"So does everyone knows how to play this game," Dad asked.

"Maybe James is the only one who doesn't," I answered.

"Jessie doesn't, she was too young when we used to play this game," Jason answered from beside me ruffling my hair.

"No I wasn't, I was fourteen,"I said.

"Yes fourteen is such a young age, when I was fourteen I watched power rangers and I couldn't even differentiate between a plate and a saucer"

"You still watch power rangers," James said.

"I guess you are just not smart in general," I said sticking my tongue at him.

I was not dreaming. It was real life. We made up with Jason a week ago. The sorry surprise that Nate organized worked. He organized everything perfectly that even made both Jason and me tore up. It was so emotional and sweet. I cooked his favorite meal and then explained to him people can't stay without having misunderstandings and the only thing one can do is to apologize after he realize he is the one at fault, I explained him my side of story. And then their were balloons everywhere in our living room making it look like a children's playground. And his favorite song from Alvin and the chipmunks was playing softly in the background. Then he told me he is so sorry for not hearing my side of story and then he hugged me and ruffled my hair. And then everything was back to normal. It wasn't as easy as it sounds though. I freaked out when we were organizing it, I was so afraid he wouldn't like it. I was afraid it would make him even more angry, but Nate assured me everything would be okay and it was.

After dad finished explaining to James the normal rules and regulations that I had been used to hearing then he asked who will start.

"I will go first," James shouted eying the folded papers.

We had this kind of game each end of the month before I left for California with mom , dad , Jason and me. James was too young as at that time. Each one of us would pick one of the folded papers. In the paper was a topic like school/work, friends, recreation. And whichever topic you pick, you had to talk about it in relation to happenings in your life in the last month. It had always been so fun. And it's a way that we open up to one another and become closer. So immediately Jason suggested we do that all of us agreed.

James chose one of the folded papers. He opened and shouted, "sports!!".

"Okay I played football in school every Thursday and my teacher said I am so good and I am going to be a famous footballer." James said. He did quite good for someone playing for the first time. Dad went second he chose work so he talked about his promotion and about his new boss that was a very giant man. Then Jason chose next, he chose school.

"I may get my admission or rejection letter for MSC college anytime from tomorrow," Jason said. I completely forgot he told me about changing school.

"Are you still changing school?" I asked sadly.

"Yeah if I get admission. But did you forget what I promised you?

"You will be visiting me with you pj,no I didn't," I said with I laugh as I remembered that night,"

"Pajamas?" James asked confused. Both of us ignored him.

I didn't have much time to think because it was my turn. I studied the papers than chose one. I opened it and saw Friends.

" After I came back, I realized Alicia was a fake friend ,she befriend me so that she would have something. Rivers and Evan were so nice to me and act normally. Nate wasn't nice to me at first but then he gradually changed but still he acts differently. I tried knowing why for months since I came back and I recently did," I told them.

"What is it?" All of them asked.

"His mom died in a car accident and he lost his memory," I said feeling so sad. I think all of them knew about the mom's part because they weren't surprise until I told them about the memory part. Jason was the one that was most surprise. After my 'talk', Jason decided that the game was over giving the excuse that we are all tired and we need to sleep even though I know he just want to talk to me about Nate. Immediately we entered my room he asked," why didn't you tell me?"

"I don't know," I answered honestly. He wasn't talking to me that time how will I tell him.

"You know I am the one you are suppose to tell first right?"he asked again.

"Yeah?"

"Then why? Why? Why didn't you?" I know he was angry that he wasn't there to cheer me up when I heard it.

"Well we weren't talking that time," I answered feeling guilty. Guilty washed over his face too.

"This fight is the biggest mistake we have ever done," he said more to himself than me.

"True," I answered.

"We will talk tomorrow," he said, hugged me then left my room.

***************

Immediately I went out of the school's building I saw Jason's car. I said bye to Nate, Rivers and Evan then opened Jason's passenger's door.

"Hello," I greeted.

"Hey Essie," he answered as he turned on the car. We stopped at an ice cream parlor.

"Two vanilla ice creams with Oreo toppings," he told the cashier our order then came back with two delicious looking ice cream and handed one to me.

"Yummy yummy," I said as I licked the ice cream.

"You act like five year old," Jason said with a laugh. I just stuck my tongue at him and continued eating my ice cream.

"So how is Alice," I asked. His face turned red. I started studying him, the way he talked about Alice made me thought that there was something going on between them. He really liked her from seeing how his eyes sparkled when he was talking about her.

"She is fine but why are you asking,"he asked.

"Why are you blushing," I asked.

"I am not,"

"Yes you are,"

"No am not,"

"You like her," I told him in a matter of fact tone.

"No I don't,"

"Yes,"

"No,"

"Jason and Alice sitting on a tree k..I..S.." I started.

"Jessie shut up, we came to talk about you not me," he said.

"Whatever,"

"So what exactly happened to Nate." Jason asked.

"I thought I told you that yesterday. He was in an accident and his mom died and he lost his memory,"I said. Whenever I talked about that I felt like crying.

