Can You See Me?

My name is Apple Winters, and I have a problem, but first let me tell you a little about myself. I have dark brown eyes and thick, tightly curled, black hair. I am 11 years old. I have a sister named Chloe, who is also 11. Now, before you assume that we are twins, we aren’t. See I am adopted, I don’t remember my old family, but that isn’t important, because my new family is the best family anyone could ever wish for. Everything about the Winters’ family is perfect, well almost perfect. 

Chloe and I are more like best friends than sisters. We do everything together. Somehow we end up in the same class EVERY year. But lately, Chloe has been distant from me. Maybe it’s because we just started 5th grade. This is our first year in Middle School, and everything is different. Even though Chloe is my sister, her friends don’t talk to me anymore. They used to. I remember a time in Second Grade when Mom let us play dress-up, and everyone wanted to dress me up. I felt like a princess, but those were the good days. Now, none of her friends even talk to me. It’s as I don’t even exist.

Today our lockers were assigned. For some reason they forgot mine, so Chloe let me share her locker. I guess since Chloe and I are sisters, and we are in the same grade and everything, the teachers always let us share books. Our first period is English with Mrs. Latham. Our assignment was to write a paragraph about ourselves, and then we had to read it in front of the class. When it came to Chloe’s turn, I was excited because she wrote a little about me in it. 

Chloe looked nervous as she walked to the front of the class, but she spoke as if she were only talking to me,

“My name is Chloe Winters, and this is my first year in Middle School. I am 11 years old and have a dog named Lexi. I also have a sister named Apple, who is also in this class, Thank You.”

When she said that everyone looked around. I nervously smiled waiting for them to wave at me or the least smile, but everyone looked confused.

One boy raised his hand and asked, “ Who is Apple and where is she?”

We didn’t have name tags as we did in previous years, so before the teacher answered, I raised my hand and said, “I’m Apple.” 

Silence.

Then Chloe whispered in my ear,

“It's okay, they’re just being mean.”

I smiled back but on the inside, I felt like a soggy, wet sock. On top of that anytime Chloe said something to me during class, the teacher kept giving her weird looks. I couldn’t wait for that period to be over.

At the end of class Mrs. Latham called Chloe over, I watched from the back of the classroom.

“Chloe,” she began.“I heard you mention someone by the name of Apple? We don’t have any students in this class named Apple, In fact, we don’t have any students in this school by that name either.”

She gave Chloe a note to take home to our parents, and Chloe darted out of the classroom. I too darted out of the classroom, and into the girls’ restroom. I didn’t even wait for Chloe to meet me. I went into the first stall and cried. The first day of school had never been this hard.

I dried my face and found Chloe by our locker. She was talking to a girl. After Amanda introduced herself, Chloe did the same.

“Nice to meet you, Chloe, It looks like we're going to be locker buddies! I’m a year over you, in 6th grade.”

I smiled, at least she was nice. I was about to introduce myself, but then the second bell rang, and we hurried off to PRE Algebra. Our teacher’s name was Mr. Nick Molters. I’m glad we didn’t have to introduce ourselves to this class. Chloe and I both already knew everything that we went over, so it was pretty easy. When Mr. Nick asked us to solve 2x + 3 = 13, I quickly did the math in my head and raised my hand. Since another boy and I were the only ones with our hands raised, I knew I was going to get called on, especially since mine was up first. 

“Do you have an answer, Joseph?”Mr. Nick said.

I tapped Chloe and whispered, “ Did you see that? He completely looked over me!”

“It's fine,” she replied, “He probably didn’t see you.”

Maybe it was just me, but I felt that Chloe had been avoiding talking to me all day.

I was about to raise my hand and ask when the class would be over, but the bell rang.

A snack was next, I hoped that it would be better than English and Pre-Algebra. We both had a snack from home, so we went straight to the cafeteria. I noticed that Chloe walked with some other girls who also had lockers near ours on the way to the lunchroom. I heard one of them say “ You can sit with us, Chloe!”

Chloe entered the lunchroom before me and sat down. There wasn’t a seat next to her, so I went and tapped her to ask where I should sit. 

She ignored me. So I whispered in her ear. 

No response. I tugged on her arm, and she brushed it off as if a fly had landed on her.

Fighting back tears, I found an empty spot next to the garbage cans and ate my snack there.

Throughout the rest of the day, Chloe continued to ignore me. By the 6th period, I was FED UP. If she didn’t want me to talk to her at school, I won’t. No actually, I’ll go one better. I’ll leave school. Without saying goodbye or telling her where I was going, I marched straight out of the school. The funny thing is that I walked straight past the principal, and he didn’t say a word. But I didn’t care, I was just happy to leave.

Since the weather has been hot, Chloe and I had walked to school this morning. Now I was walking home. Alone.

When Chloe got home from school, she went straight to her room and started on her homework. She didn’t even stop to speak to me.

I kept wondering if I did something wrong?

Maybe it was something I said.

I followed her upstairs and asked her. 

“Umm… no. Of course not,” she replied.“Nothing at all”

Even though she said no, I knew in her heart that I did something to offend her.

But I just couldn’t figure out what it was. I knew there was one thing we always did when she was sad. We made houses out of Popsicle sticks and decorated them with a bunch of colorful ribbons and chenille sticks.

