The Music of Melody

Melody, like many other gods and goddesses, was a mistake. She was never supposed to be born, unlike her sister. You see, Melody's mom, Pelios, god of emotions, had always wanted a child. When she had Achlys though, she knew she had created something awful. Achys came to the world crying, something that had not yet been created. As Achlys grew she created many more horrible things. Sadness, horror, loneliness. She fed on sadness and drank human tears. 

Melody on the other hand was a miracle. Pelios had not meant to create Melody. She had been trying to create a new emotion called joy. Pelios was having a lot of trouble though making a happy feeling when the sadness from Achlys was all over. So when the sadness from Achlys and the happiness from Pelios mixed it created a child. Pelios named her Melody.                    

Melody was the opposite of her sister. She was bold, happy, and gorgeous. As Melody grew she created beautiful things. Flowers, dreams, birds and laughs were some of  her smaller creations, but it didn't stop there. Melody soon created a new way to show happiness. A smile. She also created many emotions with her mom. Melody had some unique powers. Her smile could make anyone who saw it have at least some happiness. It even worked a little on Achlys! Another one of Melody’s powers was her voice. Melody's voice was lovely. When she talked her voice could heal, but also kill. This only worked on humans though and Melody was forbidden to talk around humans as the consequences would be tremendous. And like her mom, Melody could become a child. Most gods did not like Melody. She was always too happy and never serious, but a time comes for everyone, and soon Melodys would too.    

I was in a castle-like home. It was gold, shiny and smelled like fresh flowers. I could hear two people fighting with each other in another room. 

“Stop watching her! Poor girl!” I heard a hypnotizing-like voice say. I felt like dozing off right there, then I heard the next voice. It made my whole body shiver. 

“I don’t have to listen to you,” snapped the cold voice, “Who do you think you are bossing a goddess around?” 

“I’m a goddess too! Get out of my house! I will fix this myself!” Then the person told to leave turned the corner and saw me. “You,” she said in a snake-like voice as she dived at me. 

I awoke with a start. I was panting and my heart was beating fast. Why did I have nightmares like that? They always felt so real. Ignore it, I thought. Just a nightmare. I checked my clock. 

Shoot, I thought. I was gonna be late. I hated school. You had to wake up early and do so much work and then there was Sasha. Sasha was my only friend, and I was hers. I had no friends because people just didn’t like me. I was a “nerd.”  The kids in my class had other things to do and cool friends to hang out with. I was not one of them. Well, Sasha had no friends because she was just awful. She bullied people and hurt others' feelings. I stayed friends with her though because I knew what it felt like to have none.

“Sweetie, are you coming?” I heard my mom say in a tired, sad voice. It had been like that since my parents divorced. I hated my parents for that. Like I needed more sadness in my life. 

“I’m coming,” I replied as I slipped on my clothes and walked down the stairs. Our new house was a mess. There were clothes and cat food everywhere. It smelt like dust and mold. I heard our cat scraping at the door and brushed his long warm fur as I let him out. My mom saw my upset face and frowned.

“It can’t be that bad,” she said. She knew I hated school mostly because of Sasha. “If she is so mean just stop hanging out with her!’’

“I want to, but at the same time, I can’t just leave her,” I replied as I stuffed my mom's glorious pancakes into my mouth. We talked a little more than said goodbye to each other as my bus arrived. 

The bus ride, like always, was boring. When I got to school and was waiting with the rest of the kids outside for the school doors to open, I saw Sasha yelling at a group of 6th graders. Then I saw something else. A new girl! I loved when new people came around. They were a new chance for a friend. I knew she would probably go straight to all the cool girls, but it was worth a shot.

“Um hi,’’ I said. Why was I doing this? There was no way she was going to like me. The new girl stared at me and her eyes lit up. She opened her mouth to talk, but did nothing. I stared at her blankly. Was I that awful that this girl couldn’t even talk to me?

Sasha came up to me and laughed.  “The idiot can’t talk Mi.”

“She can’t talk?” That’s really weird I thought as I watched the big school doors open and heard the rush of kids trying to get to their classes. 

“Come on Mika, the doors are finally open,” Sasha said. That was the closest she had ever gotten to getting my name right!

