Chapter 1

“Come on! Get on up here, little girl.”

Six-year-old Rachel Evans looked around frantically. She could hear the other kids in school playing on the swings and monkey-bars around the corner. Miss Brown, the recess-monitor, could be heard organizing the games they played. Tag, dodgeball, kickball.

She didn’t know what was going on just around the corner.

Rachel looked up in the tree. John Crowe and Melissa Jackson had already climbed halfway up. Melissa’s twin brother, Michael, was still working his way up, grabbing branch after branch.

John, Melissa, and Michael spent all their time together, and everyone liked them. To be friends with them would make everything so much easier. Everyone would stop picking on Rachel, making fun of her. They’d stop calling her Four Eyes and picking her last for kickball.

She pushed her thick glasses onto her nose and took a deep breath. They weren’t supposed to be away from the other kids. If Miss Brown caught them, they would all be in deep trouble.

“We’re not supposed to be here,” Rachel said. “Miss Brown always says we’re supposed to stay where we can see her.”

Melissa laughed. “See? I told you she wouldn’t do it. She probably can’t see through her four eyes.”

John smiled. Michael made it to the limb opposite his friends. He sat and leaned his weight agaist the tree so he wouldn’t fall.

“It’s not that hard,” he said. “You can do it, Rachel.”

She smiled and blushed. She didn’t know they knew her name.

“I thought her name was Lisa?” Melissa said.

“Her name is Scaredy-Cat,” John said. “She can’t climb a tree.”

Rachel looked down at her clothes. She wore a pink dress her mother had bought for her. It wouldn’t be easy to climb a tree in it.

But she had to try. If she didn’t, they would say bad things about her all over school. They would make fun of her more than they already did.

She didn’t know why the other kids didn’t like her. She heard her parents talking about it one day after dinner. Dad thought it was because he was one of the richer people in town, and everyone else was jealous. Rachel thought it was because Mom was prettier than everyone else’s moms.

Whatever the reason, there were days the kids in her class were relentless. She would get on and off the bus, crying her eyes out. Mom would always be at the bus stop to pick her up, and Rachel had to quickly wipe her eyes and keep from crying so Mom wouldn’t see.

On the days they didn’t pick on her, they didn’t talk to her at all. No one wanted to sit with her at lunch, or play dolls with her.

It was only by freak chance that she was near the corner, playing alone, when she heard John and his friends climbing the tree.

She grabbed the lowest branch of the tree and pulled herself up.

“Well, look at this,” John said.

Melissa shook her head. “She’s not gonna be able to do it.”

Michael laughed. “Probably not. Her glasses are too heavy.”

Rachel gritted her teeth and grabbed another branch. She felt so high up already, but she wouldn’t quit. They were just a few more limbs up, sitting and laughing at her. But she would show them. Then she could greet Mom at the bus stop with a smile instead of tears.

“She’s really doing in,” John said.

Michael nodded. “Maybe she’s not such a wimp after all.”

“Look at that dress,” Melissa said. “It’s so ugly.”

“It’s not ugly,” Rachel said through clenched teeth. “My Mom bought it for me.”

She grabbed the branch John and Melissa were sitting on. Their legs dangled just next to her hands. She was almost there. One more limb to climb.

Her hands slipped.

Her head smacked the limb beneath her as she tumbled to the ground. She landed flat on her back, the back of her head hitting the ground first. Her eyes rolled back in her head.

“The dummy fell!” Melissa said.

Rachel cried. She tried to roll over, but she couldn’t move. She couldn’t see. She had never been so scared in her life. Not even in her bed at night, before Mom checked the closet for monsters.

“Mommy! Help!”

John and his friends climbed down the tree. They all leaned over her.

“Be quiet!” Melissa said. “You’re gonna get us all in trouble.”

“Whoa. What’s wrong with her eyes?” Michael said.

“Please, go get my Mommy.”

“Shut up!” John tried to cover her mouth to quiet her down. “Miss Brown will hear you.”

