"Bellen's gonna kick your butt, Bellen's gonna make you cry. Bellen rocks the team is fine. Bellen..."
"What kind of cheer is this!" Snapped uncle Pablo at the two happy ten year old girls, Betty and Ellen who were busily reciting a cheer song they wrote for, themselves.
"It's great ain't it?"Said Betty.
"Excuse me, what's Bellen?" Asked uncle Pablo confusedly.
"Oh come on uncle Pabs, you should be smart." Ellen said patting his shoulder and continued "Bellen is like a play on words of our names, like Betty, Ellen, Bellen."
"Oh now I get it". Uncle Pablo loved to hang out with the girls. He was the brother of Betty's mother and the best friend of Betty and Ellen. They lived in a suburb called Chesterbrook in Pennsylvania. Ellen's parents moved to Chesterbrook when she was four years. Simon Roberts, Ellen's dad had lost his job and his wife, Holly was just a house wife. This made paying of rents very difficult so they moved to Chesterbrook to stay with Simon's parents. And that was where Ellen met Elizabeth Flores also known as Betty. They became friends and finally best friends.
They usually hang out in the tree house uncle Pablo built for them. This summer was going to be fun for the girls, three days to summer break and real fun begins. They just needed to go according to their plans. To begin with, they got a best friend name and a cheer song. The rest continues later.
"So what do you think of our best friend name and cheer song?"Betty asked uncle Pablo.
"I think it's the worst thing I have ever heard."he joked.
"In other words, you think it's lovely."Ellen said.
"Yeah, you're too smart El." Uncle Pablo said and they all laughed.
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Ellen reached home feeling tired but excited too. She was always happy when she was with Betty. She loved Betty and Betty loved her too. Ellen saw Betty as her sister since she had no siblings. Betty on the other hand was the fifth and last born of her parents. She didn't care if she had to stay in Chesterbrook for the rest of her life with her grandparents, as long as she was with Betty everything was going to be just fine. "And by the way, summer is going to be fun this year."She thought as she got ready for bed.
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"Ellen school!"Mrs Roberts called from downstairs the next morning.
"Two days to summer break. Hurray!"Thought Ellen feeling excited. She ran downstairs with her school bag, took her lunch bag and kissed her father and grandparents goodbye.Mum walked her to the door to a funny looking old fashioned car. She opened the door of the car and said have fun darling you too Betty. And she turned to Pablo and said sternly "no reckless driving Pablo."
"Don't worry ma'am your daughter is in safe hands. Trust me." Pablo said and winked. "Ready girls."
Ready! the girls said excitedly and uncle Pablo drove down town to school.
School was another place that Ellen really enjoyed apart from hanging out at the tree house with uncle Pablo and Betty. She didn't really have friends except Betty but she still loved her classmates and teachers especially Mrs. Stanton, their science teacher and class teacher.
The bell rang for first lesson to begin and the first lesson was natural science which meant that Mrs. Stanton was starting the class. Betty and Ellen immediately rushed to their seats in front.
"so we are already in summer and we have just two days left to break. So now I want each and every one of you to tell me your intentions for this summer."Mrs. Stanton said to the class. Ellen and Betty were happy to hear this, they immediately stood up and faced the class. Ellen began;
"This summer Betty and I as well as our uncle Pablo has planned a lot of things"
" We're going to make an artificial beach with the help of our uncle Pablo." Betty continued.
"And also we will take a nature walk in Chesterbrook, take picture, have a big summer party. Infact y'all invited. Finally we've made our own bird zoo so you are invited to see other species of birds you have never seen but heard about."Ellen said happily. She had loved birds since forever. Sometimes she wished she could fly like a bird. She loved all sorts of birds but her favourite were parakeets.
"Those were great ideas girls. Good job
Anybody else?" Jane Murphy, a plump girl with ponytails stood up to stand in front of the class.
Uncle Pablo once again came to take the girls from school. When Ellen reached home, she was surprised to see just a few clothes in her wardrobe, the rest packed in her traveling bag! Ellen panicked. She hoped it was not what she was thinking. She immediately rushed to the kitchen where her mother was preparing dinner.
"Mum...um why has my clothes been packed in...uh... travelling bag." She asked with fear.
"Oh sweet heart, we have good news for you!" Her mother beamed
"What news?"
"We wanted to tell you this during dinner but it won't still change anything so let me tell you.Your dad has gotten a new job, permanent one."
"Wow that's awesome."
"Yeah so we're leaving Chesterbrook."
"What! to where?!"
"To London."
"Wait we are leaving Chesterbrook to another country. Why?!" Ellen was almost crying.
"Ellen we can't stay in your grandparents house forever. We will be a burden on them."
"But Gramps and Nonna don't mind. Do you?" Ellen asked her grandparents who has just walked into the kitchen.
"No we don't." Nonna said and Gramps continued "Yes infact we wish you could stay here for the rest of your life."
"See!" Ellen said almost shouting.
"Ellen you're going to listen to me okay."Mrs Roberts said.
"Fine, when are we leaving?"
"A week next two days."
"What! Does that mean I can't spend the whole summer with Betty." Ellen was crying now and her grandma hugged her.
"It's okay." Nonna said and turned to Mrs Roberts "Holly, you shouldn't be too harsh with the girl. You are taking her away from the place she calls home, from a number of people she loves..."
"What did you expect, that she will just laugh out loud and happily follow you to London?" Gramps continued and Mrs Roberts sighed and said as she put her hand on Ellen's shoulder. "Baby, I'm sorry but..."
"Leave me alone!" Ellen cried and ran out of the house to the tree house and she was relieved to seeing Betty, alone.
"You're late. Did you..." Betty stopped talking when she saw Ellen crying."El, what's wrong?"She asked
"Mum just told me we are leaving Chesterbrook to London. Dad's got a job there."Ellen said sobbing. There was silence for a few seconds and Betty finally said "It's okay if you leave. It doesn't matter if we're on different continents, I believe fate will bring us back together. Just promise you won't forget us, our memories, our home, our best friend name, cheer song and most of all our friendship."
"I promise that I will never forget about us."
"Bellen promise?"
"Bellen promise." Ellen said and they hugged for a long time allowing tears to flow freely.
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Betty and Ellen spent the rest of the days the best they could. Uncle Pablo did most of the job in making them forget about Ellen's departure. He entertained them a lot. Gradually, gradually it was finally time for the Roberts to leave.
"You can come and visit us anytime you want. This is your home too huh."Nonna said in tears as she hugged Ellen.
"Now don't forget Ellenkins how your Nonna and I and all the people of Chesterbrook loves you. Especially me. Okay."Said Gramps to Ellen.
"I love you too Gramps."She said and hugged him. She turned to uncle Pablo who raised her and hugged her so tight.
"Bye uncle Pabs."And she gave him a kiss on his cheek and finally it was time to say goodbye to Betty which was the hardest part. Betty hugged her and whispered "Don't forget your promise"
"I won't." Ellen replied
"Till we meet again Ellen Katherine Roberts."
"Till we meet again Elizabeth Maria Flores."
There were tears in their eyes. Ellen sat in the car and the driver sparked the car engine to life. They began heading towards the airport. Betty ran after the car and Ellen watched her from the backseat until she couldn't see her again.
"It's over, I'm going to begin a new life in another town,in another country, on another continent... without Betty" Ellen thought sadly.