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- Story Listed as: Fiction For Teens
- Theme: Family & Friends
- Subject: Friends / Friendship
- Published: 01/29/2021
Life in Jenipee
Born 2002, F, from Colorado, United StatesI stare at the river, trying to gauge how far it is from one side to the other. Looking back at the rope I’ve just tied to a tree, I assume that I can make it over there. If not, what’s the worst that could happen? I’ll just end up falling into the river. A little bit of wetness never hurt anyone.
My hands grip onto the rope so tightly that my knuckles turn white. I take a few steps back from the river and breathe in deeply. Then, before I can change my mind, I run as fast as I can to the edge and fling myself off. I immediately feel the branch I’ve tied the rope to sink from my weight, before hearing a ‘snap’ noise.
Well, that didn’t work out.
I crash into the water back first, striking a rock from underneath. I’m starting to understand that getting a little wet can hurt, but it would’ve been worse if my head struck the rock.
Sore and frustrated, I pull myself out of the water and look up at the branch that I once thought was sturdy enough to hold me. The branch is no longer there, however, since it’s on the ground with the rope still tied to it. I hate the look of it, it’s a physical representation of my failure.
Making the walk of shame toward my house and past all the other houses is a bit humiliating. I’m like a dog walking the alleys begging for food, only I’m wet and cold.
I’m positive that I’ve made it to my house without problems when I see the door to his house open. I think about hiding somewhere, but there’s nowhere to hide in broad daylight. Even hiding behind a tree wouldn’t be sufficient enough.
Mira walks out of the house, and I take a sigh of relief.
But then Elio walks out right behind her. We make eye contact within seconds, and his heavy and annoying laugh follows soon after.
“What… happened… to you?” he asks between chuckles.
“I would rather not talk about it,” I reply as calmly as I can.
“But I would. You’re soaking wet, clearly this wasn’t planned.”
“Maybe it was.”
“But it wasn’t.”
“Good job, detective,” I say as sarcastically as I can manage.
“Are you going to tell me what happened or are we going to talk around it for another five minutes? I have places to go.” Elio says this as he’s walking down the stairs of his house, approaching me. When he gets close enough, he grabs a chunk of my hair and squeezes the water out of it.
“I was trying to get across the river,” I confess.
“And how did you attempt it this time?”
“At first I thought of making a bridge, but there wasn’t enough driftwood around. I ended up tying some rope to a branch and throwing myself across.”
“You tarzaned yourself?”
“Yes, but the branch was too thin and broke mid-air.”
“I can see that. Luna, your back is bleeding.”
“Is it? Of course it is…” If Mom wasn’t going to get angry at me before, she certainly was now. I left the house without telling her, which is somewhat typical by now, but I’ve also managed to injure myself.
“Have you learned nothing from Bridge to Terabithia? She dies trying to cross that river!” he scolds now, which annoys me much more than his laughing. “Seriously, you should’ve been more careful.”
“I get it, that’s why I didn’t try again,” I defend myself.
“I wasn’t expecting you to, seeing how well the first time went…”
I want to say something snarky and borderline mean back to him, but decide against it. It probably hasn’t been long enough for me to make fun of him yet. After all, he’s just looking out for me. I guess I have to appreciate that.
“Where are you guys going?” I change the subject now. He continues to wring out my hair, but I finally pull myself out of his reach and do it myself.
“We’re going to Jameson for the afternoon. I would ask you if you wanted to come but I know you hate towns with over 250 people,” he says.
“You got that right. I think I’m supposed to help my mom with something too.”
“Tell Lucia that she should be getting a call later tonight from my mom,” he says, and it takes me a moment to remember that Lucia is my mom’s name. He never says it that often, even though I call his mom Mira all the time. “I’ll see you later.”
“Wait.” I grab his arm and pull him back around to look at me. He’s taller than me, so I have to lift my head up to look into his eyes. I have to make sure that he’s okay, I’d be a bad friend if I didn’t.
He looks so sad. He tries to hide it with his smile and bubbly voice, but I can see easily enough how hard it is for him to live like this.
“I’m fine,” he says simply, pulling his arm away from me.
“Elio,” I start, but he’s already walking away. I let him this time, knowing that Mira is waiting for him in the car. I wouldn’t want to take up any more of her time either.
Turning around, I make my way to my own house, which is another minute’s walk. The fact that I’m soaking wet settles in, and now I’m just ready to be in a warm house and change clothes.
