The Accident
by Hannah Somes
Faith Granger stared intently out her window. The people expected to move into her neighbor’s house had finally come, and she was watching the moving van.
The workers took out a flowered sofa, a chair, and an assortment of toy animals. Faith squealed and called for her brother. “Taylor! Taylor! The neighbors are here and I think they have kids!”
“I’ll be right there, and we can go together.” As they walked down the dusty path to their neighbor’s house, the siblings were quite a sight. Both had tangled, auburn hair that just reached their shoulders and blue jeans encrusted with dirt. When they arrived at the house they were greeted by a girl their age, balancing a lip gloss bottle in one hand.
“I’m Faith, and this is my brother, Taylor.”
“I’m Nicole.” She had a whiny, irritable voice.
“Oh, we just wanted to say hi.”
Suddenly Nicole burst out laughing. “Where did you
get those clothes?” She shuddered, emphasizing the last word. Faith frowned and Taylor put a protective arm around her.
“Uh . . . see you at school?”
“Whatever . . .”
Miss Maybelle, Faith’s teacher, stood at the front of the classroom with Nicole beside her. “Class,” she said,
“this is Nicole Fletcher. She moved here from California. Nicole, why don’t you sit at that empty desk between Faith and Carrie. We can all welcome her and get to know her better.” Nicole settled into her desk, and Faith passed her a note. “Do you want to get to know me better? We can be friends,” it read.
Nicole sent one back that read, “Ew!”
Faith found herself frowning again. Days went on that
way with Faith and Taylor wanting to be friends, but Nicole refusing with sassy remarks.
At the week’s end Nicole could be found emailing her old friend Cheryl, telling her how much she missed her.
“Nicole, dinner!” She was interrupted by her Dad.
“No thanks, I’m not hungry.”
The next afternoon, Faith was setting her homework down when she saw Nicole out her window. Nicole had been walking up her steps, bouncing, as she fell and landed with a long scream. Faith called for her brother.
“It’s Nicole. She fell . . . and I think she’s hurt.” They set out to help the poor, fallen child.
“Are you sure we should help her after the way she treated us?”
“Well, maybe not. You do have a point.”
“She was pretty mean, but . . .”
“But what?”
“But no one deserves to get badly hurt. Let’s do this.” Taylor grinned widely. They picked up Nicole, she was light for her age, and sat her on her steps. She was scratched and crying but otherwise seemed alright.
“Is there anyone at your house that we can tell?” Nicole shook her head so the two took her to their house for awhile. They washed her face and put ointment on her many scratches. Then, to cheer Nicole up, they brought her some of their mother’s cookies.
“These are da bomb!” Nicole said, smacking her lips. “You know, I’m sorry I mistreated you two. You’re true friends, there when I need you most.”
Taylor and Faith hugged their newfound friend, and they have never been separated to this day.