(Josie Sayz: This is the eleventh story, from my ‘AMSND’ series that I wrote when I was 15 years old. This story follows in the series of the ‘AMSND’ stories, which inspired me to create the Arcturus High series. This story was obviously taken from Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’.).
Although each story is a stand alone piece, you can find the rest of the AMSND
series here:
1) A Magic School’s New Dream: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/01/ansnd-1-magic-schools-new-dream.html
2) The War of Crooked Burrow School: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/01/amsnd-2-war-of-crooked-burrow-school.html
3) Six Se’enarians Go To Sea: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/01/amsnd-3-six-senerians-go-to-sea.html
4) The Arrival of a New Headmistress: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/01/amsnd-4-arrival-of-new-headmistress.html
5) The Day Before the Last (Day of Term):
https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/01/amsnd-5-day-before-last-day-of-term.html
6) The Story of Crooked Burrow School: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/02/amsnd-6-story-of-crooked-burrow-school.html
7) The End of the Octopus: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/09/amsnd-7-end-of-octopus.html
8) The King of Magic: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/09/amsnd-8-king-of-magic.html
9) The Return of Dr Straizer, Featuring Agent 009: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/10/amsnd-9-return-of-dr-straizer-featuring.html
10) Fifteen-Eighty: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/10/amsnd-10-fifteen-eighty.html.)
Accidentally in Love
As the sky grew grey, the rain thundered to the ground. The harsh autumn breeze brushed against arched trees. Leaves flew around like in a tornado. Loud voices could be heard from next door. Larissa sat in silence in the living room, attempting to make out the murmured conversation of next door. Suddenly all fell silent. All of a sudden the front door to Larissa’s house swung open. Her heart pounded with fright. Footsteps became louder, clearer, closer. “Larissa! You listen up now and you listen up good. You are never, ever to speak of or to the Marton family ever again! Do you understand?” bellowed Larissa’s father angrily. “Because if you do I’ll… I’ll… I’ll ground you for life.”
“Yes Dad. What happened, exactly? You were friends earlier, now what?” Larissa puzzled.
“I know, I know,” whispered her mother, “but sometimes some people can be so evil,” her mother thought deeply about this.
“And promise us you’ll stay away from that Nicky kid, he’s nothing but trouble,” growled her father.
“I promise,” announced Larissa. “As far as I know he hates me anyway,” she mumbled to herself.
The next morning Larissa met up with her two friends before first lesson started. First they had Preparation Time (which they had nicknamed PT). “How are you, this bitterly cold morning?” asked Samantha curiously.
“I’m alright, I guess… how are you?” came Larissa’s sleepy reply.
“I’m fine, thanks! Zilla, are you alright? You seem very quiet… yet you haven’t been very cheerful at all,” Samantha said.
“Not all of us can be cheerful all of the time you know. We’re not all like you,” Zilla snapped glaring evilly at Samantha and Larissa. Samantha looked rather shocked from Zilla’s last remark. “Well if you must know, I’m still upset because…” Zilla paused to think as a tear rolled down her cheek, “because…Bonnie died.”
“Oh, get over it Zilla, we have, and she was our friend too,” sighed Larissa. “It’s been almost two whole years.” It didn’t really seem as though Zilla was upset over Bonnie’s death, it had never bothered her before. ‘Zilla must be up to something…’ Larissa thought, but what ever it was Larissa didn’t really care.
“Hey, did Nicky just look over here?” whispered Samantha curiously.
“Sam?” shrieked Larissa. “Here’s a lesson for Sam. If you only learn one thing today, this will be it: a) Nicky’s a boy; b) Nicky’s a dumb boy; c) I don’t care and oh yeah, I don’t care! What is it with you?” complained Larissa grumpily.
“Nothing’s wrong. It’s just odd. Look! Here comes Mr. Flourfield,” whispered Samantha (Mr. Flourfield was their form tutor). He came to let his form into their form room and took his seat at the front of the class room and silently clicked away at his laptop. All of the children entered their form room.
“Sam, don’t change the subject!” frowned Larissa.
“Don’t change what subject?” came a quiet, out-of-breath voice. It was Shada, the three girl’s youngest friend.
