1998

She was sitting in the middle of the carpet with the other children, wearing an old style dress. Her hair was so greasy you could not see her curly hair. It was a small classroom with one or two windows. The teacher was on the steps outside of the door talking to someone. Amanda was looking around. She looked down at her dress and then scratched her crotch. Another girl came over and pushed her down. The girl was black with black fuzzy hair in pig tales.
“You a Lesbian?”
Amanda looked up from the ground “What’s that?” Another young black girl came up and stood beside the other.
“Freak!” she said really loud. Soon some of the other children were saying “Lesbian Freak.”
A little girl came up and told them to stop. She was white and had stringy brown hair. She went up to Amanda “What’s your name? Mine is Jessica and I have ADD.”
Amanda jumped up “ I AM AMANDA! I have ADHD” Jessica and Amanda sat down on the carpet together and talked about how Jessica’s mother was a teacher there at that school. The other girls just left and sat on the other side of the carpet. A small Chinese boy can running up and popped down right in front of them. Matt was a year younger than them; he was smart enough to skip kindergarten.
Soon, all of Ms. Park’s second grade class was on the carpet. Amanda kept on scratching her crotch. The children started to taunt her once again, but the teacher came in the room. She dressed like a teen, but you could tell she was in her thirties. The teacher told the children to stop and called Amanda forward.
“Are you ok? Do you need to go to the office?” Amanda looked up at her, and said, “It itches”
Ms. Parks took out a note pad and wrote her a note, “Go to the office and tell them”. Amanda went out the door crying. Jessica jumped up to go help her. “Jessica, she will be just fine, come and set on the carpet dear,” said the teacher before Jessica could even move. She sat down and the teacher opened a book to read to the class.

2004
“Jesse!” yelled a loving mother. Jesse woke up from a long past dream. She lifted her hand and placed it on her forehead. Her mother walked in the room. It had a desk beside the door a vanity on the back wall and right in front of the window opposite of the door was a bed with Jesse in it. Her mother brought in a tray with soup and grilled cheese on it. Her mother plopped the tray on her lap and in a smooth flow stuck the thermometer in Jesse’s mouth and felt her forehead.” You are still warm” Jesse looked up at her mother
“I had such…”
”shh, don’t talk with a thermometer in your mouth.”
The thermometer started beeping. Her mother pulled it out “WOW! 101 you need to eat and get more sleep”
Jesse looked at her soup, and said, “I am not really hungry….Hey, did I have a friend back at my old elementary school named Amanda?”
Her mother looked back at her “Mmm.. I can’t remember, but I do remember you having a friend that I would not let you go over to her house. There were a lot of weird things going on with the girls and their father that the school was looking into. Eat and get some rest.” Jesse picked up her spoon and placed it in her bowl.





1998
Ms. Parks had met with Jessica’s mother about her not paying any attention in class. Their solution was the dot. Yes, every time Jessica was not paying any attention the teacher would come by and put a dot on her desk to tell her to look and listen, it sounded good.
The day after the meeting Jessica was off in lala land and the teacher put a red dot on her desk. The teacher was going over notes. Jessica saw the dot and sat up straight and looked at the teacher. Right behind Jessica was Amanda’s head coming up like a spacecraft. Her head floated there for a second as she stared at the dot.
“WHAT’S THAT? OH IT’S RED! IT’S A DOT! WHY DO YOU HAVE A DOT? I WANT A DOT! COOL!” As the words came from her mouth, like a squirrel on caffeine, Jessica bust out with laughter.
The teacher looked back. “Is there a problem?” Everyone in the room was staring at them. Jessica calmed down and apologized. Amanda just looked at the teacher like it was nothing, and said,
“What do I have to do to get a dot?”
The teacher picked up the dot. The teacher looked at Amanda “stay seated and pay attention and then maybe you might get a dot.” Amanda sat up in her set and looked at the teacher with great eyes.
After school, Amanda got a dot and she went to the office to call her father to see if he was going to pick her and her sisters up. Jessica went to her mother’s classroom. Later after Jessica’s mother was done with work and they were about to leave Jessica went up to the office to drop off some papers there. Amanda was still waiting. “Why are you here?” Amanda looked at Jessica
“ I am waiting for my dad to come get us”, It was weird. At this time, Amanda did not seem like herself, she was more mature and like a parent to her baby sisters. Jessica asked what happened to her arm. Amanda looked down at her feet and put a jacket on to cover the bruisess on her arm.
“Nothing.”

2006
Jesse ran out of her house. It was a large white house with a steep driveway. Jesse ran down the road passing houses and trees every which way. She could see the lights of the buss at the stop up the street. It was nice little subdivision. Jesse had brown short hair, too short to ever put up in a ponytail. She had a black winter coat on. As she ran you could see a small ring on her necklace with the words ‘best friends forever’ on it. She made it to the bus just in time. Her life was bland even in high school. She went through a really bad black stage in middle school but she still can’t make many friends even though she knew so many people. She was a fun loving person if you did get to know her.
At this time Jesse only has one good friend named Ashley. Ashley takes her home every day and she is the only person Jesse trusts. Ashley knows Jesse is such a cool friend but there is something that she does not talk about something that is eating away in Jesse’s hart. Ashley knew this and was trying to open up her soft side to find out what was wrong.

