Chapter 2

I rested my head against the cold window, staring at the wall, thinking about what had happened days before. I kept seeing Sidney on the ground every time I closed my eyes, and hearing Gwyn on the phone. “It was the smoke that got her,” she’d said. I could hear the sorrow in the voice and imagined Sidney’s bright, cheerful mother and how I thought she’d never shed a tear over anything. There would be a funeral for Sidney in two days, and next week I was expected to return to school. Every time I thought about coming back to school I ended up crying. I couldn’t imagine walking down the halls, eating lunch, sharing gossip without Sidney. It didn’t seem fair that I could come back to school, when Sidney would never even see the school again. She had been the captain of the cheer leading squad since 9th grade, I had always made fun of her telling her she would be sucked into the life of the rich and spoiled kids who filled the positions in the school’s sports teams. Now I’m ashamed of how I treated her, I should have let her do what she wanted instead of teasing her nonstop, Sidney won’t ever cheer again. On Friday I dug out a dress Sidney had given to me for my sweet 16 and got ready for her funeral. I put very little makeup on, I knew I’d just cry it off anyway. My mother drove, when we got to the funeral home Gwyn greeted me with a big bear hug. Her eyes were red from crying and she kept wiping away tears that tried to run down her face. “Thank you for coming, I can’t imagine how hard this is for you Amy,” she said trying to smile. I hugged her back and replied, “I’m so sorry about what happened Gwyn...if only I hadn’t-” “No,” she said simply. “Don’t blame yourself for Sidney’s death, you didn’t know she was still inside. Paul and I understand that it was no one’s fault,” she paused to keep control of her voice. Eventually she managed to squeak out, “It was just her time.” After my mom had driven me home I went to my room and looked in the mirror. Beside my reflection was a picture taped on the mirror of Sidney and I when we went to camp in 6th grade. On the other side was a picture of us at Christmas when we were 5. I started crying then, remembering all the Christmas’s we’d shared together and all the ones she would miss. I cried until my mom came in and hugged me, and told me that everything would be okay.

Chapter 1

I danced around, shaking and screaming while listening to the music blaring through the speakers. Millions of people filled the enormous building, and I was surprised the old walls hadn’t crumbled to pieces from all the noise. After the band-I’m still not sure of their name-and their instruments went quiet and exited the stage everyone started screaming for an encore.

My best friend, Sidney, had made me go to this concert with her. “It’s my favorite band and my mom won’t let me go without you, PLEASE Amy!” I’d sighed and agreed, but now I realized why she liked this band so much. I’m usually into the regular hip hop and pop music, but listening to the band’s alternative rock started changing my opinion.

Finally the band came back and played two more songs. In the middle of the second song the singer tried to do some kind of trick and kicked over an amp and ripped the wires. From the sparks the amp caught on fire, as if the stage was covered in gasoline it started to spread, causing everyone to run screaming to the exits. I looked around, wide eyed looking for Sidney but couldn’t see her anywhere. I told myself she was caught in the crowd and probably already outside so I darted toward an exit, being pushed back and forth by screaming teens.

Outside I looked all over for Sidney, listening to the wail of sirens in the background. Suddenly I remembered my phone and punched in her number. The phone rang and rang and finally when I thought she had answered it was just her voice mail. I left her a message telling her to meet me where her mom had dropped us off and headed toward the sidewalk. As I waited I called Sidney’s mom and told her about the fire, and that Sidney and I needed to be picked up. After assuring her we were both okay I hung up and searched the grounds for Sidney.

Almost everyone else had gone, leaving firefighters packing up and about ready to take off. I felt a pang of panic and walked up to a fireman who looked about in his 30’s. “Did you see anyone inside?” I asked as I described what Sidney looked like.

After a moment he replied, “The only people I saw inside were other firemen, I’m sorry Miss.” Not knowing what else to do I checked all around the building, yelling for Sidney, panic in my voice. After not finding any trace of her I called her again, only reaching her voice mail once more. I went back to the sidewalk hoping she was waiting for me there when I saw a figure outlined in the dark. I ran as fast as my legs could carry me and hugged her, but realized it wasn’t Sidney at all, it was her mother.

“Where’s Sidney at?” Gwyn asked confused.

“I don’t know!” I said almost yelling, tears forming in my eyes.

“What? You said you guys were okay, where’s my baby!?” She said, a mask of worry covering her face. She ran towards the same fireman I had just talked to, demanding to know where Sidney was.

“Ma’am I haven’t seen anybod-” he started to explain but she was already half way inside the stadium. My eyes went wide, what’s she doing?I asked myself as I darted after her. By the time I found her my legs were cramping so bad I hardly had the strength to stand up, she was kneeling over something, I wasn’t sure what. I scooted closer to get a better look and threw my hand over my mouth to not throw up, laying on the ground on a pile of debris was my best friend Sidney.