Truth of Dark Pasts by Serena Wood (free children's online books .TXT) 📖

"Get out of my way, loser" the voice emits through the cluster of people in the hall and instantly I recognize the voice. River Pettit (a girl I'd known as my best friend up until a year ago) shoves me out of her way with more force than needed, knocking me over to show off to her new "friends". I look up at her, stunned. She chuckles and it's this hateful, unnatural sound that I've never heard her use towards me before everything changed. She use to have such a kind dispositon, at least around me, and two years ago neither of us would have ever imagined she would bully me the way she is now. 

Of course there was always something different about her, she always seemed to hide something from me. The girl always walked around like she had some dark cloud over her, for obvious reasons she seems to have that cloud over her more often now. I’ve known her all my life, so despite the fact that she seems so cold and secretive, we actually became best friends. I don't know if it was because I had known her so long or we just naturally ended up getting along, but regardless she somehow became the only close friend I had most of the time.

But of course I had to go and mess things up last summer. I honestly don’t know how she stayed my friend as long as she did, at least 6 years without so much as a complaint. We'd been friends ever since she moved her at the age of 12 all the way up to our Juinor year together. I should have taken that as some kind of a hint, since none of my other friends had been around that long in the past. But despite that knowledge I didn’t expect to screw anything up.

After all it was just a normal day, in the middle of summer break and we’d spent the whole day at the beach. Everything seemed fine, great actually. Until we were about to go home, that is. We were packing up our towels when a pair of boys came up to us. the shaggy haired blonde crouched down beside River, “Need any help there, gorgeous?” “No thank you.” she muttered back, not even looking up at him as she put away her towel.

“Hmm, well where you headed to? there’s an ice cream shop not too far from here we’re going to, maybe you can join us?” The boy continued. “No thanks, we’re going to Ellie’s house to watch movies. Right Ellie?” She looked over at me and it became clear that she wanted back up in order to get away from the boys. “Y-yeah.” I mumbled in response.

At that point the boy snickers “But it would be a lot more fun at my house, why don’t you ditch the freak and we’ll go there now?” The darker haired boy behind him chuckled nervously and shifted his weight, clearly not wanting to get into as much trouble as his friend intended too. “Excuse me?” River glared at both of the boys, a clear warning to just leave but only the darker haired boy seemed to pick up on it, backing up slightly. “Come on, you’re probably hanging out with her out of pity. I’m saving you, you know.”

“Who the hell do you think you are? Who I hang out with is my business and as a matter of fact if I were to pity anyone, it would be you.” River growled but the boy clearly didn’t look like he was going to give up and his friend sensed that “Hey Ryan, can we go before the ice cream shop closes? I need to change out of these clothes and they’ve got the only bathroom around here.”  the boy squeaks out but Ryan doesn’t give him so much as a glance in response. “You have no reason to pity me, hot stuff. But that thing on the other hand, I can see why you would pity her. overweight, with that stupid look about her, I think I even see a unibrow. You’re pretty nice too hang around that.” The boy just kept going and by the time he had finished, little tears had already started to slip out despite me trying to contain them.

“Just get lost, asshole.” is River’s only reply to his comment. She stood up, with her stuff in hand and pulled me gently to my feet. But before I could even take a step the boy chuckled again and pushed me down before I knew what was happening. I sat in the sand for a moment, confused. Then Ryan fell down beside me and I looked up to realize River had slapped him right off his feet.

“C’mon, El. Let’s go.” River offered her hand and pulled me too my feet again, actually succeeding at her escape this time. We managed to leave the beach without anymore conflict from either of the boys and by the time we reached my house, my tears had dried. River started the newest scary movie that she had gotten earlier that day and we plopped down on the couch. Even though I tried my best to focus on the movie, I found I couldn’t really focus on anything but what happened at the beach. Not even half way through the movie, River picked up on it.

