Rianne Hizon is a 7th grader in Mr. Hicks’ English class. The following is the first of several chapters of her novel: Dear My Moon and Stars.
Chapter 1: Buwan
Buwan sat at a table by herself, writing on her phone. It was lunch time, and other middle schoolers were usually making their time worthwhile by socializing.
Buwan was your average extroverted middle schooler; and, to be honest, sitting there alone was draining. Even though she was talkative at home, she could never bring herself to make a friend at school. She distances herself from people, and that’s on purpose, because every friendship she has crumbles apart. She had time to socialize at home. She would talk at home, and she would talk a lot. She talked about what happened at school, even if nothing interesting had happened. “We learned how to multiply with negatives,” she’d say, telling her family the most boring of things.
This all started in 4th Grade, when she had a fight with her best friend; Bituin. From then on, every friend she made was lost by the time the next school year came around. Eventually, she stopped trying. What’s the point of making friends if they would go away in a year? She told herself.
So instead of talking to other people, she sat quietly and wrote:
Dear Star,
Middle school, am I right? My classes are good, I love them! So how are things going over in Ashwood Academy? Is the middle school division different? How many teachers do you have? I’m going to move to a different town soon, Ellington. Papa said he found a nice family that is letting us rent part of their house. Remember when we used to write stories? My grammar was horrible back then. Safe to say, I’m actually improving. I joined the writing club and they actually like my stories.
I’m starting to get back into music, maybe we can talk about it when we fix whatever mess we are in. Music... You still play piano? I’ve been learning ukulele for the past few years, maybe we can play together someday, just like Kaori and Kousei from Your lie in April! Minus the death and the love story of course, just friends.
Well, there’s the bell! Igtg, but I’ll send another message tomorrow! See you later!
Sincerely, the one and only:Moon.
It was a tradition that they had. Calling each other “Star” and “Moon”. That was what their names meant anyways. Before the big fight, Buwan and Bituin would send each other texts formatted like letters to feel “fancy” and “official”. Buwan had no intent of sending the message even though she technically could. Bituin and her may not talk anymore, but it’s not like he blocked her. If she sent the message he would still be able to see it, maybe even read it, and that would be embarrassing as hell. There was another reason though. The message wasn’t even for Bituin, it was for herself. It was to feed her delusion that there may be the tiniest amount of friendship left between them.
With her message done, she packed up her things and went to class.
Chapter 2: Bituin
Life was going great for Bituin. He had everything a guy could want. His snobby foster parents have been replaced and he has moved to a new town; Ellington. He has great friends and is known to be the “Prince of the School”. You could say he had the best life, but he still felt sad.
It was like there was a hole inside of him, a feeling of loneliness. He felt as if a part of him had been removed. Why? Even he didn’t know the answer to that question.
It was 1:30, usually it would’ve been PE class right now, but they had a free period because of the hot weather. Bituin sat with his circle of friends, zoning out. That was until he saw hands snapping at him.
“Hello! Earth to Bituin? You there?” It was his friend, Lawrence, waving his hand at him.
“Yeah, sorry, just thinking about something,” He replied. Bituin looked down at his phone, the messages app was open, and he had been looking back at the texts he and Buwan shared.
Bituin and her weren’t friends anymore, and he almost never thought about her. If anything, he hated her. He hated how she let go so easily and didn’t even try to keep their friendship going. He decided to let it go once he moved to Ellington with his new family. He could never really forget her though, so some days he reread the messages they had exchanged.
Another friend of his, Camron, had sneaked a glance at his phone, seeing the screen.
“Come on! You still thinking about her? Look, I’ve never met your ex before, but the way you describe her, she sounds like a total jerk!” Camron said, teasing his friend.
“Ex-bestfriend, not girlfriend,” Bituin responded, “And I’m not thinking about her, I just miss the things we did, not us.” He defended himself.
“Stop moping about an old buddy and focus on the present!” Lawrence said, joining the conversation.
“You’re Bituin ‘Prince of the School’! You can have any girl here!” He added, using hand gestures to be dramatic.
“Hard pass, I don’t like anyone here,” Bituin said. He wasn’t lying, he didn’t like anyone, he hasn’t had a crush since 3rd grade, five years ago.
“Say, maybe the girl you like isn’t here yet. Didn’t you say your family is letting some nice people rent part of the house?” Camron said. Lawrence saw where this was going, so he quickly added on.
“Yeah! They said something about it being a small family, one with a son, and a daughter, right?” Lawrence teased.
“My mom spoke to yours and she said the daughter was attending Ellington Prep with us.” Camron added on.
“I think she said something about her being in 8th Grade, the same as us,” Camron said. Bituin was so done with his friends. Could they not spend a day without trying to get him to date someone? Everything they said had been right though, a family with 2 kids- a son and a daughter -would be renting a part of the house. The daughter would be attending Ellington Prep, and was 13, also in 8th grade. He had heard it all the other day from his mom- who also was trying to set him up with someone. Can people stop trying to set me up for once? I’m 14 for heaven's sake! He thought.
“Still up for that sleepover?” Lawrence asked
“Wouldn’t miss it!” Bituin replied
With that said, the bell finally rang, signaling the end of free period. Bituin and his friends walked out of the gym.Dear My Moon and Stars
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