"And then?"he motioned for me to continue.

"That's all," I said.

"What? That's all? That's all you know?" Jason asked surprised. What's there to be surprised for?

"Yes that's all his father told me, is there something wrong?"

"Yes you should have asked what was the cause of the accident. When did it happen? Which disease caused him to loose his memory ?" He said.

"Why should I ask those questions?" I asked.

"Because if you did you could have known why he lost the memory of you only. Why didn't he forget Rivers , Evan and Alicia. Why did he forget only you . Didn't you think about that?" He asked.

I couldn't talk. I kept quiet thinking about what he said. He was really telling the truth. I didn't think about that at all. I didn't know how but my mind didn't think about that. And no one told me. Why didn't I ask. I was just so stupid. I replayed what happened that night at Nate's house but I couldn't remember his dad telling me anything.

"What happened was that...."

Finally I was going to hear why My best friend was acting like that. My heart started beating fast.My eyes and ears were out. My hand was shaking actually my whole body was shaking. I was so anxious.

"Before I start you have to promise me not tell Nate whatever I tell you." Mr brown said.

"I promise" I quickly replied.
"Nate was in a terrible accident.
He...."

But unfortunately just then Nate came in. I guessed his dad didn't want to talk about it because immediately he saw him he quickly changed the topic.

I had never been angry at seeing Nate before. Not even after he tore my beautiful drawing in kindergarten, not even after he broke my doll when we were in first grade, not even when he stole my candies in grade three, not even after he told my supposed to be the crush that I pea when I was sleeping in grade 5, not even when I told him I would travel to California and he left and ignored me for days, not even when he threaten to slap me if I bother Nicole again last few months, not even when he didn't recognize me.

"We shall get going Jessie. It's getting late." Nate said.

"Huh" I replied still annoyed.

"Urhmm Nate go and get the car keys before Jessie get ready" his dad said.

Thank God. Maybe his father said that so that he could tell me the rest of the story before he come back.

"I have my keys here" Nate said shaking his car keys.

Urgggg! I groaned inside my mind. I looked at Mr brown, he was giving me a pity look that says "we don't have a choice". I felt like crying.

"Okay...... Please can you go and bring Jessie things down" Nate's dad said.

"Soooo...." I said immediately I saw Nate had left hearing sight.

"Am so sorry Jessie. The time won't be enough for me to tell you the whole story. But I want to tell it's not Nate's fault. Please be patient with him." Mr brown said picking up his glasses and newspaper.

I didn't know why everyone didn't want to tell me the story behind why Nate was acting like that. And it hurt like hell. I felt a lump forming in my throat.

"Why don't you want to tell me" I mistakenly mumbled.

" It's not that I don't want to tell you Jessie. It's Nate, I don't want him to hear." He said.

"Am sorry. I wasn't thinking." I said so close to tears.

"It's okay. Don't worry you will soon understand why your best friend is acting like that."he said.

Best friend??The way he said best friend made me felt somehow. Is he still my best friend .

"Is he still my best friend? " I asked curiously.

"Of course he is. And even if he is not, he will soon be. And even if you guys will never be best friends again which is quiet impossible, I want to assure you are the bestest friend he had ever has." Mr brown said handing me a folded paper just as Nate came back.

His mother died in the accident and he lost his memories " it's says in the paper.

"Am I not that important to him," I asked Jason close to tears.

"I am sure you are," Jason said hugging me.

"Don't worry we are going to know everything and then we are going to make him remember you alright?"

"Thanks" I whispered.

************************

The next Saturday as about the same time we were all in our living room but this time not only two of us . Rivers, Evan, Alice, James and Cassie were with us.

"So what are we going to name this team," Evan asked.

"Evan we don't have time for naming ," Alice told him.

"Of course we have, come on, it wouldn't be fun if we don't have a name and a code name for all of us," Evan argued. He had been insisting on naming this team the moment I asked him to help me make Nate remember me.

"Evan please let's be serious, Alice is right, we don't have to name it," Jason said. Of course he would support Alice.

"Pleeeease I promise I will be serious after we name it," he said pouting childishly. I think he was just trying to make it fun so that we won't focus too much in the grieve situation.

"Alright give it a name than we will start," I said. Knowing Evan he would never stop until he does what he wants.

"Okay what about the Rangers?" He asked.

"Yes that's perfect," Jason and James said while they rest of us disagreed.

"What about flowers," Cassie said.

"Nope , it's too girly," James said and Cassie glared at him.

"But flowers is for everyone," she whined.

"Super heroes ," Rivers suggested.

"Nope,"

"Team make Nate remember Jessie' MNRJ?"

After wasting about an thirty minutes we settled with Team BBNM, bring back Nate's memories.

"Now we will start," Jason said in a tone that resembled those police investigators use.

"All of you know what we are here for right?" Jason asked.

" I am not sure, I am confuse," Cassie and James said. Of course they would be. No matter how much we explain to them they won't understand. So we just told them Nate and I were best friends before but now he forgets me so we are going to work together so that he can remember me. But we made them promised they are not going say a word about this in front of Nate.

