They'll Never Hear a Word We Say: Part Two

Pretty soon Mel and Sam became inseparable. They spent countless hours goofing off together, in and out of school. In Sam's book, the only thing that was important in life at that time was having fun, so she and Mel had lots and lots of endless fun. They spent nearly every single day after school together, playing in the new fallen snow.

    Mel fell down to the ground, spreading her arms and legs around. She loved the feeling of the icy cold chilling snow in her jacket. She loved the crunching sound the snow made when she moved her arms and legs up and down, out and in. The yellow Usul smiled and then got up onto her feet, looking down at her newly created snow angel. Sam did the same, making an angel right next to Mel's. She then stood up, wearing a toothy grin as she tightened her pink and blue striped scarf around her neck.

    From behind her, Mel was creating a snowball, though it was quite hard considering she was wearing gloves too big for her hands and it was even harder to handle a snowball as big as the one she was making with hands as small as hers. When she finally made it into a firm and perfectly shaped ball, she threw it at Sam and it hit her right in the back of the head. The blue Uni spun around, cocking her eyebrow, and snickered as she bent down to hastily form a snowball to throw at Mel.

    Mel however, bounded behind a large tree, which was so white and covered in snow it looked like a cookie made at Christmas time iced in white frosting. She formed another snowball and quietly waited for Sam to come around the tree so she could throw it at her. But Sam had tiptoed around the other side of the tree and threw her snowball at Mel from behind. Mel shrieked, turning around frantically, and, realizing what had just happened, started to laugh uncontrollably.

    "Mel, want to go back to my house and make ourselves some hot cocoa?" the blue Uni had said after they let out their last laughs.

    Mel nodded, and the two of them hiked up the hill, which Sam's Neohome stood upon. Once inside, Mel marveled at the beauty of the house. Amazingly colorful and exotic rugs covered the golden brown wooden floors like blankets. The chandeliers gleamed a sparkling light down upon the entire house, and every room looked as if it had been the victim of a professional interior designer. The house smelled of cinnamon and honey, and as Sam lead Mel into the kitchen, the scent of it became even more vivid.

    Sam excitedly rushed over to the cupboard, grabbed two small mugs, and slid them onto the counter. She prodded a stool near the counter, and Mel sat down politely. The blue Uni brought out a pack of cocoa mix and carefully measured the correct amount of ingredients into each of the cups, and, grabbing the kettle, which had already been heated up, poured steaming water into them. The smell of chocolate danced around Mel's nostrils. Sam set a cup in front of her.

    It was the perfect snack on such a frosty winter's day. The blue Uni led the yellow Usul into her room, and the two of them snuggled down onto her large and fluffy bed. They sipped their warm drinks happily, smiling at each other. Sam brought out her Usuki collection to show off to Mel, who marveled at all of the different kinds there were. She assumed that Sam had to have had every single Usuki in the world in her collection. There were hundreds of the little Usul dolls, smiling their same happy and bright smile at them. Maraquan, Beautiful Bride, Prom Queen, and Flight Attendant... The variety of the dolls was endless.

    Mel picked one up, looking at it admiringly. Sam caught her eye and looked down at her collection. "You can have that one if you want," she said.

    Mel looked up at Sam, wearing a rather surprised expression. "Really?" she questioned, marveling down at the Usuki.

    Sam nodded.

    "Wow... thank you," Mel murmured, hugging the Usuki. She looked over at Sam, and they both started to spontaneously giggle.

    "You're welcome," said Sam. She leaned her head on her friend's shoulder tiredly, as she yawned.

    "Sam," Mel started, as she reached into the pocket of her coat. It was the picture she had drawn of them a few weeks earlier. She unfolded it, and beaming, got up, walked over to a pink bulletin board next to Sam's desk, and pinned the picture to it. "Promise we'll be friends forever?"

    Sam joined Mel to look at the new picture on her board. They looked at one another and grinned.

    "I promise," Sam whispered.

Grade Two

    The first grade year had quickly passed, and Mel and Sam were still the best of friends. Melanie could hardly believe that she had already known Sam for a whole year when they started school that autumn.

    The two of them were also lucky to have wound up in the same class that year, too. This year, their teacher was a tall and rather strict pink Zafara. She wore a thin pair of glasses and had a small and pointed chin. She also had very defined cheekbones and a tiny nose. Her eyes were always in a mean glare, zipping around the classroom, trying to find a student who was doing something wrong so she could punish them.

    It seemed like it was her hobby, punishing innocent students for no good reason. She was also very orderly and did not like to be disturbed when she was in the middle of something that wasn't even very important. She was always very rude and snappy, but whenever other teachers were around, she treated her students like they were angels and was very sure to never yell or be rude to a child. But when her colleagues went away, she went back to her normal self.

