Joy Yamazaki's life was flipped upside down by a series of unfortunate events. Her perfect student reputation was at stake. One of her favorite teachers, Ms.Lok, persuades her to join the school's robotics team. Joy has faith that she may live up to...
"What! Where to?! How far away?!" I felt my heart pounding against my chest. I hated the thought of losing people, especially when they were dear to me, and Monica is one of those people. I could feel tears welling up in my eyes, the thought of losing my lifelong best friend shattered my heart.
"Yeah, I've known about it for a week now, but I didn't want to tell you so soon. I'm moving to New York."
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I looked at her and said, " But that's so far away. So what's going to happen to us? You're my best friend and I don't want to lose you especially when we're about to go into high school. I don't want to be alone out there. High school is a pretty scary place." I chuckled humorlessly. She once again stared at the grass and started kicking a pebble with her cleats.
"It's okay," I said, trying to lighten up the mood. "We can FaceTime and Skype. I'll call you every week to check up with you. We can do it. Our friendship is much too strong to be broken by this."
I smiled, "Yeah I know it's going to be hard, but we can do it. Together." I embraced her and the tears started flowing down my face. I couldn't see her but I knew she was crying as well. I patted her back and let her go. "Now, who's house are we going to today?" I said gently.
"Yours 'cause mine is kind of a mess."
"Okay, I'll tell my mom to pick us up. You know what time it is?" I asked excitedly.
"Sleepover time!" I yelled while bouncing around mockingly as if we were young again. That sure lightened the mood.
I fished for my phone from my bag and dialed my mom. She answered almost immediately. "Hey Joy," she answered in a shaky voice. I furrowed my eyebrows and answered in a concerned voice "Hi mom, are you okay?" "Yeah I'm fine, I'm great", my mom replied. I wasn't so convinced, but I shook the eerie feeling off. "Can you pick Monica and I up, please," I asked politely. "Yeah, sure. I'll be there in five minutes. Bye sunshine." I smile at the nickname and told Monica that she'll be here soon. I took out a soccer ball from my duffel bag and we kept ourselves busy, just kicking it around.
"Where in New York are you moving?" I asked.
"Umm, I'm not even sure. All I know is that I'm moving at the end of summer break."
I nodded and went back to kicking the ball. I once again thought about how much I'll miss my best friend. "I'm gonna miss you, so much. You're the sister I wish I had." I said this out of the blue, but it was meaningful. She looked at me apologetically and said, "I'm gonna miss you too. So so much. And I love you, and wish you the best even if we are hundreds of miles away."
I heard a honk in the parking lot and took that my mom was here. Monica and I walked shoulder to shoulder going to the car. She waved at my mom and we got in the car. My mom asked us about our day and I told her that Monica was moving away. She seemed to take it harshly, but it seemed to be for a different reason. The air in the car was tense. My mom was acting quite odd, but I once again dismissed it as an exhaustion after work. But it seemed that everything I dismissed came back to bite me.
