Live - Rachael

When living in a beautiful, sunny, hot place like Miami, Florida, what is needed to get away from? I’ll tell you. Boys, tests, a pack of mean girls, the drama with an, “I hate you”, and a “You’re a female dog!” and last of all, parents. I really don’t think there is any place in the world you can go without dealing with most of this. Even if you went to Antarctica, you’d have drama with the penguins! So sometimes you feel like you just have to get away for a while.

Rose Shevoy, is a girl I’ve known for as long as I can remember. However, we did not become good friends until the first grade. She is beautiful, funny, smart, sweet, athletic, and has the best sense of style. She has the most beautiful, long, blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and the whitest teeth. Rose barely even needs make up because her skin is so flawless. She can get almost anything she wants no matter the cost. Rose is just one of those lucky people that doesn’t have to work for their money, they are just born into a rich family. Even though she is rich and you would probably think she’s snobby, stuck up, and only cares about herself, she doesn’t. That is her parents’ personality, and Rose does not want to be like that. She actually cares about people who care about her. And the one person who cares for her the most, is me, Samantha Rousch.

Rose has always been there for me. No matter what time, day or night. What is even better about her is that she puts her problems aside to listen to other people. Because her parents are so snobby, they don’t seem to listen to Rose when she has something to say. Nor do they sit down as a family and have a movie night. They don’t really do anything together. To me, Rose is a wonderful person and I don’t know what I would do without her.

Next I guess you could talk about me. Unlike Rose who plays basketball, volleyball, and softball, I am a cheerleader. Even though almost everyone here at Miami High school despises cheerleaders, Rose doesn’t. Every day she doesn’t have a game, she comes to my games. And everyday I don’t have a game I go to hers. We spend as much time together as possible. And the thing is, we don’t ever get sick of each other, nor do we ever run out of things to say. It seems like we have been best friends forever, which really it almost has. It has been eleven years and will definitely keep going. We are already seniors, and to me, it’s just the beginning.

When I was younger and in the first grade, I didn’t have many friends. One day in class during snack time I realized I had forgotten my snack. Rose sat next to me and saw that I didn’t have one so she offered me some of hers. From that day on, we were the best of friends I am four months younger than Rose. And even though she’s not that much older than me, I still look up to her.

Looking at the differences between us, I guess you could say that they are what make us the best of friends.

Now, you can’t possibly think there are no mean girls at our school. Well, there are definitely some mean girls, but the leader of the pack is Jennifer Matthews, a.k.a. queen of the world.

Being rich is not what makes her so hateful and rude. Neither is being the best at everything. For one, she isn’t rich. And second of all, she most definitely is not the best at everything. Even though she may think so, she’s not. The reason for her snobbiness is the fact that she thinks way too much of herself. Why? I don’t know.

“Oh my gosh. I hate tests,” said Rose. Rose and I sat in the back of the classroom and she sat right next to me.

I replied, “Ughhh, I know!” Mr. Goddard’s class is probably the most boring of all. He teaches Physical Science, and he doesn’t make it interesting at all!

“Hey, what are we doing after school,” I asked.

“Well, I’m not really sure. I need to get my dress for Homecoming. Do you want to go with me to the mall to get it?”

“Yeah. I need to get my dress, too. We can get ours together.” Ring ring. The bell for sixth period rang. As I was walking out the door, I ran into Jennifer Matthews and dropped all of my books.

“Oh my god, you really need to watch where you’re going,” said Jennifer.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t see you there. But you know, if you want an apology, you should probably say something a little bit nicer than that.” Then I thought to myself, She really needs to be nicer to people. I can’t wait until winter break. As I was walking down the hall, I started thinking about what dress I was going to get. I couldn’t wait for that day to be over. I was tired of classes and Miss I-Think-I-Know-It-All.

