There was a beautiful winter breeze brushing against my feet. With the waves near the ocean shore outside my house, screaming with joy and the soft, sweet and gentle voice of the little dolphins playing in the sea. It was December 15th in California. A perfect day to me. This is Regina’s perfect day. My mother gets her keys and gets in the car. She drives me past my beautiful ocean shore to the loud cries of the Kennedy High School,  calling you in for class.

“Bye sweety! I’ll pick you up after school! Have a nice day!” said my mother with lots of love.

She backs out the drive through with a big smile on her face. Oh my god, mom I’m not a little kid anymore! Leave!! As my mom was driving away, some of her dress was stuck outside the door and it ripped. I wonder, what could go wrong on my perfect day? And, my day was the worst. When I trudged to my locker to put my stuff away, my enemies, The Richies, who are basically the rich girls who think they are “better than everyone else”, were standing in front of my face and looking at me like I’m their servant. They are always mean to everyone and hey always stay with themselves. Brats.

“ Hey Regi. What’s on your pants?”

“ First of all, don’t call me Regi. Second of all, huh?” and I look down to see what happened. Then they had made a big can of ginger ale and put it right above me. Then, with one click of a remote, they poured the whole thing on me.

“ Whoops. It’s not on your pants, it’s all over you. What happened? Went for a swim in ginger ale and didn’t take a bath?”

Everyone was laughing at me. That was the most embarrassing moment of my life. The good part was that it was the right time when my friends showed up.

“Oh my goodness! Regina are you okay? You must be shivering! Come on, let’s go to the gym.”

That was the sweet and kind person in our group, Alex. The others in our group were Jamie, Angelica, Riley, Makayla, and Maya. We all have known  each other for 10 years. Jamie is a like the girl who would crack you up. Angelica will never look at you. She is not that “social”. Riley can write a science essay about any topic in 2  minutes and get a A+. Makayla can catch a softball from 2 miles away. Maya on the other hand, is a total opposite of Angelica. She can be in a comedy show and the show will get a 5 star rating because of her. All our differences are the things that bring us together.

I walk into math class after I change my clothes in the locker room. Oh shoot. We get our tests back. I wonder how I did. The teacher walks to my desk with a worried look on her face.

“Regina, I know that it is your first one.  It’s okay. If you’re having trouble, feel free to talk to me.”

I look at my test score, and it was a D. Oh god. I studied for such a long time. How can I of all people get a D? I’m an A+ student.

  “Hey Regina! What did you get on the test?” Maya says with a smile on her face.

“I got a D..”

“What!!?? How could you get a D? That’s impossible.  I’m sure you got framed by someone. I’ll find out who it is and punch them and kick them and…”

“I don’t think that’s necessary.”

Then Maya ran off.

When school was over, I trudged through the hallway reaching to the light of the sun, when my friends showed up with a happy face.

“Regina, we want you to go to Yosemite with us!!! By the way, Surprise!!” Maya says with a surprised face. I’m shocked. I wonder what my mom will say.

“Your mom said it’s fine. We are going to have so much fun!!!”

“Then when do we leave?”

“Tomorrow”

It’s the day we all go to Yosemite. I’m so excited. The last time I went to Yosemite was when I was in second grade. Not very long ago, but the memories are not as clear and vivid as things that happened last year. We all decided to met at the bus stop that is about a block away from my house. Makayla’s mom is going to come with us to Yosemite. We get on the bus at 11 o’clock. Since it takes 3 ½ hours to get to Yosemite, we thought of starting earlier so we can deal with traffic.

We get on the bus. Then suddenly, I see this weird, dark figure moving like a cloud of darkness and putting a strange liquid around the bus. I’m sure my eyes are playing tricks on me. I must be really tired. As  soon as I get a seat on the bus, I immediately fall asleep. Then I hear Riley’s voice in the back of my mind as I try to concentrate on sleeping.

“Hey Regina!! We are here! Look at those landforms! They are formed perfectly with different forms of igneous rocks.”

“Ok ok, I’m awake.”

“I knew that will work.”

When I stare outside the window, I see this amazing lush green forest filled with beautiful trees, mountains, and waterfalls. This is like a dreamland filled with the beauty of nature.  Suddenly, Riley, Makayla, Jamie, and Maya are arguing on something.

“Guys, what’s going on?” Maya starts to talk.

“ When we were entering Yosemite, I saw this dark figure trying to cut down a tree to block us from getting in.”