“Hi Shada! Samantha likes Nicky,” Larissa whispered giggling.
“I heard that, and I do not!” came Samantha’s spying reply. Shada took her seat and laid her book down on the table.
“Shada, why were you so late? I didn’t see you in the lockers,” Zilla wondered.
“Oh! I’ve… erm… been with a friend. His name’s… Charlie. It’s no big deal or anything… I’m just hanging round with him until he sorts out the problems with his friends, that’s all,” Shada told her friends. Mr. Flourfield had just taken the register.
“Now Year Ten you can talk amongst yourselves,” Mr. Flourfield announced. He seemed to be in a rather grumpy mood and kept glaring at people. Their form room was full today so therefore there was a fair amount of noise. This was a good thing in some cases because you couldn’t listen in on one conversation as they all merged together. If you did it probably would have sounded like this: “Do you want to go to the pictures on Saturday? Meet me around the back of school – hopefully the police won’t show, sure, I’d love to go for pie,” which would be rather hilarious, but a little confusing.
“Larissa-” Nicky began tapping her on the shoulder to make her turn around and face him.
“What do you want Nicky?” Larissa sighed remembering that she wasn’t supposed to be talking to him.
“I was only gonna ask if you’d help me with my Maths homework, so will you?” asked Nicky hopefully.
“I’m not supposed to be talking to you, my parents said so!” explained Larissa.
“He’s only being nice,” Samantha smiled.
“Please,” pleaded Nicky, “I’m hopeless at Maths.”
“I’m hopeless at Maths too,” Larissa giggled, but turned her chair around to help him anyway. Their form tutor rose from his seat and leant over Nicky’s shoulder.
“You have second assembly in the Hall. Goodbye everyone!” announced Mr. Flourfield. Everyone looked at him with slightly confused expressions. Mr. Flourfield had just let his class out of lesson five minutes early and he never let people out of lesson early. All the children scrambled out of their form room, ready to travel to first lesson. Shada left her friends and went downstairs to meet Charlie. On the way to first lesson Samantha made Larissa explain the whole story as to why she wasn’t allowed to talk to Nicky or his entire family. Little did they know that Nicky was behind them the whole time.
On the way home from school Larissa walked with one of her friends, Jay. Larissa had known him from the age of four. He was her other next door neighbour. It was mid-autumn and the leaves swirled up in the air. It was unusually quiet for that time of year. Larissa and Jay turned the corner on to the main road. Nicky and his friend Drew were walking not too far behind them. Nicky and Drew were about to cross over the road when Nicky shouted, “Larissa!”
“What?” Larissa yelled back.
“Come here a sec’,” Nicky begged.
“Don’t do it Larissa, it’s not worth it. Trust me. I used to be one of his friends. Bear the words in mind, USED TO, meaning NOT ANY MORE,” Jay explained.
“I know what it means,” Larissa sighed. She thought about what she was letting herself in for.
“Don’t do it Laz, you don’t know what he’s thinking,” whispered Jay worriedly, trying to protect her. He was always trying to protect her. Larissa noticed that Nicky appeared to be going to Drew’s and also if she didn’t find out what Nicky wanted now then she probably never would as she wasn’t supposed to be talking to him at all. So curiously she walked closer towards Nicky. Nicky put out his left hand and placed it on Larissa’s right shoulder. He stepped forward, and then kissed her on the cheek. Nicky and Drew then hurried off quickly across the road. Larissa turned back around and walked back to Jay.
“What just happened?” Larissa said feeling slightly confused.
“That’s your own fault. Come on, I’ll walk you home,” Jay’s tone was a lot softer and calmer than before. He put his arm around her shoulder and smiled to himself. The wind level dropped and the sun broke out from between the thick clouds. Jay and Larissa said their goodbyes as they entered their houses.
Larissa was up in her room lying on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. ‘Maybe I do still like Nicky,’ she thought to herself, ‘and he doesn’t like Lyra anymore...’ She opened up some homework, but couldn’t concentrate and began staring out of the window.
