The Fio Necklace

The Fio Necklace

C’mon, only 7 more seconds… Ash thought to himself with his dark brown eyes glued to the old clock on the brick wall, not paying attention to the teacher’s sappy speech. 3...2...1… the bell rang and startled everyone, it was louder than usual. Everyone sprang up, they were all excited because it was the last day of middle school. He got up slowly while grabbing his grey backpack.

He flooded out the door with his classmates into the crowded hallway and into the courtyard where he heard people laughing, crying and saying their last goodbyes. He looked for Marina, his best friend since 1st grade. It would be very easy to spot her in a crowd because she looks like Ms. Frizzles secret twin sister. They dressed the same, had the same features, similar personality, everything was similar.

She was standing under a tree looking at her phone, she was wearing a simple black dress and a cardigan that had the same pattern as the monarch butterfly, and her red curly hair was pulled into a high ponytail. A lot of her outfits are based off of her favorite characters, eventually, Ash stopped asking her who her outfits were based off of because she would rant about them, their backstory, everything. Ash didn’t mind it sometimes, but it all depends on his mood for the day.

He ran up to her and they did their handshake, some would argue that it’s childish and immature, but they made it in 2nd grade and although they matured since then, clearly their humor didn’t. He always thought his classic outfit, some old baggy jeans and an old shirt his dad gifted him, looked dull next to Marinas outfits that looked like something from a cartoon.

“Ok so since we’re walking home today, I was thinking we could go to the gas station?” Marina asked while admiring the flower she picked. “We can get some candy and some drinks!”

“Sure! We’ve done that every year since 2nd grade, but I don’t think I have any money on me right now. Maybe we could stop at my house and I can grab some?” Ash responded, trying to remember if his secret money stash was still in his backpack.

“Haha no worries! I knew you would probably forget so I packed enough money for the both of us.” She laughed, she didn’t really have a reason to be upset as it was her favorite time of year.

The two continued on their journey. Laughing, talking, and acting like they haven’t seen each other in years. Somehow they never got tired of each other despite being each other’s only friend since 2nd grade.

“And then he-“ Ash started, but instead of finishing his sentence he tripped on the old, black sidewalk. Marina let out a little chuckle before helping him up. As she was doing that, something caught her eye.

“What is this?” She carefully grabbed something from the hot pavement and dusted it off. She let out a gasp, “this necklace is so pretty! How could someone leave this on the ground?”

“Oh cmon, last time I was in your room I saw you had enough jewelry. You definitely don’t need more.” He stated in a blunt tone, clearly upset that he fell. Marina rose from the cracked sidewalk while carefully placing the necklace in the right pocket of her cardigan.

A few minutes after their small inconvenience, they arrived at the gas station. It was run down and outdated, but oddly comforting to them because no matter how much changed in their lives, the gas station stayed the same. They walked past the small white tables with matching white chairs that sat on the cracked cement. The old bell welcomed them as they walked through the metal door frame.

There was one employee at the cash register when they got there. They had shoulder length black hair and bright blue ends, they were very invested in the book they gripped in their hands. Their eyes moved from the pages of the book to Ash and Marina standing at the entrance. He was towering over her shoulder as she counted her money. The cashier chuckled at their hight difference.

Marina had brought 30 dollars with her, she handed 15 to ash and kept 15 for herself. When the two dispersed to different parts of the store, Marina made eye contact with the cashier. She knew them from somewhere, but she didn’t remember where, but the cashier remembered and called out to her. They were old friends, but didn’t keep in touch for some reason. They talked for a couple minutes and exchanged phone numbers so they could reconnect.

About 15 minutes later, Ash and Marina emerged from the metal door frame. They both had a small, grey plastic bag in their hands. Marina’s bag had an apple juice and as much chocolate candy that her leftover money could buy. Ash’s bag had a caddy shack peace tea, Reese’s peanut butter cups, and some sour patch kids.

“Why were you talking to the cashier for so long?” Ash asked while admiring the trees.

“You don’t remember? That’s Robin from 2nd grade. The three of us used to be super close I’m surprised you don’t remember her.” Marina responded

“Oh yeah I think I remember her. Also were you blushing when you were talking to her? When you met me in the aisle your cheeks were bright red. You don’t ever look like that after talking to a guy…” He added

“HAHA I’m surprised you caught on. Anyways my mom is making her spaghetti for dinner, is that ok?” She was hoping to change the subject

“Why are you even asking that? You know I love it!” Ash didn’t question the sudden change in conversation.

