They were never sure just which one of them saw the necklace first. They finally agreed that they both saw it at the same time, which was close enough to the truth for it not to matter.
It was the very first day of summer vacation, and they had weeks of glorious freedom stretching out before them. They were ten years old, and there are few things more wonderful to a ten-year-old than the first day of summer break. They were old enough to appreciate the break from the drudgery of school, but still too young to have the drudgery of a summer job.
To celebrate all that wonderful freedom they had taken a bike ride through their neighborhood, swinging through a small local park. A glint of silver just off the path caught their eyes, prompting Gwen, in the lead, to brake, saying "What's that?" at the same time as Val, bringing up the rear, had yelled, "Stop! I see something!"
It was half hidden in a flower bed, and when the girls went to reach for it, they pulled out a slender silver chain with a delicate silver unicorn charm. Now, there are certain things ALL ten-year-old girls like (and those with a Y chromosome are just going to have to take my word for it), and these include, but aren't limited to, butterflies, rainbows, unicorns, and shiny-things. Especially when the shiny-things are jewelry. So, of course, both girls immediately wanted the necklace, and yelled "It's mine!"
"But I saw it first!" argued Gwen.
"No you didn't, I did!" insisted Val.
Now, this COULD have become a real fight, but the girls had been best friends ever since they were five, and Gwen had moved in next-door to Val, so neither girl really WANTED it to be a real fight. As usual, it was Val who came up with a solution, "I know! We can take turns!"
Gwen was immediately enthusiastic. "Yeah! It can be like a secret club!"
"Yeah! The Secret Club of the Silver Unicorn Necklace!"
"Yeah! We'll meet first thing every morning, and who-ever has the necklace gives it to the other to wear for that day!"
"Right!" Agreed Val. "And...and...who-ever has it has to wear it all the time, even to shower!"
"Yeah! And we'll have to promise we're going to take care of it when it's our turn!"
Val thought. "I know!" she said, "Here," and handing the necklace to Gwen, Val solemnly said, "I, Val, do give you, Gwen, this token of the Secret Club of the Silver Unicorn Necklace to wear, guard, and protect, until tomorrow morning when you hand the token back to me. Do you promise to keep it safe until then?"
"I promise," replied Gwen, taking the necklace and putting it on. Yes, I know this is silly, but believe me, ten-year-old girls are just this silly. So for the next couple of weeks the two girls faithfully traded the necklace back and forth, until one morning an evil dragon stole their necklace.
The evil dragon didn't look like an evil dragon, he looked like Carl Wilcox, a boy in their class neither girl liked. Carl was the biggest boy in their class, and he always had a sneer on his face. He taunted all the girls, and bullied most of the boys. Gwen was just in the act of handing the necklace to Val, when Carl swooped by on his bike, grabbed the necklace, and jeered, "Stupid girls with your stupid necklace. I've got it now, what are you going to do about it?"
"Carl! Give it back!" yelled the girls, but Carl laughed, "Make me!" and rode off on his bike with the girls running after him. He rode straight to the ravine, swung his bike around to the edge, and sitting on the bike, hung the necklace over the ravine while he waited for the girls to catch up.
"Carl, please, just give it back" begged Gwen.
"It's our necklace. Why do you care? Why are you being so mean?" asked Val.
Carl's face twisted in a disgusted look, "Dumb girls. If this necklace is so important to you, go get it!" and with that he flung the necklace into the ravine. Laughing at the girls shocked faces, he rode away.
The girls raced to the edge of the ravine and looked down. It didn't take them long to spot the necklace, luckily it hadn't dropped far because of it's light weight and was only about seven or eight feet into the ravine. Still, the ravine was rocky, muddy and STEEP. Both dirls were forbidden to play there, but neither Val nor Gwen actually wanted to play there. It was nasty and scary-looking, and worse, about a month ago the girls had seen a rat come out of it. The rat had terrified the girls so much that they had avoided the ravine like the plague. But now, they stood at the edge of ravine, looking sorrowfully at their beautiful necklace, so close, yet so far.
"That dumb Carl, I hate him!" declared Gwen.
"I'm so mad, I...I...I could spit!" answered Val.
Suddenly, behind them, a knight errant asked, "What did Carl throw down there?"
The girls jumped and gasped and turned to face their knight, only they didn't know yet that this was their champion. They just thought it was Donnie Eppes.
"Donnie! How dare you scare us like that!" scolded Val.
Donnie flushed "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to startle you. I just saw Carl..." he voice trailed off.
The girls suddenly remembered last year in school when Carl and Donnie had gotten into a fight. The teachers had broken it up before either boy actually won, but everyone knew in reality, Donnie had won because he had refused to back down to Carl.
Both boys had been paddled for fighting [California banned paddling in 1986, this takes place in 1980], but Donnie had held his head high anyway. All the girls had eventually realized that all the boys had new-founded respect for Donnie because he stood up to Carl.
