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Tragedy
Charlotte and I used to sit at lunch drawing up maps of the different popularity tables; ours always ended being the “normal-without-many-friends” table. Even though we hoped, wished, and tried to change this fact, it was a fact that could not be altered. We found ourselves writing the popular tables as the ones with the cheerleaders, jocks, and pretty girls. We never considered ourselves equal to these people, and it was just always that way. In being who we are, we avoided typical problems like the five letter word that caused agony to every girl at the popular table; drama. No matter who you were or how cool you were, at Oakville High, there was almost no way of missing out on drama. Charlotte and I figured out the only way to miss out on it, it was simple actually; be yourself. This easily said plan worked until our third year at Oakville started.
The last day of summer was a normal day consisting of Charlotte and me shopping at the local mall for hours. Oakville, Pennsylvania was barely big enough to be shown on a map, so we had to drive all the way to Philadelphia to go to a mall. I guess you could say it wasn’t exactly local; unless you consider an hour and forty-five minutes close. Nevertheless, we always found ourselves driving off to that same mall before school started to get the latest clothes.
“I really want this year to be like none other. It’s our junior year, we deserve to have a good time, maybe go to at least one party.” Charlotte began the same conversation she had started as soon as sophomore year had ended. She was on a self-discovering rant to fit in.
“Well, I don’t know, we’ve never had friends who’d invite us to crazy parties like the ones you’re thinking of.” I briskly replied. As a result, Charlotte rolled her eyes at me and went back to looking at the rack of clothes.
“Lana Miller once asked me for a pen, I think she considers me a friend.” Charlotte snapped back. Her reply was one of the most pathetic things I thought I had ever heard. It was as if being Lana’s friend would bring her to a place of total happiness. Charlotte confused me, and I had no idea why she was fighting with me over the idea of being cool.
“Ha-ha, you make me laugh. If you haven’t noticed, no one notices us. Unless you’re Stevie Cabell, he’s been dying to take you to homecoming for the past two years.” I know I sounded harsh, but it was true, no one looked at us in the halls. We might as well be invisible. As for Stevie Cabell, he was below us on the popularity scale. He was one of those kids in the AP classes’ freshman year, with a 4.0 and dreams of going to Harvard rather than being liked by all his peers. That’s basically why we were friends with him, he didn’t care what anyone thought of him, this with the exception of Charlotte. I lied when I said no one noticed Charlotte, she was beautiful, her hair in soft, long honey brown curls resting along her face. Her cheeks were rosy with specks of freckles following up to her nose. Her eyes were bright blue with green around the edges. The thing I envied most about her was her flawless skin, not a blemish in sight. The only reason I could think of why no one had asked her out was because of her weight, she hadn’t been nearly as small as Lana Miller, and she didn’t wear clothes that flattered what she had. Over the summer, I had begun to worry about Charlotte. Charlotte had lost a lot of weight; she was noticeably smaller than when summer started. When I had asked her why, she had merely said she wanted to make the most of this coming year, and wanted everyone to see who she was.
“Hey, Caelah, let’s get going. Schools tomorrow and I’m really tired.” I somehow felt guilty for cutting our mall trip short by insulting Charlotte, but continued to the checkout line.
The next day was hectic; I got up at 5:30 to make sure my hair and outfit were completely perfect, well as perfect as I could be. At around 6:30 I got into my car and drove to Charlotte’s house to pick her up. When I ran upstairs to her room, I noticed she was still sleeping. I shook her awake and turned on the shower. It took her an hour to get ready and by the time we left, it was 7:45. School started at 7:50, and I didn’t want to be late on the first day. We got to school ten minutes late, and rushed to homeroom. Homerooms were divided up by last names, so since freshman year Charlotte and I had been together; my last name was Carmichael and hers was Coldwell. As usual, we grabbed a seat near Stevie and waited for the homeroom announcements. While waiting, we heard Missy Coyer talking to Tory Beck about Lana.
“I heard she’s like, wearing the ugliest skirt today. Seriously, like, what is she thinking, we can’t be seen with her in like, a plaid skirt.”
“Oh my god I know, maybe it’s time she found some like, new friends. She’s been like, getting on my nerves lately anyways.” These comments startled me, I had always thought that Lana was the ringleader, but I guess I had been mistaken. What was said next was not only heard by me, but by Charlotte.
“Anyways, Tyler’s having a party tomorrow night because it’s like, the first Friday of Junior year. Anyone who’s anyone is going, I think we should like, show up.” At news of a party, Charlotte’s ears perked up like a dog’s and she turned her head towards the two girls.
“CAELAH, DID YOU HEAR THAT? A PARTY!” She practically fell over in excitement. If she actually thought us going to a party was possible, I might have shook her too hard this morning and gave her amnesia or something.
“Do you know what the odds are of us being wanted at this party? Slim to none.”
“What does it matter? And why do you always have to ruin the moment with your boring seriousness, my goodness Caelah, live a little won’t you?” Her sneering remark made my heart sink. Charlotte and I had never had a fight before, unless you count when we were five and I accidentally broke the head off her roller-skating Barbie.
