“Hey Clo, are you hungry?” Salene asked. Two hours had passed since the ‘funeral’ in the back garden, Patsy, Paul and Bob had left and Cloe and Salene were playing Snakes and Ladders on the living room floor. “Starving” Cloe told her. Salene got up and went to the kitchen and started to sort out some tea for them. Looking at the food made her feel guilty about what she had done earlier. However, she couldn’t let her guilt get her down so she tried to think of something else. She started to think of a time long ago, when she and Everest had only been about seven or eight, they’d had a teacher, Miss Simpson, at school that they really hated and she was mean to the whole class. Well, that’s what they’d thought at the time. Everest hated her so much. One day they went to the beach for a nature walk with her and the rest of the class and Everest had got bored and stopped listening to the talk that Miss Simpson was giving the class on rock pools. She had noticed that Everest was in a world of her own and had shouted at her. Angry and embarrassed about being shouted at in front of all her friends, she sought revenge. They were all going to have their lunch on the beach and so they were carrying their lunches. Miss Simpson had earlier spoken of her fear of crabs, so this gave Everest the perfect idea. She put a crab (only a small one) into the bag in which the teacher’s lunch was in. When she took her dinner out of course she screamed hysterically and ran for her life. Salene could still see her face right now. She couldn’t help but laugh when she though of how pleased Ev had been with her plot.
Cloe walked in and asked “Salene? What are you laughing at?”
Salene smiled, “Something that Everest did when she was younger.” She told Cloe the story and she began to laugh as well.
“Did Everest REALLY do that?” Cloe asked disbelievingly.
“Yes, she did,” Salene said honestly. “Who’d have thought it, Everest being bad!” They laughed again. It feels great to be so happy, Salene thought after dinner.
Cloe was upstairs in her room. Well, that’s what Salene thought.
“Sal! Come here quickly” Cloe cried out urgently.
Salene jumped up thinking that Cloe’d had an accident and started to run up the stairs. “Clo, are you OK? Where are you?” Salene shouted.
“I’m in Ev’s room, I found something...”
Salene rushed to Everest’s room. Cloe was sat on the floor with three boxes in front of her. On top of the boxes it said ‘Cloe’, ‘Mum and Dad’ and on the last it said ‘Sal’. Cloe looked at Salene guiltily. “Sorry, I know I shouldn’t have been snooping but I couldn’t help it. I found these under the bed, do you think we should open them?”
Salene looked at the boxes, she couldn’t speak as she had a lump in her throat. “Yes, I think we should. Let’s put your parents' downstairs.” With that they picked up the boxes and as Salene started to walk down the stairs.
Cloe said “Salene? I’m going to open mine in my room, alone. Is that OK?” Salene nodded again and Cloe ran to her room.
Salene sat downstairs and just stared at her box, she couldn’t bring herself to open it. That evening Salene was sat in her room still staring at it, Everest’s parents had been surprised when Salene had shown them their box. They had been close to crying and Salene had made a quick getaway. Finally she could take it no more, she grabbed hold of it and pulled off the lid. Inside were a lot a things but the first thing she noticed was an envelope on top of everything. Salene placed the box next to her on the bed and opened the envelope. Inside was a letter which said:
“Dear Salene,
When you read this I will be gone. It sounds harsh but it’s the truth. I hope this box brings back a lot of good memories of times we had together. Looking at them made me think about what a good friend you are (were?) to me. I want to tell you a few things. First of all I want to thank you for supporting me throughout the hard times of my last bout of illness, I may have seemed strong but honestly, I was being torn apart inside. Also I hope you are supporting Cloe for me, she will have lost her idol. I know this sounds conceited but you know it’s true. I love her loads and I told her this in her letter.
Salene - you are the GREATEST friend alive, and I hope you know that I love you like a sister. Just promise me a few things - don’t be sad, go back to school and do well! And tell someone about your bulimia - please, I beg you. Anyway I’m feeling a little tired, I’ll see you later at the sleepover!
Your friend for life,
Everest.”
Salene was shocked - Everest had wrote this the same day that she died! Had she known? If she had, how? Anyway, she didn’t want to think about that, she picked up the box and started to go through it. Inside were lots of photos of them together, right from them being babies right up to a few days before her death. Also there was a picture of a crab, on the bottom was written “Dear Miss Simpson, the best teacher EVER. Lots of love from Ev, your FAVOURITE pupil!” Salene laughed, it was weird that she’d only been thinking of that incident a few hours before. Then she saw it, a small jewelry case was underneath that picture. She opened it and there laying on a piece of tissue paper was Everest’s favourite silver bracelet. Salene smiled and put it on, she’d never take it off again. She looked at it and made a decision that would change her life, she then packed the box up and got into bed, that night had the best night’s sleep she’d had for a long time.
The next day, Salene jumped out of bed quite early. She had to find Violet so she could keep Everest’s promise - she was going to tell her about her bulimia. Violet was sat at the table in the kitchen, reading the paper. She looked up and smiled at her niece
“Hi sweetie, what’s wrong?” her face changed it’s expression when she saw how serious Salene looked.
“Aunt Violet? I’ve got to tell you something...”
“How did she take it? What did she say?” Trudy asked.
“She was very understanding, and we talked for ages - it was great,” Salene replied honestly. “She arranged for us to go to some special sessions to talk with a specialist. It helped for a very long time. Actually the next time I made myself sick was when there was all that trouble with you, sorry.” Trudy smiled understandingly. Salene started to look sad “Then about a year later the virus struck, and Violet died and so did Cloe’s mum and dad and Patsy and Paul’s. I took them under my wing and we set off together.”
“You carried on looking after Cloe for Ev,” Trudy sighed. “That’s wonderful. But it must have been hard to admit to your bulimia.”
“It was,” sighed Salene looking at the silver bracelet which was still there on her wrist. “But I had to do it - for Everest’s sake...”
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