Chapter Six
SPACE GIRLS

     "Code Red!" Mara collapsed to the floor dramatically. "I'm moving too fast! Preparing for emergency crash landing!"

     "Your. Shhh. Breaking up. Shhhh. Agent Mars, what is your location?"

     "I have lost control of my ship! Agent Moon, you are my last hope!"

"Girls! Time for dinner!" Mara and Moon quickly took off their helmets and ran into the kitchen. The smell of spaghetti filled their noses and they grinned at each other. Spaghetti was Moon's favorite food and Mara's mom made it whenever Moon came over.

Mara's father took his usual spot at the head of the table and Laura sat on the right side of him. Ryan took the seat next to his mother and Mara and Moon took up the left side of the table.

As soon as they sat down the three 10-year-olds dug into the food. Mara completely ignored her spoon and only used her fork to eat her pasta. She slurped the noodles when they were too long and got a warning look from her mother. "Sowy" she apologized with a mouth full of food.

Moon snorted and filled her mouth until it was overflowing with spaghetti. She looked over at Mara. "Chubby Bunny." Ryan and Mara both broke out into uncontrollable laughter. Ryan had spit out his fruit punch by accident and it was dripping down his chin.

Laura looked at her husband and he just shook his head with a smile. They had to let kids be kids. He was just glad they weren't trying to grow up too fast. He did not want to deal with a rebellious teenager. Laura rolled her eyes at her husband but she too couldn't help the smile that appeared on her face as she watched her kids get along and laugh with their friend.

"So girls." Ryan gave her a look. "and boy. How has school been going?"

"Eli and I made this really cool science project! Mrs. Morrison said it's the best one she's seen in years and she wants us to enter it in the science fair!" Laura smiled at her daughter. There was no denying that Mara was a gifted student. But she was also a natural athlete too. Laura couldn't be prouder.

"I'm proud of you guys. The science fair isn't at the same time as your practice is it?" When Mara shook her head no, Laura nodded and then turned her attention to her son. "How about you Ryan?'

"Well, I got a C on my last test. I studied really hard for it but I still didn't do well." He played with the food on his plate, nervous about how his mother would react. Unsurprisingly, it was his father that spoke.

"That's ok son. You'll do better next time. Maybe you can ask your sister to study with you or maybe one of your friends?" Ryan nodded but didn't look up from his plate.

Laura gave her husband a look. "Ryan, I understand school is tough for you. Are we sure you don't need to take a break from football to focus on school some more?"

Ryan's head snapped up and he shook his head rapidly. "No! I promise I'll work harder mom. Football isn't the problem."

"Ok then. How about you Moon? How is Mr. Rogers' class?" Moon, Mara, and Ryan all had different teachers for fifth grade. There were so many of them that they needed three teachers to teach their grade.

"He's nice. He can be confusing sometimes but I still manage to do well."

"Well, that's ok. How's cheerleading going?"

This was a subject Moon was interested in and it was obvious by the way she straightened in her seat. "Oh, it's going great! We have our first competition in a few weeks. You guys should all come!"

"We'll definitely be there sweetheart."

"May I be excused." Everyone's attention was drawn to Ryan who had pushed his chair back. "I have some homework I need to finish."

Shane nodded at his son. "Sure thing Champ. Don't forget to put your plate in the dishwasher."

Ryan nodded and left the table leaving the four of them. They all eventually finished dinner and Moon's mom had come to pick her up. Mara was reading a book on the couch when she heard the sound of glass shattering. She sat up quickly and rushed to the kitchen. Her father was holding up her mom and checking if she was ok. The two hadn't noticed their daughter standing behind them.

"Mom? Are you ok?"

"Yes, sweetie. Go get ready for bed. Mommy and Daddy have this under control."

Mara hesitantly obeyed. She knew something was wrong. She just hoped it wasn't anything serious.

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Mara knew what today was. Today would've been her mother's birthday. If she was still alive. It had been 2 years since the death of Laura Abrams and her family was still taking it hard. She was in 7th grade now. Ryan and Mara had recently turned 13 but they didn't have a birthday party this year. They didn't have one the previous year either.

Many of Mara's friends had been distant from her. They claimed she gave off bad vibes. They wouldn't understand. She was grieving. She didn't think she would ever stop either. Eli hadn't been distant though. He still came over for their sleepovers and playdates. He didn't try and force her to do things she didn't want to. He understood that grief was a painful and slow process and everyone grieved differently. There would be times where the girl would drift away from their conversation and he would just stop talking and wait patiently for her mind to drift back. Once she did he just continued like nothing happened.

