Maddie Is More Than Meets The Eye

• Sarah Morrow, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2015

Hi! My name is Mackenzie, I am 15 years old and I have a sad story to tell you. It starts with this.
About a year and a half ago, my best friend Maddie and I were still as close as ever. Here is why we are not now. Before it all started, Maddie was pretty much the best at everything but being bad. She was top of every class at school, the best at any sport we played, the best in our dance class and just about anything that we did you can be assured Maddie was the best at it. We also had our own little group. Maddie wasn’t in it at first, but as soon as she was, we were the most popular group in the school. The people in our group were: Maddie, Nicole, Danielle, Claire and myself. At my dance, we have a small group that has in it: Maddie, Jordyn, Chloe, Paige, Brooke and myself. It was at dance where the problem started.
Because Maddie was the best at dance, everybody except me hated her. But Maddie didn’t care. When they realised that Maddie didn’t care, they started hurting her. But she told me “I don’t care, it’s just at dance, it’s just at dance, it’s not like it’s taking over my whole life.”
But the very next day, something happened that changed everything. At school, as soon as we had all sat down, our teacher, Mrs. Robinson, announced, “We have a new student starting today, please stand up Paige Hollowwaiy.” We were shocked, in case you didn’t realise, Paige Hollowwaiy is from dance, and Paige is the main trouble maker.
At school, Paige kept on getting Maddie in trouble when she didn’t do anything. Eventually, Maddie pulled me aside to tell me that Paige lived next door to her and that Paige waited outside Maddie’s house before school everyday just to hurt her and scare her.
About a week later, Maddie stopped coming to school and dance. I went to her house but her mum always said that she wasn’t home and she started crying every time she saw me after that.
One day, Maddie’s mum decided to tell what happened to Maddie. She said to me, “Mackenzie, You know how Maddie stopped coming to school,” She sobbed, “Well just days after that she... she... she committed... suicide.” She said the last word so fast that I barely heard her. But I understood. “Oh... Maddie... I’ll never get to see her again.” I cried. I fell to my knees I was crying so hard.
Everyone else found out several days later. Her funeral was the saddest thing that ever happened to me.
Years later, I still hadn’t gotten over her death, but life went on. But one thing I noticed that had really changed, I don’t think I saw Paige be mean to anyone ever again.