“Ya, I will be right there. I have to use the restroom first. I’ll catch up,” I replied. Sasha said ok and I watched as she entered the building.

The new girl had not moved and instead of going to the bathroom, I tried talking to her again. She saw me staring and made a slight movement of her fingers. Then she did something I thought must be sign language. The weird thing though was I understood. 

“Hi, do you want to be friends,” I said reading her sign language. This is so cool I thought to myself. I can read sign language! When I snapped out of my fase I realized what the girl had just asked me. 

“You want to be friends with me? We don’t even know each other's name!”

“Well let's fix that! I am Melody and your Mia!” I read her hands again. I could tell Melody wanted that to sound happy because she added an exclamation mark at the end of her sentence.

“Wait, how do you know my name?” I said. Melody tensed as I asked the question.

Um, Sasha told me,” she signed rather quickly.

“How do you know Sasha's name?” I was getting scared now. Melody looked uncomfortable too.

“You know what,” I said, “Nevermind.” If this girl wanted to be my friend, I wasn’t gonna ruin it.

“What’s your favorite color?” I asked. We continued to talk until our classes started that day, then between classes and after school. I was having the best day ever!

Days passed and me and Melody became very close. We told each other secrets and what boys we liked. I didn’t even care about my parents separating anymore! I had so much happiness in my life, how could I think about the small unimportant sad things? Though I didn’t know much about Melody's family I knew she had a sister nicknamed A. I thought her family must be a hard topic to talk about, just like mine, so I didn’t push her

Sasha of course was not happy with Melody. She thought I couldn’t understand her, which of course I could, and thought Melody was a useless jerk. Sasha wanted all my attention on her. She officially hated Melody, but I think she knew nothing she could do would separate us. 

One day, Melody said she couldn’t meet up with me after school. I thought this was weird. She had been doing it for about a month. What was so important that she couldn't walk with me back home? I knew I was risking everything, but I wanted to know what Melody was up to. 

I walked very quietly as I followed my friend. She was heading towards the forest, but why? I kept walking and eventually did end up in the forest. Melody was freaking me. Again! The really freaky part was not Melody though, it was the cloaked, shadow-like figure that had just appeared behind me. Every little piece of me wanted to scream, but I could not let Melody know I was following her. All I could do was hide, and hope the figure hadn't already seen me. I jumped into a sharp bush and realized I had forgotten about Melody. Had I just left my friend in danger! I peaked my head out of the bush and saw Melody signing to the stranger! That stranger was definitely bad. I felt something awful reculating from her or him. Why was Melody here? Was my friend some sort of spy? Was she being forced to like me? Did she even like me at all? Ok, now I was really freaking out. 

Really wanting to know what was going on, I had to eavesdrop. I heard two voices. The second one must have been another cloaked figure. The voices were very faint, but I could still understand them. 

“What are you doing to my human Melody!” said a scary, snake-like voice that I remembered hearing in my dreams. 

“Just helping her out!” said a hypnotizing voice I had also heard in my dreams. I guess that had to be Melody! I was devastated! Melody had lied to me all this time. She could talk! I tried to stand up so I could knock some sense into my liar of a friend, but for some reason, my legs were too weak. I kept attempting to stand up until I heard the voices again.

“Your human disguise was stupid Melody. You didn’t even change your name.” the mean voice said. Human disguise! What did that mean? Melody was definitely a spy.

“I can do what I want to help my new friend!” Melody said

“Stop getting ideas. You are going against everything we stand for. Helping humans and befriending them! You're a goddess Melody, start acting like one! At this point, their voices were yelling more than talking.

My legs got stronger so I stood up and could finally see the people I was hearing. A goddess, no way! Then as if to prove me wrong, the cloaked figure, or should I say god, disappeared! And then I saw Melody. She was huge, beautiful, and definitely not a child! This couldn't be Melody! Again, as if to prove me wrong, Melody shrunk right before my eyes and became the Melody I knew. I couldn't believe it. I was being lied to by everyone. My best friend was a fake. She was just my friend to make me feel better because I had no friends. I saw Melody watching me as I ran out of the forest, crying, and headed home.