"Don't worry sweethearts, you will understand later," Alice told them smiling sweetly at them.

"Okay so Nate lost his m...," Jason started but when he saw Cassie looking at him he changed it to," Nate lost someone very important to him and something very important to him because of an accident right". I really felt sorry for Cassie. She missed her mom so much. She won't have all those mommy-daughter moments. She lost her mom at such a young age.

"Cassie you and James can go play in his room," I said so that she won't hear us talking about her mom. They stood up happily and left the room.

"Yes," Rivers and Evan answered.

"So that's all we know,?" Alice asked.

"Yes that's all Jessie and I know but I think these two to can elaborate more,"he said pointing to Rivers and Evan.

"We also don't know much," They answered.

"But don't you know anything else," I asked hopping they do.

"The accident was about ten months after you left,"Rivers started.

"Yeah that was the time I lost contact with all of you," I said.

"Yeah, after the accident everything was different, Nate's mom died who was like a mother to all of us," Evan added.

"She was," Rivers said solemnly.

"But why didn't anyone call me to tell me this, I would have fly here in a minute and stand with him," I asked.

River and Evan locked eyes with each other as if asking whether they could tell me something. Both of them were insecure then Evan motioned for Rivers to tell me.

" His father said it wasn't something serious we shouldn't bother you,"they answered.

"But it was so serious. Do you have any idea why he did that?" I asked.

They shook their heads. After the accident Nate became so different, he couldn't talk to any of us for weeks, he kept asking for his mom, he felt so guilty," Rivers continued saying. Before I could ask why he said, " because he was the one driving the car when the accident happened.

"That's a new news," was all I could say when I heard that.

"After a lot of checkups, brain scan and the rest to ensure he hadn't done any damage to his brain the doctor said he may have selective amnesia that's only some part of his memories would be missing,"Evan continued.

" We tried all we could to make him happy like he was before but we couldn't. The only one that succeeded was Nicole. She got our friend back that's why we became friends with her. He started therapy and just finished about the time you came back, he started talking little by little than gradually became hi self. We thought everything was fine now, everything is over but then you told us what he did to you," Rivers said.

"But didn't you notice he wasn't talking about Jessie at all. Didn't you think the forgot about her," Jason asked.

"Actually he didn't, he talks about her every single second," Evan answered. All of us were confused. I was trying to gather all the information I had and understand everything. All of us were trying to understand.

"But how comes,"Alice asked. Just then I remembered something.

"Nicole," I muttered one word and all of them immediately understood.

"He calls her Jez,the name he used to call me," I explained.

"That's make sense now, he calls her Jez, she told me he calls her that because she loves Jasmine from Aladdin. I didn't know it was the nickname he gave you,"

"So do you think he thinks....." Alice started asking.

"Yes I think he thinks Nicole is me," I answered. The thing was so complicated. I didn't understand how intense it was till now.

"But wouldn't he remember all your moments and notice you and Nicole are not the same, like notice you differences,"Alice asked.

"Yes of course, there is no way someone can forgets a person's face and remember everything else about him," Jason said.

"Do you mean Nate must has completely forgotten about me," I asked.

"I think so," Jason answered.

"So he didn't talked about me as in me because he had forgotten about me." I asked. I was really getting tired of all this even though we were making progress.

"What if Nicole made him believe she is Jessie and then asked him to talked about her whenever we are together," River said scratching his head.

"Yeah it maybe like that, so whenever he talked about Jez he was talking about Nicole not the real Jessie," Evan said.

"But why would she do that," I asked.

"Maybe she knows how much he likes you so she pretended to be you because she likes him, does that make sense?" Evan asked.

"Not only that she must have known he couldn't remember you if not she couldn't pretend to be you," Rivers added.

"So that means she knows more than us, she knows something we don't," Jason stated.

I was so tired of trying to figure out everything so I suggested we close for the day. We decided what each of us are going to do tomorrow. Evan and Rivers were going to go and try getting some information from Nicole. Alicia and Jason were going to go and know more about amnesia and are going to go to the hospital Nate was admitted and see if they will get anything. Then James, Cassie and I were going to hang out with Nate and see if we will find a clue.

"Before we depart let's see all the information we got," Alice suggested.

"Nate lost his mom and his some of his memory because of a car accident," She started reading from her notebook. I was too engrossed in the discussion that I didn't even notice she had a note book in her hand and she recorded the important points.

"We all know that," I said. A month ago I was dying to know that.

"Okay, he feels so guilty because he was the one driving the car." She continued.

"He has selective amnesia and the last but not the least he may think Nicole is Jessie." She finished.

"Urh there is one more thing," Rivers said.

"What is that?" We all turned to look at him. I couldn't think of anything else we talked about.

"Nate's father didn't want Jessie to come back from California,"

*********

Hello. So what do you think of the chapter. Things are gradually unfolding.

Ramadan Mubarak .
I won't update till after Ramadan.