The house looks like it’s been turned upside down when I walk in. Our living room has everything in the wrong places, not to mention everything that was once in storage boxes is now out lying somewhere. The kitchen looks the same way.
I find Mom in her bedroom, in between old sets of sheets and empty photo albums. She’s currently looking through a stack of papers.
“Hey,” I say to show that I’m in the room with her. She turns around, smiling wide.
“Luna, darling! Come look what I have here!” she squeals at me in Italian, which makes me immediately concerned for two reasons. First, she sounds… happy, and second, she never speaks Italian this early in the afternoon. If anything, it’s the language she switches to when it’s the middle of the night or if she’s so angry that there’s no other way to describe her emotions than speaking in another language.
I walk over to her, trying to hide the fact that I’m wet since she hasn’t noticed yet. Sitting slightly behind, she reorganizes the papers and hands them over to me before taking them back within seconds.
“Why are you wet?” she asks, in English this time. It looks like I’ve ruined the moment that quickly.
“I fell into the river.”
“How?”
“I thought I could tie a rope to a tree and swing across,” I explain myself, keeping my voice steady.
“And why didn’t it work?”
My eyes widen. She never asks about my stupid endeavors. “The branch I tied the rope to was too thin and broke. Can I ask now why the house is an absolute mess?” I look around to see that other than a couple papers, everything pulled out are things that she’s gotten after Dad died. And well, it’s a lot of things.
“I’m doing some deep cleaning, trying to get rid of things that we don’t need. I mean, look at this! We have 11 sets of bedsheets for 2 people.” She points to the corner of sheets, which is indeed piled up to half my height. “And I bought these albums in Jameson a couple years ago thinking I’d fill them with pictures, but we didn’t have too many pictures to begin with.”
“That sounds sad when you say it like that…”
“It’s sad any way you say it,” she says so monotone that it catches me off guard. “Anyways, I need your help this afternoon making a trip to Jameson to give this stuff to the second hand shop.”
I groan audibly. If I had known that Mom was making me go to Jameson anyway, I would’ve just gone with Elio instead.
“I hate going to Jameson,” I mutter.
“I know you do, but it’ll be faster if there’s two of us. I’ll even let you get some ice cream once we’re done...”
After we’ve finished unloading everything, Mom drives me over to the ice cream shop. I get out of the car and just before I’m about to walk into the shop, I look through the window and see two people sitting at a table inside. One is Elio, and the other is someone I’ve never seen before. He looks about the same age as Elio and I, and I should know everyone that Elio knows, right? It’s not like he’s been out and about more than I have.
Elio and I make eye contact through the window, and his eyes go wide. He’s surprised that I’m in Jameson when I said I wouldn’t be. The other guy looks at me too, and that’s when I realize how nice his clothes look, how they’re from popular brands. His keys are in his pocket with a lanyard tied to them. Most of all, I notice that he has a phone on the table. Not a landline, but a mobile one.
This guy isn’t from Jenipee or Jameson. How does Elio know him?
As much as I don’t want to walk in and have to interact with a stranger, the need for ice cream is much more prevalent. Trying to keep a straight face, I walk into the shop and head to the front without looking back at their table. I can feel their eyes on me as I order my mint chocolate chip ice cream, and finally get the courage to turn back around once I’ve stuffed a bit in my mouth.
“What are you doing here? I thought you had to help your mom.” Elio greets somewhat forcefully as I walk up to them. He clearly didn’t want me to be here.
“I did, we brought some things to the second hand shop. And now I’m getting ice cream… and now I guess I’ll be leaving.”
“Bye.”
I leave the shop as fast as I can and walk toward the car, angrily stuffing ice cream into my mouth.
When we get home, Mom tries to get our house looking normal again. I head to my room and close the door. On my bed is a stack of papers with a note on top. She must’ve put this here before we left.
These are research papers about seals, courtesy of your dad. Do what you will.
I honestly don’t feel like looking at them right now, especially when I’m upset. That anger would eventually turn toward Dad, and that doesn't make any sense. I set the papers on my desk instead.
As I sit on my bed, I can’t get that last interaction with Elio out of my head. Sure, Elio’s acted differently ever since the accident, but I was hoping that he’d bounce back sometime soon and be his normal self again. It’s been months now.
“Luna,” I hear Mom say from my door. She walks over and sits next to me.