Ever since then, I had not talked to Melody. I had nothing to say to her. Sasha and I started hanging out again and even though it was awful, I thought it was better than nothing. I hung out with Sasha for another miserable month until one day, Sasha took it too far. She told me to hurt someone, or she would hurt me. Of course, I didn’t want to hurt anyone, but Sasha still hurt me. She hit me right across the face. I ran to the bathroom and stayed there for a long time. My cheek was burning with pain and my head was spinning. Melody came in once and stared at me for a while. Then, she did something I never thought she would do. She spoke to me.

“You are in pain.” said the most beautiful voice I had ever heard. This was the first time Melody's voice hadn’t made me dizzy. It was actually making me feel better. I stared at her confused.

“Ah yes,” she said, having understood my look. “As you have just found out, I am a goddess. My weapon is my voice. It can kill humans, but it can also heal them if they are in pain. You have only ever heard my voice faintly, but if I was talking directly to you, you would be in danger. Of course, you are fine right now though because my voice is healing you. Listen, I am sorry I faked being your age, but you are still my friend. I had to help you. My sister was ruining many lives like yours just so she could be more powerful. It was awful. Well, I was around so I thought I’d help you out. It was the most fun I had ever had in a long time. You really are amazing Mia.”

I smiled. I felt better knowing that Melody still had normal feelings and problems.

“You're amazing too,” I said as we went in for a hug. Just then Sasha came in.

“Eww! What are you doing? Why are you with her!” Sasha was devastated, but I didn’t care. Melody it seemed, did. She grew to her full height and snapped her fingers. Then Sasha, having absolutely no clue what was going on, became a slimy animal.

“What is that,” I said, laughing. Sasha looked really gross. She was green with big eyes and a huge mouth.

“I don’t know what it is. I just thought I wanted to make her something really nasty and here she is. What should I call it Mia?” I felt so honored! A god wanted me to name her creation! I also felt a little embarrassed. I had no clue what to call Melodys creation. Then as if to answer my question Sasha named herself. I think originally she wanted to say a bad word, but couldn’t finish it and instead made a sound that sounded like rog. 

“Frog,” I said  “Let's call it a frog.” Sasha, or should I say the frog, continued to make weird noises until I opened the bathroom window and threw her out. That was the best thing I had ever done in my life.

Me and Melody hung out for the rest of the school year. We were best friends. I didn’t care who Melody really was or where she came from anymore. We liked each other and that's what mattered.

On the last day of school, Melody was acting weird. She had to leave. I knew she had stayed the entire rest of the year just for me. I also knew she was a goddess and had more responsibilities than hanging out with a child, but did she have to leave so soon? 

I realized I was being selfish, but I knew I would never have another friend like Melody.

Me and Melody meet after school that day to say our goodbyes. This was very hard for me and her. 

We took a very long time parting until we only had a few things left to say. “You promise you will visit?” I said.

“Yes, of course I will!” Melody signed. We hugged very tightly and a tear came from my eye.

“Wait, I have something for you!” I read from Melody's hands.

“What more could you give me?” I joked.

“A gift!” Melody answered. I looked for wrapping paper. “No silly, not that type of gift. A godly gift!” I was really confused now. “So I know that sometimes for you words just aren’t enough so now instead of talking you can sing!”

“What?’’ I knew Melody had created something for me but I lost her after that. “Anyway, listen to what I created!’’ All of a sudden I heard something that made my heart flutter. Melody was talking, but her words were exaggerated and held out. There was noise in the background and she was kinda singing, as Melody called it, along with it. 

I instantly covered my ears. “What are you doing,” I said, “You’re going to kill me!

“It’s ok,” Melody smiled, “When I sing my voice doesn't do any harm!” That was hard for me to believe but I uncovered my ears and I was fine.

“Melody, it’s beautiful. I can’t believe you made this for me!” I was on the urge of crying again.

“I hope you like it.” Melody said, “I worked really hard trying to create something perfect for you” 

“Melody?” I said, “You know that thing you just did. Can we name it a melody after you?

“Really?” Melody replied. She looked like she was about to cry too. 

“Of course,” I answered

“Well, melody it is!” Melody said happily. We hugged one last time and then I watched as Melody disappeared. What a year, I thought to myself as I walked home.