Kahlil:
The sun warmed my scales as I stared out the window, watching a bird fly by. I bet the feathers would make the bird taste dry but the meat would be delicious. I felt a thrill imagining going after it outside, but I knew I couldn't risk it. What would the neighbors think if they saw me? No, I should just wait for Maya. I pressed my body against the glass, closing my eyes. I wonder what she's doing right now.

Maya:
The final bell couldn't ring fast enough. I grabbed my backpack and swung it over my shoulder, careful not to catch my long black hair in the straps.
“Hey, Maya! Did you hear me?”
I turned around. It was Jake Berrodona, who had previously given me a tour of the high school. He smiled, scratching his short brown hair and saying, “Do you need any help finding the buses? I know I had a hard time when I was new.”
I smiled back and said, “Actually, that would be great. This school is so much bigger than my old school.” Wow people are so nice here. Or is it just Jake who’s nice? Or is Jake being especially nice just to me? AGH I’m over-thinking things.
He walked next to me, pointing out different things in the halls and asking me questions. “Do you like Florida or California better?” He smiled when he talked to me. He’s really attractive.
I said, “Florida, I think, just because everyone and everything I know is there.”
He said, “Yeah, I felt that way when I moved here two years ago, except I used to live in Massachusettes. How was Florida? Is it as warm as California?”
“Yeah, it was pretty hot in Florida, but it was beautiful. The Everglades were nearby, and we lived close to the beaches,” I said, as we neared the buses.
“We’re partners on the Civil Rights project, so can you give me your number and I’ll give you mine so that we can work on it?” He sounded unsure; he looked away from me while he talked. When he finished talking he looked at me with a goofy sort of smile, head tilted slightly to the right.
“Sure,” I said, giving him my phone so that he could put in his number. I sent him a text.
“Well, there’s my bus, and I think yours is over there”, Jake said, pointing. “If you get lost or anything, just ask,” he said.
“Thanks,” I said, and we walked to our separate buses.
When I got home, I dropped my backpack on the kitchen floor and started poking in the fridge for something to eat. I found an apple and took a bite out of it. When I closed the fridge, I heard a sound. It was a dragging sound, soft, yet rubbery. Mmm this apple is great. I finished my apple, and I grabbed my backpack and started heading for the stairs. “Mom! Where are you?”
“Maya!” Mom was calling from the basement. “I’m just unpacking. Maybe you should start too.”
I headed up the stairs and into my room, boxes surrounding my bed like towers around a fortress. There was that dragging sound again, softer because it was on carpet. It was a shhhh shhh sound. So many boxes blahhhh. Oh well, let’s get started. I grabbed a box and opened it. There were pictures inside from when I was four. I was swinging in the park and there was another girl next to me swinging too. She had my same brown eyes and tan skin, but her hair was longer. We were dressed in matching red dresses with white polka dots. I put the pictures back in and closed the box and stretched out on my bed facing the ceiling. No use looking at these pictures if I’m just gonna get sad. There was a breathing sound in my room. Hissing. A tendril of cold leathery skin wrapped itself around my hands. The dark green skin pressed against my fingers.
“Kahlil, get off of me,” I said, shaking the snake off of my fingers. Kahlil stared at me, her predator eyes judging me.
“How was school?” She asked, her voice soft and whispery.
“Oh it’s just school,” I said, turning on my side. Khalil slid next to me, all fifteen feet of her. I loved the way her cool scales felt and the diamond designs they made. We got into our usual position, with her tail wrapped around my arm and the rest of her body piled onto my stomach and spilling over. She used to fit on my torso when I was younger, but now she was too big.
“Didn’t you make any friends?” she asked.
“I don’t need friends, I’ve got you,” I said, patting her head, my eyes still turned to the ceiling.
“People must feel what a loser you are. Now that I think about it, ugliness sends people running too,” she said, her tone joking, and her whisper of a voice taking on a whisper of sass.
I sat up and looked at Kahlil, adding sass to my own voice. “Now hold on, I am not ugly, I’m just facially challenged and-”
“Maya, I’m kidding. I think you’re pretty,” Kahlil said, doing her snake laugh that sounded like puffs of air.
“Well, I must not be completely hideous, because there is one person…” I said.
“Then stick with her,” she said.
“Him,” I said. “We’re partners on a History project.”
“Ohhhhh, a him.” Kahlil slowly blinked her eyes at me. “Do you have pictures? Oh, Let’s Facebook stalk him.”
“Already on it,” I said, getting up to grab my laptop. We spent a while scrolling through his page. Kahlil pointed out how good looking he was and we laughed together at his funny posts.