Nicky was walking along the road, back home from his friend Drew’s house where he had been for some time. Larissa was looking out of the window and happened to see Nicky walk past her house to his. As he did Larissa’s stomach felt as if it was full of butterflies. This was very strange to her, so she lay back on her bed. A few minutes passed by. At once Larissa sat upright from her bed. She had heard something very unusual coming from outside. The side window was partly open in her room. She stood up and slowly edged to towards the window. It was a song. Her favourite song. It was coming from the front bedroom belonging to next door, which was Nicky’s room. Larissa opened her bedroom window a little wider than it previously was. Nicky was looking out of his window, when she caught his eye. He opened his side window wider as if he were to speak, but he said nothing for a while, they just stared at each other.
“Didn’t you like the music, because I can switch it off if you like?” asked Nicky slowly finding the way to speak.
“No!” jumped Larissa quickly. “Don’t switch it off!”
“Why not?” came Nicky’s puzzled reply.
“It’s my favourite song. I thought that I was the only one that liked it,” said Larissa, surprised.
“I don’t really like it, my sister was listening to it,” Nicky’s face looked away, down to his feet.
“Oh,” Larissa’s face looked very disappointed.
“Only joking,” smiled Nicky jokily. “I like it really.” Larissa laughed at him.
“Larissa! Come down here please, we need to talk to you,” Larissa’s mother shouted. Nicky smiled over at Larissa, and she smiled back. Larissa said goodbye to Nicky and closed her window. She leant back against the window and smiled happily to herself.
“Okay, so maybe I do still like him,” whispered Larissa to herself. Her heart was just starting to slow down, after racing a moment ago. The sun just burrowed behind a huge never-ending cloud, showering Larissa’s bedroom in darkness.
The wind picked up speed even more. The huge droopy cloud popped. Suddenly thunderous rain lashed down on the streets. Larissa went downstairs to see what her parents wanted. Once she was down she entered the living room. At first she noticed that her parents and Jay’s mother were sitting on a sofa on one side of the room. Then she noticed that Jay was on the other sofa opposite them. Larissa looked at everyone, puzzled, but then sat down next to Jay.
“What’s going on?” asked Larissa curiously.
“Don’t look at me. I’m just as confused as you are,” Jay told her. There was a long moment of silence in the room.
“Well…” began Jay’s mother, Mrs. Hipington. “We have all been thinking.”
“And know that we should keep it a secret from you no longer,” stated Larissa’s mother.
“Let’s just get straight to the point,” rushed Mrs. Hipington.
“You two… you two have…” paused Larissa’s father.
“Have what?” asked Jay anxiously.
“Even if you have something to tell us, why do we both have to be here?” Larissa interrupted. Jay and Larissa moved closer towards each other so their shoulders were touching. They were worried about what might be said and anxious to know what it was. Larissa and Jay promised each other that no matter what the news was, they would remain friends. Their hands were laid behind themselves, almost touching each other, which almost brought a smile to Jay’s face.
“You two have… an arranged marriage,” Larissa’s father managed to say eventually. Larissa and Jay immediately moved apart to opposite ends of the settee and looked at each other in fright. Their hearts skipped a beat as the news sank in. There was an awkward silence. Mrs. Hipington let herself and Jay out, and so the silence continued.
Next morning in PT Samantha, Zilla and Shada all seemed very annoyed. This was because they all wanted to speak to Larissa. But the problem wasn’t that they all wanted to talk together or at the same time, or even that Larissa wasn’t there. Larissa was at school, and she was in her form room. But she was totally ignoring all three of her friends. It wasn’t that she had fallen out with them or that she didn’t want to talk to them, she did still like them. Larissa was just too busy talking to Nicky. She had told Nicky about her arranged marriage with Jay. Nicky felt very sorry for her, because he and Jay used to be friends and now they weren’t. This was a big problem for Larissa because she was friends with both of them. She didn’t know what to do. “Nicky…” Larissa paused, thinking.
“What?” Nicky asked curiously.
“Do you mind that I’m still friends with Jay?” Larissa asked nervously, thinking that the answer would be yes, and she’d become upset again.