They approached Marina’s house, the one with the small yellow car and burnt out Christmas lights. Two houses down was where ash lived, it was clean, no imperfections. Between the two houses was a small grey house where a man lived, his wife died 11 years ago and ever since he’s been experimenting on random things. The tests would cause loud noises sometimes, but they didn’t really mind it anymore.

“MOOOOM!!! WE’RE BACK!!” Marina yelled, her hands cupped around her mouth and the plastic bag slid down her arm.

“Hi loves!” Her mom, Ada yelled from the kitchen. You would never be able to tell that she was yelling because her voice is soft, like she’s singing a lullaby. “Spaghetti is almost ready. Ash, did you bring your sleep over things?”

“Yes I did!” He responded, his voice was slightly raised but wasn’t yelling. He always enjoyed going over to Marinas house, it was an escape from his chaotic and stressful home. Since he was over so much, he developed a close bond with Ada. He treated her like a mother and she treated him like a son.

“Alright. Marina, could you please take ash’s things up to your room?” She asked her daughter. They didn’t look related at all, in fact they look like two strangers of the street asked to play the role of mother and daughter.

Marina let out a small sigh, “Yes mom. Ash… your bag please.” She took his bag and ran up to her room. He walked into the kitchen and sat at the island scattered with random things, the smell of Adas spaghetti filled the house. Marina came running down the stairs and into the kitchen. She came to a halt, smelling the air, a soft smile was painted across her face. Many odd things were nostalgic to them, and that smell was one of them.

They talked, laughed, ate, enjoyed the first night of summer, and felt like a family. They had nights like these often to make everything less tense, to distract them from the bigger problems. Running away from the problem would just make it worse.

The whole night felt like a flash, no one could really remember anything. Eventually, the two were in Marina’s room watching the 1989 version of Heathers. They were sitting on her bed, surrounded by posers, paintings, plants, and many more of her abandoned interest that perfectly displayed her impulsive personality. Ash noticed someone sparkly on her dresser, it was the necklace from earlier.

“Did you seriously keep that thing? C’mon I told you to leave it alone. It’s probably cursed or something.” He mumbled as he got up and walked over to it.

“I mean, it’s pretty so why wouldn’t I take it?” Marina told her annoyed friend. “And why would it be cursed or anything, we live normal lives.” She giggled, they always argued like this but they both knew it was all light hearted.

The strange piece of jewelry started to glow a little, Ash just thought it was the light reflecting. “And you say it isn’t cursed?” He turned around and held the necklace in front of him, a few feet from Marina’s face.

She let out a small laugh while admiring the unique object. Her smile slowly faded when she realized that the light was growing and it wasn’t due to the lighting. She got off her light purple bedding and stepped towards ash and the necklace.

He held it out for her to look at. She grabbed it and examined it thoroughly, after a minute she set it down on her dresser. Ash was a little bothered by her careless behavior, but he trusted her because she’s always been the most logical one.

Marina looked at Ash and noticed his expression and said calmly, “Don’t worry about it that much. It’s probably some sorta prank that a little kid set out. If it makes you feel better,” she carefully placed the necklace in her jewelry box. “There! I know you’re gonna worry more… but sometimes it helps to have it out of sight.”

When the movie was finished, they got ready for bed. A good night sleep and wake up to the lovely feeling of summer. They pulled out their sleeping bags and laid them out, although they promised to sleep early, they both knew they would stay up talking about pointless things anc making bad jokes.

“Hello? Miss… please wake up! It’s important!” A girl around the age of 11 was tapping Marina’s shoulder gently. They were in a big cabin in the woods, there seemed to be another kid and two adults. Marina slowly opened her eyes and rose from under her white blanket.

She rubbed her eyes, looked around the room, looked at the girl standing by her side, and asked in a groggy voice, “where am I? What is this place?”

“Oh my you don’t look so good…” the girl mumbled as she fidgeted with her hands “one minute miss, i need to get auntie.” And just like that she was out of the room.