“Hi.”
“What are you doing?”
“Sitting. Thinking.”
“What are you thinking about?”
“Nothing much, really. I’m just having troubles with Elio. I know that he needs someone to talk to, and I’m trying to be that person. Only he keeps pushing me away. Today he went to ice cream with someone that I didn’t even know!”
“Darling, I’m going to tell you something that you don’t want to hear,” Mom starts, which is never a good beginning.
“Okay…”
“Elio has his own life, outside of Jenipee. He doesn’t have to tell you what he does. There was the funeral down in Denver, he could’ve met someone there.”
“That was months ago, how would’ve he kept communication with him? And why would you befriend someone during a funeral?”
“Luna,” Mom says, more stern than the other times she’s started talking. “You need to stop obsessing over a life that isn’t yours.”
“Ouch,” I mutter, taken back that she said it so bluntly. Turning away from her, I sigh and look out my window.
“Maybe I'm worrying too much about this when it’s not my place to worry about him. I just wish he’d talk to me more about what happened. It’s something that we have in common.”
Mom wraps her arm around me. “I know, but think about it. No one wants to talk about their dead parent, especially two teenagers that lost their parent much too soon.”
I guess she’s right, although I think talking about it would make me feel better. It’s frustrating when you want to help someone and also help yourself, but those both lead in different solutions.
I don’t feel like talking about this anymore, so I give her a hug before heading to the bathroom to take a shower. I never cleaned off properly after falling into the river and was still a little cold. As I’m washing my hair, I can hear Mom’s Italian music blasting through the house. It’s hard to hear the lyrics from the noise of the water, but I can assume they’re singing about love. It feels like all Italian songs seem to talk about love.
When I get out of the shower, I wrap a towel around myself and grab my clothes before heading to my room. However, right as I cross past the living room, I see that Elio is sitting on the couch, staring at the wall while music surrounds him. He turns to look at me and immediately turns away, seeing that I’m practically naked.
“That’s what Lucia meant when she said you were ‘somewhere,’” he shouts so I can hear him. I can tell he’s trying not to laugh.
“Did you not hear the water going?”
“Not over this beautiful music.” I do have to give him that. I can barely hear myself out here.
I return the walk back to my bedroom and change clothes as quickly as I can. My hair is still soaking wet, but there’s nothing I can do about that. I’m sure Elio will just wring it out again.
He’s in the same position from when I left him briefly. I walk over next to him before suggesting that we go outside.
“I’m really sorry,” he starts as soon as the door to my house closes. “I didn’t even introduce you to my friend Christopher at the ice cream shop, I shouldn’t have dismissed you so quickly.”
“Elio, do I remind you too much of your dad?”
He sighs. “Not exactly, I guess I was just trying to get away from this small town for a minute, since everything in my life has always revolved around the people in Jenipee. It’s like we’re stuck in this bubble. While that’s not bad, it’s just overwhelming after everything that happened.”
“Yeah…” I trail off, knowing exactly what he means. A sudden death hitting a small town community takes months, if not years, to get over.
“I had to watch you struggle when you lost your dad, but I never quite understood how hard it was for you until now, and I’m really sorry I wasn’t there for you before,” he says, but I shake my head at him.
“This isn’t about me or what you did or didn’t do, Elio. We were both young, no one expected you to do anything. I just want to make sure that you’re okay, because that’s what matters now.”
“I am okay, I promise you that. I would let you know if I weren’t.”
“Okay,” I smile, and he smiles back at me. I wrap my arms around Elio and bury my head into his chest. He’s so warm.
“You’re cold! Or your hair is,” he exclaims as the water soaks through his shirt, making me laugh. Just to annoy him, I wring some of the water out of my hair into my hand and throw it back at him. “Hey, you should try that rope swing again. I’ll help you test branches so they don’t break, if you’d like.”
“Oh, so you’re not making fun of the idea anymore?”
“I never made fun of the idea. I made fun of you,” he clarifies, making me roll my eyes at him. “But I’d also like to know if there’s anything interesting across, even if it’s just more trees and bushes.”
“Who knows, maybe there’s something amazing waiting for us over there,” I say hopefully. Elio smiles at me, causing me to smile back at him.
“Yeah, maybe there is.”