1999
Jessica ran down a snow-covered rode. She knew not to go far. It was a long stretch of road. From her house on the left was the elementary school, and the right was Matt and Amanda’s house. Two blocks down was Matt’s house, and at the end of the road was Amanda’s apartment building right across from Four Seasons Mall. Jessica knew she was not allowed to go down the road, let-a-lone cross it. Yet Jessica was on the other side of the road passing houses and other off streets, right past Matt’s house and down to the apartments.
When she got to the apartments she saw Amanda sitting on the steps to the second story. When Jessica got closer Amanda had a black eye and a bloody lip. Jessica ran up and placed her hands on Amanda’s cheeks. They were freezing cold.
“What happened?” Asked Jessica.
Amanda looked up with tears in her eyes. “ Fell down the stairs”
Jessica looked at the cat in Amanda’s lap. “Stupid, you don’t fall down the stairs you walk down.” Amanda looked at Jessica with such sad eyes. Jessica looked back with concern written all over her face. Then, Amanda threw a snowball at her.
Jessica wiped all the snow off her face and jacket and sat beside Amanda. Amanda went back to petting the cat. “If I tell you, will you promise not to tell anyone?”
Jessica jumped up, “I PROMISE! I PROMISE!”
Amanda started crying “My daddy did this, he has been mean since mommy left us.” Jessica put her hand on Amanda’s back.
“Don’t feel bad, my daddy has hit me and my brother before, too” Amanda looked at Jessica. Amanda’s little sisters ran around the building throwing snowballs everywhere.
“My mommy got us friendship rings”, Jessica pulled out two necklaces and gave one to Amanda. The rings said ‘best friends forever’.

2007
Jesse spent the night at Ashley’s house. She had a nice house that was two stories. Her room was upstairs and the living room was downstairs. They stayed up watching scary moves till Ashley’s step dad came down and asked them to go to bed. They stayed up watching the count down to the 50 top horror movies of all time. They ended up talking for hours when Ashley asked about the necklace. Jesse just said it was from an old friend. Ashley wanted to know more and kept on asking about it. Jesse started to cry.
Ashley asked,“Who she was, who was the old friend”. Jesse put her knees to her face and wrapped her arms around her legs.
“She is gone, gone forever and I did nothing to help her! I did not tell anyone!” Ashley put her hand on Jesse’s back.

1999
Jessica was moving. Most of their stuff was in their new house. Jessica had spent one week in her new school. The hot water was not working right at the new house. Really it was just hot water and nothing else. So her father was going to take a bath at their old house and Jessica was going with him. On the way there, there were cop lights at the apartments before you turn on Four Seasons, the cops were at the apartments that Amanda lives at.
This gut felling over came Jessica and she felt sick.
When they got to their old house her father turned on the light. There was still a small TV on the living room floor. “I am going to take a bath just watch TV. When I am done you can take a shower.
Jessica looked up, “Ok”.
Her father walked down the hall. Jessica could hear the water turn on. She went to the front window. You could not see the lights from there. Jessica turned the TV up and opened the front door. Jessica slipped out the door and left it unlocked. From the moment the door clicked she ran, ran as hard as she could. When she got to the apartments she ran up the stairs to Amanda’s door.
There was a cop on the radio that saw Jessica run up there and jumped up after her. Jessica ran into the apartment. Jessica stopped in the doorway. Amanda’s dad was at the kitchen table. It was a living room and kitchen combined. There was blood on his hands. Jessica saw the cop coming up the stairs.
“Come here,” said Jessica to Amanda’s little sister. “ Go to the nice cop over there and tell him what happened.”
The cop stopped to take the girls who were crying. Jessica stepped into the apartment just as more lights came from outside. Jessica looked in the corner of the room on the back wall beside the door.
‘A trail of blood?’ Jessica’s eyes widened. A cop grabbed her shoulder.
“Get out of here!” Jessica jumped back and grabbed her necklace. Tears came from her eyes. The cop tried to lead her out but she took off running down the stares and far away.
The next day at her new house Jessica sat by the phone and looking at her shoes, there was blood on the bottom of one. Jessica frantically got up and washed it off. She went back to the phone and tried to call Mat. He never answered. She called again and again. It sounded like someone was picking up the phone and slamming it down. She called 7 times. Then she stopped. She put her knees to her face and wrapped her arms around her legs. She sat there for a while until the phone rang. Jessica jumped up and grabbed it. “AMANDA!” she yelled in to the phone.
“Jessica” a voiced said on the other line. “Amanda died, and...”
Jessica breathed out “her father”.
The voice on the other side got enraged “YOU KNEW! YOU KNEW AND DID NOT TELL ANYONE!” Jessica hung up the phone really fast and just cried. Soon her mind just blocked it out to where she did not even remember she had a friend named Amanda.

2007
Ashley looked at Jesse “Jesse what happened?”
“Its my fault, I could have stopped it. “…She died because of me” Ashley was already shocked because she has never seen her cry let alone breakdown. It took time but it came out. Amanda was raped and beaten to death by her father. The other sisters of Amanda were not harmed and placed in foster care. Ashley told Jessica over and over again it was not her fault and that it was out of her control. She still wears the ring on her necklace all the time, but this does not haunt, her as it did before. It just took someone to tell her it was not her fault, and for her to see what this was doing to her. Soon she placed the ring away but never forgot her best friend.