“Alright, fine. We’ll to go to this party. If it totally blows, you have to carry my books for a week. Deal?” I jokingly replied to Charlotte’s satisfaction. She jumped up, hugged me and then sat back down all in a quick rush. The announcements came over the intercom welcoming us back to school for a new year of great things and blah, blah, blah, the usual speech. My classes were the usual boring, even on the first day. I was already becoming anxious about getting out of the first day by the time 6th period came around. I knew that Charlotte would be driving over to my house tomorrow to pick out our outfits for tomorrow night, I wasn’t exactly keen on going but Charlottes always there for me, so I figure I might as well do something she wants to.
School on Friday went by fast, besides the fact I had an incredible amount of homework to do and hardly any time to do it. At around five or six, Charlotte showed up with a duffle bag of clothes stuffed in so much that the zipper was a tank top away from bursting. She poured the bag on my bed, and we got to work figuring out what to wear. It had always been easy for me to get ready for family parties and hanging out with Charlotte, but now that I had an actual party to go to, I had no idea what to wear or how to make myself look. My long auburn hair was straight, all the way down to elbows, with light side bangs. It took us over an hour to get ready; when we figured out we had no idea where the party was.
“Charlotte, where exactly is this party anyway?” I asked quietly.
“I have no idea, Tyler’s house, that’s about all I know.” Charlotte’s face look worried. She had spent so much time worrying and being excited about tonight, that she had completely forgotten to find out where it was. I found this as a sign we shouldn’t go and brought up the idea of going out somewhere else.
“No Caelah, you don’t understand, I really wanted to go to this party. It’s not fair, I’m so stupid!” Charlotte became upset; I went over to her to make her feel better.
“Char, it’s alright. There will be other ones to go to, don’t worry about it. Let’s go out to a movie instead. I saw a preview for a good horror movie! Come on, lets get out, I’m sure the party is going to be stupid.” After some persuasion I convinced Charlotte to go out to a movie instead. We stopped at a diner to grab something to eat, and then headed to an eight o’clock movie.
The movie ended being really good, and Charlotte and I had a great time. I only wish I could have known it would have been our last night together; I would have made more of it. I’m saying this because, after we got out of the movie, we began our twenty minute ride home. Half way into the ride, we came to an intersection, our light turned green and I pressed the gas to go not even noticing the car that came wheeling toward us. A large black truck blew through a red light, and crashed into us. The impact was intense, and my car flipped over. I blanked out, and when I woke up I was in a vague, white room. At first I thought I was in heaven, then my head began to pound and my whole body ached in pain. I turned my head to see my mother, asleep on my father’s shoulder. Her eyes fluttered before opening wide.
“Caelah! Edgar, quick, Caelah’s awake!” My mother screamed, she jumped off her seat and came over to me, wrapping her arms around me. I was confused, where was I? What was I doing here?
“Mom, what’s going on?” I implied.
“Well, Caelah, it’s a long story…”
“No, Mom, tell me now!” I interrupted her. I felt like something was wrong. And then I remembered,
“Where’s Charlotte?” This question made my mom cry. My mother cried only once in her life in front of me, and that was when my Grandmother had died. This fact made my stomach flip.
“Mom, where’s Charlotte?” I asked again. I wanted an answer, and I wanted one now.
“Well, there was an accident, as you can already guess, a truck came…”
“YES, BUT WHERE’S CHARLOTTE!” I yelled at her, she didn’t seem to understand that I didn’t care about hearing the whole story, I wanted to know one thing and that one thing was where the location of my best friend was. My Mother knew she didn’t have anything else to say.
“Caelah, she died.” As soon as those three words left my mother’s lips, I collapsed. My heart broke into a million pieces, tears began pouring from eyes and I just wanted to be alone. My best friend since I had been born, was now gone, and it felt like it was my fault. I cried myself to sleep, and dreamt about Charlotte and me playing together as children.
The death of Charlotte Coldwell was last year. That year was the worst in my life; I had no friends, no one to tell my secrets to, and no one to go shopping with. I was alone, and it felt terrible. I sound selfish saying this, but it’s the truth; Charlotte was the only one I could spill my guts to. It was tough getting by my junior year without a soul who cared what happened to me, or cared how I felt. After September 8, I didn’t talk to anyone for four months. It was difficult to even think about Charlotte, let alone talk about her. Oakville had a memorial made for Charlotte; they planted a tree and placed a plaque below it. I feel bad now that I had nothing to do with putting the memorial there, but everyone understood how hard it was on me. It turns out that the driver of the truck was this kid Cory, a senior from Oakville, who was driving home drunk from Tyler’s party. He had gone to the hospital for minor injuries, and then was immediately arrested for DUI. I’m glad he was, he took someone’s life away, and he deserves to do time for it. It’s my senior year this year; it’s definitely not going to be the same without Charlotte. We had so many plans for college, and how our lives were suppose to go. My kids were supposed to be her kid’s best friends just like we were. I’m disappointed that this dream will never come true, but I am also glad that Charlotte no longer has to worry about being popular, or cool anymore. At least I know where she is, she is happy and that’s all that I care about.