The Silver Crow And The Golden Girl
The salty ocean air blew against Amara’s face. She tried not to think about tomorrow. She tried to focus on today. No matter how hard she tried, that thought always somehow drifted back into her mind. Her small beach house on the San Francisco Bay glinted in the sunlight. She could make out three figures walking in the distance. Tiani, Jianyu, and Adaline. Her three, and only, friends since she had moved here. Making friends wasn’t easy for her, especially for the fact that her dad had been arrested last week. Shoplifting is what they’d arrested him for, but that was just a coverup. She guessed his secret was terrible enough that the government didn’t even want to deal with it. Sighing, she walked down the coastline towards her friends. Amara had moved to San Francisco last month. Her family was always on the move, what with her dad’s job and all. She was a 16-year-old girl born in Idaho. Freckles were scattered all over her, like powdered sugar on a donut. She had shoulder-length wavy brown hair she didn’t even bother trying to contain, there was no use. The wind shifted her flowy blue sleeveless dress, ruffling her hair. The sun was setting over the teal-blue ocean, casting orange-red hues over the sand. As her friends came into view, she tried to think of what to say to them. How could she possibly say that she would be on the move again? “Hey!” yelled Adaline, running in Amara’s direction. She had a long blonde braid down her back and wore a dress like Amara’s, except this one was pink with short ruffle sleeves. “Hi,” Amara answered, trying to sound enthusiastic. Her friend was barefoot like her, and her chipping toenail polish was painted a dark shade of pink. She locked arms with Amara, and they strolled towards Tiani and Jianyi. Tiani was an Asian American with short-cropped black hair and usually wore Birkenstocks with khaki shorts and a white t-shirt. Jianyu was an African American whose fashion choice was always one of those cheezy floral shirts people would wear on vacation with jeans. (An interesting choice.) Today he wore a white tank top with a green button-up shirt being used as a jacket with black palm tree designs. He smiled at Amara as he approached the two girls. They had started dating a couple of weeks ago, and things were going well. That was the sad thing. She’d tried long-distance relationships, and they never worked out. She managed a smile while holding her hand up to her forehead to block the light. “Took you guys long enough.” Said Adaline, rolling her eyes. She released herself from Amara’s arm and kicked Tiani in the knee. “Gosh! Ouch!” Adaline just snorted. Amara continued to fake her smile. “Something’s bothering you.” Jianyu suddenly spoke. Amara shook her head. “It’s nothing.” She continued to hold her hand over her forehead. The light shone through a gap in her fingers, and she switched hands, her fake smile slipping out of grasp. “You’ve been like, weird lately man,” Tiani spoke, still holding his injured knee. She must've been terrible at hiding things, Tiani was a bit more stupid than the rest of them. Maybe she should tell them. Maybe not. It would risk their happiness at the moment, and Amara wanted them to be happy as long as she could stay with them. Adaline was always so happy, she’d hate to lower her friend's spirits. Yes, not telling them would be best. She tried to think about happy things. She’d be able to take their new cat Nico with them when they left. He was a small fuzzy cat with calico printings all over him. They'd found him on the beach one day. Her smile became more real. “Yeah, I'm fine. Just tired.” Tiani nodded his head. “Exams last week were hard.” “C’mon, let’s go play some volleyball guys!” Yelled Adaline. She skipped through the water, splashing Tiani, while Amara held hands with Jianyu. She tried to stay in this moment, not get worried about leaving. The volleyball net came into view, and Amara excitedly began to run towards it. Good thing Jianyu was next to her, or else she might've tripped over the small gold box. She almost fell face-first into the sand before Jianyu caught her by the waist. “You ok?” He asked, looking her over. “Y-yeah.” Her foot was bleeding from the small corner of the box. She grabbed a spare band-aid from her pocket and pressed it over the scratch on her heel. This happened a lot. Tiani and Adaline ran over. “Wow, what’s that!” Yelled Adaline. She got so excited over these things. She picked up the small gold box and dusted off the sand. It had small swirly designs over it and was about the size of Adaline’s hands together. Its corners were sharp, and there was a lock at the front. “How did this beautiful box get here?” Adaline had to yell because the breeze had picked up. At first, Amara had thought this was a Jumanji situation, but no. This was worse. They'd found them. Without another word, she ran.