Melissa grabbed John’s hand and looked at her brother. “Come on. Recess is almost over. Let’s just go.”

“We’ll keep this a secret,” Michael said. “It’s her own fault she fell.”

John nodded. “We’ll lie if she tries to get us in trouble.”

Rachel heard them running away. She tried to reach in the direction she thought the playground was, but she couldn’t move her arm. She couldn’t move anything.

“Mommy, Daddy. Help me,” she cried.

Her head started to ache. The pain settled all around her eyes. Her hands and feet started tingling.

She heard Miss Brown’s voice in the distance.

“Okay, everyone, five minutes left. Start bringing everything in.”

Rachel tried to sit up once again, but a sharp pain ran through her back. She cried out in pain. She felt tears running down her cheeks and dripping to the ground.

The thought ran through her mind that she might die. No one knew where she was, and no one liked her enough to come looking for her.

She thought she heard voices not too far away, from the woods behind the school.

“Oh my God!”

“Let’s go!”

She heard the footsteps running, then stopping near her. She felt a hand on her shoulder.

A girl spoke first. “Are you hurt?”

“I fell,” Rachel said. “From the tree.”

“This is Rachel,” a boy said. “She’s in my class.”

“Her eyes are white. I saw that on TV once. It’s not good. Let’s go get Miss Brown.”

“No. I can help her.”

“Kevin, don’t.”

Rachel heard the both of them move away and start whispering to each other. She tried to think of anyone named Kevin in her class. There was only one she could remember. Kevin Mishnar. He sat in the back of class. He didn’t speak much, never raised his hand to answer any questions. He had an older sister, Kristin, in fourth grade. Everyone made fun of them because they weren’t really brother and sister. They were both adopted. Their parents couldn’t have children.

Rachel heard them once again at her side.

“You shouldn’t do this,” Kristin said. “You’ve never done it on a person before.”

“Rachel, can you get up?”

“I can’t move. My back really hurts. I can’t even see anything. Please, get my Mommy and Daddy.”

“She’s hurt bad. Maybe like a broken back or something.”

“Kevin-”

“It’ll work. It always works. Give me your water.”

Kristin sighed. “I don’t think we should be doing this.”

“Stop, Kristin. Just don’t tell Mom and Dad.”

“Do you think I’m stupid?”

“Sometimes.”

“I’m not stupid. You’re stupid.”

“Shut up.”

Even through the darkness in front of her eyes, Rachel thought she saw something glow bright blue.

“Rachel, drink this water.”

She cried. “I don’t want water. I want my Mom and Dad.”

She felt the water touch her lips. Too much poured down her throat and she started to choke.

“Not too much!” Kristin said. “Just a little at a time.”

“I know what I’m doing.”

Rachel put her hand to her throat to try to stop gagging.

She could move her hand.

“Okay, that’s good,” Kevin said. “A little more.”

She felt a hand under her head. Her head lifted slightly as a bottle was put to her lips.

It was the coldest water she ever drank. It tingled as it went down her throat.

She felt her legs begin to move.

She gripped Kevin’s hand to hold the bottle steady. The pain in her back went away.

“See? I told you.”

“Okay, okay. Just hurry up.”

The darkness went away. She could see again, although everything was blurry. She could see the tree she fell from, the branches and leaves swaying back and forth in the wind.

She saw two shapes huddled over her.

“Her eyes look okay. Let’s go.”

“Do you feel okay, Rachel?”

She blinked a few times. She wiped tears from her eyes. “Yeah.”

“Okay. Come on, Kristin.”

Rachel’s head was lowered back to the ground. The two shapes over her ran away.

She managed to sit up and look back in the direction of the playground. The blurriness around her eyes started to disappear.

She saw a taller girl running with a boy, hand in hand, as they disappeared around the corner. The kids all ran to the doors as the recess bell rang.

She looked up at the tree, at how high up she fell.

She slowly climbed to her feet. There was no pain. She wasn’t even sore. She could see once again. She adjusted her glasses on her face.

Mon and Dad would never believe her.