Moon had been one of Mara's distant friends. They still hung out but not as much. Every time they had a playdate they never did any of the things they used to. Moon would always want to talk about boys and gossip but Mara wasn't a big fan of that. She just wanted them to put on their helmets and forget about this world for a while. Moon claimed that they were too old to play dress up. Only little kids still pretended they were astronauts. So Mara packed away all of their old toys. Her father had put them in boxes and stored them in the attack along with all of their fun memories. The way they would call themselves space girls. Moon had come up with the idea that they needed a cool name for themselves. She wanted to call them galaxy girls, but Mara thought space fit better. Moon and Mars. Space girls.

Mara opened the doors of West Valley Middle and made her way straight to class. She didn't want to run into any teachers who would look at her with sympathy and pity. She just wanted to be treated normally. When she got to class she saw Eli and Demetri sitting at their usual table. Demetri had joined their little group last year and they all had become close friends. She liked Demetri. He always treated her the same no matter what was happening.

She walked over to them and took a seat next to Eli.

"Ok thank God you're here. I need you to settle this debate we're having. So Eli here thinks we should do a volcano for a science project but I think that's why too easy for us. I was thinking we should do handheld fireballs. It'll be easy!"

"As cool as that would be, I think we should go with something simpler this time around. We should save the fireballs for the science fair."

"I guess, but wouldn't a volcano be more science fair appropriate."

"Trust me Demetri, someone does a volcano every year at the fair. We want to show the judges something they haven't seen before."

Eli smiled and patted Mara's back. "See I told you she would settle it."

"Your only saying that because you're in—"

"Class I want to introduce you guys to our new student." The trios attention turned to the front of the room where Mrs. Alvarez stood with a random girl. "Everyone this is Yasmine. She just moved here and I want you all to make her feel welcome." She placed her hand on the blonde girl's back and gestured to the table on the opposite side of the room from Mara's. "You can go take a seat next to Moon over there. Moon raise your hand. She'll help you get settled in and will make sure you're ok for the next few days." The girl nodded and went to sit next to Moon.

Mrs. Alvarez went on with the class and the whole time Mara found herself watching Moon and the new girl. The two seemed to be getting along pretty well. Really well actually. They were laughing about something and they had already gotten pretty comfortable around each other. Mara felt something swirling in her stomach. She brushed it off. Moon was still her friend. She was just following their teacher's directions and helping Yasmine feel welcome.

Over the next few months, Moon hung out with Mara less and less and with Yasmine more and more. Whenever Mara asked if she wanted to come over she already had plans with Yasmine. Eventually, Mara stopped asking. Even then Moon didn't seem to care. She never made an effort to talk to the girl and she even stopped being her partner in everything. When the teacher asked for them to partner up Mara would find herself looking over at Moon only for the girl to be looking at Yasmine instead.

Why did everyone keep leaving?

Her brother had gotten distant too during the next year. He had met some boys in his class and he usually spent most of his time at one of their houses. Mara and Ryan were never that close despite being twins, but they still made sure to be there for each other when the other needed it. Sometimes he would randomly come into her room with some kind of dessert and offer to talk with her while they ate.

Not anymore.

Now she barely saw her brother and her father usually worked long hours now that he was their only guardian. He had to pick up extra shifts to support them. Mara had to ride the bus to school now that there was no one able to drop her off. It wasn't too bad. Eli rode the bus with her. He didn't have to, but he told his mom he wanted to ride the bus from now on so Mara wouldn't have to be alone.

She didn't want him to. The kids on the bus were ruthless when it came to his scar. She knew it was affecting him but he refused to stop riding. For her.

     There was a kid who sat behind them every day named Max Lopez. He always had chewing gum and one day he decided the perfect place to discard it was in Mara's hair. She was forced to cut it after the gum wouldn't come out. Her once long hair that reached her midback was cut into an awful bob that stopped right below her chin.

When she told her father what had been happening he told her to just sit somewhere else. She tried that and Max ended up following her. She and Eli would sit in a different place every day but no matter where they moved, Max followed.

Mara just decided to ignore him. She thought that if she didn't give him any attention eventually he would stop. That's what her mom always told her to do if someone was messing with her.

It didn't work.

