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Friends Through Thick And Thin

by Amy O, Portland, Oregon, USA, Age 16


It was Tuesday, September 2nd and school had begun once again. The double doors flew open and the commons area became flooded with students of all years, sizes, statures, and races. Eventually several clusters formed. Old friends greeted each other and new friends introduce themselves. Students shuffled into classes and the first day of school began. About a month had gone by and school went as quickly as it came.

The school had a dark depressing look. The building was painted a toffee tan that had cracked and chipped over the years. The lawn was kept well but there was no flowers of trees to be seen. Inside the school, there was a commons area and several halls branching off of it. The ceilings had water stains and gave off a musty moldy smell. Few windows could be found in the school. Each class rooms had huge heavy metal doors that creaked when opened of closed.

Sprinting up the stairs, with books in hand and a school bag swinging from her shoulder, Ana frantically rushes to her first class. As she turns the corner she runs right in to a tall boy with dark hair and brilliant green eyes. Ana's books fall to the floor. She blushes as her bag drops from her shoulder.

"My…my bad," Ana sheepishly replays.

"No, no, my fault," the boys says as he bends over to pick up her books that had landed on the floor.

He returned her books to her and then said, "Hey. I'm Brody."

"I'm Ana," she replied. Brody smiled at her.

"We're gunna be late for class…," Ana reminded him.

"Right, well…I'll see ya around," Brody said.

"See ya." Ana replied as he slowly walked away. She turned back around to see him round the corner.

After running in to each other, Ana and Brody could not get each other out of their heads. A whole week went by before they saw each other again. But soon they started seeing lots of each other and soon began to hang out after school.

About two months had gone by since Brody and Ana had first met. Ana noticed something about Brody was not right. He did not look himself. Brody was not acting his usual self and would not talk to Ana. At school when Ana asked what was up and if he were okay, Brody would tell her that he did not want to talk about it, and that he was "fine". Finally a day or two later, when Ana and Brody were not at school, he told her that his best friend, Trig, had died unexpectedly in a car accident. Brody had been devastated. He had lost his best friend. Brody was extremely upset about Trig's death, but what made it even worse was that he had got in a fight with Trig two weeks before the accident and had not talked to him since the fight. Ana and Brody spent the evening talking about it all. It was hard for Brody, but it brought the two closer together. They talked about things that were more important, meaningful, and personal then they had normally ever discussed.
Talking really helped Brody get through the death of his best friend.

Back before Brody and Ana became close friends and even back before they met, Brody had been friends with Trig. In fact, they had been best friends for three and a half years. They did not have many classes together in school but they still hung out all the time. They had been over to each other's houses so much that both families considered the other boy as "family". They knew everything that there was to know about the other. At the end of summer before their junior year, Brody and Trig got in a fight. Although it was a petty fight and extremely unlike them, they both got highly upset. After the fight about a week later Brody called Trig and left a message on his machine.

"Hey, Trig. This is Brody…haven't talked to ya in while. Just calling to say whats up… (long pause) …Well, alright. Give me a call if ya wanna hang out or songthin'…alright? Bye."

Trig never called Brody back.

School started and the busyness began. After Brody had met Ana, they became friends quick. And although he had not talked to Trig in a while he became preoccupied with his friendship with Ana. So he did not think much of Trig not talking to him. He figured Trig would come around eventually. When Brody got the news of the accident that Trig had been in, he closed his eyes and pictured his best friend's face, as if he had been with him just yesterday. He flashed back to many of the resent "good times" they had had. Brody could not believe that Trig, his best friend that he could remember so easily, had died. Brody blamed himself for their fight that took place right before school begun. He deeply regretted not calling a second time and not trying harder to make things better between them towards the end. Ana tried to comfort and help Brody. She always kept him thinking on a positive note even thought such a horrible thing had occurred.

About a month and a half after the funeral of Trig, another major event happened but this time it was in Ana's life. It had to do with Ana's family, which consisted of her mother, father, her 6-year-old brother, her 9-year-old brother, and her 14-year-old younger brothers.

Ana lived in a ranch style home. The color of the house was cheerful yellow, bright enough to make fall still seem like summer. The front yard and the back yard was about acre. In the front yard, which faced a road, there was a bed of roses along the side of the house, each revealing a different brilliant color in the spring. The back yard was full of trees of all sorts. The trees were in blossom, each had barely budded individual fruit. The grass was about five days over grown. To the left of the back yard, a deck was connected to the house.

