Will You Be My Friend?

by P. J. Night

  “Okay then,” said her mom. “Let me pay for these and yours, and then we’ll go next door together and get you some sunglasses.”

  When they returned home that afternoon, Beth’s mom went to bed. She usually slept through the afternoon, before getting up to have dinner with Beth, then heading off to work.

  Beth worked on her school assignments until three thirty. That’s when Chrissy got home from school and they could hang out. Beth loved going to Chrissy’s house, not just because they were such good friends, but because it was just about the only place Beth’s mom ever let her go by herself.

  “How was school today?” Beth asked as she walked into Chrissy’s house.

  Chrissy grimaced. “Some days I wonder how you can deal with being homeschooled and not being around lots of people. Then there are days like today, when Greg Hammer decided that it would be funny to smear his bubble gum all over my science book. Today I thought about how nice it must be to not have to deal with other people all the time.”

  “Bubble gum?” Beth asked. “Really? Did he get into trouble?”

  “Of course not,” Chrissy replied. “His older brother is the starting center on the high school basketball team, and Mr. Dunkins, my science teacher, is the assistant coach. So Greg got the usual fake-stern lecture about being mature, blah blah blah, and I got to scrape gum off my book. Really fair, right?”

  “That sounds awful,” Beth said. “The next time I start to feel sorry for myself about not going to a school every day, I’ll try to remember that. Of course, remembering stuff is not exactly one of my strong suits.”

  “But that’s not true anymore,” Chrissy replied. “I know you don’t remember a lot from before you moved next door—”

  “I don’t remember anything,” Beth interrupted.

  “Yeah, but you’ve actually got a better memory than I do since then,” Chrissy pointed out. “I mean, you’re the one who can name just about every river in the United States. You’re the one who knows the name of each vice president.”

  “Well, I like history and geography, that’s all,” Beth said.

  “Anyway, let’s talk about something else. I have some news,” said Chrissy, changing the subject.

  “What? What?” Beth asked eagerly.

  “My cousin Alice is sleeping over tomorrow night,” Chrissy explained. “She’s fourteen and lives in Glenside.”

  “That’ll be fun for you,” said Beth.

  “And you! You’re invited!” added Chrissy excitedly.

  “Wow, thanks. That’s very cool,” said Beth. Then her mood instantly sank. “Now all I have to do is convince my mother to let me come.”

  “You’ll be right next door,” Chrissy said.

  “I know that. You know that,” said Beth. “But overnight? We’ve never done a sleepover before and that might be too much for her.”

  “It would be very cool if you could come,” said Chrissy. “I think you’d really like Alice.”

  “I think it would be great,” said Beth. She’d always wanted to go to a sleepover. She hadn’t been to any in the past year, and she had no idea if she’d ever been to one before her accident.

  “Let me ask my mom tomorrow morning,” Beth added. “She’s usually in a really good mood when we start lessons for the day.”

  Chrissy clapped her hands and jumped up and down. “Great, then it’s settled.”

  “No, settled is the last thing it is,” said Beth. “I’ll let you know.”

  “Okay. Now let’s watch a movie,” suggested Chrissy.

  “Have anything in mind?” asked Beth.

  “A scary one, of course!” Chrissy replied.

  “Cool!” agreed Beth. She didn’t really love scary movies, but she could see how excited Chrissy was to watch one.

  “Have you seen Creature from the Cellar?”

  Beth shook her head no.

  “Oh, wow! Great! I could see that one a hundred times.”

  Chrissy and Beth sat on the floor in Chrissy’s bedroom and leaned against the side of her bed. Chrissy flipped open her laptop and started streaming the movie on her computer.

  In the movie two girls, not that different in age from Beth and Chrissy, were preparing a snack in the kitchen of an old house. They had set out four pieces of bread beside an open jar of jelly. Then one of the girls opened a cabinet. . . .

  “Oh!” she cried. “No more peanut butter!”

  “In the whole house?” exclaimed her friend. “That’s horrific.”

