhood. Her mother tried to help her pass the time away and remain optimistic by occupying her time by baking cookies and playing board games. Elena had a bad feeling that would not go away. By the time her father returns with her brother and his friend it is already dark outside. To Elena's devastattion, her father does not have the body of her beloved cat with him as she had hoped so that she could have given a decent burial. All he offered her for an exclamation was that he was sorry and that her cat was dead. He did not elaborate further. He offered to get her a new cat at the pet store as a form of consolation. Elena sadly declines, even though she knew his intentions were thoughtful and well intended. Even though she saw the dissapppointment in his face she knew that he respected and understood her descision. He knew better than to attempt to force her into getting a new pet to replace a dead one. The pain of losing a pet was still fresh in her mind and sad. He offered his condolences once more and words of sympathy he hoped would help her and leaves the room.
As Elena attended the next meeting, Natalia acted like the caring supportive friend during her time of grief over her Whiskers death, even though she never liked the cat in the first place. She told Elena that she could cry and talk about Spunky as much as she wanted and she would be there for her. She even went as far as reading the Tarot cards and said they indicated that Whiskers was happy in heaven and not starting to miss Elena as much which she found comforting. The whole week was made bearable by Natalia's emotional support.
A few weeks later, after the death of Spunky, Elena passes by her brother Jake's open window and accidentally hears a conversation between him and his friend Lucas while walking around outside. Usually, on any other day, she would have passed by because she had absolutely no interest in what Jake had to say, especialy since all Jake and his friend, Lucas had to talk about were sports and grotesque horror movies of which she found boring and gross. However, something in Jake's and his friend's conversation got her attention that day. They described how her dead cat was found and how her father had asked Jake and his friend to keep it a secret from Elena because he was afraid she couldn't handle the details of Spunky's death and how they had found it. The only detail that her father had ever told was that Spunky had chocked on something when she had asked him later how Spunky had died. Lucas made a tastelessly morbid joke saying that it was possible that Natalia had choked the cat herself with her " very chubby fingers. " Jake corrects him by saying it wasn't by her hands but by her her red scarf that she was always seen wearing before she hung it on the tree by it's neck and went on to explain how gross it was seeing it with its tongue protruding out. As soon as Elena heard the last detailed part of the conversation, she seemed horrified and in disbelief and angry at their comments. It made her storm into their house and burst into her brother Jake's room with a tearstreaked face. As she looked to both of them, she spoke furiously. " How dare you talk about my friend that way ! Natalia would never do such a cruel thing ! She's my best friend ! How disgusting of you two to say such things out loud ! "
Then she ran from the room sobbing. Later, when her mother had heard about it, she made Jake and Lucas apologise. Even though their apology was heartfelt and sincere they still firmly believed in what they had said about Natalia. When her mother had a chance to talk to Elena alone she simply explained that the boys must have said the things they did because they enjoyed talking about scary things that are gross and it must have been the influence of all the horror movies they were so fond of talking about. Elena sought reassurance that what they said was a lie by asking her mother if it was possible they could be liing but her mother just nodded and said nothing. This only left Elena to wonder if indeed it was true or not. It was something in her mother's eyes that made her wonder, as if there was something she didn't want to talk about, confirm or deny and how easily she left the room afterwards without really anwsering her question. It was if she wanted to avoid something unpleasant. That possibility of whether or not Natalia was capable of doing such a thing or not stayed on her mind.