The two girls looked at Donnie questioningly. He wasn't afraid of Carl, and that was good, but, well, he was still a boy. But by now Donnie had gotten off his bike and had walked over to look down the ravine.
"That necklace? he asked, pointing, "is that what you want? I'll get it for you."
"You will?" asked Gwen hopefully, but Val, looking doubtfully at the ravine, said, "Are you sure Donnie? 'Cause it looks scary."
"I'll be ok," reassured Donnie, getting on all fours, and starting to back down carefully into the ravine.
Gwen and Val, frightened, held hands and watched him inch his way down. Val suddenly remembered the rat and yelled "Donnie! Be careful! We saw a rat here once!"
Donnie, startled, slipped and slid down the rough rocky ravine, scrambling with his hands, feet and knees to catch himself. After sliding about two feet, he managed to dig in and find a foothold. Ow-ow-ouch! His hands and his right knee HURT! He wanted to wipe his hands on his jeans, but was afraid to move them. He could see they were scrapped and bleeding though. He tried to glance at his knee that was digging in to the side of the ravine, but he couldn't really get a good look. He did get a good look at the bottom of the ravine though, and it was a LONG way down. For the first time, it occured to Donnie he might actually fall and get hurt. Then he realized that Gwen and Val were calling his name, and had been for some time.
"Donnie! Are you ok?"
"You're not hurt, are you?"
"No, I'm fine!" he yelled back, then remembering, "There's a rat?"
"Not now. We saw one weeks ago," called back Val.
Oh. Why in the world were these girls worrying about a rat they saw a long time ago? But who could figure girls out? Donnie caught his breath, aware that he was sweating now, and his T-shirt was clinging to his back. He wanted to wipe the sweat out of his eyes, but was nervous about losing his handhold.
He glanced down to the necklace, still several feet away. It had seemed so close at the top of the ravine, strange that it seemed so far away now.
He started making his way down to the necklace again, trying not to see how deep the ravine was. He wondered how deep it was, and realized Charlie could probably tell him. NOT that he would ask Charlie, of course. If he did, Charlie would be sure to tell Mom and Dad, and Donnie didn't want to think how sore his bottom would be if his parents ever found out what he was doing.
The trouble was, Donnie wasn't even sure why he was doing this. He just knew he could't bear the look on the girls' faces after Carl had thrown their necklace into the ravine. It reminded him of the look Charlie gave him sometimes, and Donnie couldn't stand it then either. Some how, that look hurt even worse than Dad's paddle.
Donnie simply knew that whenever he saw that look on Charlie's face he HAD to do whatever he could to get it off of Charlie's face. Now, evidently, he also had to get it off of Val's and Gwen's faces. What a dumb world.
Donnie wasn't entirely certain he even liked Gwen and Val. They were pretty-Val with her long, silky black hair and Gwen with her shorter, wavy red hair-and they had soft voices and smelled good. Donnie liked it when they smiled at him, but sometimes they got mad and yelled. That was scary. Why did girls have to yell? Why couldn't they just hit you?
Oh. He was to the necklace. He snatched it up, and shoved it into his jean's pocket. He saw that it had a unicorn on it though. Figures. With girls, it was ALWAYS unicorns or butterflies.
Donnie started crawling back up, pleased that it was actually easier going up than down. His hands and his knee were really burning from the scrapes. He would have to tell Mom he wiped out on his bike to explain his skinned hands and knee. Donnie didn't like lying, but he wasn't such an idiot that he WOULDN'T lie. Especially if it would spare him a spanking.
GOOD! He was to the top! Donnie pulled himself over the edge, and sat there a minute, panting. Then he got shakily to his feet, dug the necklace out of his pocket, and handed it over to the girls.
"Donnie!" exclaimed Gwen, taking the necklace, "you're so BRAVE!"
"Oh Donnie, you're bleeding!" worried Val. On impulse, she kissed him on the cheek, "You're my hero!"
Gwen, not to be outdone, kissed his other cheek, "Mine, too!"
For a moment the three children stood frozen staring at each other-the boy muddy, bloodied and nonplussed over the kisses; the girls adoring, grateful and suddenly shy.
Donnie broke the trance first, "Um, I. . . better go." Had Val and Gwen really called him a hero and kissed him? Oh no. He hoped no one had seen. He'd get teased non-stop. Still, it was nice in a way. He couldn'd believe they had KISSED him.
Val and Gwen watched him get on his bike and ride away. They yelled their thanks after him, their necklace, somehow, not as important as the boy had become. Because, you see, there's something else ALL ten-year-old girls like, and that's the idea of a knight-in-shining-armor, even if the armor is a muddy T-shirt and torn jeans. So, of course, both girls immediately wanted him, and yelled, "He's mine!"