    Her name was Miss Valstak. But Mel and Sam called her 'The Evil Woman'. Whenever she was nearby and they wanted to talk about her, they would always refer to her as 'Eve' (short for The Evil Woman), so no one, and especially Miss Valstak, would know that they were talking about her.

    Apart from being painfully rude towards Sam and Mel, Miss Valstak also had favorites. And by favorites, the favorites were the ones she liked to pick on the most. So in that case, Sam and Mel were definitely her favorites. They actually dreaded going to school, and when they tried to tell their owners how horrible their teacher was, the humans would just laugh and say, "Oh, she can't be that bad," which made them even more frustrated with their situation.

    "Come, Mel, help me roll this snowman's head around," Sam said one afternoon at recess. It was snowing gently that autumn day. The beanie Sam wore on her head was so completely covered with the little flakes it looked as if she had a bad case of lice.

    "All right," the yellow Usul replied, bending down to help her friend push the ball of snow through the ground until it was big enough to go on top of the other two lumps they had made. They hoisted it up together, and carefully set it on top of the snowman's second lump.

    Sam grinned, looking up at their snowman. "There," she said as she rubbed her hands together. "Now all he needs is a face."

    Mel and Sam dug around in their coat pockets for anything that might be able to be used as a nose or an eye or something of the sort. Mel pulled out an old crinkled up candy wrapper and a marshmallow that looked as if it had been in her pocket for years. Sam held out a few stale pieces of popcorn and a rock. They made a smiling mouth out of the popcorn pieces, used the marshmallow for a nose, and made the candy wrapper and rock into eyes. They stepped back a few feet to take a good look at their creation.

    "We should give him a name," Sam suggested.

    "How about... Melvin?" Mel snickered. Sam laughed along with her, and they agreed that they would call their snowman Melvin. Out of all the snowmen they had ever made, they definitely thought that this one was the best, the most unique one of them all.

    When recess was over, Mel and Sam quickly hurried back to class, afraid that Miss Valstak would be angry with them for being late. They pushed their way through the crowd in the hallways, making sure to stick together to avoid the large and fierce looking bullies that stood around, just waiting for little second graders to come by so they could steal their lunch money.

    They slid into the classroom without making a single noise and tiptoed to their seats. Miss Valstak was at her desk. Her nose was in a book and her spectacles looked as if they were about to fall off of it. Mel watched the clock, and as soon as the big hand ticked up to the twelve, Miss Valstak set her book down and stood up, surveying the class as they sat there. Every student was looking at her nervously.

    Sam was situating herself in her chair, when Miss Valstak's head jerked over in her direction. She made her way over to Sam, her hands behind her back. Sam's snow boots squeaked on the floor as she fidgeted around until she was comfortable. Miss Valstak's nostrils flared. The pink Zafara stood up as straight and tall as a tree. "Don't squeak your feet on my floor again," she snapped.

    Sam slumped down in her chair, looking up at the pink Zafara in terror.

    "Did you hear a word I just said?" Miss Valstak questioned, bending over and sticking her head in Sam's face. Sam nodded hesitantly. Miss Valstak stood back up. "Good. Very well then. Let's continue our lesson on addition then, shall we?"

    The whole class took out their math books in unison, flipping frantically to the right page before Miss Valstak would lose her temper and blame them for being so slow. Mel looked over at Sam from across their table, frowning. Sam bent over to grab a pencil out of her backpack, and her feet flailed all over the place, squeaking on the floor once again. Miss Valstak's eyes glared over in the blue Uni's direction.

    "Samantha, what did I tell you?" she snapped in a high-pitched and dangerous voice. "Do NOT squeak your feet in my classroom AGAIN!" By now the teacher was screaming at her, and poor Sam was messing up her face trying not to cry. Miss Valstak's gaze was still fixed upon her a few moments later. "Do you hear me, young lady?"

    Sam swallowed hard and wiped away her tears. "I can't help it," she replied softly.

    "I will not tolerate this any more." Miss Valstak made her way over to her desk and whipped out a piece of paper, swearing softly under her breath. "You are to go to the office and think about what you have done, Sam."

    "I couldn't help it, though," Sam murmured, still wiping away her tears, which were flooding out of her eyes. Miss Valstak handed her the piece of paper and pointed to the door, ignoring her. Sam sighed and exited the room obediently.

    After school, Mel took Sam's things with her and ran to the office as fast as she could to try and find her friend. She saw Sam sitting on a small chair outside of the Principal's office, looking down at the ground and kicking her feet, which were dangling from the chair, back and forth. Mel went in and made her way over to Sam, who jumped up and hugged her as soon as she saw her.

    "Oh, Mel, I can't stand that evil woman," Sam cried, squeezing Mel so tight that she could hardly breathe.

    "And neither can I," Mel said. "Don't worry though, Sam. I'll always be here for you. We can get through this year together. I swear it."

    Sam let go of Melanie and wiped her tears away. "Thanks, Mel. You're the best friend I've ever had."

To be continued...