The Silent Girl (Chapter 19)
*Disclaimer*: This is a work of fiction. Some events may be based on real life, but some events are made up.
“What are you doing here!?” I asked. Coconut was standing in front of me, with bloodshot eyes, and wild hair. “What happened to you?”
“Well…, a lot of things happened,” Coconut muttered. “But first, young lady, explain why you are here!”
“Oh... Me? I’m… sorry, but I couldn’t fall asleep, I had learned so much today, and so many questions had spermed inside me, I just couldn’t resist a snack, I was so hungry, so I, well I’m sorry, but I took a chocolate ball and ate it, and it was so yummy, I planned to tell you in the morning, but I’m telling you this now I guess I don’t have to tell you in the morning, but I also took a fruit strip and ate it, and I have one for June, I’ll give it back to you…” I said quickly, trailing off. My cheeks burned rosy red, and heat rose inside me. Not the mad kind of heat, but the guilty kind of heat. I felt close to tears.
“It’s okay,” Coconut said soothingly. “It’s nice that you thought of June.” Lucky me. She wasn’t mad. “Can you explain why you’re in such a bad state, now?” I asked her. “Okay,” she replied.
“I’ll start when I left the cottage, earlier,” she said. “You probably haven’t realized it, but around an hour has already passed. I was flying around, and checking on the other island residents, when I saw a group of men on canoes, rowing to the island. Of course, we are protected by a coral barrier, but the coral is asleep at night, so they can easily slash through it. And, I was worried they might be Uncle Liam’s soldiers, so I had to get the coral barrier to wake up. If you flap your wings a hundred times, while chanting for the coral to wake up, the coral will wake up. But it took a lot of my energy, so yeah.”
“Uh, okay,” I said. “bye.”
We went our separate ways, me going back to my room, and Coconut going to wherever she went. I still had so many questions, but I was relieved to know that there were people out there that cared about me, that wanted to protect me. It made me feel safe and grateful.
“May!” I heard someone shout.
“Huh?” I groggily rubbed my eyes, looking around. Gone was the snowy path. Gone was the terrifying soldiers. Gone was the endless line of people.
Instead, I was tucked into a cot, with a red plaid blanket sitting on top of me. Towering above me was June's face, peering into the depths of my eyes. “Hello..,” I said. “Hello?” she asked.
So it wasn’t just a dream. It was real! I actually did know this kind woman named Coconut, and I actually could live in a nice cottage, and Samuel actually was the rightful king! “We have to help him,” I muttered sleepily.
“Help who?” Coconut walked into the room, looking as good as ever. She probably had recovered. “Help Samuel!” I said, with emotion. “He’s sacrificing his own life for us!” “Oh, yeah,” June agreed. “We can’t just leave him to die!”
Coconut sighed. “I was planning to go help him today, but this isn’t the first time this has happened. Usually, I go and rescue him from the dungeons, and we come back. He comes back with a number of fresh scars, but I think they wait a long time until they kill him.”
“We want to help!” June and I said together. “He saved us!” I nodded along with what June said. Not only did I want to save Samuel, but I also wanted to give Uncle Liam a piece of my mind. I’m sure he really needed it, but I think that I will probably get killed if I do march up to him just like that.
I smiled, imagining the expression on his face when I confronted him like that and gave him a piece of my mind. He would look surprised, maybe even hurt for a moment. Then…, then some guards would drag me to the dungeons. But still, If I did live the rest of my life in the dungeons, I would savor the moment that I had carved upon the face of Uncle Liam being startled.
“MAY!” June called. “I’ve literally been calling you for the last hour! Are your ears broken or what?” I startled. I had been too busy thinking about how fun it would be to confront Uncle Liam that I had forgotten about everything else. “What is it?” I asked.
“Coconut said that she would be leaving in an hour or two to get Samuel, and she’ll put this person who also has the power of pure Sorcery Straw in charge. All the children on the Island are supposed to gather to meet the person, and the person will lead us in a number of activities. We’re going to meet the person soon. C’mon!” June ushered me hurriedly. We hurried over to greet the person. I was very curious to find out who “the person” was.
When we got there, a person was counting the children. There were dozens of baskets of cherries dotting the scene. “Hello, May and June.”, she said, when she saw us. We greeted her respectfully and went over to the other children. There were a lot of children. At least 100 of them. They all stood in a line but soon went into a jumble.
“Hello children, I’m Coconuts twin sister, and together we work to help others. My name is Cherlyn, but I don’t really like that name. I will be the activity person for all of you kiddos. I’ll also teach you the different subjects in school. Now, how about a cherry party to kick off the year!?”
Cherlyn took the baskets of cherries, and threw them up into the air! Then, she handed us all these balloons that looked exactly like cherries! “They're edible,” She told us. “They’re my secret balloon and cherry recipe, all combined!”
Then she pulled off the grass right under our feet! Whoa! I stumbled, tripping on another child. “Sorry,” I muttered. The fake grass revealed a dance floor, and Cherlyn pulled in some lights that projected Cherries throughout the dance floor. Then Cherlyn broke into a rap song that she called, “Cherry.” June and I just couldn’t resist dancing right along! (Although we weren’t very good at dancing)
June raised her hand. Cherlyn nodded in her direction. “Hi. I’m June. I think your name is nice, but you seem to like cherries a lot, and Coconut told me that you didn’t like your name. Why don’t you change your name to Cherry? After all, that would make it easier for people to remember your name. Coconut also told me that people kept forgetting your name. You can choose, but I still think it’s a good idea,” June said.