  “No, silly,” the first girl replied. “You know my mom. She buys like fifty jars at a time at the Giant Mart. I just have to go down to the cellar and grab another jar.”

  That’s when the girls heard a sound—a low banging coming from down in the cellar.

  “Is your brother home?” asked the girl’s friend. “I thought we had the whole house to ourselves.”

  “We do.”

  “Then who is making that noise?”

  Again they heard the banging, followed by a scraping sound, and then a low moan.

  “This is crazy,” said the girl. “I’m going down there to see what’s going on! Plus, we still need peanut butter.”

  “Wait. You’re going where?” asked her friend.

  “To the cellar. It’s my house. I know what’s down there.”

  “But that’s where the noise is coming from!”

  “You don’t have to come if you don’t want, but I’m going to.”

  “Uh, I’ll wait here and start putting the jelly on the bread.”

  “Okay, suit yourself.”

  The girl opened the old wooden door leading down to the cellar. She flipped on the light switch. Nothing happened. She flipped it up and down a few more times. Still nothing happened.

  She snatched a flashlight from a small shelf at the top of the cellar stairs, turned it on, and let its narrow beam guide her way down the stairs.

  Reaching the cellar floor, she swept the light from side to side, but saw nothing out of the ordinary.

  The girl crossed the slate cellar floor, stepping around old boxes and unused furniture. She reached the storage pantry, grabbed the handle, and threw open the door.

  And that’s when the scaly claw reached out from the dark and grabbed her wrist.

  Upstairs in the kitchen, her friend was busy spreading jelly onto bread slices. After a few minutes she grew impatient and opened the cellar door.

  “Rachael?” she called out.

  Silence.

  “Rachael!” she shouted a bit louder. Still no answer.

  “Oh, great. Now I’m going to have to go down there!”

  She took another flashlight and headed down the stairs.

  “Why do they always go down into the cellar?” Chrissy asked Beth. “You know what’s going to happen.”

  “No, I don’t know,” said Beth. “I haven’t seen this before.”

  “Oh, come on,” Chrissy teased.

  “Shhh . . . there she goes,” said Beth, and the girls turned their attention back to the computer screen.

  The girl had reached the bottom of the stairs, which she had been illuminating with the flashlight. She raised her light to begin her journey across the cellar.

  But she didn’t get very far. Standing before her was a seven-foot-tall reptilian beast. Its claws sparkled in the light. One of Rachael’s barrettes was stuck to its scaly skin. Drool dripped from its misshapen jaws.

  “Yiiiiiiiii!”

  Beth and Chrissy both let out high-pitched shrieks.

  “Chrissy,” her mom called from downstairs. “Are you watching scary movies again?”

  Beth and Chrissy started laughing uncontrollably. Eventually they calmed down and went back to watching the movie. For the rest of the film they kept their screams as quiet as could be.

  When the movie ended, Beth stood up. “Thanks, Chrissy, that was fun.”

  “Yeah,” replied Chrissy. “That movie is the best and also the worst. I hope your mom lets you come to the sleepover.
We can watch more scary movies.”

  Beth nodded. “I hope so too.”

  “Text me tomorrow morning and tell me what she says,” said Chrissy.

  The next morning at breakfast Beth was quieter than usual. Finally she broached the subject she had been thinking about nonstop since she left Chrissy’s house.

  “Chrissy’s cousin Alice is coming to visit today,” Beth began, figuring she’d ease into the conversation slowly.

  “That’s nice,” said her mom between bites of toast.

  “And she’ll be sleeping over,” Beth explained.

  “Uh-huh,” her mom said.

  She knows what’s coming, Beth thought anxiously. But here goes anyway.

  “And guess what?” Beth said excitedly.

  Beth’s mom looked up from her book.

  “Chrissy invited me to join them for the sleepover,” Beth said, flashing her biggest, brightest smile.

  Her mom’s shoulders sank. “Oh, honey, I don’t know.”

  “Why not?” Beth asked, doing her best not to raise her voice. She knew very well that escalating this conversation into an argument would get her nowhere. “It’s just next door. You trust Chrissy’s parents and Chrissy. You know what good friends we are.”

