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Everyone was cheering and laughing happily staring excitedly at the well decorated stage which would hold the graduating kids that had finished their work at Waterfall College. Parents were sitting with wide grins in the back in gray, dusty chairs that sort of ruined the back row with a gloomy look. Then, the crowd roared when the smartest and coolest kid in the school, skated through the balloon and string covered aisle hiding behind thousands. Anna Millben did not like to be watched at any point of time in her life. Being in the spotlight never occured to her as a child and never did to this day. Her crush, Tim Martins stared in adorement blushing madly. Anna could make out her father behind a couple of kids that were waving their arms proudly. When they were called up, many cleared their path for them and bowed royally. Anna growled lowly with despise. Her old enemies Kristina and Brietta were strutting up to the stage with their graduation hats tipped to one side to show their new hairstyle. Their graduation shirts were open to show their silky purple dresses that pulled out like dinner tables. Anna turned, pushing away the thought. She hugged her dad tightly, getting ready to cry. "I did it dad...i graduated...I..." she began to sob just as Kristina beamed in the microphone, "Oh, my dear graduating......children.." she paused to turn around and pretend to puke to her friends as though she thought nobody in the crowd deserved to graduate. "I am very, very proud to be able to speak this now. I am a graduating student and i have been chosen to sing the song of our school in deep thought about my future." she gulped. Anna knew that Kristina faked that whole sentence, pretending to be concerned and proud. But really, she just wanted to move out of her parents's house to get a boyfriend that didn't dump her before a week passed. "Now let's sing!" Kristina shouted and cleared her throat. Anna wiped her tears and let go of her father's waist.

The song ended in tragic tears and everyone scattered to hug one another. Anna stayed still. She felt very strong and proud about graduation. But her few friends at the school would never come to hug her. Anna had a good feeling that they would go to hug Kristina. They had betrayed Anna weeks ago. But Anna's doubts were wrong. Through the crowd, Anna could make out three girls walking casually over to Anna. Anna turned pale. Her heart was pounding. How could she possibly approach them and act joyful about their sudden appearence? They betrayed her and left her to rot alone in the school. Even though Courtney was her roommate she had betrayed Anna as well. In the morning, Anna would wake up to see an empty bed across the room where Courtney would usually be whispering Anna's name, pulling out Uno or Sorry to play before everyone woke up. Selena would ignore her. Whenever she walked thorugh the hall and saw Selena, Selena would glare evilly and jab Anna in the stomach with her elbow. Nanna and Nanni (twin sisters) stalked her thorugh the halls at night, laughing so hard that they sounded like they were going to explode. She could never accept their apology if they were coming for that. "Hi, Anna..." their voices were soft and sweet because Anna's father was staring at them with a powerful look that made you feel very nervous and dizzy-like. She gulped and glanced at her father, "Hi." she answered dully. Her father was still staring eerily at the girls, waiting for them to make a wrong move. "We're so sorry about us leaving you like that..." Selena choked, trying to ignore Anna's dad. Anna was going to forgive them until she remembered how they had fooled her all the time. "N-no....I don't forgive your foolishness. That is not being a true friend. You should be ashamed!" Anna stomped her foot and spun around to sit down by her dad. "But Anna--"

"You ruined our friendship, girls. You screwed up." Anna interrupted loudly. Selena, Courtney, Nanni, and Nanna looked pained and stunned, and angry all at once. Then, without a word they stopped walking normally and began to strut towards Kristina, who was leaping step by
step off the stage. Anna felt very proud, but inside very hurt. She had gotten rid of her burden forever. But, got rid of a once very good friendship.

Chapter 1: The Everlasting Burden

Page 1

Michi Reynolds lay in her bed quietly listening to the slow and calm creaks on the floor. Whispers came from outside her door. Then, suddenly the whisper faded away as though the person had dissapeared. But the door from the other room opened and slammed abruptly. She stayed aware, standing straight up in her small cottage bed. Expecting another boom or clash, she looked around the room. But the entire cottage seemed to have just pushed away all the people. Misoro Mika, Michi's aunt yawned and peeked inside Michi's room. Michi quickly dove under the covers and faked a sloppy snore. Misoro barely fell for it. She frowned, and walked over to Michi. She tickled her back. Michi giggled. Her heart pounded. Misoro took off the blankets revealing a matress, a fluffy pillow but no Michi. Surprised, Misoro scanned the room with her beady brown eyes for 10 minutes but could not find Michi anywhere. By that time, Misoro Mika was very irritated and she stormed out of the room, her blonde hair swaying wildly.

Michi laughed, and peeked from underneath her bed. While Misoro was tickling her, she used the pillows inside her pillow to replace her while she crawled from the large blankets and underneath the bed. Michi was a straight A student in school so she had very good strategy skills. But this wasn't normally easy. Misoro never fell for Michi's sly tricks very much. Michi slowly and quietly tip-toed into the hall and cracked open the door just enough to let her slide through. She promised to herself she would return to the little cottage before breakfast. Then, she dissapeared into the forest to once again pluck berries from an ancient berry bush.

As she ventured deeper into the forest she became more and more nervous. She had come to Berryballe Forest many many times before but always felt a cold mist rise. As she walked quietly on the trail she pulled out her cellphone and texted Nonnely, her good friend from 8th grade. But then she froze in her tracks and dropped the cellphone just as quickly as she had stopped. The phone beeped loudly but she was so frightened that she couldn't hear it properly. The bush in front of her (which was the berry bush) was moving side to side the opposite direction of where the wind was blowing. In a panic, she quickly snatched her cellphone from the ground and darted past the bush. She was surprised to see the berry bush looking so brown. It was dying surely. But many say long ago the berry bush created it's own magical barrier to protect it from any harm. Even though Michi didn't fully believe in the barrier, what could possibly harm the Ancient Berry Bush? "Where are you!? Show yourself!!" shouted Michi backing away from the bush trying to hide the fright in her eyes. She turned pale white and was shaking badly. There was a grumble then a deep growl. She gasped, and plucked eight berries before she was suddenly thrown
powerfully, slamming into a tree. She wanted to scream and run, but her arms and legs were feeling like pieces of straw. Her legs were numb and sore and it was very painful to move them. Then, through the fog that was somehow disconnecting her brain cells, she was able to make out a blurry figure of a monster no bigger than the bush itself, but much stronger. She knew her arms and legs were definitely broken because of the everlasting pain that soared through her. Then, without notice everything was black. She fainted.