Life in Jenipee(Anna Bedell)
I stare at the river, trying to gauge how far it is from one side to the other. Looking back at the rope I’ve just tied to a tree, I assume that I can make it over there. If not, what’s the worst that could happen? I’ll just end up falling into the river. A little bit of wetness never hurt anyone.
My hands grip onto the rope so tightly that my knuckles turn white. I take a few steps back from the river and breathe in deeply. Then, before I can change my mind, I run as fast as I can to the edge and fling myself off. I immediately feel the branch I’ve tied the rope to sink from my weight, before hearing a ‘snap’ noise.
Well, that didn’t work out.
I crash into the water back first, striking a rock from underneath. I’m starting to understand that getting a little wet can hurt, but it would’ve been worse if my head struck the rock.
Sore and frustrated, I pull myself out of the water and look up at the branch that I once thought was sturdy enough to hold me. The branch is no longer there, however, since it’s on the ground with the rope still tied to it. I hate the look of it, it’s a physical representation of my failure.
Making the walk of shame toward my house and past all the other houses is a bit humiliating. I’m like a dog walking the alleys begging for food, only I’m wet and cold.
I’m positive that I’ve made it to my house without problems when I see the door to his house open. I think about hiding somewhere, but there’s nowhere to hide in broad daylight. Even hiding behind a tree wouldn’t be sufficient enough.
Mira walks out of the house, and I take a sigh of relief.
But then Elio walks out right behind her. We make eye contact within seconds, and his heavy and annoying laugh follows soon after.
“What… happened… to you?” he asks between chuckles.
“I would rather not talk about it,” I reply as calmly as I can.
“But I would. You’re soaking wet, clearly this wasn’t planned.”
“Maybe it was.”
“But it wasn’t.”
“Good job, detective,” I say as sarcastically as I can manage.
“Are you going to tell me what happened or are we going to talk around it for another five minutes? I have places to go.” Elio says this as he’s walking down the stairs of his house, approaching me. When he gets close enough, he grabs a chunk of my hair and squeezes the water out of it.
“I was trying to get across the river,” I confess.
“And how did you attempt it this time?”
“At first I thought of making a bridge, but there wasn’t enough driftwood around. I ended up tying some rope to a branch and throwing myself across.”
“You tarzaned yourself?”
“Yes, but the branch was too thin and broke mid-air.”
“I can see that. Luna, your back is bleeding.”
“Is it? Of course it is…” If Mom wasn’t going to get angry at me before, she certainly was now. I left the house without telling her, which is somewhat typical by now, but I’ve also managed to injure myself.
“Have you learned nothing from Bridge to Terabithia? She dies trying to cross that river!” he scolds now, which annoys me much more than his laughing. “Seriously, you should’ve been more careful.”
“I get it, that’s why I didn’t try again,” I defend myself.
“I wasn’t expecting you to, seeing how well the first time went…”
I want to say something snarky and borderline mean back to him, but decide against it. It probably hasn’t been long enough for me to make fun of him yet. After all, he’s just looking out for me. I guess I have to appreciate that.
“Where are you guys going?” I change the subject now. He continues to wring out my hair, but I finally pull myself out of his reach and do it myself.
“We’re going to Jameson for the afternoon. I would ask you if you wanted to come but I know you hate towns with over 250 people,” he says.
“You got that right. I think I’m supposed to help my mom with something too.”
“Tell Lucia that she should be getting a call later tonight from my mom,” he says, and it takes me a moment to remember that Lucia is my mom’s name. He never says it that often, even though I call his mom Mira all the time. “I’ll see you later.”
“Wait.” I grab his arm and pull him back around to look at me. He’s taller than me, so I have to lift my head up to look into his eyes. I have to make sure that he’s okay, I’d be a bad friend if I didn’t.
He looks so sad. He tries to hide it with his smile and bubbly voice, but I can see easily enough how hard it is for him to live like this.
“I’m fine,” he says simply, pulling his arm away from me.
“Elio,” I start, but he’s already walking away. I let him this time, knowing that Mira is waiting for him in the car. I wouldn’t want to take up any more of her time either.
Turning around, I make my way to my own house, which is another minute’s walk. The fact that I’m soaking wet settles in, and now I’m just ready to be in a warm house and change clothes.
The house looks like it’s been turned upside down when I walk in. Our living room has everything in the wrong places, not to mention everything that was once in storage boxes is now out lying somewhere. The kitchen looks the same way.