“Laz-” Samantha attempted to tell Larissa what she wanted to, but it was as if she didn’t exist.
“Of course not, I really like you, I’d never let a silly thing like that come between us,” Nicky smiled.
“Thanks!” giggled Larissa. “But I bet Jay’ll never forgive me,” she mumbled sadly under her breath. Mr. Flourfield had been hovering beside them and had overheard most of their conversation. “You have first assembly in the Drama Studio,” said Mr. Flourfield in a deep terrifying voice. “Now hurry off!” The whole form rose from their seats in a way that looked like they had been trained to in army fashion. Then they all began to leave their form room in a silent but messy manner. “Come on chop, chop!” To Nicky the ‘chop, chop’ that Mr. Flourfield had just said reminded him of his big adventure that Mr. Flourfield had sent him on and how he had wanted Nicky dead. Nicky shuddered and quickly followed everyone else out of the room. Once the room had been emptied of students, Mr. Flourfield silently brushed past the desks, left the room and slammed the door behind him so hard that a piece of paper fluttered down to the ground as three friends felt their best friend had left them.
Lunchtime came as the children flooded the school playground. As Larissa and Nicky made their way across the playground to join Samantha, Zilla, Lola and Robin Larissa was sure that Phoebe had tried to trip her up, but Larissa didn’t really care. She was going out with Nicky and nothing was going to upset her. When Larissa and Nicky joined their friends Robin who was in the Year above the others asked, “Why’s your friend,” (aimed at Samantha and Larissa), “Hanging around with a dude in my year?” Robin asked, not particularly bothered about what the answer might be.
“Oh, Shada’s just hanging ‘round with Charlie coz he’s fightin’ with his mates,” explained Samantha.
“Well that’s not the picture I got,” snapped Robin spitefully.
“Calm down Robin,” Lyra said as she joined the group and sat beside Lola. Larissa was sure that Lyra had turned up just to spy on her and Nicky.
“What are you talking about?” Zilla asked Robin.
“Well I bet you don’t know exactly where your friend is now, do you?” glared Robin. Samantha and Zilla stared blankly at Robin. “Well lucky for you guys I do,” Robin continued. “Your ‘friend’ Shada isn’t just hanging around with Charlie because he’s fell out with his friends.”
“She’s not?” Samantha and Zilla said, puzzled.
“Nope. An’ I can’t believe your best friend couldn’t even tell you the truth,” sighed Robin.
“What?!” yelled Samantha eager to know what was going on.
“That Shada and Charlie are boyfriend and girlfriend,” Robin paused for a reaction, but he didn’t get one. “She’s up in Music right now with him. I don’t believe that she couldn’t tell you!” Robin laughed evilly, trying to stir up trouble. Robin was in a bad mood because he had not long seen Ariel (the girl he was in love with) holding hands and giggling with Bert, her boyfriend.
“Robin… I don’t believe it… Shada couldn’t tell the truth… to her own friends,” Samantha almost broke into tears but brought herself not to. “Isn’t that mean, Larissa?” Samantha looked towards Larissa. “LARISSA!” yelled Samantha.
“What?” Larissa jumped in surprise, because she wasn’t paying any attention.
“What do you think?” Samantha stared at her.
“Think about what?” Larissa asked confusedly. Lyra, Lola, Samantha, Zilla and Robin all sighed.
“You’ve been paying too much attention to Nicky instead of listening about Shada. Robin said Shada is going out with Charlie and didn’t tell you,” Lyra spoke slowly.
“What – do – you – think?” Lola whispered, hinting to Larissa what to say. Mr. Wigwam (a Maths teacher) stood up from his chair in the playground, rung the hand-held bell and announced that it was time to go back to their lessons. All seven of them rose from where they were sitting on the wall and the floor and began to walk back to their next lesson. Larissa and Nicky walked back to lesson hand in hand, and Larissa was glad that she had managed to dodge the question. She wasn’t angry with Shada, she was happy for her, and she hadn’t exactly told Shada that she was going out with Nicky either.