“Hey, quit worrying about those jerks. They don’t know what they’re talking about.” River nudged my arm, drawing me out of my thoughts. “I don’t know… maybe.. he’s right.” the thought that had been reiterating in my head since we left the beach finally managed to escape from my throat against my own will. “That’s bull shit, Ellie. He was just an asshole, you’re perfect.” was her quick rebuttal. For the whole past school year I had started to feel like maybe I had started to develop the slightest hint of a crush on the girl, but it had never really come to the surface to cause a problem. Until that moment, that is. “You really think that?” I muttered, doubtful of her words. She leaned closer, as if she had some kind of secret to tell me and my heart started to beat faster at her close presence. “Look, don’t tell anyone I have a soft side. But you’re like the most important person in the world to me. You have a great personality, especially compared to the people around here; and I think you’re adorable. So stop worrying about those other assholes.” She finished up her little speech and all I could do was stare at her silently.

I don’t really know what happened next, it all seems to blur in my mind and I’ve come to think it’s because I wasn’t really in control of my actions. I leaned forward, coming in contact with what I soon found out were her lips and I remember this berry sent and a sweet flavor. Before I found myself pushed against the armrest, my shoulders feeling like they had been hit by a linebacker. I snapped out of the daze and looked up to find River picking up her things. “Wh-where are you going?”

“Home.” was her simple reply, she seemed to have this angry tone in her voice, a tone I always feared when she used it on others. “But…” my brain suddenly put together the puzzle pieces and I finally realized what happened. “I- I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to..” I stammered out but she quickly cut me off, “Whatever, just… don’t talk to me right now. I need to clear my head.” and just like that she had left without another word. She didn’t talk to me for the rest of the summer and by the time school started back up, she’d made new friends and her bullying towards me started.

Now I’ve been putting up with her and her friends' bullying me for nearly six months.

“Miss Stone?” The voice pulls me out of my thoughts at last and I look away from River’s hateful glare to look up at the teacher hovering over me. “Are you okay?” she asks and I can only manage a nod before being guided to my feet. “Come with me, please.” The teacher, who I soon recognize as our school counselor, Ms. Robin Asher, pulls on my arm gently and grabs River’s as she walks down the hall.

We get to the end of the hall and she turns us to the left and sends us straight into the Guidance office. “Sit down.” she orders, before seating her own self in her office chair. “I don’t have time for this, I’m going to be late for class.” River protests, with her arms crossed and stands near the door as if she’ll be allowed to just walk out as she pleases. I on the other hand sit cautiously in one of the two seats infront of Ms. Asher’s desk. “Sit down, River.” she grumbles, already seeming to lose her patience with the girl. Muttering under her breathe, River sits down beside me.

“Do you want to explain why you pushed Ellie around like that?” Ms. Asher keeps her attention on the darker skinned girl, locking her green eyes on River’s brown ones. “She was in my way, I’m late for class now cause of the lil bitch. can I just go now?” at that she gets the most hateful glare from Ms. Asher that I’ve ever seen the usually calm teacher use. “Watch your language and I should have you two sent to the office. They can make you miss the whole class, maybe call your parents. Now is that what you want?” “No.” River sits back in her seat and goes quiet.

Which leaves me as a target to be spoken to. “Do you have anything you want to say, Ellie?” I look over at River fearfully and she gives me this death glare. I instantly shake my head no in reply to Ms. Asher’s question. She goes silent for a moment, thinking about what to do. “River, I’ll write you a referral and then you can go to the office.” River sits up straight and her eyes widen, “You’re writing me up? For what?!? I didn’t do anything!” the tone she uses makes me shrink back into my seat in an effort to hide.

“You can tell that to the principal then.” the tired looking counselor mumbles as she writes out the referral. She finishes the referral and motions for River to stand. River stands up and snatches the paper out of her hand, but not before kicking me in the shin. As she stomps out of the room I start to stand. “You stay here for a minute, Ellie. I need to talk to you.” instantly I sit back down and wait for her to continue speaking. “Are you sure there’s nothing you want to talk to me about? Anything involving River perhaps?” I shake my head almost without a second