Twin Sisters

Ruby was a girl with a great life. She loved her family, school, friends, and boyfriend Lionel. Ruby had a very best friend named Callie, whom she shared everything with. One day at school, Ruby saw Lionel and Callie whispering and giggling with each other in the hallway.

Callie was speaking to Lionel about Ruby's surprise birthday party. "Do you think she has any idea?" Callie asked Lionel.

Lionel replied, "No, she has no clue! She thinks we're just going to dinner and a movie!" They giggled with their excitement for Ruby's surprise.

Ruby instantly thought that Callie was flirting with her boyfriend and she filled with rage. For revenge, Ruby told everyone she knew that Callie was trying to take Lionel behind her back. This made everyone think Callie was a fake friend.

Callie returned to school the next day extremely confused why she was receiving glares from her peers and avoided by everyone. She stopped someone in the hallway and asked what was going on. The student replied, "Everyone knows you've been flirting with your best friend's boyfriend. What a shady thing to do."

Callie's heart immediately dropped to her stomach and she could not figure out how this rumor started. The only thing she had talked about with Lionel were the plans for Ruby's surprise birthday party. She decided to confront Lionel next, to help her understand where this rumor started.

When Callie spoke with Lionel, he was just as shocked as Callie was. He wondered why Ruby decided to tell the whole school her thoughts before she confronted him. Their next mission was to find out how these thoughts were planted in Ruby's head.

When Callie and Lionel found Ruby, they asked in unison, "Why would you tell everyone this information without asking us yourself first?"

Ruby replied, "I didn't need to ask you guys about it, since I saw it with my own eyes." At this point, Callie and Lionel explained to Ruby that they had only been excited about planning her surprise party and that was all.

"We were only talking about your birthday party," Lionel said.

"Yeah, I feel like you should have asked us what was up," agreed Callie.

Ruby apologized to them and they went on their day like nothing happened. However, Callie had some anger still brewing in her. She remembered the time before Ruby and Lionel started dating. Initially, Callie was friends with Lionel and introduced Lionel to Ruby. Callie had also told Ruby she had a little crush on Lionel as well. When Lionel took a liking to Ruby, Callie stepped back because she wanted her friend to be happy.

Callie thought to herself, "How could Ruby be so inconsiderate? I was a good friend and she didn't even have the nerve to say something to me before starting rumors."

Once Ruby's birthday arrived, she had a lovely dinner with Lionel and got in his car to go to a movie, even though she already knew about the surprise party. Once they arrived to her party, she acted surprised and excited greeting everyone there.

As the night went on, Callie worked up the courage to spill her thoughts to Ruby. She pulled Ruby aside and said, "Hey, it's still really bothering me that you went to everyone except me when you thought I was going after Lionel. That's really uncool."

Ruby replied, "I don't think I did anything wrong. If that was actually happening you would have deserved it. I am sorry it was a misunderstanding though."

This did it for Callie. She screamed, "You know what? I'm done with this friendship! I am the reason you even met Lionel when I told you I had a crush. What a good friend you are!" It felt good to get this off Callie's chest. She walked away and didn't bother to mend her friendship with Ruby.

Author's Note: I used the story "The Foolish, Timid Rabbit" as my muse for this modern-day rendition. This story has many great lessons within it, especially that one should never make instant assumptions when they do not have all the answers. I only used the theme from the original story, misconception. In the original story, the rabbit believes the world is ending when hit by a coconut. The rabbit went around and told everyone that the world was ending and all believed it until the Lion questions the idea. Then the Lion goes to the tree where it happened and showed everyone the truth.

So many problems can stem from assuming the truth before investigating it. I feel assumptions are always detrimental and are almost never true. Investigation is a very important technique everyone should utilize in order to learn about the world, people, and themselves. These assumptions always end up with pain for all involved and I felt one of the easiest ways to show this is in a high school setting, which is a time for great learning. In high school, many people are worried how they are viewed, and the way they are treated means so much. Emotions are very strong in high school (emotions are always strong, but more so in high school) and can make people act in ways they normally wouldn't. Even in ways to hurt one's best friend.

Source: "The Foolish, Timid Rabbit" by Ellen C. Babbitt.