I sat there, waiting in suspense with my hands clasped together while my friends, Mandy and Bee, danced around me, waltzing together. I laughed at my silly friends. “C’mon, tell me the secret already!” I urged. It was almost midnight on New Year’s Eve, and my friends had told me they had a secret to tell me, and that they would tell it to me at midnight exactly. At 10 seconds until midnight, we grasped each others’ hands and watched the television, counting along with the people at 42nd St. Times Square.
“Ten… nine… eight… seven… six… five… four… three… two… one!!!!!!!!!” We screamed, jumped up and down and danced together.
I laughed and turned towards Mandy and Bee. “Now tell me the secret already!” I giggled. Mandy’s face turned serious. Bee bit her lip.
“Juliette,” Mandy says softly. “Once we tell you this secret we will have broken a huge rule in our community. Bee and I, well, we’ve been best friends with you for such a long time, we think you deserve to know our secret. Now promise me that this won’t spin out of control, okay?”
I had no idea what she was talking about, but I nodded yes. We pinky-swore. Bee sat nearby, looking uncomfortable.
Mandy took a deep breath. “All right,” she said primly, taking a seat and putting her hands together in her lap, sitting straight. Mandy forced a giggle. “Okay, so… Bee and I are fairies,” she blurted out. I glanced at her, thinking that she would suddenly burst out laughing and say “tricked you!” But the laughter never came. Her face was dead serious.
“Wait,” I stuttered. “You’re serious?”
“Yes, I am quite serious, Juliette,” she said, drawing herself up to her full height, which was about a head shorter than me. “I think I know my own identity quite well. We,” she said, gesturing towards Bee, “have parents who are both fairies, and we have fairy blood running through our veins. I will demonstrate my fairy-ness in case you don’t believe me.” She snapped her fingers, slowly lifting up the television by sheer willpower. Her face was completely focused and serene. I gaped at her and the now one-foot off the ground television. Mandy slowly and gently put the television back in its proper place. Her forehead was beaded with sweat, but she looked happy and relieved. Mandy tossed her hair back. Her voice dropped to a whisper. “I am dead serious by all this. You better not violate our pinky-swear, Juliette. Otherwise, you violate our friendship.”
I nodded. “I completely understand,” I smiled. “Thank you for trusting me.”
Mandy nodded to acknowledge me, but I could see that she was a bit unconvinced that I would keep the secret.
“Do you not trust me?” I asked softly, a bit hurt.
Mandy suddenly got very interested in her carpet design. After a while, she looked up. “Juliette, I completely trust you, as you are my best friend. But, I’ve heard our community gives terrible punishments for those who tell others of their true identity. Please understand how serious this is. We all need to be cautious from here on in.”
I don’t know why, but I suddenly got so mad at Mandy and Bee for keeping this huge secret from me all this time. My best friends had been excluding me from our group without me even knowing it. That came as a huge shock to me, especially because I’d thought that our group had shared all the secrets there was to share.
Bee must have seen the raging anger on my face, because she spoke up. “Juliette, we weren’t excluding you from anything. We just weren’t sure if the time was right. Please, Juliette, it’s the New Year. Don’t be mad at us, we just weren’t sure what to do…” Bee’s voice trailed off as she saw my expression.
My expression must have been very severe, because Bee sent me a petrified look. Flicking away my tiny little piece of guilt at petrifying Bee, I glared at Mandy and Bee. “We promised to share all of secrets with each other. I wasn’t lying when I promised that I had shared all my secrets that night, and now I realize that you guys were lying to my face? The biggest secret of all?” I seethed, rage settling in. I stomped out of Mandy’s room, even though a tiny part of me felt guilty for being so unfair.
As I left Mandy’s house, I heard Mandy shout after me, “Juliette! You promised you wouldn’t let the matter spin out of control!” Mandy was pleading now. “Juliette! It was for the best!”
The door slammed behind me, and I stomped all the way home, angry with myself and with Mandy and Bee. As I stomped into my apartment, and slammed the door shut behind me, I realized that Mandy, Bee and I were going to have a sleepover, and all my stuff was still at Mandy’s house. Whatever, I thought, as I plopped into bed, I’ll work things out in the morning.
At 8 o’clock in the morning, my mom woke me up. “Juliette!” she shouted. “You gave me a heart attack! Why are you home this early? Weren’t you girls going to have a sleepover?”
I rolled over in bed and stared at the ceiling. I knew I couldn’t just say that we had had a fight. My mom would ask for more and more details until I was in tears. So instead, forgetting that I swore never to talk about fairies, I told my mom all about Mandy and Bee. I told her about how Mandy had lifted their television with sheer willpower, and how Mandy and Bee’s parents are fairies, and they have fairy blood. Then, I told her that I just needed a break from them after they told me they were fairies. Surprisingly, my mom didn’t ask for more details. She simply left the room.
“Mom!” I hollered after her, “Don’t tell anybody!”
She didn’t answer, and a few seconds later, I realized she was on her phone, text-messaging someone frantically.
—–
The next day, Mandy called me the whole day, but I ignored her calls. Finally, I picked up dejectedly.
“Juliette!” screamed Mandy. “My mom just told me that your mother told her that she knew that my mother was a fairy! You promised! My mom is super mad at me, and she told me I would have to suffer the consequences of telling you about my true identity! My community is going to punish me! It’s all your fault!”
I stared in shock at the phone in my hand.
Mandy rolled on. “You violated our friendship, Juliette! Now everyone knows Bee and I violated the Fairy Code!” Mandy slammed the phone down, hard.
I ran down to my mom’s office. “Mom,” I shouted. “Why did you tell Mandy’s mother? Mandy’s going to get punished now! This kind of information is top-secret!” I screamed at her.
“I wanted Mandy’s mother to know that it doesn’t have to be secret between us. Why would Mandy get punished, darling?”
I was exasperated. “Mom! Fairies aren’t supposed to tell other people that they’re fairies! She’s going to be punished by her community and it’s all my fault!” I wailed.
“Punished how?” asked Mom.
“I have no idea!” I cried. “But Mandy says it’s horrible and she’s scared of it!”
“Darling,” said my mom, laughing. “Mandy’s mother is at the tippy top of the fairy community. She will definitely pull some strings to keep Mandy away from harm.”
I stared. “Does Mandy know that her mother has that much power?” I asked, confused.
“Darling, of course Mandy knows. They set this whole thing up to see if you kept secrets well.”
“Hooray,” I muttered. “I just failed the test.”
“And even if this wasn’t a setup, Mandy wouldn’t be breaking the Fairy Code. Darling, you are part of the fairy community. I am a fairy, but Dad is not. You have some fairy blood running in your veins, but Dad and I never wanted to tell you, thinking there was no point. But you soon came to be friends with Mandy and Bee, and I realized that their parents are fairies. I had quite a nice chat with Mandy’s parents this year. Mandy heard our conversation and convinced us to help her see if you were a good secret-keeper,” Mom smiled. “It was quite clever of her.”
“So this was just an act?” I asked, relieved.
“Of course. Mandy and Bee aren’t really mad at you.” My phone rang, and I nearly jumped out of my skin.
“Hi!” chirped Mandy.
“I found out,” I whispered.
“Am I an actress or not?” Mandy asked proudly.
“Oh, dear. I’m going to need a lie detector now,” I laughed.
“Come over,” Mandy said. “You can get punished with me.”
I gasped, not able to get the picture of torture out of my head.
“The punishment is…” Mandy giggled. “Eating the best chocolate-chip cookies ever!”
