Sara Bennett was a very pretty child. She had bright blue eyes, and long blonde hair that sparkled in the sunlight. Sara’s best friend was Kelly Miller. Kelly was a plain girl, with straight brown hair and brown eyes. Sarah and Kelly were inseparable. Kelly didn’t comment on how Sara took all of the boys' attention; Sara didn’t take note that Kelly was smarter than her. They tended to focus solely on their similarities.

They both liked soccer. They liked to make friendship bracelets in Kelly’s room, and do makeovers on her little brother who couldn’t talk enough to refuse them. They both loved listening to Katy Perry, dancing around into the late hours of the night singing along to “California Girls.” They were always in the same classes, and hung out almost every day. People referred to them as ‘two peas in a pod,’ and they adored it. 

Never once did they have a fight. In 8th grade, Kelly liked a boy named Johnny. She gushed to Sara about him day in and day out, but Johnny didn’t like her back. Johnny liked Sara. When Sara and Johnny started dating each other, Kelly obviously didn’t want to cause any trouble. So they didn’t talk about it. They were the perfect best friends, and fighting would cause unneeded distress.

In 10th grade, Sara and Kelly both dearly wanted a $100 abercrombie sweater that was all the rage. They both put it on their list, but on Christmas morning, the only sweater was sitting under Kelly’s tree. Naturally, she told Sara the good news. The next day, Kelly couldn’t find her sweater anywhere. She saw a photo Sara had posted from that day, wearing the soft pink cardigan that Kelly had been so excited to receive that Christmas morning. Sara had stopped by 

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on Christmas evening, to drop off her present for Kelly. Kelly knew that was when she took it. It was the only probable answer. But she didn’t say anything about the photo, especially not to Sara. That would require a confrontation, and Sara and Kelly didn’t fight. They were the bestest of friends, and only wanted each other happy.

When she was alone late at night, Kelly would often imagine what it would be like to be Sara. To have the most popular boys swoon over you even without makeup. To be able to get away with almost anything. Everyone liked Sara better than Kelly; Teachers, boys, girls, little kids, dogs. Even Kelly’s own parents would ask almost every day if Sara was coming around. 

One memorable afternoon, Kelly arrived home without Sara by her side. Her mother had sighed and said, “Sara lights up this house, doesn’t she? I’ve never met a teenager so sweet. You should take some notes from her, Kells, you really should.” Little did her mother know that at Sara’s own home, she was horrible to her parents. Just horrible. She wished her mother could see her lovely Sara then, ordering her own mom around left and right. Kelly herself didn’t mind that Sara was like that at home. At least it wasn’t her Sara was yelling at for once. But it would be nice for Kelly to be seen as the good friend, just one time. It really would.

Though Kelly wished she were Sara, she also wished she could ruin Sara, wished she could remove her from earth or dye her golden locks a hideous green. But she never said these things out loud. Because she loved Sara. Sara was her best friend forever; her twin flame. They were inseparable, and Kelly really couldn't imagine a life better than one with Sara Bennett at her side.

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Kelly and Sara continued through high school, side by side. Sara stealing things from Kelly became quite the norm between the two of them. Never spoken of, obviously. Sara would come over to Kelly’s house every week, and each time she left, Kelly would be missing another prized possession. A hairbrush, a t-shirt, a pack of earrings, even her favorite pair of Converse disappeared from her closet. Kelly never spoke a word to Sara about it.

At times, Kelly’s anger grew large inside of her. She didn’t know why Sara got to walk all over her; she took everything from Kelly. Boys, friends, and now belongings. Kelly wanted Sara to understand how that felt, just for a second. Truly, she just wanted to give her a good slap across the face; Bring Sara to her senses. Kelly wanted to make her realize what she was doing; see why it wasn’t fair, not even a little bit.

True, Kelly only thought these bad thoughts sometimes. She loved Sara, she really did. But she couldn’t help but notice that she also had hatred for her best friend, and it was definitely growing stronger. It would creep up on her randomly during the day, hitting in the middle of math class when Sara would stare across her desk at Kelly’s paper during the unit test, copying every one of her answers down on her own paper. It would bubble up during lunch when Sara would trade the two girls' lunches without asking, Taking Kelly’s ramen noodles and handing over her own bag of salt and vinegar chips. Kelly hated salt and vinegar.

One morning, in the middle of English class, Mrs. Ryans approached the table where Sara and Kelly were sitting, side by side. She looked past Sara’s eyes and straight into Kelly’s.