I find Mom in her bedroom, in between old sets of sheets and empty photo albums. She’s currently looking through a stack of papers.
“Hey,” I say to show that I’m in the room with her. She turns around, smiling wide.
“Luna, darling! Come look what I have here!” she squeals at me in Italian, which makes me immediately concerned for two reasons. First, she sounds… happy, and second, she never speaks Italian this early in the afternoon. If anything, it’s the language she switches to when it’s the middle of the night or if she’s so angry that there’s no other way to describe her emotions than speaking in another language.
I walk over to her, trying to hide the fact that I’m wet since she hasn’t noticed yet. Sitting slightly behind, she reorganizes the papers and hands them over to me before taking them back within seconds.
“Why are you wet?” she asks, in English this time. It looks like I’ve ruined the moment that quickly.
“I fell into the river.”
“How?”
“I thought I could tie a rope to a tree and swing across,” I explain myself, keeping my voice steady.
“And why didn’t it work?”
My eyes widen. She never asks about my stupid endeavors. “The branch I tied the rope to was too thin and broke. Can I ask now why the house is an absolute mess?” I look around to see that other than a couple papers, everything pulled out are things that she’s gotten after Dad died. And well, it’s a lot of things.
“I’m doing some deep cleaning, trying to get rid of things that we don’t need. I mean, look at this! We have 11 sets of bedsheets for 2 people.” She points to the corner of sheets, which is indeed piled up to half my height. “And I bought these albums in Jameson a couple years ago thinking I’d fill them with pictures, but we didn’t have too many pictures to begin with.”
“That sounds sad when you say it like that…”
“It’s sad any way you say it,” she says so monotone that it catches me off guard. “Anyways, I need your help this afternoon making a trip to Jameson to give this stuff to the second hand shop.”
I groan audibly. If I had known that Mom was making me go to Jameson anyway, I would’ve just gone with Elio instead.
“I hate going to Jameson,” I mutter.
“I know you do, but it’ll be faster if there’s two of us. I’ll even let you get some ice cream once we’re done...”
After we’ve finished unloading everything, Mom drives me over to the ice cream shop. I get out of the car and just before I’m about to walk into the shop, I look through the window and see two people sitting at a table inside. One is Elio, and the other is someone I’ve never seen before. He looks about the same age as Elio and I, and I should know everyone that Elio knows, right? It’s not like he’s been out and about more than I have.
Elio and I make eye contact through the window, and his eyes go wide. He’s surprised that I’m in Jameson when I said I wouldn’t be. The other guy looks at me too, and that’s when I realize how nice his clothes look, how they’re from popular brands. His keys are in his pocket with a lanyard tied to them. Most of all, I notice that he has a phone on the table. Not a landline, but a mobile one.
This guy isn’t from Jenipee or Jameson. How does Elio know him?
As much as I don’t want to walk in and have to interact with a stranger, the need for ice cream is much more prevalent. Trying to keep a straight face, I walk into the shop and head to the front without looking back at their table. I can feel their eyes on me as I order my mint chocolate chip ice cream, and finally get the courage to turn back around once I’ve stuffed a bit in my mouth.
“What are you doing here? I thought you had to help your mom.” Elio greets somewhat forcefully as I walk up to them. He clearly didn’t want me to be here.
“I did, we brought some things to the second hand shop. And now I’m getting ice cream… and now I guess I’ll be leaving.”
“Bye.”
I leave the shop as fast as I can and walk toward the car, angrily stuffing ice cream into my mouth.
When we get home, Mom tries to get our house looking normal again. I head to my room and close the door. On my bed is a stack of papers with a note on top. She must’ve put this here before we left.
These are research papers about seals, courtesy of your dad. Do what you will.
I honestly don’t feel like looking at them right now, especially when I’m upset. That anger would eventually turn toward Dad, and that doesn't make any sense. I set the papers on my desk instead.
As I sit on my bed, I can’t get that last interaction with Elio out of my head. Sure, Elio’s acted differently ever since the accident, but I was hoping that he’d bounce back sometime soon and be his normal self again. It’s been months now.
“Luna,” I hear Mom say from my door. She walks over and sits next to me.
“Hi.”
“What are you doing?”
“Sitting. Thinking.”
“What are you thinking about?”
“Nothing much, really. I’m just having troubles with Elio. I know that he needs someone to talk to, and I’m trying to be that person. Only he keeps pushing me away. Today he went to ice cream with someone that I didn’t even know!”