After school the blazing sun that had been out at lunchtime turned into a thunderous-looking cloud. The temperature dropped and the wind speed picked up. Despite it being cold, down one particular street two windows were wide open. These two windows belonged to Nicky and Larissa. Even though it was freezing and more than likely about to rain, they wouldn’t stay away from each other for five minutes. “Nicky…” Larissa began. “Thanks for not getting mad at me when I told you about my arranged marriage with Jay,” Larissa stared longingly into Nicky’s eyes. “I wish it could stay like this, always,” she said day dreamily.
“You mean standing here, out the window, with it about to pour down with rain, freezing cold, our parents arguing, us not being allowed to see each other, you having to marry Jay, leave me…” Nicky was thinking of all the bad things.
“No, silly,” giggled Larissa. “You’re so pessimistic sometimes. This; me and you, being together, just talking; it’s nice.”
“No Jay too,” he sniggered.
“Speaking of Jay,” growled Jay very angrily. He had snuck up on them and was standing behind Larissa.
“Jay! What are you doing here?” squealed Larissa. Larissa and Nicky had now let go of each other’s hands and Larissa was staring at Jay terrified.
“I was about to ask you the same question,” Jay glared at Nicky. The cloud burst. Rain poured thunderously to the ground. Lightening snapped quickly, closely followed by a raging thunder.
“You can’t yell at Larissa like that,” Nicky shouted to Jay over the noise of the rain and the thunder.
“Larissa, how could you do this to me and with Nicky…? I… what happened?” moaned Jay.
“I’m not a little kid any more, Jay,” cried Larissa. “No one can tell me who I can and can’t be friends. Besides, we aren’t even married yet!”
“Precisely… yet. I’m looking out for you Larissa. No jerk is going to harm you or take you away from me. And Nicky,” Jay laughed, “come on, if you were going to cheat on me, you could have chosen someone better than Nicky!”
“Stop it,” Larissa cried. “Stop being mean! I’m friends with Nicky whether you like it or not!” she yelled.
“Is everything all right up there?” called Larissa’s mother from downstairs.
“Yes!” Larissa and Jay yelled back.
“Now you two listen up,” Jay whispered in an evil whisper. “If you two do what I say, I won’t tell either of your parents about this. Now Nicky you are not allowed to talk to Larissa ever again, do you hear me? And Larissa, you are to go with me and my mates to watch the football match next week,” smiled Jay.
“Oow, harsh! I’m gonna go and make myself a sandwich,” Nicky said and quickly closed his window and wandered off to make himself a sandwich. Neither Jay nor Larissa could see him any more. Smiling, pleased with himself, Jay put his arm around Larissa. She squirmed away.
“Why are you being horrible?” Larissa cried. “You’re one of my best friends… why are you being so mean?” Jay looked at her sadly and shrugged.
“I don’t know,” he mumbled, not making eye contact.
“Please don’t tell my parents about me and Nicky,” she pleaded hugging Jay’s arm. “Please…”
“But what about me?” he asked sadly.
“I like you,” she whispered turning to face him. “You know I like you… just not the same way I like Nicky… not right now.”
“But you might like me… one day...?” he swallowed nervously.
“Maybe…” she whispered softly. He smiled at her tearfully and hugged her as the rain lash against the window.
On the way to school the next morning the sky had cleared, although there was still a musty damp smell in the air. Larissa caught up with Shada and Charlie, who had just got off the bus. “Hi Shada! Hi Charlie, I’m-” Larissa began.
“I know, you’re Larissa aren’t you?” smiled Charlie.
“Yeah, I am. How did you know?” asked Larissa, astonished that by now he knew who she was.
“I showed him who you were yesterday, from up in Music. We shouted hello to you but I guess you didn’t hear us,” explained Shada.
“Shada… is it true that you two are boyfriend and girlfriend?” Larissa asked shyly.
“Yes,” smiled Shada.
“Speaking of people going out… Larissa, we saw you and Nicky in the playground together yesterday from the Music window. So, don’t leave us in suspense, are you two going out” asked Charlie friendlily.
“How do you know Nicky?” Larissa asked curiously, trying to avoid the question.
“He’s up in Music all the time,” he replied.