  And, Riley starts using her smartness and thinks logically. “It is physically impossible in the rules of science for a dark figure to be appearing in this sunlight. The most logical answer is that it was a shadow.”

Makayla and Jamie say their thoughts in unison. “But we saw what we saw, and you can’t change what we saw.”

I get so frustrated that I split it up. “ Guys, your eyes are just playing tricks on you. Let’s settle the fact that you are just tired. No arguments.”

We get out of the bus. The ground felt strange as if the ground was paved with gravel. I get a strange feeling that someone is following us. I look behind, but no one is there. Should I tell the others? No, it will just be stupid. I don’t think anyone feels this too. Makayla’s mother rented a sedan and we disappeared into the woods, to rent a house.

We arrive to a house rental. As we walked in the rental, the air smells like this place was abandoned. We rented a house and walked to our rented house. We went and dropped our bags in our rooms. The house was legitimately a palace. We all got bored. So we take some rest in our rooms. So I decided to sleep for a while. I woke up 2 hours later. I went to the kitchen to get a snack, everyone were sitting in the living room and talking about what to do.

   “Mrs. Ramon, what should we do?” Angelica says with boredom.

“We should go hiking!!! It’s going to be really fun!!” Maya says with a leap of joy as everyone agrees with her. 

So, we all go to our rooms and gear up and meet in the living room. Mrs. Ramon stands in the middle of us.

“Okay, everyone if you don’t see me, stick together okay?”

“Okay.”

We all agreed as we went out of the house to go on our hike. We all started on the trek to Half Dome. When we all were hiking up the mountain, we heard a very high-pitched squeal and looked around to see that Mrs. Ramon…  is missing.

“Guys, where is Mrs. Ramon? She was right behind me, then she suddenly disappeared. Probably she played a corny “ magic trick.” ” Maya points out with confusion while making a funny comment at the worst timing.

“Oh no, where did my mom go? Is she alright ? Did she get kidnapped-” I start talking and interrupt Makayla.

“I’m sure she’s fine. We all have to stick together now, okay?”

“You’re right, we all have to stick together.” Angelica agrees as we go farther up the mountain to see Half Dome. When we reach Half Dome, we see that it is entirely made of limestone. There were naturalists there to guide us back to the rental houses.
One of the naturalists offered to guide us home.

“Hey, what are you guys doing all alone? I remember you guys coming here with a parent, ain’t that right?” The naturalist says, stroking his beard which I can tell, is fake.

“So, where ya from?” Surprisingly, that was Alex. How did she put the shyness away and talk?

“I’m from Cupertino. I am working’ as a naturalist for a part-time job over the break. I go to UC Davis.”

That’s very strange, people in college don’t grow beards. I know he is lying. So, I go up to him and talk to him privately.

“Hey, I know you are not from Davis, and that’s not a real beard. Who are you?”

“Regina, keep an eye out on Maya” The naturalist goes away.

He knows my name. How does he know my name? The only person who can make Alex talk is my classmate, Jack, but he is in Maui. Why does he want me to keep an eye out on Maya?

We walk back to the house and order some pizza for dinner. We all go to sleep after dinner without speaking a word to each other because of our rough day. I sleep with this one thing stirring in my mind: “Regina, keep an eye out on Maya.”

We all planned to do one activity every day. Yesterday, we hiked. Today we are going rock climbing. We hopped on the bus to get to the rock climbing area, and we were short a person.

“Did anyone see Riley? She got on the bus with me, and she is not there. Her stuff is here. What are we going to do?”  Makayla says with concern.

“Let’s first go rock climbing, then we will discuss the matter at the rental house.”  I say  in a calm voice even though I’m worried.

Day by day, each one of us disappear. First it was Mrs. Ramon, Riley, Makayla, Angelica, Alex, and lastly is Jaime disappeared at the Upper and Lower waterfalls. Maya and I are the only ones left. We just have to wait and see who disappears first out of the two of us. We both went on a walk outside to a restaurant to order food.

“Regina, if you disappear, I just want you to know that I will find you. Be safe.” Maya says in a caring, loving voice.  I can tell Maya is very scared about what will happen if I disappeared or I was alone. I can tell she didn’t think about herself, she is worried about me.

“Maya, you also be careful and safe. At least if you disappear, you can negotiate with the person who made you vanish and they will let you go because of almost laughing to death in the show, Comedy with Maya.”

I say with joy because I know that Maya will have a more likely chance to get out than me. We both laugh and walk silently and try to enjoy the last moments with each other.

“Regina, I need to pee. I’ll be right back.” Maya runs to the bathroom as if she is about to finish a marathon.

