Clouded

Chapter 1: Beth Anne
         She didn’t walk she floated with an aura around her.  Her golden chestnut waves fell to the middle of her back and her smile could make a thousand boys fall to their knees.  Her eyes would sparkle when she laughed and right then her face would look as delicate as a porcelain doll.  Her name was Beth Anne Martin and she was my best friend.  We were friends right up until she moved away the summer before tenth grade.  She promised to write from her new address but I knew that she wouldn’t. She was growing up much faster than me.  On the outside Beth Anne was the ‘All American Girl’ with the ‘All American Family’ but that was soon to change.
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         Beth Anne was perfect, everyone including me thought so.  She had what every girl struggles to achieve; style, confidence, beauty.  All the girls at school idolized her by trying to dress and act like her but no one would ever come close.  She was always proper, she sat straight, she stood straight, she said, “yes” and “thank you.” I think her parent made her take one of those etiquette classes or something.  Beth Anne was different from everyone because we were country and she wasn’t.  She grew up in New York City, “the fashion capitol of the world” as Beth Anne would tell me until the summer before second grade.  That’s when Beth Anne’s family had moved from the city to our small town of Tarrisville, NY.  (Conveniently located four hours north of New York City, I read that in a brochure once.)  Her father and mother had bought the farm house across the street from ours.  The first day they moved in I noticed that there was a girl around the same age as me.  I was so excited because I didn’t have any friends that lived close to me.  The closest girl lived ten minutes away but she had a big mouth and would rat on people all the time at school.  It took me a week to get enough courage to go over and introduce myself. 
         As I walked across the dirt street to her house it felt like the earth was shaking beneath me feet.  Somehow I managed to opened the white picket fence even though my hands were uncontrollably twitching.  I was never the type introduce myself first, but I was tired of being alone after school.  When I knocked on the door a tall man answered.  He had curly brown hair and blue eyes, it was the first time in my life I had ever seen that.  I would soon learn that he was Mr. Martin. 
         “Hello, my name is Jamie.  I live across the street.  I noticed you had a daughter my age and I wanted to know if she wanted to hang out at my house?”
         “Well, well, I am Mr. Martin and I know that Beth Anne would love a new friend.  Beth honey you have a visitor.”
         When she came to the door I almost fainted, the butterflies were jumping in my stomach.  I had come all the way here and now I thought I should run home and hide.  Beth broke the ice,              “Hi, my name is Beth Anne, what’s yours?”
         “Um, Jamie.  Would you like to come over to my house for ice tea and brownies?”
         “Sure, I love brownies,” Beth Anne answered with a smile on her face.
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                And rest as they say is history.  From that July day on, we were best friends.  If I was at the movies, you could be sure that Beth Anne was not far away.  If Beth Anne was at the arcade you could be sure that I was not to far away either.  If there is such a thing as a soul mate friend, then we would be it.  I taught her about the country about birds and bugs and trees, while she taught me about New York City fashion and beauty and how to act like a lady.  She was yin and I was yang, and our friendship was always in perfect harmony. 
         Now if everything was always happy, happy, happy I wouldn’t be writing.  My story of Beth Anne really begins when we were thirteen.  It was at this point that boys started to come into the picture.  As we grew older we started to become interested in different things.  She began to like boys, while I wanted nothing to do with them.  They were all immature and just plain gross in every way.  They picked their nose, and spit, and they would cough right in your face, without covering their mouths.  I hated all boys, and I tried to get Beth Anne to hate them to but she wouldn’t listen.  If she would’ve listened to me then maybe she’d still live across the street from me.   
         In the middle of ninth grade Beth Anne started to date one of these boys from our English class, without her mother or father knowing.  She would stay after school to meet up with him and I would have to go and be Beth Anne’s alibi.  I was always Beth’s alibi, when we went to the movies of to see the football games at school, or to the local burger place.  We wouldn’t  go anywhere with just the two of us, we would always go to places to meet up with Andrew. Everything was always about Andrew, and I have to admit that a part of me was jealous.  But there was another part that could see right though Andrew, but for some reason Beth couldn’t.  Andrew was the downfall of Beth and for the reason why she left Tarrisville.