Kahlil:
I get so bored when Maya goes to school. Maya’s mom is kind, but she doesn’t understand me like Maya. I still feel a connection with Mrs. Calstin, since she was the person who found me. I even hatched in her hands. They tell me it happened only days after Kylie, Maya’s twin died. Kylie drowned in the Everglades; she got stuck under water while she was swimming near mangrove tree roots. They found the egg that I hatched from a few days later, in a spot near the tree. Ever since then, Mrs. Calstin agreed to let Maya take care of me as a pet, but no one predicted that we would become so close. At first, the Calstins were alarmed when they would find Maya, a mere seven year old, in deep conversation with me and calling me Kylie. They couldn’t hear me when I talked back. The Calstins asked Maya to call me something different, so she picked the name Kahlil. It was confusing to first be called Kylie then have to answer to Kahlil. But I understand why that change needed to happen.
Mr.Calstin leapt at the opportunity to work in California, far away from the Everglades and the depressing memories they held. The Calstins were also concerned with how Maya only wanted to spend time with me and ignored human kids.
I slithered my way to Maya’s room, where I found Maya’s mom organizing clothes. She noticed me and made space for me on the bed in between Maya’s sweaters. I nestled myself in and settled for a nap. It was so fluffy and soft, and it smelled like Maya’s shampoo: lavender. I felt Mrs. Calstin’s hand stroking my head. Her touch was warm and familiar.

Maya:
“Mr. Gale isn’t letting me off easy, even if I did just move. Ugh Chemistry is horrible I’m so lost!” I said, putting my head down on my papers.
“Hey, just chill, I got you,” said Jake. We were sitting across from each other in Chemistry, partners in an impossible lab assignment. Although he was getting it, so impossible for only one of us.
He rolled a pencil at me. “Look, we can hang out after school today and we can work on Chem and that Civil Rights project.” Hang out? HANG OUT? YES PLEASE. Then I remembered a little green slithery something. Damn it.
“I don’t know Jake, my parents are strict and we’re still unpacking...” I said. The truth was, I didn’t want him to know about Kahlil. She freaked people out. Cross that, we freaked people out.
“That’s fine. Are your parents okay with you coming over to my house?” He asked.
“Oh-Lemme just call my mom.” I was pleasantly surprised. This was the first person, let alone guy, that had invited me over.

Kahlil:
She was late. What happened? I stared out at the driveway, the light fading, the neighbor’s house getting harder to see. At last I heard Mrs. Calstin’s car leave the garage and drive out, and when she returned she brought back Maya. I waited at the front door. Maya walked in and put down her backpack, then sat at the dinner table while Mrs. Calstin heated some leftover chicken Alfredo.
“Where were you?” I asked.
Maya’s eyes were bright and she had a small smile. She lowered her voice so that only I could hear it. “Remember that guy we looked up yesterday?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, I was at his house today.”
I felt myself going limp with surprise. “Explain.”
“Don’t worry, it was just homework. But Kahlil, he’s great. He’s so sweet and easy to talk to. He’s hilarious.”
“Good, good.” I slithered away to let her eat.
How could she make friends so fast? Not even friends, it sounds like this guy could be more. And I was supposed to just wait for her all day, only to be ignored? We were supposed to be there for each other, why was everything changing? Maya wouldn’t be there to spend time with me, laugh with me at funny You Tube videos, or even complain to me about the jerks at school. My world was falling apart
“Hey Kahlil?” Maya called over to me.
“Yeah Maya?” I was dreading looking at her.
“I was hoping that Jake could come over. We need to use some of dad’s power tools aaand I want your opinion on him, of course. Can we please not be weird or anything?”
Weird. Alrighty. “Sure. Let him come over.” I was distraught. This Jake was going to ruin my life.

