I'd just walked into my room when the phone rang. It was Mary Anne. She sounded so scared. There was something seriously wrong. It's the type of voice a person uses when there's something really wrong. And I knew, when I picked up the phone, something was wrong. Seriously, seriously wrong.

"Kristy, it's Mary Anne. Listen, I need you to come over. Please, don't ask why! Just come to my house. I need you, okay!" Mary Anne sounded like she was in tears.

"Mary Anne, take a deep breath, calm down," I said, comfortingly. "Now, tell me, what's wrong?"

"I can't calm down!" Mary Anne shrieked loudly. "It's Dawn! Just...come over here!" The phone clicks as she hangs up.

I hang up the phone, setting it back into it's reciever, and hurriedly walked out of my room and down the stairs.

"Nannie! I'm going to Mary Anne's!" I call out at the top of my lungs. On the way out, I faintly here a shout of "all right!" from the back of the house.

I've just reached Mary Anne's house when I hear the sirens of an ambulance and the police come down the street. Mary Anne's running out of her house, and over to me.

"Oh, Kristy!" Mary Anne's face is streaked with tears. "There's something wrong! Something terrible happened to Dawn...,"

I set my hands on her shoulders and hold her at arm's length. "What happened?"

"I...See, I'd just come home from school and I was going upstairs. Dad and Sharon aren't here, so I thought Dawn would be home -- because she wasn't feeling too good this morning and stayed home. So I walked into her room. She wasn' t there. I walked into the bathroom, and...oh, Kristy, it's so horrible! Dawn...I...see...there was blood everyone...she...she killed herself...Kristy...she's dead...," Mary Anne's tears increase and she buries her face into crick of my neck. Police officers rush over to us.

"Is one of you Mary Anne Spier?" The officer asks. He's tall, bald, and kind of chubby. His cheeks are pink from the heat.

"She is," I say, pointing to Mary Anne's shrieking form. I didn't think she was in any position to talk right now.

"All right. I'm Officer Joey Richardson. Where are your parents?" He asks me.

"Oh, I'm a friend. Mary Anne...she said her sister -- my friend, killed herself...," My voice fades and tears actually form in the corners of my eye.

The officer's face is convered in confusion and alarm. "Call you're parents, young lady," He hands us his phone and jogs back to the ambulance. He tells them what happened and they rush in to check out the situation, then he walks back over to us. By the time he gets here, I've already called Sharon. Mary Anne is not fit to call anyone.

"Were you the one to find her?" He asks me, adjusting his cap.

"No, no... Mary Anne called me and I just got here," I look up at him, a few tears slipping down my cheeks. "Is she really...,"

"I don't know for sure yet," Just then, the two men come jogging out of the house and over to us.

"Sir, there HAS been an accident. It looks like a suicide," One of them says, sadly.

The officer sighs and nods, then mutters something into his walkie-talkie and walks back to his car. I hold Mary-Anne tightly and we slowly drop to the ground, clutching one another and crying, so very uncharacteristically.

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It's not until 8:00 PM that they bring Dawn out, her body on a stretcher, fully covered by a white sheet. By then, Claudia, Stacey, Mallory, Jessi, Logan, and Abby are there with us. Most of them are crying. The neighbors and Mary Anne's dad, as well as Sharon, are there. Sharon is crying, Richard is crying, and Mary Anne is crying. Richard is holding both of them.

Everyone else is comforting each other. Seeing Dawn coming out that way just makes everything worse. It's got to be impossible to describe the feelings I'm feeling right now. I can't believe how it must feel for Mary Anne and Richard and Sharon. They all new Dawn better than I did, and I'm sure it hurts them more. It hurts me to know that Mary Anne is hurting. She's my best friend, and I can't stand to see her hurting. It seems like... just like the world is going overboard.

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It's three weeks later and Mary Anne, Claudia, Stacey and I are standing above a grave. Dawn's grave. Her burial was a few weeks ago. Those two weeks have been horrible for all of us. There's been nothing but crying. I haven't been to school at all. I don't think anyone has. That's how much Dawn's suicide has impacted us all. It hurts so much.

We all four have small bundles of daisies, Dawn's favorite flower. We set them down in front of her marker. Mary Anne is crying. So's Stacey and Claudia. I'm even letting a few tears go. This...it's all too much for us to handle. It doesn't feel like we're ever going to move on.

"Come on...," Stacey says, sniffling. "We need to go. It's only going to hurt more if we stay here,"

We all agree and walk away. As we leave, I'm positive I hear a whisper. Dawn's whisper.

"I"m free, Kristy. I'm free,"