Ever since Ana could remember, her family had problems. Her father had a nasty temper and when angered there was no telling for what he might do. Her parent's marriage had been struggling for some time and it was evident in the way they talked to each other. On one Saturday, afternoon Ana's mother was finishing up some dishes in the kitchen, Ana was fixing a sandwich on the kitchen counter and her brothers were watching Saturday afternoon cartoons downstairs. There was an awkward silence, because Ana's mother and father had just ended an argument that morning. But that silence was shattered but a bark from the family dog in the back yard.

"SHUT-UP! You stupid dog!" Ana's father yelled angrily at the curious dog. He took one step out side and noticed a roll of duct tape that was lying in the green grass gnarled and chewed from the dog. He clenched his fists and swore under his breath. The dog approached Ana's father, waging his tail and looking up at him with big brown eyes. He abruptly backhanded the dog across the face. As the dog yelped and trying to run, he quickly grabbed the dog by the head and started shaking him angrily.

"WHAT THE HELL!!! NO, NO, NO, NO! How many times do I have to tell you? DON'T CHEW UP MY SHIT!" Ana's father yelled as he gripped hard on the dog.

Ana heard her dog yelp and ran towards the back door. "MOM!! MOM!! Papa's hurting Cody!"

She ran outside yelling at her father. He dropped the dog hard, intending to hurt it. Ana knelt and pulled Cody, the dog, to her, half hugging him half petting him.

Ana yelled at her father, "O MY GOSH, How could you do that to him. It wasn't his fault. YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE LEFT THE STUPID TAPE OUTSIDE!!!!"

As she let the poor dog go, he bolted to hind in the bushes. Ana's father grabbed her arm and yelled, "I'm so freakin' tired for dealing with this shit!"

Ana yanked her arm away and said, "Don't cuss at me! I don't wanna hear it!" Just then her father pulls his hand back then sharply hit her across the face. Ana stumbled backwards. Her dog heaped out of the bushed, and jumped in front of Ana, growling and snarling at her father. Without saying a word he turned and ran inside the house. Ana's mother sprinted out back to find her daughter standing with her hands over her face sobbing. She reached for Ana, who had blood all over her hands and face. They walked in the kitchen and her mother started to clean Ana up. Ana's father rushed by with a pistol in his right hand and said to Ana,

"I'LL FIX YOUR DAMN DOG!!"

Ana sobbed and yelled pushing past her frantic mother and ran after her father. Ana stood about 8 feet from her father who was pointing the gun directly at the dog. The dog's ears were back and was growling enough to see all his sharp white teeth.

"PLEASE PAPA DON'T! PLEASE! PAPA!" Ana cried out. "DON'T KILL 'EM, PAPA!!!!"

"SHUT-UP ANA!" he yelled. Right then he pulled the trigger and a giant sound exploded from the gun. Cody yelped one cry as his limp body fell back to the ground. Ana screamed at the top of her lungs. Weeping and sobbing she dove toward the animal lying in the grass.

"Don't touch him Ana." He said as he raised the gun.

Ana looked back at her father to see him pointing the gun at directly at her. With tears streaming down her face, Ana slowly stood up and moved towards the door where her mother was standing, calmly instructing him to put down the gun. As soon at Ana made it towards the door her mother grabbed her, yanked her in the house and slammed the back door. By this time, her three younger brothers had heard all the yelling and screaming and especially the gun shot. They appeared near the stairway and kept a safe distance away. Ana's mother grabbed her car keys and purse and commanded her children to get in the car immediately. On her way out she grabbed a towel from the kitchen for Ana's nose, which had kept bleeding and running down her face.

After that horrible Saturday afternoon, Ana had not returned to school until a week later. Brody of course knew from the first day of Ana's absent that something had gone wrong. It took Ana a while until she discussed that Saturday afternoon with Brody. But when she did, Brody felt extremely sorry for her. He comforted her and supported her. They talked about it a lot which also brought the two of them together very quickly. Both Ana and Brody trusted each other with everything, their thoughts, their feelings, their emotions, their darkest secrets, and the trauma both of them faced in those few months.