Maya:
“You can take your shoes off here,” I told Jake.
“Thanks. You’ve got a really nice house,” he said, smiling at me.
“Thanks.” I stared at him in silence for a little bit as he took off his shoes. His hair looks really good from this angle. Oh now he’s staring at me, be cool, be cool. “Okay, dad keeps his power tools in the basement, so let’s go get them.”
“After you,” he said.
We went down to the basement, which was unfinished, so it was kind of sketchy. I heard a loud thud. Kahlil no, please, not now!
“Whoa what is that?” Jake stopped going down the stairs. I stopped and looked back at him.

Kahlil:
I heard them coming down the stairs. He was chatting Maya up. Pig. I stared at him through a pile of knick knacks. He was indeed attractive. All the more reason to hate him. I lifted part of my body off of the floor and let gravity carry me down. I could hear Jake’s surprise. I knocked over some of the stuff on top of the pile of junk in front of me. It clattered as it fell.
“Is there someone down here?” Jake asked.
“I don’t know, umm let me check,” Maya said, panic in her voice. If there was a time to quit these scare tactics, it would be now. Should I back off and let them hang out in peace? But if I do, then Maya would never be home, she’d be too busy for me. But if I scared Jake away, would Maya forgive me? She has to. We’re best friends. More than best friends, we’re as close as two separate beings can get. Aw, but she’s gonna hate me. Either way I’m going to lose her! What do I do? I’m too far into this now.

Maya:
I tried to calm down and get Jake out of there.” Don’t worry about it. I’ll get the tools and you can wait upstairs,” I said. KahlilKahlilKAHILIL WHAT THE HELL.
Jake poked my shoulder.” And leave you alone with whatever murderer is down here? I don’t think so,” he said, flexing his muscles sarcastically. At any other moment, I would be all over that, but not right now.
I heard some more thuds. Then I heard the sliding sound that signaled Kahlil’s approach. Though familiar to me, I’d imagine it sounds terrifying to anyone else. And then the power went out. This. Cannot. Be happening. KAHLIL NOOOOO.
I heard Jake say, “Maya! What’s going on?”
“I’m here, just stay close!” I answered. “Let’s go back upstairs.” I felt his hand on my shoulder. Once again, I would’ve been all for that if it wasn’t for Kahlil’s stupid demon mimicry.
The light turned back on, and I saw Jake’s face. He looked at me, and then looked down towards the basement. I saw his expression change, his eyes widened, he let go of my shoulder and backed away, one hand pressed towards the wall to his side and the other behind him. I turned and I could already imagine what he was backing away from. There she was. She was beautiful, but a dangerous kind of beautiful, her jade skin gleaming, her bright eyes with slits for pupils, body on the ground but head and neck lifted menacingly. Jake looked at me, one hand extended and said, “GET AWAY FROM IT MAYA! Get out, let’s go!” I stared back at Kahlil. How could she do this to me? Alienate the first friend I’ve ever made?
“AHHH!” I screamed, as realistically as I could, pushing Jake in front of me. Jake ran up the stairs. “DAAD HELP, THERE’S A SNAKE!!!”
I saw Kahlil back down, lessening her height. Her expression was surprised and sad, her slit-eyes grew into circles and her mouth was slightly open and slightly turned down. I stared at Kahlil levelly. You chose this, Kahlil. I turned off the light and started closing the door, staring at Kahlil the whole time. I felt like I was shutting the door on so much: shutting the door on my old life without any friends, shutting the door on loneliness, shutting the door on weirdness. “I won’t forgive you,” I whispered, finally closing the door all the way, leaving her in the shadows.

Kahlil:
Sitting in the dark, I felt like someone ripped me to pieces. I deserve this. I’ll bet she never talks to me again. I would deserve that too. “I’m sorry Maya,” I whispered, my words vanishing in the dark.