Lindsey
“How could something so great turn into something so wrong?” I asked myself walking on the crowded creamy, scratchy sidewalks. These New York lights usually gave me a solution or at least made me forget about my problems. I used to think she was my friend, best friend. She was there for me through everything, we told each other everything, and swore never to tell anyone…but things change.
Danni

Accusation: to find fault with; blame, even if that person is innocent. Which I was, for some reason she didn’t seem to believe me though I was telling the truth. It was like she would’ve done or said anything just to pretend it didn’t happen it didn’t matter how ridiculously bad it was or even if it meant losing her best friend.
Lindsey
Danielle, who I often called Danni, because of her tom boyishness, is an average height with short brown hair and freckles. She has a buff body which is all you can expect from 5 days of sports a week. At first I intimidated by her competitive attitude, but now I can’t live without someone always bragging about whatever, which make me try even harder to succeed. I don’t know what I would do without her.
Danni
My best friend in the whole world is, Lindsey, and we are pretty much the total opposites of each other. She’s a girly girl, with long, blonde, wavy locks. She has olive skin, with not a single blemish; she’s thin as a toothpick compared to my manly body. Lindsey is a happy-go-lucky girl who tries to make the best of everything. She is always there for me and I don’t know what I would do without her.


Lindsey
We’re kind of like twisted ice cream, Danni’s vanilla and I’m chocolate were so different but when were put together...We’re the perfect mix. Our fights make us stronger, and nothing or no one could ever tear us apart. We tell each other everything and we have never told each other a lie. We share everything, secrets, thoughts, friends, and even clothes, but I had a secret that I could not tell anyone…Including Danni.
Danni

Lindsey and I have been friends since even before we were born; our moms were best friends too. Our moms even introduced each other to their husbands, well Mrs. Schaffer’s second husband. Pretty wild, huh? So basically it’s impossible for us not to be best friends, but I admit sometimes we do fight but whenever we do our friendship gets stronger. It seems like Lindsey is hiding something though, I don’t know what but I plan to find out.
Lindsey

I cannn’t tell her, I told myself trembling over my words; I broke down to tears, laying down into a fetal position, resting my head on my pink cushiony pillow. I looked at my arms, oww, each revealing a memory; I rested my head on the shoulder that was not swollen. I began bawling, and I realized that this wasn’t just a one time thing, or an accident, even though I wanted it to be, I knew it wouldn’t, he was going to come back, and worse. I was right he did.
Danni

Lindsey looked at me in a weird way; it was like she was trying to tell me something. At the end of math class I ran up to and asked what was wrong, she just kept walking pretending like she didn’t hear me. My next class with her was gym; her locker was right next to mine so I would have the chance to talk to her.

I walked into the locker room ranking of sweat, Lindsey began changing, and I took a quick glance over and noticed a bruise the size of a orange on her left shoulder. Curious, I asked her what happened. She said “Uhh, umm, I fell down the steps.”
“But, you don’t have stairs?” I responded.
“Uhh, I have to go or I‘ll be late,” Lindsey stuttered practically running out of the locker room.
“LINDSEY!” I screamed.
When she was going up to the gym she tripped, and that’s when I saw it.
“Why is your body covered in bruises?” I questioned worried.”
Lindsey came back and said “I can’t say.”
“Yes you can!” I demanded
“No! He‘ll hurt me.” Lindsey was practically in tears
“Lindsey…who will hurt you?” I was almost in tears at this point
She just turned her head to a diagonal and didn’t answer.
“Linds, did your dad come back?”
Stuttering, she managed to get out “yes,” and then she broke down and fell into my arms. So there we sat all period sitting there crying together, hugging each other, comforting each other, and just talking. People walked by looking at us like we were the biggest freaks alive, we didn’t care though, there are worse things in life to worry about, for instance, this. I suggested she see a consoler or the cops or something, but she refused because she was afraid if her dad found out that she told, he would beat her and her mom bad. So she made me swear I wouldn’t tell anyone, I was against the idea, but I did for her family’s safety.
Lindsey