  Beth expected an argument, but her mom’s expression turned to one of sadness more than anything else. She appeared lost in thought.

  Beth ate another spoonful of her cereal as the silence continued for a few more uncomfortable seconds.

  Her mom sighed. “Okay, you can go because it is only next door, and because Chrissy has been such a good friend,” she said. “Joan will be excited to have a random night off.”

  Beth practically leaped from her seat. She gave her mom a big hug.

  “Thanks, Mom!” she said.

  “You’ll be home by the time I get home from work tomorrow morning, right?” her mom asked.

  “You bet!” Beth cried. “I’m going to go upstairs and pack.”

  “Aren’t you forgetting something? The sleepover is twelve hours away. Right now it’s time to hit the books.”

  Beth sat back down. “Oh yeah, right. Okay, let’s get learning!”

  The day’s lessons dragged for Beth. All she could think about was the sleepover. When evening finally did roll around, Beth hummed happily as she packed. It took all her concentration not to burst into song from excitement.

  “Do you have everything you need for tonight?” her mom questioned as she ran around the house, getting herself ready to go to work.

  “Yes, Mom,” Beth replied with as much patience as she could muster. She glanced down at her fully stocked backpack.

  “Your pajamas?”

  “Yes, Mom.”

  “Your toothbrush?”

  “Yes, Mom.”

  “Sleeping bag?”

  “That’s what this big rolled-up thing next to my backpack is.”

  “Is your cell phone charged?”

  “No.”

  Beth’s mom gave her a look. Beth smiled. “Of course it is, and I’ll bring my charger along just in case.”

  “You have my work number programmed in, right?”

  “Since the minute I got the phone. Mom, I’m not going camping in Siberia. I’m just going next door.”

  “I know, honey. I know.” She gave Beth a big hug. “Okay. Gotta go. Have fun. Lock the door on your way out. Call me if you need anything.”

  “Bye, Mom. Love you.”

  The front door closed behind her mother. Beth slumped down onto the stairs leading up to her bedroom and sighed. She couldn’t understand why her mom was so overprotective. After all, Beth never got in trouble and she always told her mom everything. Not that there was much to tell. Her life was pretty boring.

  “Oh well,” she said aloud. “Time for my first sleepover!”

  Beth snatched up her backpack and sleeping bag and headed over to Chrissy’s. She stepped up to the front door and knocked. The door flew open, revealing Chrissy and another girl. A tall, skinny girl with long, straight brown hair.

  “You must be Alice,” said Beth. “Hi.”

  “Lizzie?” asked Alice, her eyes opening wide. “Is that you?”

  CHAPTER 3

  “Um, this is Beth, Alice,” Chrissy corrected, looking at her cousin like she had two heads. “Who’s Lizzie?”

  Beth was startled. She was not used to being around any other kids besides Chrissy, and now she was meeting someone new who just asked if she was someone else.

  “Lizzie . . . uh, I don’t remember her last name,” Alice replied. “She was in seventh grade with me at Glenside Middle School last year.”

  “Well, that’s definitely not me,” Beth said, walking into Chrissy’s house. “I’ve always been homeschooled. I never went to Glenside.”

  “Really?” asked Alice as the three girls headed to the stairs toward Chrissy’s bedroom. “Hi, by the way.”

  “I swear,” answered Beth. “And hi to you too.”

  Chrissy’s mom and dad walked into the hallway from the living room.

  “Hi, Mr. and Mrs. Walters,” said Beth. “Thanks for having me over tonight.”

  “You are very welcome,” said Mrs. Walters. “We’re so pleased your mom allowed you to come.”

  Chrissy’s parents really liked Beth and loved that she had become such a good friend to Chrissy. They also felt a little sorry for her, knowing about her accident and memory loss.

  “Well, you girls have fun,” said Mrs. Walters.

  “Thanks, Mom,” said Chrissy. Then the three girls ran upstairs.