“Well Laz, how was your evening?” Shada quickly changed the subject, as she didn’t want Larissa to keep talking to Charlie, because she felt that Charlie might start to like Larissa, even though he didn’t. Shada had always been slightly jealous of Larissa having a boyfriend before her and although she knew Larissa liked Nicky she just wanted to be sure.
“Horrible,” Larissa sulked. “I was talking to Nicky, but then Jay came over and told me off and-”
“Was it about your arranged marriage?” Shada asked, glad that she didn’t have an arranged marriage to someone she didn’t like.
“Yeah,” sighed Larissa. “Jay caught me and Nicky together and got really mad at me. I thought we were just friends, but now everything’s just too confusing,” sobbed Larissa. “Jay was shouting at us and everything.”
“That’s not nice,” began Charlie,” but I can see why.”
“Why?” asked Larissa and Shada.
“Because he does like you, everyone knows that and doesn’t want you falling in love with Nicky – they hate each other,” Charlie explained.
“How do you know Jay likes me?” questioned Larissa. “I thought I was the obvious one, with me liking Nicky.”
“So you do like him,” came a sad voice from behind them. It was Jay.
“Jay…” Larissa cried.
“You know what?” yelled Jay. “I hate you!”
“What?” she cried. “I like you, you’re one of my best friends, please, please don’t be like this. I-”
“Leave me alone,” he grumbled. “You’ll be lucky if I don’t tell your parents about you and Nicky!”
“You promised not to tell!” Larissa shouted back, but it was too late. Jay had already run off.
After school Larissa was late home. She was walking with and talking to Nicky, so to spend more time together they walked really slowly. When Larissa came home, she found her mother in the living room, sitting on their settee with an extremely angry look on her face. Next to her was Jay with an evil smile. “Jay,” Larissa breathed. Larissa’s mother glared at her.
“What have your father and I told you?” asked her mother angrily.
“Erm… not to come home after dark,” Larissa joked. A frown came upon her mother’s face. Larissa knew that this wasn’t a good time to say that, but she knew deep down that her parents would find out about Nicky eventually.
“I’m gonna go home,” Jay interrupted purposely. As he passed Larissa she stared at him evilly. How dare he tell on her? He was supposed to be her friend.
“We told you NOT to talk to Nicky, so why did you?” yelled her mother with rage.
“It was an accident,” whimpered Larissa.
“You can’t accidentally talk someone,” explained her mother.
“And I suppose you can’t accidentally fall in love with someone either then!” Larissa paused.
“Love?” her mother laughed. “Don’t be ridiculous!”
“Me ridiculous! You’re ridiculous! You call yourself an adult and you can’t even stay friends with your next-door neighbour! You can’t tell me who I can and can’t be friends with!”
“I’m your mother. I can and I will. Now get to your room!” bellowed her mother.
“Gladly,” came Larissa’s reply. Larissa stormed off to her room.
After doing her English homework, which was to finish reading Romeo and Juliet, Larissa lay sulking on her bed. Why was Jay being so horrible and why did she have to marry him? Why couldn’t she be friends with Nicky? And why were hers and Nicky’s families fighting? Then she realised… her problems in real life were a lot like the problems of Romeo and Juliet in the play. This gave Larissa an idea. Juliet had taken a drop of potion to make her body appear dead (in the story), so Larissa decided that she would do the same. Then she hoped that everyone would be worried about her and become friends, then she’d magically be well again and everyone would live happily ever after – unlike the play. Now all Larissa needed was a spell or potion that could make her appear dead. She stayed up most of the night reading through spell books and notes that she had written down and copied from her very good friend Ariel, an Ellarian. She had a few magical Frandadis fruits left in her bag from magic practice at the Arian meetings that she always went to after school. She began getting them ready to make a potion. Once she had created it she mixed a drop of the potion with a glass of water. Then as she sat on her bed, without thinking of her actions, she drank it.
“Laz, Laz… get up, you’re late,” called her mother. It was now morning and time for Larissa to get up. Her mother entered Larissa’s bedroom and shook her. Larissa’s body lay lifeless. Her mother gasped and ran to get Larissa’s father. Both her mother and her father stood still in shock. Despite their row the first people Larissa’s parents (Mr. and Mrs. Miller) turned to were Nicky’s parents (Mr. and Mrs. Marton). On hearing the news the Marton family also cried. Then Mr. and Mrs. Hipington (Jay’s parents) came and cried too.
