"Friendship is Measured by the Heart" Story Sample

Chapter 1

Destiny Justice Blue loved to draw. She would spend hours in her room, using her favorite pencil to sketch stroke after stroke, devising animals, plants, and portraits. While sitting in her bedroom one day, she noticed a rose clinging to its bush. Destiny pictured herself, desperately holding on to the life she once had, with her father. Drawing took her mind away from her dad’s car crash and her mom’s on-and-off depression. 

Jean Angelina Giselle enjoyed taking trips to the mall with her friends, leaving her mom and dad to continue fighting at home. She escaped the horrors of her yelling parents, and sometimes faced sleepless nights, divorce papers ferreting her mind, wondering if they would come sooner or later.

Alaina Rose Chance’s passion was singing. She downloaded songs onto her iPod continuously, engrossing herself in the comforting words of artists and their pain. Alaina had been born with a paralyzed left arm. Luckily, she wrote with her right hand, but she was scoffed at for not being normal like everyone else at her school. Sometimes, even her friends were too embarrassed to be seen with her.

Annabella Miranda Taylor yearned for reading. Her parents hated her, as if she was a scab that they couldn’t wait to peel off and flick away. Everyday, her mother went to the casino, her father hurried over to his work at the bank, and her brother, Terry Raymond Taylor, walked to school. Annabella always carried a book around with her, and she learned to walk to school while looking down. The characters seemed more veritable than her parents. 

Laurie Victoria Adkins had a liking for school. A straight-A student, and on Perfect Attendance, she could run away from home to the open arms of her sympathetic teachers, who all rued her. Her parents were poor, and sometimes Laurie would come home with no dinner. In the morning, there was no breakfast. Lunch? Forget about it, unless you count accepting a half-eaten tuna sandwich from her one and only friend, Michelle Faye Duerre. At night, Laurie would sleep on the floor, full of trepidation, fearing if her parents could afford to send her to school the next day.

Danielle Andrea Medina found pleasure in writing fiction stories. She poured herself into her made-up characters, who all had vitality, unlike her. Danielle grew up with four brothers, who all vexed her. She could run away from her brutal life, and act like nothing was wrong. But she lived a lie.