Lost BUT  Found --the tale of  two friends!

“Mama,I can’t wait for the day  to get over !!”  said Emma as she waved good bye.

She was in such a happy mood , it was the last day of school  .  But today was extra special for her , her best friend  Laura was visiting from London, that too after two long years!! Laura and Emma had been friends since the day they were born (not that she remembers it , but that’s what their mom’s always say). They were born on the same day--July 2nd ,2003 and their apartments shared a wall--- which literally made them best friends since day 1 ! They were together from dawn to dusk until  two years back ,when Emma moved to India as her  dad had  to take care of business in India . She wished she could stay back with Laura , infact she even cried and pleaded  ,but nothing worked. sadly, she had to move ..

The two best friends vowed to stay in touch ,everyday!  They decided to write in their secret diaries  about everything that happened  and planned to exchange the diaries when they met next time.

Emma wished she didn’t have school , every minute seemed so long. The wait was getting too overwhelming for her. Mrs. Jones’ class seemed quite long , her thoughts drifted to the fun play dates she and Laura  used to have. She could not focus, She wondered  if Laura’s hair would have grown longer, “ of course she’ll have longer hair ,Laura always wanted long hair like Rapunzel ” she mumbled to herself.  She wished she did not have braces , she felt they made her look so different  -- “ I wonder if laura has braces” thought Emma.

“ Trrrinnnggg!!!”-- Emma jumped up from her chair . It was the last bell, school was over !! She picked up her  bag , held her diary firm and ran home.

“ You should be in the athletics team, Emma . You are faster than the school bus! ” --mocked Mrs. Jones  who was standing by the bus lanes . Emma did not care , she had to reach home fast and nothing was going to slow her down..

As she reached home she could hear loud voices talking and the smell of freshly baked cookies .

“They are here!! ” , she ran to the door but stopped short of opening it , a fear suddenly gripped her , “what if Laura has changed ? What if she has  new best friends ? ” She tried not to pay attention to those thoughts, she gripped  on to her secret diary as if to ward away her fears .But the thought  lingered in the back of her mind ….

Emma slowly opened the front door, as she peeked in she heard a loud voice “ You are home , darling!! Give me a tight hug. ” It was Mrs. Elizabeth, Laura’s mom--she was always too loud. Emma liked Mrs. Elizabeth as she  made her feel extra special with her tight hugs. Emma looked around, she could not spot Laura in the room .

“Mama, where is Laura ?”  she asked .

“Out in the balcony ,playing with fluffy “ --replied  Mrs. Elizabeth .

Emma walked  out anxiously to greet her friend. Laura was engrossed in a book ,while fluffy was making some grunting noises trying to chase a butterfly.

“ Hi,Laura ! ” said Emma

“Hi!” said Laura , her eyes still in her book.

Emma’s heart sank  , laura seemed so distant. She peeked at the book Laura was reading , it was Monster  Games . Emma never  really liked  monster stories, they gave her bad dreams .BUT, her best friend was deeply engrossed in a monster story .

“ We are not alike anymore, she did change!  ”thought Emma .

Putting on a happy face , she called out “ Laura, would you like to check out my new toys ?”

“ Ok” said laura as if she was not very interested.  

Emma remembered how both of  them loved stuffed toys and  collected  almost the same ones. Emma still loved stuffed animals, but she was not so sure about Laura now . She decided to show her new collections to Laura  anyways.

 

Fluffy ran in even before Emma could open the door . He started pulling out all  the stuffed toys .“Stop it, fluffy!” yelled Emma , but fluffy never listened. It looked as if he was  the most excited of the lot --pulling and  barking at  everything in the room(trying to show off, I guess) .

Emma had a funny story for every little bear fluffy  pulled out . Laura giggled and laughed  at each one of them .The girls felt as if they were never away from each other….

“You haven’t changed a bit ,Emma !”  exclaimed  Laura.

“We are so much alike!! ” --they said in unison. “Jinx!”--they repeated together and giggled away like old times.

“ I can’t wait to read your  secret diary !! ”  said Emma .

“ Me neither!!”  giggled Laura .

The END