Dad came home drunk. That’s all I have to say, I got hurt, bad, tonight my mom came into my room while he was beating me, she tried to fight him off, but It didn’t work. She threatened to call the cops, and he walked out the door and slammed the door shut. “I‘m sorry baby,” mom said “I tried, he’ll be gone soon.” Then my mom and I both fell asleep in my bad, and she decided I would skip school to recover, from a rib injury. “oww, mom my rib still hurts.”
“Sweetie, will you be okay?”
“Yeah, yeah I‘ll be fine, can you bring me to school?”
“Are you sure?”
I told my mom “yes.” So we jumped in the car and drove to school, even though I felt terrible inside and out.
Danni

I’m soo scared I thought to myself, Lindsey’s not here, what, what if something happened? I was scared to death, until I heard the red framed door creak open, and a frail figure manage to slip through the barely opened door. She sat next to me in social studies and rolled up her sleeves revealing new marks, I looked at them and gasped and covered my mouth,
“Miss Paxton, is there something you would like to share with the class?”
“No, Mrs. Brooks,” I responded the interrogation.
“Then let’s proceed to class.”
“Sorry,” I said softly.
Yes the bell FINALLY rung.
“Linds,” I shouted. She stopped walking, and turned around, while awkwardly clutching her stomach.
“What‘s wrong?”
“Noth…” That was the last I heard from her before she collapsed to the linoleum blue floor. I just stared, at the body lying in front of me, puzzled for a second. Then, I whipped out my Nokia and dialed 911. I sat next to her crying, until the ambulance wheeled her away, I went into the ambulance because they said they needed to question me.

So there I sat, next to my best friend, who was abused to the point of almost dying. So there I sat, while my best friend was give oxygen. So there I sat, staring at her, crying, not thinking anything, crying, holding her hand, and crying. I took a deep breath trying to get myself together, and then the questions began.
“So, is there any reasons that this would’ve happened?” questioned the nurse with a pad of paper and pen in her hand.
I thought about and realized it was for her own welfare, “She…uhh…her…umm…she gets abused by her dad okay?” I covered my mouth not realizing what just came out.
“That explains the broken rib, causing the punctured lung,” stated the nurse.
“So how did she collapse?” I wondered
“Lack of oxygen,” said the nurse emotionless.
So I began to stare again I at my best friend, who gradually opened her eyes, on the white hospital bed and look at me.
“Lindsey,”
“What?”
“I kind of had to tell them about your dad…”
“WHAT!?” exclaimed Lindsey, whose eyes were as wide as an owl’s.
“Lindsey, I had to, it was for your own safety,” I whined.
“But, Danielle, what happens now? They take my dad away?”
“Well I guess…if you’re lucky”
“IF I'm LUCKY?!”
“He’s hurting you.”
“BUT HE’S MY DAD!”
“But, he almost killed you and if he stays around he could make it worse.”
“Danielle, I trusted you I thought you were my friend.”
“I am and that’s why I told.”
Lindsey sighed and then I left.
Lindsey


I really trusted her…with everything, I thought she would keep biggest secret…but she didn’t. I couldn’t believe this, she betrayed me. I sat on the hospital and then my mom came in.
“I can’t believe this,” I murmured
“She did the right thing,” my mom said knowing exactly what I was talking about
“But…”
“But nothing she is your best friend and if you’re going to get mad at her for protecting you then maybe you have a worse injury then the doctors thought, now as soon as you get released your going over the Paxton’s and apologizing.”
I didn’t want to believe my mom’s wise words, but I knew she was right.
Danni


“You did the right thing,” reassured my mother. “Her and her mom could be dead without you.”
I just looked at her, then the doorbell rang. It was Lindsey.
“Hey, can I come in?”
“Uhh…yeah, sure,” I swung the door open and led her up to my room.
“Look, I am sorry I shouldn’t have….”
“No, you were right,” interrupted Lindsey. Then the tears came. “Without you I could be dead right now.”
Then nothing was said we just cried and reminisced on the old times.
“I have an idea!” I exclaimed and ran downstairs.
“Mom!”
“Yes honey?” my mother responded.
“We should adopt the Shaffers!” Our moms looked at each other and smiled. “I like the idea said my mom.”
“Me too,” agreed Lindsey.
“It’s settled then.” I said joyfully
“Annie,” my mom asked Lindsey’s mom, “What do you think?”
“Lindsey said it for me.”
We all looked at each other and smiled at our new family.
Lindsey


Before my dad went to jail I wrote him a letter and signed it “P.S. I hate you.”