“Darling, I’m going to tell you something that you don’t want to hear,” Mom starts, which is never a good beginning.
“Okay…”
“Elio has his own life, outside of Jenipee. He doesn’t have to tell you what he does. There was the funeral down in Denver, he could’ve met someone there.”
“That was months ago, how would’ve he kept communication with him? And why would you befriend someone during a funeral?”
“Luna,” Mom says, more stern than the other times she’s started talking. “You need to stop obsessing over a life that isn’t yours.”
“Ouch,” I mutter, taken back that she said it so bluntly. Turning away from her, I sigh and look out my window.
“Maybe I'm worrying too much about this when it’s not my place to worry about him. I just wish he’d talk to me more about what happened. It’s something that we have in common.”
Mom wraps her arm around me. “I know, but think about it. No one wants to talk about their dead parent, especially two teenagers that lost their parent much too soon.”
I guess she’s right, although I think talking about it would make me feel better. It’s frustrating when you want to help someone and also help yourself, but those both lead in different solutions.
I don’t feel like talking about this anymore, so I give her a hug before heading to the bathroom to take a shower. I never cleaned off properly after falling into the river and was still a little cold. As I’m washing my hair, I can hear Mom’s Italian music blasting through the house. It’s hard to hear the lyrics from the noise of the water, but I can assume they’re singing about love. It feels like all Italian songs seem to talk about love.
When I get out of the shower, I wrap a towel around myself and grab my clothes before heading to my room. However, right as I cross past the living room, I see that Elio is sitting on the couch, staring at the wall while music surrounds him. He turns to look at me and immediately turns away, seeing that I’m practically naked.
“That’s what Lucia meant when she said you were ‘somewhere,’” he shouts so I can hear him. I can tell he’s trying not to laugh.
“Did you not hear the water going?”
“Not over this beautiful music.” I do have to give him that. I can barely hear myself out here.
I return the walk back to my bedroom and change clothes as quickly as I can. My hair is still soaking wet, but there’s nothing I can do about that. I’m sure Elio will just wring it out again.
He’s in the same position from when I left him briefly. I walk over next to him before suggesting that we go outside.
“I’m really sorry,” he starts as soon as the door to my house closes. “I didn’t even introduce you to my friend Christopher at the ice cream shop, I shouldn’t have dismissed you so quickly.”
“Elio, do I remind you too much of your dad?”
He sighs. “Not exactly, I guess I was just trying to get away from this small town for a minute, since everything in my life has always revolved around the people in Jenipee. It’s like we’re stuck in this bubble. While that’s not bad, it’s just overwhelming after everything that happened.”
“Yeah…” I trail off, knowing exactly what he means. A sudden death hitting a small town community takes months, if not years, to get over.
“I had to watch you struggle when you lost your dad, but I never quite understood how hard it was for you until now, and I’m really sorry I wasn’t there for you before,” he says, but I shake my head at him.
“This isn’t about me or what you did or didn’t do, Elio. We were both young, no one expected you to do anything. I just want to make sure that you’re okay, because that’s what matters now.”
“I am okay, I promise you that. I would let you know if I weren’t.”
“Okay,” I smile, and he smiles back at me. I wrap my arms around Elio and bury my head into his chest. He’s so warm.
“You’re cold! Or your hair is,” he exclaims as the water soaks through his shirt, making me laugh. Just to annoy him, I wring some of the water out of my hair into my hand and throw it back at him. “Hey, you should try that rope swing again. I’ll help you test branches so they don’t break, if you’d like.”
“Oh, so you’re not making fun of the idea anymore?”
“I never made fun of the idea. I made fun of you,” he clarifies, making me roll my eyes at him. “But I’d also like to know if there’s anything interesting across, even if it’s just more trees and bushes.”
“Who knows, maybe there’s something amazing waiting for us over there,” I say hopefully. Elio smiles at me, causing me to smile back at him.
“Yeah, maybe there is.”
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JD
02/01/2021Hi Anna, Really nice to see a new story from you. And what a great story it is, too! All the dialogue and the relationships seem very believable and I felt as though I was right there with your main character throughout and wanted good things for her. Great job. Happy short story STAR of the Week! :-)
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Mary Eileen Callan
01/29/2021I like the range of emotions you brought to your story. The teens are real the dialogue real and the caaring real. Nice work.
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