One late night in the small town of Belmont there were five friends named Fay, Finley, Jessica, Ellie and Spencer.  Fay had dark brown hair, with a splash of pink streaming through her hair, and she had a light skin complexion.  She had dark brown eyes that complimented her face she was an artistic, bubbly, and independent girl whose family moved back to Belmont after her father took a three year sabbatical in Reykjavík, Iceland. She had dark brown eyes that complimented her face.  Fay had her own unique style, aside from the rest of her friends.  Finley was athletic; she was the leading anchor for the Belmont high school swim team.  Finley also held secret feelings for Ellie.  Finley had tan skin, and dark black hair. She was naturally beautiful.  Jessica was a popular girl who struggled with bulimia and anorexia due to insecurities about her appearance. While in seventh grade, Jessica was very overweight and developed complicated eating problems, including binge eating from stress often followed by a bulimic episode. Flighty and occasionally air-headed, Jessica acted purely on impulse. Jessica’s parents divorced when she was twelve, after her father had an affair. She lived with her mother and would rarely see her father, especially after he started dating an average-looking nurse named Melissa. Jessica disliked her father's new wife, Melissa, and her daughter, Alissa.

Spencer was exceptionally smart; she was in AP curriculums, and carried a 4.0 GPA.  Spencer was a competitive girl who strove for perfection in everything she did. As a high-strung over-achiever, Spencer was willing to do whatever it took to win, often to the detriment of herself and others. She was often quick to jump to conclusions and suffered from IED (Intermediate Explosive Disorder).  She also suffered from drug addiction that began to help her boost her grades in school by keeping her up all night so she could study.  The pills she took were called Adderall.   Spencer was the captain of the mathletes.  Spencer came from very wealthy parents who were lawyers.  Spencer enjoyed playing doubles with her parents at the country club. 

Lastly there was Ellie, an extremely popular, beautiful, and cruel girl.  She was a very manipulative and deceiving queen bee.  She had long blonde hair and glowing green eyes.  All of the girls envied her.  She was sort of the leader of the group, and the girls were just her dolls that she pushed around.
All four of the girls thought they knew each other so well, but Ellie was full of secrets, secrets that may or may not be better off unknown to the other girls. They were having a sleep over at Fay’s house that night and one of their friends, Ellie, was just getting back from vacation from Panama City. 

They were all excited to have a girl’s night and get caught up with each other.  Summer was nearly over and school was just right around the corner.  As that evening came around, Ellie finally arrived late.  That wasn’t a surprise to the girls who were always waiting on Ellie all of the time. They all excitedly ran to the car to greet her and to ask her how the trip went. 

After chatting about the trip, they went out to the guest house, behind Fay’s house, where the girls would stay that night.  As the sun faded into the moonlight, the girls sat around on the floor discussing the latest Beyoncé music and how they thought their sophomore year at Belmont would be.  Ellie then chimed in telling the girls how she could get some alcohol from her parent’s liquor cabinet at home.  Although they were reluctant at first, they had no choice.  Ellie then made her way across the yard to her house.  Ellie and Fay were neighbors and had been for as long as they could remember.  Ellie returned with alcohol and cups for the girls. They continued to drink, and listen to music until they all passed out on the floor. 

When Spencer timidly opened her eyes, she looked around on the floor at the others girls but Ellie wasn’t there.  It was in the middle of the night she stumbled and scrammed to find her phone to see what time it was and to see if Ellie left her a text.  There was no text from Ellie and it was nearly three a.m.  Spencer tried to wake the other girls up shaking: them persistently saying: “Guys, guys Ellie is gone!” As the girls began to wake up confused to see what all the fuss was about spencer explained Ellie was missing.  After hours of looking, she hadn’t come back, and they were running out of possibilities.  It was nearly six a.m., there was no sign of Ellie.  How could they have known that this night would be the night their lives would change forever? 