“Kelly,” her teacher started, “You missed the deadline for the essay. I am going to have to give you a 0. You’re usually such a good student, what happened?” Mrs. Ryans shook her head and walked away from the table.

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At that moment, Kelly froze. She knew she had turned in that essay. She spent hours finalizing it; reading over her words obsessively, adding footnotes, making it as close to perfect as possible. Making that 200 point assignment as perfect as possible. What Kelly also knew was that last night she had shared her essay with Sara. Sara had said that she was struggling with her conclusion, and that it would help to “Just see what you have written and work off of that.” But now Kelly knew, that’s not all she had done. She had stolen her essay.

Kelly did not react at the moment. She didn’t want to cause a scene. But sitting on her couch later that night, trying to distract herself by scrolling through Instagram, she decided that enough was enough. Sara needed to get some payback. Kelly didn’t want to do anything bad, really. Just a little prank. Enough to make Sara feel something other than amazing. She pulled up her notes app, and formulated a plan.

Friday started like any normal day. Kelly woke up at 7:00, got dressed, and ate cereal. She got to school at 8:29. The school day went by smoothly enough–she had half of her classes with Sara that day. Lunch was fine. Kelly wasn’t sad when Sara took her favorite juice right from her lunch box. Nor did she retaliate when Sara called her outfit ugly. Kelly was content for the first time in years. She had a plan; one that would end up wiping that smug look right off her best friend’s face. And that made Kelly quite happy.

Late that night, Kelly opened her bedroom door and creeped quietly down her hallway and down the stairs. She threw on a pair of sneakers and a hoodie, and walked out the front door. It took her about 7 minutes to arrive at Sara’s house. She knew that two-story, blue suburban house like the back of her hand. She grabbed the spare key out of the flower pot to the right of the door, and let herself in the house without so much as a squeak. As she walked up the steps to 

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the second floor, she could hear loud white noise coming from the first door on the left. Sara couldn’t sleep without it. This was the factor that cemented Kelly’s ability to perform the task at hand. She turned the doorknob slowly and pushed the door, making sure to only open it halfway. If it went any further, it would creak. Kelly knew this about Sara’s door - It had always annoyed her.

She walked over to the right side of the bed, and took Sara’s light pink water bottle off of the coaster propped on the edge of her bedside table. Kelly turned around, and tiptoed right back out of the bedroom. She went across the hall into Kelly’s bathroom, and rummaged through her vanity drawers until she found what she was looking for. Bleach. She was the only person who knew that Sara had started dying her hair. It had been turning brown at the roots, and Sara was a blonde at heart. She couldn’t handle the change, so she started dying it at home. It had been their little secret. Kelly took a scoop of the powder and poured it into Sara’s hydro flask. This bleach– Kelly hoped–would make Sara sick, hopefully make her throw up. Sara hated throwing up. Kelly screwed back the cap of the water bottle, returned the bleach into its rightful place and closed the door behind her. 

Backtracking her steps, Kelly placed the water bottle by Sara’s bed, closed her bedroom door, walked down the stairs and through the front door, and strolled all the way back to her own house. Falling asleep that night, Kelly felt better than she had in what seemed like forever.

The next morning, Kelly awoke to the sound of her mother quietly knocking on the door of her bedroom, which was already partially ajar. This was unusual. Her mom usually let Kelly sleep in on Saturday mornings, and her clock only read 8:03. She rubbed her eyes, sat up in bed and called her mom into the room.

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Mrs. Miller walked in, perching delicately on the side of Kelly’s bed. “Hey sweetie. I don’t know how to say this. But Sara -” here she paused, seemingly choking on her words. She took a deep breath and continued. “Honey, Sara died last night.”

“What do you mean, died?” Kelly asks, all the tiredness leaving her body at once.

“I don’t know exactly what happened. All I know is that her mom found her this morning. Some sort of complications while she was sleeping, I guess.” Kelly’s mother shook her head sadly, tears brimming her eyes.

Kelly didn’t know what to say. Her insides felt like water and she couldn’t make sense of the thoughts in her brain. She knew what had happened to Sara. She knew that it was she who snuck in the house, poisoned the water, and placed it right beside Sara Bennet’s bed. She knew that she had killed her best friend.

With panic seeping through her body, Kelly turned away from her mother, her gaze latching on to a large oak tree, standing right next to her bedroom window. This tree had been there for as long as Kelly could remember. She stared at this tree, noticing the wide blue sky displayed behind its delicate branches. Then, Kelly smiled.