Sitting in my next class, French 4, I kept going off into space. When it got closer to the end of class, our teacher Madame Laraina gave us our homework assignment. Our homework was an essay, in French, with a topic of whatever we choose. I have a hard enough time writing essays in English let alone in French! That was exactly what I needed. More homework. All that day I had just been loaded with homework. Granted I had all weekend to do it, but still, it was going to be a lot of work.

As I walked out of the school to meet up with Rose, I was moaning and groaning all the way because of my heavy bookbag.

“Rose, I think my back is going to break in half,” I said.

“Well that may be possible considering you’re only a twig,” she replied.

I smiled and replied, “But seriously, this bookbag weighs a ton. Do you have any idea how much homework I have this weekend?!”

We were walking to our favorite clothing shop which wasn’t far from the school and Rose was telling me about her hard day in class. She said she was tired of her teachers giving her unfair grades, stupid Jennifer, and her boyfriend who won’t talk to her for some weird reason. Finally, I had an idea.

“Hey! I have the perfect solution. How about, during Christmas break, we go on a trip. That way we can just get away from everything for a little while,” I said.

“That sounds great! But where will we go?”

I thought for a minute, “What about New York City? We could see all of the beautiful lights, huge Christmas trees, and snow.”

Rose then said, “Well, my parents will have no problem with it because they barley even notice me when I’m at home, let alone me leaving the state.”

“But you know my parents are a totally different story. You know how they are. They barely let me spend the night at your house because they say my home is with them. They don’t think I need to go to other people’s houses to sleep. It will take a lot of convincing,” I replied.

“Oh, don’t worry. I will make sure you go on this trip one way or another,” Rose said reassuring me.

That night when I got home, my parents were in a good mood. This way they were going to be much easier to talk to. I walked into the family room where my mom was watching TV, and my dad was doing paperwork.

“Hi Mom, hi Dad,” I said to them.

“Hi, honey. How was your day?” asked my mom.

I replied with a simple, “Fine.”

Then I just started into it. “Ok, I have a question for you guys. Well, Rose and I were talking today, and we realized we really needed a break from school and tests, and all of that other stuff. Well, we thought if we were to pay for everything, we could go to New York City over Christmas break.”

My dad looked up from his papers with wide eyes. “You thought you could go all the way to New York, by yourselves?”

“Well, yeah. We said we could pay for it and we really need this vacation.” I explained.

After a lot of convincing and discussing, my parents finally agreed to let Rose and I to go on our much needed vacation. However, there was one condition. We had to call every night to let them know we were safe.

About two weeks after that, it was homecoming weekend. I was so excited, and I really needed to do some dancing. When Rose and I had gone shopping for our dresses, I found one that seemed to have been made especially for me. Of course with Rose, everything fit perfectly on her and looked absolutely gorgeous.

When the night of homecoming came, I was so glad. The minute we got there, we started dancing the night away. I had a wonderful night and I think I lost like three pounds. I even danced with Matt Ingland, the hottest guy at Miami High. Rose and I had such a great time and we were so excited because there were only two and a half more weeks until we left for New York.

Two and a half weeks later, we are off of the plane and standing in the New York City airport.

“I can’t believe we are actually here!” exclaimed Rose.

“I know isn’t it amazing?!” I replied.

We were so excited! We hopped into a cab and went to our hotel. When we got there, we couldn’t believe how beautiful it was. The hotel, its view, everything! We couldn’t wait to go sight seeing. As soon as we got our bags to our room, we called for another taxi and had them take us to the car rental shop. We rented a car, and started off around the city.

Rose and I were having the best time looking at everything, taking pictures, and shopping. Later that night, we got to eat at this wonderful Italian restaurant, right in the middle of Times Square. Since we sat right in the front of the restaurant, we got to watch all of the different people walk by and all of the beautiful Christmas lights.

During the next few days, we had gone to so many places, but there was still so much to see. We knew we weren’t going to be able to see it all, but we were going to do as much as possible. Rose and I were having the most fun getting new clothes, eating at really cool restaurants, and just enjoying our time off. Because we were having so much fun, we didn’t think anything bad could happen, nor did we expect it.