I wait there at the benches outside the bathroom. Suddenly, I got scared from this high pitched squeal/scream/cry from the bathroom. Oh no, it’s Maya. I race into the bathroom acting like if I come too late, she’s going to leave. I walked into the bathroom, and saw that she is not there. I tried calling her name. Tears are building up inside of me, waiting to blossom out, into the sunlight. For once, I was useless. I couldn’t even save my friend from danger.

  I walk to the rental house with the sharp pain in my throat, stinging me with its venom. I try to ignore it and walk back, but I can’t. I reach the house and immediately go to sleep.

I awoke to this strange screechy noise coming from the front door. I run to the kitchen and grab a knife to protect me as I tip-toe to the door and carefully open it. I opened the door, seeing the dark shadowy figure in front of my face. I thought of using my fast reflexes to escape him or her, but it finds out my strategy. The dark figure pulls me by my arm and sprays this strange, stinky gas that knocks me out cold and puts me to sleep. But, before I fell asleep, I heard something.

“I’m sorry Regina. Please forgive me.” The dark figure tells me with an apologizing tone and leaves the meadow as I fall to a deep sleep.

I wake up in the forest. I’m wondering, how did I get here? Maybe I sleep walked, or I sleep ran. I get up and start walking back to the house when I hear this low mumble that almost sounds like an angry bear growling at me. I look behind me and find my instincts were true. There is an actual grizzly bear behind me.

“Nice bear. You know I didn’t do anything to you. How about you go that way and I go the other way, okay? Ya thanks bro, bye.”

I start to run off into the forest. The bear got an idea I was leaving and chased after me. I keep on running and venture deeper and deeper in the forest, away from the bear. I think I lost him, so I sit down on a tree stump and take a break. Turns out, the bear was right behind me all along. I get really scared and I almost scream, then I realized that wild animals only attack to protect themselves. The bear doesn’t know I won’t harm him. So, I decide to be calm and steady and try to look calm. I let the bear sniff my hand so I put my hand close to his face. The bear looked real confused. Then he had that face that says, ” Oh! I get it.” So he sniffs my hand and lets me touch his face. He wasn’t that bad after all.

  I continue to trek my way through the forest with the bear by my side to give me company. As  I was walking through the woods, I broke a branch. Suddenly, I got caught in a trap. A poacher was taking the bear away. I screamed for someone to help me and I hear a pack of wolves growling with hunger and starvation. The poacher was lowering the cage to the wolves. What should I do? I can never make it out alive. I grip my hands into fists and wait for the pain to start when I see my fists were holding on a tiny gun that was hidden in the cage. I took the gun and shot a bullet towards the sky to scare the wolves away. I shoot a bullet toward the lock of the cage to free me and run after the poacher. I caught up to him and decided to pin him and I left.

I start to run along the trail I have to find the bear. I can’t find him anywhere, where is he. I start growling to try to find him. I know that he isn’t there, but I won’t stop. That bear has goodness in his heart, I have to return that back. I keep running and I see that I am running towards the cliff. I tell myself to stop running, but I can’t stop my feet. I see my life flashing towards my eyes and imagining to see the light coming to take me away and I close my eyes to make the pain go away faster until I feel a force of pressure holding on to me. I look up and see that someone is holding onto my arm. It is Maya.

“How did you come? Are you okay?” I saw someone take her. How could she come. I feel my instincts punching my ribs, telling me there’s something wrong.

“So ya….. Um here’s the deal.” All of our gang came out from hiding. I’m mesmerized. All this time I thought someone took them away, but they are here. The happy clouds turn dark. The dark clouds are crying with my anger building up on me and the clouds are feeling the radiation of my anger.

“This was all a prank for being so “overly controlling.”. You used to take over and force us to do things we don’t want to do. So, we planned this prank. You weren’t supposed to fall off, we didn’t want you to die, so we saved ya. we hired an actress to play the naturalist, and the bears/poachers are also people in costumes.”

Maya says with sorrow in her face. She was tearing up. I can feel the guilt she had doing this prank.

“Please forgive us.”

The gang says with sorrow in their faces. I don’t know what to do. This is the first time they did something like this. If I forgive them, what chance do I have that they won’t do this again?

“I forgive you, let’s go home. Thank you for teaching me a lesson. I’ll keep that in mind”

“Thank you for understanding.” Maya says with relief.

We all head home. People think revenge is bad. What we humans always forget, we have the power of revenge. Revenge is sweet.