The boy would stop and every time Mara's hair would grow past her shoulders again he would stick more gum into it, forcing her to chop it off again. Luckily, Mara only rode the bus to school since she had either cross country or track after. It depended on what season it was. Eli's mom always picked her up and took her back to their house to hang out. Eli would stay after school to watch Mara's practice anyway. She would walk across the street before dark and wake up to repeat the whole day. She had gotten so used to that pattern that she was barely home anymore during the week. She even saw her father less and less.

When she graduated from middle school she finally thought all of her problems were over. Kids in high school were more mature.

She was very, very wrong.

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       Mara thought high school would be easy, but she had a lot to learn. From the first day she realized that the moment you stepped into the building you were assigned a certain "class".

     There was the upper class which consisted of the popular people. The athletes, rich kids, and pretty people. Although Mara was an athlete, she wasn't considered rich or pretty. The Abrams used to be considered rich, but after the unfortunate event they didn't make as much as they used to. They still had plenty of money just not as much as they used to.

     Next was the middle class. The majority of the school was placed into this category. Kids in the middle class weren't rich but they weren't poor either. Some of them were athletes and some of them weren't. No one from the middle class got messed with. They had friends and they went to school and that was it. They didn't need to worry about anything else.

     Last and certainly the least was the lower class. Everyone who the upper class deemed unfit, to be apart of their group or the middle class, was here. You could guess where Mara and her friends ended up. They were considered nerds although they were all just extremely smart. No one cared that Mara was the best on the track and cross country teams or that she lived in Encino. All they saw was a depressed little girl with a high iq who came in everyday with a Bob-cut, a freak with a weird lip that barely talked, and a nerdy kid that didn't know when to shut up sometimes.

Moon had ignored Mara on the first day. Her and Yasmine had gotten invited to sit with the popular kids and they accepted happily. She had tried approaching the girl at her locker but she didn't even get a single word out before Yasmine had approached them and told Moon that she wanted to walk to class together. The two had walked away from Mara and Yasmine looked back at the girl with a smug look.

Mara didn't try and approach Moon after that. She just stuck with Eli and Demetri and tried to get through each day. The girl was in the locker room after gym class one day when she couldn't find her clothes. She could have sworn she left them in her locker and no one had the combination.

"Looking for this?" Mara spun around to see Moon, Yasmine, and another girl she didn't realize standing beside the trash can. Moon was the closest to the trash and in her hands was Mara's yellow sundress she had worn to school that day.

"W-what are you doing?"

Yasmine giggled. "Aww look. She can't even speak." Yasmine looked back at Moon and gesture towards the trash with her head. "It would be a shame for such a pretty dress to get ruined."

Mara took a step forward but someone grabbed her arms from behind. She struggled against their grip but it was no use. Whoever it was, was bigger and stronger than her. "Please don't," Mara begged.

Moon hesitated for a second before her face went blank and she threw Mara's dress in the trash. Yasmine and the rest of the girl's laughed as they watched Mara struggle to get free.

Yasmine started approaching her slowly. Her hand reached into her back pocket and pulled out a pair of scissors. "Your hair is getting a little long Abrams. How about we fix that?"

Mara started to struggle again and the blonde approached her. Her hair had finally grown longer than her shoulders and she didn't want it to be cut again. "Please. Don't. Stop, please."

Yasmine lifted the scissors to her hair and started to cut. Mara begged and pleaded for her to stop but the girl just kept cutting. By the time she was done Mara was surrounded by clumps and clumps of her hair. The girl behind her released Mara from her hold and the she collapsed onto the floor, broken sobs escaping her lips. She reached up and felt to see what was left of her hair. It was uneven and stopped at her ears.

Yasmine knelt down in front of her and roughly grabbed her chin forcing their eyes to meet. The blonde leaned in so no one else would hear her. "You're so pathetic, Abrams. Take this as a reminder that you are and will always be a pathetic, little bitch. No one cares about you and your little sob story. Your brother is doing perfectly fine so we all know you just want attention. Oh and stay away from Moon or next time your punishment will be much, much worse." She roughly pushed Mara's chin away and stood up. Walking back to the group of girls by the door, she motioned for them to follow her. They all left and Mara watched, her vision blurred with her tears, as Moon followed behind them.

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So this is pretty much most of Mara's backstory from her perspective. I also really wanted to show how close her and Moon were before the present time.

As always make sure you vote and leave a comment telling me what you think. Feedback is always appreciated!