No one had ever seen such a sad child until they met Olivia Surcre. Olivia was a 10 year old girl who lived in Montpelier, Vermont. Olivia never spoke because her best friend, Paris Spain, had moved to Rome, Italy, and Olivia decided that without a best friend, there was no reason to laugh, play, or talk.

“Mom, Olivia still won’t say anything to me!” Said Olivia’s older sister, Egypt. “She’ll only respond to yes or no questions by nodding or shaking her head.”

“Oh! I sure wish that Paris hadn’t moved away last year!” said Mrs. Surcre.

“Olivia! Come to dinner!” she yelled. Olivia appeared in the doorway of the kitchen. “Oh, there you are honey!”

As the three sat down at the table, Mr. Surcre came into the kitchen (big smile on his face).

“Olivia! I got you a phone!” Olivia looked confused. “You can connect to anywhere in the world!” Olivia shook her head in disbelief.

“She doesn’t want to phone Paris, dad, she wants Paris right here to talk to!” Egypt said.

“But…but…you don’t know how much this cost! I got it from ‘phone shack!’”

“Than go return it!”

“Mom, you know there going out of business!”

“Yeah! You can’t return it!” Mr. Surcre said.

“Than go sell it on S-bay!” Mrs. Surcre yelled.

Meanwhile, Olivia decided to slip out of a discussion that was all her fault, and go up to her room.

Paris, come back! She thought to herself. I need you. We all need you! She thought that to herself over and over again until she brought herself into a gentle sleep.


In the morning, Olivia got up, grabbed some toast and went to school.

When she got there, Georgia came up to her.

“Hey! Um…Olivia!” she said. “I heard about Paris! She moved to Italy! That’s so cool!”

Olivia’s eyes filled up with tears as she shook her head.

“I’ll be your friend.” Georgia replied, not noticing the tears in Olivia’s eyes. Olivia looked down at her shoes.

“If that’s Okay with you!” Georgia said noticing that Olivia was upset. “Olivia?”

“She doesn’t talk dork!” Virginia said as she walked up to Olivia and Georgia. Her curly blonde hair waved behind her.

“She used to be loud, the loudest, but now,” she pushed a few strands of hair from her face to behind her left ear. “She’s silent.”

“What?” Georgia said as she looked to Olivia then Virginia.

“Ever since Paris moved, she’s been,”

“I know Virginia! It’s just, why is she so…silent?” asked Georgia.

“No one knows but her. Not even her own mother knows. They just think it’s because,”

DING! DING! DING!

“Because of Paris!” Virginia yelled over the noise of kids going to homeroom.

Olivia slowly slipped away from Georgia and Virginia and walked with the crowd.

“Olivia! Olivia?” Georgia yelled. She quickly looked around for Olivia, and then went to homeroom.

“Phoenix Alaska!”

“Here!”

“Raleigh Ohio!”

“Here!”

“Georgia Augusta!”

“Present!” said Georgia in homeroom.

“Olivia Surcre!” Silence. “Olivia! Are you here?”

“Everyone looked around the classroom.

“I saw her!” Georgia said while looking around.

A small hand slowly raised in the back row.

“Oh there you are Miss. Surcre! Speak louder!”

“Than what?” Virginia laughed in the front row. She turned around and slapped Phoenix’s hand which was already up.

“Nice one!” said Phoenix.

Georgia gave them both a scary stare. Virginia rolled her eyes.

“O.K.! Class, today in math, we’ll be doing fractions!” said Mr. Boone.

“Oh! Great!” said Phoenix.

“Virginia, make 4/10 as small as you can.”

“8/20?” said Virginia.

“No! What does making it smaller give you? Georgia!”

“1/5?”

“No! Olivia?”

Olivia took a marker and board out of her backpack and wrote down “2/5.”

“Very nice Olivia!”

DING! DING! DING!

“Olivia, stay!”

After all of the kids left, Mr. Boone spoke.

“Olivia, I know that you miss Paris-but there’s no reason not to speak.”

Olivia made an “I know” face, and then Mr. Boone continued.

“You need to start talking.”

Yeah! Yeah! Olivia thought. “Hera’s a pass.”

When Olivia finally got home, she went to the backyard and sat on the pink bench.

“Hey Livy!” yelled a voice. Olivia looked up.

“Paris?” she said. “I knew you would come!” she screamed as she stood up from the bench.

“There was an incident in Rome and mom didn’t want me to live there anymore!”

“Oh! My gosh!” Olivia yelled running up to the brown haired brown faced girl. “I missed you so much!”