Marina looked around the room again, looking for ash. She was confused and scared but knew she had to stay calm to be able to figure everything out. A few seconds later, the girl came back, her arm was stretched behind her, grasping a short woman’s hand. She was wearing a plain white shirt and a knee length black skirt. The woman smiled at the tired and confused teenager taking up one of her beds.

The woman pulled up a chair and pulled out a note from her skirt pocket and put it on Marina’s nightstand. “Hello. My name is Lana and the girl that woke you up is elise, she’s my niece just like you.”

“I’m so sorry, but I have to get going. My mom and friend are probably worried about me-“ Marina started but was cut off my Lanas calming voice.

“I’m sorry love, but you won’t be able to go home for a while. Your friend came here with you, told me your name and that’s how I figured out I’m your aunt. My husband and I used to be close with your moms, so I wrote them a note explaining everything. Your sweet friend wanted to leave you a note explaining everything in his words.” She nodded her head towards the note on the nightstand.

Lana said a few more things but Marina didn’t really listen to them. She was looking at the note, thinking about how it was probably the last thing Ash would say to her for a while. Eventually she tore herself from her frantic thoughts and noticed lana was about to leave and said her name louder than what she intended.

Lana turned around and responded in the same tone, it’s like she had a voice box and couldn’t change her tone. “What is it, love?” There was a soft smile on her face, it didn’t seem fake like Adas smiles.

“Why can’t I go home?” Marina asked, you couldn’t really tell she was nervous. She never handled change well and this was the absolute worst situation. Lanas smile faded after hearing how upset Marina was.

“Don’t worry, love. Everything will be okay and maybe your mom and friend will figure out a way to reach you.” Her calm tone and smile returned, she stayed in the same place. “When you feel like it, come downstairs and have some breakfast with everyone.”

Marina sat there for a little bit, she was confused about everything, why was she here? Why couldn’t she go home? She decided to open the note ash left. She couldn’t read most of it, maybe because she was tired or because he doesn’t have the best handwriting. The only thing she could read was ‘don’t worry about me, it’s your story now.’ Marina set the note down in her lap and sat there, thinking about everything and nothing at the same time.

After a while of staring into space, she decided to get up, grabbing the white blanket and yanked it off of herself, she slid off of the bed and started walking towards the door. She walked around the house for a little, seeing many rooms and stairs but eventually she found her way to the right set of stairs.

When she came down the stairs, she was greeted by the sound of laughter and some of her favorite foods. The first thing she saw was the messy kitchen, the island was the most cluttered, half of it was covered with pancake mix and ingredients, the other half was covered with a lot of paper and writing utensils. It looked like some was sending letters out.

“Oh there you are!” Lana said in between laughs. The table had 4 out of the 5 seats taken, lana sat in one, next to her was a little boy, across from her was Elise, and next to elise was this tall man and he was talking to Elise about something. They all looked at the stairs where Marina stood.

“So you’re Marina! Elise and auntie were talking about you!” The little boy started as Marina sat down next to him. Lana got up and walked over to the tall man that was assumed to be her husband. The boy was talking Marina’s ear off and Elise was trying to make him stop.

“Just because she’s their daughter doesn’t mean that you can ignore her.” Lana mumbled to her husband. There was a knock on the door, the two kids looked at eachother, then at the adults. Lana looked at the kids and smiled.

“It looks like your parents are here!” She said in a friendly tone. The kids jumped up and raced to the living room where their bags were. The man got up and walked over to the door and opened it. There was a couple there and they started talking to each other. The kids ran to the door and hugged their parents like they hadn’t seen them in years.

A few weeks later, she asked Lana a question while they were walking back from the nearby town. “Why can I go home? And why couldn’t ash stay here?”

“This area is only fit for certain people, there used to be many people that lived here, but they moved to other places around the world. They all have a unique attribute to them that makes them a unique part of the community.” Lana said quietly, every couple seconds she was looking in the trees to see if anyone was listening.

“When I realized that people had no idea that they had their abilities, I was shocked because I grew up with it and learned about it. My goal was to start a summer camp to teach kids about everything they missed out on.” She continued, her smile was bigger than usual. “You are one of those people, and I’m so glad that you came here. You remind me so much of your mom when she was a little younger.”

That last little comment made Marina happy but also upset because she will never know what her mom was like when she was younger. They continued to talk throughout their walk, enjoying every minute.