PROLOGUE

 
 
It was during the summer of her eighth
birthday when Clarice met her two best friends, Whitney and Elise.
The three little darlings were destined to share the same fate—
spinsters who would ultimately meet their Casanovas in their very
own weird ways.
On this particular day, they were out on the
playground of their elementary school, swinging on the monkey bars.
Clarice, who had never really had any real friends before, asked
this very odd question that had been boggling her mind for a little
while. “Friends. What are they for?”
Pretty Elise, with her sunny blond hair and
bright sky-blue eyes, chimed in eagerly, “Friends are your teddy
bear. He comforts you when you cry. He’s like your cozy pillow or
your favorite blankie. He’s warm, like Mummy and Daddy.”
“They’re your Kleenex tissue,” Whitney said,
nodding her dark head. “For wiping your runny nose and teary eyes.
You get that when you cry. He’s like Mummy and Daddy, all warm and
cozy.”
“Is that all?” Clarice asked in wonder, her
dark-brown eyes large.
“There’s more! There’s more!” Whitney said,
hopping in her spot, eager for her friends to listen to her very
wise words, her braided hair bouncing about. Then she proceeded to
dance and clap her hands like a monkey. “Friends are always there
with you, always around you, like right now. I’m happy. I’m
clapping my hands because I have my friends with me. Clap with me,
Clarice.” She grinned widely at the half-Kiwi, half-Cambodian girl.
“Clap with me, Elise.” She urged them to clap and dance with her.
The clueless two happily followed her lead and began clapping their
hands and dancing silly dances, like clowns in a circus.
“See, friends make each other look like
fools, but they still have fun,” Whitney said wisely.
“So will you promise to be my teddy bear, my
comfort pillow, my favorite blankie, and Kleenex tissue, then?”
Clarice asked her two friends.
“Sure,” Elise said.
“You bet on it,” Whitney replied.
“Promise?” Clarice wanted to make sure they
weren’t going to run out on her. After all, she knew no one else
wanted to be her friend, since she was so different.
“Promise?” Elise and Whitney said in
unison.
“Let’s pinky swear, then,” Clarice
suggested.
“Yes, pinky swear,” Whitney said,
grinning.
Elise nodded in agreement.
Clarice entwined her left pinky with
Whitney’s. On the right side, she entwined with Elise’s left, while
Elise had her right pinky with Whitney’s left. In turn, the three
friends formed a circle, an endless unity of friendship.
“We promise to be great friends. We promise
to pick each other up when the other falls. We promise to be your
teddy bear, your favorite blankie and your Kleenex tissue. We
promise to laugh with you when you laugh. We are sisters as well as
friends. From now on, we are one.” Then they leaned forward until
all three foreheads touched.
“Friends,” they all said in unison. Then
they pulled back and smiled their cheesy, toothy smiles at each
other.