  When they got to Chrissy’s bedroom, Beth unrolled her sleeping bag on the floor right next to Chrissy’s and Alice’s. Chrissy reached over to her MP3 dock and started her favorite playlist. Alice couldn’t seem to take her eyes off Beth.

  Beth wanted to like Alice, and she wanted to have fun at the sleepover, but two minutes into it she was beginning to regret begging her mother to let her come.

  “I’m sorry to keep talking about this, but it’s totally freaking me out,” Alice said. “You must have a cousin, or a sister, or some relative who looks a lot like you.”

  “I don’t think so,” Beth said, feeling more uncomfortable by the second. Although she had, for the most part, made peace with her memory problems, moments like this, such as not knowing who might be part of her family, frustrated her to no end. “At least no one my mother ever told me about.”

  “This is so weird,” Alice said. “Lizzie looked just like you.”

  Beth shrugged. As far as she knew, she had no family other than her mom. And it wasn’t something she liked to think about. She was anxious for the subject to change. But Alice wasn’t ready to let it go.

  “I haven’t thought about her in a long time, but Lizzie was kind of odd,” Alice continued. “She wasn’t in any of my classes at Glenside, but I remember her because she always sat alone at lunch. I felt bad for her so I tried to make friends with her one day. But she was super quiet, and I got the feeling she didn’t want to be my friend. She just wanted to stay by herself.”

  “Great song choice, Chrissy,” Beth said, referring to what was coming through the dock’s speakers, desperately trying to change the topic.

  No such luck. Before Chrissy could say anything, Alice continued.

  “Then one day, Lizzie just vanished,” she said. “She never showed up at the lunch table, and I never saw her at school again. When I asked my teachers and my friends about her, they had no idea who I was talking about. It was like she never existed. So weird.”

  “Maybe you have a long-lost sister your mom never told you about,” Chrissy suggested to Beth. “I mean with your memory problems and all, who knows?”

  Beth started to wish that Chrissy hadn’t invited her to the sleepover. If the whole night was going to be nothing but talking about how much some girl Alice once knew looked like her, and all of her past memory problems, Beth could live without it.

  “So how long have you lived next door to Chriss
y, Beth?” Alice asked.

  Maybe she finally realized how uncomfortable all this Lizzie talk was making Beth feel, but whatever the reason, Beth was relieved that Alice had finally changed the subject.

  “Almost a year,” Beth replied.

  “And we’ve been best friends since the day she moved in, right, Beth?” Chrissy asked.

  “Right,” said Beth.

  “What’s it like to be homeschooled?” Alice asked. “I think it could be kinda cool, but also a bit lonely.”

  “It’s both,” Beth said, warming up to Alice. “My mom’s a great teacher. I love history and I learn a lot and it’s fun. But I think it would also be fun to be with a bunch of other kids at school.”

  “Not everyone in school is as nice as Chrissy,” Alice said. “Some days, I wish I was homeschooled just so I wouldn’t have to deal with some of the other students at my school.”

  “Why does your mom want to homeschool you?” Chrissy asked.

  Beth was a little surprised by the question until she realized that Chrissy had never actually asked her this before.

  “My mom is super protective,” Beth explained. “She almost never lets me out of her sight. I had to beg her just to be allowed to come here tonight. I think she’d have a nervous breakdown or something if I went off to school every day.”

  “How come she’s so protective?” asked Alice.

  Beth thought about this for a moment, but came up blank. She had no idea why her mom was the way she was. She had just always been that way, or at least since Beth’s accident, and so her protectiveness seemed totally normal to Beth.

  “Maybe it has something to do with my accident and memory loss,” Beth figured. “Maybe she’s just afraid something like that will happen again, and she’s trying to protect me.”

  Beth looked away from the others for a moment. She felt different from other kids, and it made her sad. She was tired of talking about herself and her memories and all that stuff. It was time to get this sleepover underway.

  “Anyway, enough about me,” Beth said. “This is my first sleepover ever. So what do you do for fun at a sleepover?”

  “Eat snacks,” said Alice.

  “Watch movies!” cried Chrissy.

  “Great!” said Beth. “Let’s get started.”