Two days later, we were driving around and accidentally took a wrong turn. We thought, Oh, well. We will just keep driving a little more and come out somewhere, then ask for directions. As we were driving, we didn’t see any cars. However, it was a side street so we didn’t expect many. Little did we know, it was a side street, but a one way side street. We kept on driving and started talking about how we were so excited about graduation in a few months. Then about how we promised to go to the same collage as each other, and how we were going to be each other’s bridesmaids when we got married. Rose then told me something that meant so much to me. She said, “Samantha, I am so glad we are best friends. I don’t know what I would’ve ever done without you. I think of you as my sister.” When I heard that I said that I thought of her as a sister to me.

Rose was driving and we were getting ready to turn a corner. Because it was a one way street, there was a car coming from the opposite direction that she could not see because of a building. Then, I remember waking up in the New York City Memorial hospital. When I asked the doctors what had happened, they told me I was in a head-on collision. I asked them what had happened to Rose and then I heard the worst news of my entire life. They told me she was found dead on the spot. She didn’t suffer, but had serious internal bleeding, a broken leg, and a cracked skull. At that point I felt sick at my stomach, I was in shock, and felt like screaming.

“Let me see her! I know she’s not gone. I was just talking to her as we were rounding the corner. You’re wrong!” I was screaming at the doctor. I didn’t know why he was telling me something that wasn’t true.

“Miss, I am very sorry but we tried our best but we weren’t able to bring her back. You can’t get up. Your leg is broken in three different places, you have one broken rib and your arm is broken in two different places. You also have a concussion.” At that point I was getting really dizzy, and was coughing uncontrollably. It soon got very hard for me to breath and the doctor told me that I needed to rest. But I couldn’t rest. No way was I going to lie down and know that my best friend was….dying. It took all of my energy to not burst out in tears when that thought came to my head. I then kept thinking to my self, No! She’s not dead, she’s not dying. It’s me that is hurt and she is completely fine and on her way here to see me. However, something deep down inside me knew that she was gone for good, I just didn’t want to admit it.

I still couldn’t believe anything he was saying. I burst into tears thinking about Rose. I thought about how she wouldn’t be there to graduate with me, or to go to collage with me, or to be in my wedding. Every time I would think of anything we did or what I would do without her, I just started crying more. It has been three days since the accident and I can’t get through anything. I think I might be going crazy. Oh gosh. No! I’m thinking of her again. Tears start streaming down my face as they did when I first woke up in the hospital.

Mr. and Mrs. Shevoy seemed to finally notice their daughter once they had gotten the news that Rose had died in a terrible car accident. I think it’s sad that it took this much, a death, for them to realize how much they valued their one and only daughter. When I got back to Miami, I tried to talk to Rose’s parents, but they seemed too upset to talk about anything at that time. I finally did get to talk to them, but not until three weeks after I had gotten back. I told them how much fun she had and that I missed her so much. I mean, I can’t blame them at all for their tears and sadness. But, it’s really upsetting knowing that they barely ever paid attention to her, and that, in a way, she didn’t have parents. After I had talked to them that day, it was very hard for me to see them on the streets and try to say hi to them.

Everyday at school, I would start crying during second period. The good thing was nobody asked me what was wrong or why I was crying because they knew exactly why. But I was very glad that they didn’t ask me because that meant that I didn’t have to answer them by saying, “My best friend is dead!” I know I really need to move on, but I just can’t seem to. Now that I have lost my best friend in the entire world, I have also lost a part of myself that I can never get back.



Some how I feel like it was my fault for the crash. I just don’t want to know that I lived and Rose didn’t. I think of her everyday. I want everyone to let the people that you love, know you love them because you never know when they won’t be here. It goes to show that you can be here one second, and be gone the next. I will never forget Rose and all the times we spent together.