I asked her about the idea, and she simply replied,

“I need to concentrate on my work Apple, please go away.”

I walked outside and cuddled with Lexi until dinner was ready.

Later that night at dinner, Chloe didn’t seem to be upset anymore. She told Mom and Dad all about her first day. Not one time did she mention me. When we were all watching our favorite show, she ignored me.

When she went to walk the dog, she ignored me.

When she got ready for bed, she ignored me.

She went to bed without even saying goodnight to me.

When I woke up Chloe, was already downstairs talking to Mom and Dad. She seemed very emotional I stood in the stairwell and listened.

What I heard would haunt me for the rest of my life, if I could even call it a life.

Chloe was crying, and I heard Dad say,

“Well Chloe, according to her note, Mrs. Latham doesn’t approve of imaginary friends” 

“But what about Apple?” sobbed Chloe “ Who’s going to be her friend now?

Suddenly I couldn’t control my feelings.

Everything that was odd before now made sense.

I’m not real, I’m just an imaginary friend.

“No this can’t be.” I thought.

“Or wait maybe it…”

Before I knew it I ran down the stairs screaming “ CAN YOU SEE ME?” “CAN ANYONE SEE ME?” “ANYBODY,”

No one answered. Chloe said, “Thanks Mom and Dad, I think I’ll be okay without her.”

She grabbed a large, black trash bag and dashed up to her room. I raced after her.

“CHLOE?” I screamed, “CAN YOU HEAR ME?” “ PLEASE!”

She didn’t answer.

She began shoving all of my belongings into the bag. As she tossed my worn-out blanket in the bag, I felt as if she was throwing a part of me in there as well. She continued tossing everything that I owned into the bag. When she added the last popsicle stick house we made together to it, she tied up the bag and said, “ I’m sorry Apple, but you have to go too.”

With that, she took the bag to the curb. When she came back in she looked at me. It wasn’t a normal look. It was one that said “I’m sorry”, “I’ll miss you”, and “there’s no turning back” all in one glance.

With tears streaming down both of our faces she said, “ I’m too old for imaginary friends.”.

I felt a strange tingling feeling in my hands. 

Again she said, “ I’m too old for imaginary friends.”

I looked down again, but this time I could see my hands vanishing!

I felt myself becoming one with the air.

“You don’t have to do this Chloe! Please!” I begged, but it was too late.

“I am too old for imaginary friends.”

I fell into a deep sleep. I don’t know how long I was out.

When I woke up I was in a different room. I looked down at myself. I no longer had the body of an 11-year-old, I looked like I was 4 or 5.

There was a big C on the wall. The room was decorated with flowers, butterflies, and bees.

I heard a voice. It wasn’t Chloe’s voice, it sounded like it was coming from a four-year-old.

When the voice made it to the room, a face came along with it.

“See Mommy,” the little girl said, “I told you she was here”

The mom replied, “That’s very nice Cameron, does she have a name?”

“Yeah, her name is Princess Skittles Pops!”

It took a while for my mind to process what had happened. 

Apparently, I am one of a few people like this. We have one purpose in life. Our job is to be an imaginary friend to those who need it most. For people like Chloe who struggled with childhood Leukemia and was lonely because kids used to bully her because she didn’t have any hair. I was always there for Chloe, but she doesn’t need me anymore. It’s time for me to move on, and I’m not afraid anymore because I can’t wait to help Cameron who battles Type 1 Diabetes and doesn’t have many friends because everybody thinks she’s contagious.

I used to wonder why I was never a real person until I had this vision. It was an obituary, with my name at the top. After reading it a few times I found out that I once was a real girl too. At the age of 6, I passed away from Neuroblastoma. 

Sometimes when I think about all the things I could have been able to do as a person I get sad, but then I remember EVERYTHING that I get to do now, and it pushes me to be the best imaginary friends I can, because I KNOW how much these kids need me, and I KNOW how important I am to them. And even though nobody but Cameron sees me, that is all that matters.

Cameron grabbed my hand and led me outside.

“We're going to be best friends!” she exclaimed.

She was right we did become BEST friends. As we grow up together, I learn more and more each day as she tells me all of her secrets. She reminds me so much of Chloe, and in some ways, she reminds me of myself too.

Sometimes I think it’s hard building a strong, loving relationship with a child, then getting rejected in their later years, but as I look back on all of the things I’ve helped with, those thoughts vanish.

Cameron is now 9 years old and is and her diabetes has not been sad lately. I am so happy for her.

Throughout our 5 years together we have been through so much which has made our bond even closer.

A few days after Cameron’s 10th birthday, she walked up to our room. She had a funny look on her face, a familiar look.

She looked at me and said, 

“Hey Princess, this isn’t easy for me to say. I’m 10 years old now, and I’m getting so many new friends. It might seem like I have forgotten about you, but I haven’t. I don’t want you to feel neglected. So, I think it's time for you to go, I hope you understand.”

I gave her the best smile I could and replied,

“ I totally understand Cameron, and I’m so happy for you!”

“I’ll miss you so much Princess, I’ll never forget you.”

I ran and hugged her. As I was hugging her I felt that strange tingling feeling again. As I vanished away, She gave me one last loving look. And I fell into another deep sleep.

I can’t wait to see who I get to help next!!