Larissa definitely didn’t mean for her plan to go this far. Her family was now friends with the Marton family, but that was not the way out of her problem. If she all of a sudden she woke up she would be in so much trouble. She hadn’t thought through the consequences of taking a lifeless spell. Also she hadn’t realised that not just her parents but also Nicky and Jay’s parents would be angry with her too and Nicky and Jay. They would never forgive her, none of them would. There was only one way out of this. To be dead.
Larissa should have told Nicky first what she was going to do. She knew that she should have told him her idea then he could have convinced her not to do it. Larissa hadn’t realised how many people’s lives she had touched. They were all crying because of her, because they thought she was dead.
Before school began, Jay invited Nicky around for a talk. There was only one real reason for this. Jay thought Nicky had killed Larissa. This was because Jay knew that Nicky felt incredibly jealous that Jay was going to marry her (when they were old enough). Jay also thought that Larissa and Nicky may have had an argument, resulting in Larissa’s death. Too upset to care about why Jay had invited Nicky around to his house despite them not being friends, Nicky entered Jay’s house and to his surprise Jay was acting very cool and calm about the matter of his future wife being dead and nobody knowing why. “Nicky… I’m sorry,” sighed Jay sadly.
“It isn’t your fault Jay,” Nicky said, he looked uneasy being in Jay’s house. “And I know you liked her too.”
“But I’m also sorry for getting you into this mess,” Jay showed Nicky to his living room. Nicky took a seat and looked around. The room was the same pale green as he remembered it, from times when they were friends and had spent time around at each others houses. There were several ornaments and china plates on shelves, which reflected the rising sunlight from the front window. “Stay here Nicky, I’ll just get us a drink, then we’ll set off for school,” Jay explained. He went into the kitchen to fetch the drinks. A while later he returned. Jay passed Nicky a drink. Moments later Nicky fell to the ground.
He was dead.
There was poison in his drink. Although the cup did not smash, it lay lightly in his lifeless hand.
Eventually everyone left Larissa’s room, which was lucky because the potion Larissa had taken had just worn off. She thought she heard Sophie (Nicky’s sister) say that Nicky had gone over to Jay’s house before school, so Larissa decided that she would go over there and tell both Jay and Nicky what she had done – and hopefully they would find it in their hearts to forgive her and they could get her out of trouble. She hoped that the boys hadn’t set off for school already.
As she left her house a dog began to bark out of control and the birds scattered amongst the sky. She tried to shush the dog, so that no one looked out of the window and saw her, but it continued to bark loudly, so she quickly ran to Jay’s door. She knocked three times. The door automatically creaked open. This was because Jay had been in a hurry to leave the house and had forgotten to lock it. “Jay… Nicky…” Larissa called out, knowing that it was safe to, because Jay’s parents had were at her house. She slowly entered. The first door she opened brought her straight to the living room. She saw Nicky lying there and rushed over to see him. “No!” she cried. “Nicky!” Crouching down beside the body Larissa tried to feel for his pulse, but his body was cold. “No!” she cried out again, shaking. What had happened? What had she done? Absentmindedly Larissa wandered into the kitchen. How could Nicky be dead? She saw Frandadis fruits on a cutting board, beside a knife on the kitchen table. Larissa looked carefully at the fruits. They were the same ones that she had used herself; the recipe used lay crumpled on the floor. Quickly she ran back to where Nicky was and took the cup from his lifeless hand. Smelling the liquid inside the cup she knew immediately that it hadn’t been diluted. By diluting the potion it weakened the effect, causing the body to appear dead, but by not diluting it would cause instant death. As she sat staring at the cup she knew Jay had killed Nicky. She knew herself that if she were to die would make her problems fade away. Without thinking, she picked up the cup from Nicky’s hand.
She drank from it.
She was dead.
Even though Nicky and Larissa could not be together in life… they may in death.
- Josie -