“Thank you!! I LOVE that name, let's start this again. Cherry is much better than my old name. “Cherlyn” was just too fancy, you know. Anyway, Hi kiddos! My new name is Cherry, thanks to June.” The new Cherry smiled at everyone.
I pushed through the crowd, searching for June. Finally, I found her, licking a cherry popsicle. “Here, you have one too.” June showed me where the popsicles were. They were all cherry. Some had chocolate dripped on them, some had vanilla dripped on them, some were just plain old cherry. But, under the chocolate or vanilla, there was always cherry.
I chose a chocolate-cherry popsicle. “Hey,” I said to June. “Let's sneak away with Coconut! I mean, we don’t want to miss out on all of the fun and we have wings to fly!”
I looked around. All the children had wings, which I guess was reasonable since Coconut had told us that Clara 1 and Clara 2 and Isabella 1 and Isabella 2 would bring in all the newcomers, and Coconut would let them eat the Blue Crescent. “Why, May, that would be horrible. We would be all alone until we found Coconut and then Coconut would be mad at us! Also, how would we know where to go and, May, do you realize that this will be a SCARY thing to do?” June asked, horrified at the thought.
“But without us, Coconut might get hurt,” I said. Suddenly, I had a brainstorm, and ideas fell to me like giant puddles of rain plopping down on the ground, filling the soles of your boots.“And besides, we can pack things to prepare, oh, and why don’t we confront Uncle Liam together, then I’ll have more courage, and you can help me too! Wait, I have another idea! We could help free Samuel, and then Samuel and Coconut could help us confront the horrible man!”
“No. It would be worse if we come because we are only young girls and us AND Coconut will get hurt. That would be too dangerous to confront Uncle Liam. He would have bodyguards all around him AND he would put us to death. Like, immediately! How would we free Samual!? He is VERY WANTED by Uncle Liam, so I am very sure that there would be very many men guarding him. We could never take them all down, even with Coconut! No. That will never work!”
“But… we can’t let Coconut do it by herself!” I suddenly had a flash of anger. “You’re not being selfish, are you!? I mean, Coconut is risking her life for Samuel, she needs us! This was the last straw for Uncle Liam! We can’t let Coconut and Samuel die! Remember when Samuel sacrificed himself for us!?” I can’t believe you could be like this!”
June shrank back. “Fine,” she said in a small voice. “I was just worried that you would get hurt because you haven’t been eating the strongness chocolate balls that Coconut gives me, but if you’re going to act like I’m so selfish then I’m going to leave RIGHT NOW,” She said. I was so surprised. This was not what I had expected! What were strongness chocolate balls!?
“I’m sorry,” I said fiercely, “But I didn’t know about these “strongness chocolate balls,” so you can’t blame me. If all you care about is me and you, I can’t believe I ever liked you!”
“Yeah, you do. Whatever. If you’re going to act like that, then I’m going to tell on you to Cherry! If you don’t like me, that’s fine, because I don’t like you either. You’re the one who is always bragging about how you’re older than me. I can bear it no longer! Seven whole years of torment, May! I can hardly believe it. My own sister! Besides, you didn’t help Coconut fight of those soldiers yesterday night! You were sleeping, while we were getting all bloody! See,” she said pointing to her head. “I have a scar right on my forehead! You didn’t care, did you!? I doubt you even noticed. You were too busy with other stuff. Bye!” June stormed off, wiping tears from her eyes. She was also wiping blood off her forehead.
I was confused. Wasn’t June in bed while Coconut was off!? And it wasn’t my fault I hadn’t known about the soldiers until Coconut told me! And why had Coconut only asked June to come? Maybe she didn’t think I was strong enough, powerful enough. And besides, if June was going to brag about how good she was, how strong she was, how she didn’t deserve me, well then that was just right rude! “Well, fine, if that's how you want it to be,” I muttered under my breath, but June didn’t hear me because she had already befriended a bratty girl named Bretta (Her real name was Cora, but she was so bratty and selfish and mean, so whatever). June and the bratty girl walked off to the idiotic mountains. I didn’t like Coconut anymore. I didn’t like June anymore. I hated Bretta the Bratty girl, and I never actually liked her anyways. The only person I actually liked right now was Samuel. Samuel, who had sacrificed his life for me. Samuel who meant no harm to the person who stole his kingdom. Samuel, who had never harassed me or made me feel left out. I was determined to help him.
Dear Readers,
May represents Isabella. June represents Clara. Bretta’s name is actually Cora and represents Mingmei, but May is in such a bad mood that she named Cora Bretta because May thinks that Cora is bratty, and stole her best and only friend. Cora is not a brat and not bratty, although she can be very emotional, even though Mingmei is a very composed person. As you know from That Math Girl, Mingmei is none of those things.
-An Makes and Mei Makes
P.S. Mei Makes wrote most of the letter and An Makes wrote most of the rest of the Chapter in Chapter 19 of The Silent Girl. Just to give you a heads up!
P.S.S. Mei Makes wrote the P.S.