The next morning the girls went to Spencer’s house.  The girls sat around the kitchen table talking about where Ellie could have gone.  Jessica then thought, “I bet this is just another one of Ellie’s acts. She’s probably just sitting at home laughing at us.” 
Spencer, “You know Jessica has a good point. This is exactly the type of thing Ellie would pull”.  Fay, said “Guys come on, this is our best friend! She’s missing, and nobody knows where she is. This isn’t the time to talk about Ellie’s past.” 
Then suddenly, Spencer’s mom, Veronica, walked in. She just got back from a meeting with a client.  She entered the dining room and the girls remained silent.  Veronica knew something was going on between the girls.  Veronica said to the girls “So how was your end of the summer get together last night?”
The girls look at each other and then quickly spencer chimed in and said “Oh, you know, it was good. The usual, popcorn, music, and boy talk.”  Veronica asks “Is everything alright?” 
The girls in unison said, “Yes”, “Yeah”, “Yup everything’s fine”.  Veronica then said, “Okay, well I’m getting ready to make something to eat, are you girls hungry?” 

The girls replied with “No thanks, we already ate.”  Although they really hadn’t, but eating was the last thing they were worried about.   At that point, the girls made their way out of the front door passing Spencer’s father without a word. 

As the next two weeks went by nobody saw, heard or knew where Ellie was.  Her mother, Lydia, filed a police report and there were posters up on every store, every pole around, on every news station, and newspaper in Belmont.  Every day that went by, the girls felt less and less hopeful that she would ever return.  The girls returned back to school with every one staring at them. They never thought this is how their sophomore year of high school would start.  They were nothing without Ellie.  Almost a year went by, and the police found and identified Ellie’s body.  The girls couldn’t believe it, but they felt like they had gained some closure, Ellie’s mom talked to the girls about the preparation of Ellie’s memorial.  Lydia decided the girls should be in charge of the memorial, it would be just too hard for her.  So Spencer, Finley, Jessica, and Fay began to prepare for Ellie’s memorial.  They began to talk about the memorial, and about the summer day the girls spent lounging by the shore of the lake. Ironically, the girls had spoken about immortality and the fantasy of living in this moment forever.  Ellie had said that one could only attain death when they die young and leave behind a beautiful corpse. Getting into it, Ellie had romanticized how fabulous it would be to die in a mysterious way. 

As they got ready for the up coming funeral, Ellie’s older brother, Jason arrived in Belmont a changed man.  The formerly gawky and gothic outsider was now as polished as a preppy politician, and he had plenty of plans for the memorial of his own sister. Jason surprised the girls with news that Jenna had asked to speak at Ellie’s memorial, and he agreed to let her, much to their chagrin.
The last night Ellie was alive, they were in the guest room changing when Ellie told the girls she saw the next door neighbor, Michael, peaking through the window watching the girls getting dressed.  When the girls looked, he was nowhere to be seen, Ellie decided, as revenge, they should throw a “stink bomb” into his bedroom.  When the bomb was thrown in his room, his sister Jenna was actually in his room.  It was a real stink bomb that went off in his room, with Jenna in the room, and it caused her to become blind.

When the police arrived, Ellie threated Michael that she would tell everyone his little “secret” if he told the police she did it.  So Michael told the police it was him and he got shipped off to reform school.  Jenna was blind, and the day of the memorial would be the first time around Jenna since the accident.  The girls were horrified at the idea of it.  Ellie never told the girls Michael’s secret.  Who knew if there even was one?  In the library Spencer cornered Jenna to try to find out what she was thinking in volunteering to speak for Ellie’s upcoming memorial.  Jenna was snide towards her, and preyed her fear of having “Jenna thing” made public.  The conversation shifted from civil to menacing, and spencer warned Jenna not to make a debacle out of the solemn ceremony for her beloved friend.

The day of the memorial, the girls were stunned by the sudden reappearance of Ian, Spencer’s sisters Melissa’s ex-finance.  While Melissa and Ian were engaged, Spencer and Ian kissed while he was helping her practice for croquet.  Inevitably Melissa just happened to walk around the corner and witness such events.  In result, Melissa broke off the engagement with Ian and hasn’t spoken to Spencer for over a year.  Melissa moved to New York to get away from the both of them.  Nonetheless, the girls were surprised when Jenna took the stage.  As the girls waited for Jenna to reveal the horrible details of the night she went blind, she offered the kindest words for their dearly departed friend.  Whether her moving speech was actually sincere, the girls can’t be sure, because it could easily be another trick up Jenna’s sleeve.

After the memorial, Jason, Ellie’s brother, stopped the girls and thanked them for helping with the memorial and gave them one of Ellie’s bracelets with her name on it to keep.  As the girls began to make their way out to their car, all of the girls received at text, “Ring” “Ring” “Ring” “Ring.”  The text said, I’m still here and I know everything.”

-A