What a Trick

Learning to enjoy the treasures you have is an important part in life. But when those treasures surprise you by walking away, that’s the hardest part. My name is Nadine Pastern and for me, it was a friend. Lisa Mudale was my first real friend. Lisa and I have been friends since the third grade. We both loved to ride our bikes and loved spending the holidays, weekends, and summers together. She’s ten, just like me, and was pretty smart.

One summer, Lisa and I settled on cleaning up her room. It looked like a thousand horses stampeded through the area. As soon as we got going, Mrs. Mudale, Lisa’s mom, called her for some help. I continued cleaning after Lisa left. Vacuuming was my favorite part of cleaning, so I decided to clean up every spot. Handling the vacuum like a broom, I slurped up the dirt in every corner. When I bent over to suck up every dust under the dresser, I found a book. My eyes glazed over the words that etched DIARY on it.

The book was a miniature, bright pink that looked more like old scraps of paper than a diary. Usually I would not snoop in private belongings, but when I picked it up from underneath the dresser I saw that the pages were messed up. So I decided to put it back together. While doing so, I saw my name in a passage that really caught my attention: It made me cry when Papa told me we’re moving. He told me not to tell Nadine because it might break her heart. I think that moving to Sri Lanka would have been fun if Nadine and I were going. Well, I will just enjoy the last summer I have now.

Okay, just to let you know, when I have friends going to school with me, it gives me some social traits. Friends help me realize my good qualities. Even though I felt distraught over the situation, I decided not to spoil our friendship by letting Lisa know how sad I was right then.

When Lisa returned, I had the room nice and spotless. "Wow! This room is as clean as a ballroom!" Lisa complimented. I stuffed her diary under the mattress… just in case she saw it. Hopefully Lisa would never realize I read her innermost feelings. At that point, I made a vow to give Lisa the best summer a best friend could.

The next day, Lisa had complete control. I let her do things I even hated doing. We went to the boring museum to try new foods from different countries. She spent a lot of time trying foods mainly from Europe and Italy. We went to the Casserole Store to study what makes it smell. Eww! We watched her stupid brother, Line, do his band show. Although she normally likes them, Line’s band was not too great to Lisa this time. I think they stink all the time. Lisa became aware of what I was doing and, like I said, she wasn’t dumb. "Why are you doing all this? It’s not my birthday or anything."

"Lisa, I know you’re moving to Sri Lanka. I kind of read your diary," I confessed.

Lisa’s eyes widened and I could almost see little question marks bouncing around her head. But, realization sprang to her face and she was very upset. My head dropped like a sorry puppy with its tail between its legs. Suddenly, she shrieked furiously, "You read my diary, didn’t you? How could you! You were my best friend!" She walked away, not letting me explain. If I had never said anything about that stupid diary, she wouldn’t have gotten mad at me.

Ever since that day, Lisa never spoke to me. The only time I saw her out was when she was with her mother. She never looked at me, either. I didn’t know when this would end.

It was two weeks until school and I had to talk to Lisa. But it wasn’t easy. Her mom had a very weird accent and couldn’t understand me well. When she wants to say kiss and make up, she says ‘Hess an wake up’. When I finally got through to Mrs. Mudale, Lisa refused to see me. After what seem like 15 minutes, Mrs. Mudale emerged from the room.

"Lisa wuz reele mad. I tock to ’er. You can go en."

It took me about a minute before I replied. Mrs. Mudale needs to work on her English! "Thank you, ma’am." I entered the still fresh room.

"Lisa," I began, when I saw her lying on the bed with her back to me.

"I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to invade your privacy. I would understand if you didn’t want me as your friend—"

"No," Lisa interrupted, "I should never have acted that way. I was being a jerk. I didn’t even let you explain. But what were you talking about when you said I was moving to Sri Lanka?"

I told Lisa what happened and how I read her diary.

"Hold up. Are you talking about this?" Lisa held up the same pink, ransacked notepad, I saw earlier that day and started to laugh. "This notebook is isn’t my diary. It was a novel I started on. I was making a story about you and me. Ha, ha! Guess I shouldn’t use our real names, huh?"

I felt relieved but confused and I couldn’t help but ask, "What about the title? It does say 'DIARY' on it?"

"I put that there so no one would read it until I was done. After that anyone could read it. You actually think I would move to Sri Lanka and not tell you? Ha, that’s a laugh!" Lisa exploded with harder, unstoppable laughter.

So I learned my lesson. Never peek in on a pink booklet with the words DIARY on it. By the way, Lisa and I made a promise to tell every secret, we can, to each other. So I’m glad about one thing, Lisa was my social treasure and she was going to school with me, next year, after all. YAY!!