Chapter 1: Where's Kat?

My eyes automatically flickered open as the first rays of sunshine began to creep across the room toward me. I crawled out from underneath the covers and wrapped my robe around me. Outside, the sky was already a light shade of blue but the weather was still chilly. The pond was right across the open field in front of me. I raced to a nearby blossom tree and dropped my leather bag in the dirt by it. After wading in the pond a ways, I spotted some swans. Two of them crisscrossed their slender necks and flapped their white, feathery angel-like wings. This was their sign of love. I smiled and went on my way, careful to not disturb them. I climbed out of the pond and lay down on the soft meadow, letting my drenched nightgown dry and soaking in the warm sun and the peacefulness of my surroundings.

Suddenly, I heard some humming coming from the distance. After searching for a while, I found a girl about my age resting on a cherry blossom tree next to my bag. I walked over to grab it and she abruptly stopped braiding her jet black hair. She looked at me with large timid eyes and got up to leave.

"Don't worry! I just came back to get my bag." I comforted, slinging the bag over my shoulder. We stared at each other in dead silence for the longest time and I eventually turned the other way when it looked as if she wasn't going to respond. "Wait!" she gushed shyly at me "I think your bag is very pretty." I grabbed the leather strap between my thumb and index finger "What, this tattered old thing!?" and made a face of pure disgust. Being well-known for particularly amusing face expressions, I expected some sort of giggle from her.

Instead, she looked up at me seriously "An object being worn means that its owner cares an awful lot for it, well in most cases at least." She furrowed her eyebrows "I can't help noticing that there is something engraved on the metal clasp. What does it say, if you don't mind me asking?" she inquired.

I grasped the cold metal in my hand tightly. I could see she was watching me closely, making sure she didn't arouse any unwanted feelings."I got this bag awhile back. My father gave it to me a couple of days before going away. He was in the navy and often gave me presents before leaving. He died a few weeks later. I was about seven years old at the time. My bag says 'Love you always and forever – Dad' I'm fourteen now, but I still remember the day I learned of his death vividly." I felt tears began to well up in my eyes as I recalled the painful memory.

I grabbed two apples from my bag and washed them in a running stream. We rested on the tree for a while, munching the apples. "I'm Katarina by the way" she said breaking the silence. "That's a beautiful name. Mine is Rose. I guess you can say I'm not too fond of it. Where are you from? I'm not trying to be rude or anything like that." I replied as an afterthought. Her hair was jet black along with her eyes and her skin was a light olive color similar to many of my foreign friends. "I'm Columbian. I only moved to America about three weeks ago." She hesitated like she was hiding something.

She started braiding her hair to avert the attention and I decided to just go with it and worked on the other side. Then, I climbed to the top of the cherry blossom tree and plucked the largest, most lovely blossom in sight and placed it delicately in her hair.

The sun was almost directly above us and I had to shield my eyes from the blinding light. "Oh no!" I gasped "It must be almost noon by now! My mum is going to be worried sick! I'll see you later Kat!" I waved and started on my way home. "Bye Rose! Want to meet here tomorrow?!" she yelled back. "Sure! Same time, same place!" I called happily. And that was the beginning of a great friendship and a life changing journey.

I saw her sitting by the tree again the next day. "Hello again!" I smiled. She opened up the picnic basket she was holding and pulled out a checkered table-cloth and smoothed it out on the lawn. "I have ham sandwiches, hot chocolate and jelly doughnuts." Suddenly, I got an idea. I started running back to my cottage. "Be right back!" I called.

Slipping on some oven mitts, I opened the oven and pulled out a metal pan. Carefully, I unfolded the aluminum foil cover, revealing tons of caramel covered, Blondies. As I tried to pick it up, I realized it was too heavy and it fell on the wooden dining room table with a booming thud. After running in my room and searching through my closet, I found my blue rain jacket and dumped a couple blondies in the hood and ran outside, rain jacket in hand.

"The picnic is now complete!" I smiled and pulled the jacket from behind my back, dumping the contents on the red and white checkered table-cloth. "They're homemade and still warm." I anxiously awaited her to try a piece. "These are so delicious!" she grinned, already reaching for another. I broke off a piece of one and plopped it into my mouth. The Blondie melted as I closed my eyes and tasted the perfect mixture of flavors dissolve away.

Later, we painted our nails and toes and told secrets. As we rested by the tree, I pulled my mass of blonde curls into a high ponytail, allowing a few strands to hang loose, framing my face. We sat still saying nothing for the longest time, just enjoying what nature had to offer. Just as I began to matt some eyeliner on the lid of my hazel eyes, I felt a drop land directly on my head. The second I looked up into the seemingly clear sky, rain began to pour down, making a mud river surrounding us.

Kat and I linked arm and hid under a shack to wait until the storm ended. The sky was now dark and filled with large, ominous clouds. I burrowed into my rain jacket to try to find some warmth. "You're the best friend I've ever had!" She smiled. "Let's be best friends for life." I extended my pinky finger. She reached out and linked pinkies with mine. This was our pact to always protect each other no matter what happened. Later, I would regret making this irreversible pact, but at that moment, I just sat there merrily chatting to her. Little did I realize, the girl sitting in front of me would soon betray me and become my worst enemy.

"May I ask you where who were all last night!?" My mother asked in a no nonsensical tone. I slid my scrambled eggs around on my plate. "I had a sleepover at my friend's house." I answered. She gave me with a stern look and I went back to stabbing my eggs with my fork. "You should have told me! I was worried sick all night. I thought you were hurt…or maybe worse. If you had asked me-"I cut her off "If I had asked you, the answer would have been a no. You never let me have any fun. You give me so much work, that I didn't have a single solitary friend until two days ago." She sighed. I took a sip of my milk. "I don't want you seeing this friend anymore." She said quietly "She's a bad influence on you. I've had to do all the work around her for the last couple of days and I'm exhausted. I just can't take this anymore." I threw my napkin on the table "That isn't fair. And you say you're exhausted? I've been doing the times the work ever since father died. I'm sick of not being able to enjoy my life. You spend half of yours going to lunches and parties with your friends. You are such a-"I stopped myself "I'm not so hungry after all." I said and ran outside.

As I swam in the pond, my tears mixed in with the water around me. I sped across the meadow without stopping to look back. I told myself I would never come back but I knew I didn't mean it. "Kat, I am beyond angry because-"I trailed off. She wasn't by the tree as usual

I sat down by the tree and began skipping rocks across the water. After half an hour of that I rummaged around for the best stick I could find and began drawing on a tree with sap. Eventually I lost hope that she was coming and decided to go home more depressed and lonely than before. Defeated, I trudged home in a slump. What I saw made me stop in my tracks. Kat was standing in my front yard with two policemen handcuffing her.