CVRep Picks Student Writing Competition Winners

It had an old, worn leather cover with a creased spine and yellowing pages. I had found it in the corner of the attic in an unlabelled, molding box. Usually, unlabelled boxes in my house were bad news, but what was odd about this one was it only held the book, nothing else.

The book was called “When the Moon Came Down”. At first glance, it looked like a children's book, and it almost made me put it back in its box. The worn cover depicted the full moon resting on a hill, with a little white rabbit next to it. Assuming it was one of my siblings’ old bedtime stories, I set it back down in its box. But something in my chest told me to take it back down with me.

Reluctantly, I picked the book back up and flipped through its old pages. Immediately, I noticed that something was written on the front cover. Upon further examination, I noticed that it was someone’s name written in neat, simple handwriting: Selene.

That’s odd, I thought. I didn’t have a sibling named Selene. For that matter, I didn’t know anyone who was named Selene, so it couldn’t have been left here by one of my friends. In the
end, I decided that it had to have been a hand me down, or that my parents got it from a thrift store second hand.

Flipping through the book in my room, I noticed there were a lot of sticky notes attached to the pages. They were written in the same handwriting as the name on the front cover, which puzzled me. If it was a hand me down book, wouldn’t my parents have taken out the sticky notes beforehand? I shoved that thought in the back of my mind and tried to not dwell on it too much.

A lot of the notes read the same thing.

“How?”

I scratched the back of my head, confused as to what I had just stumbled upon. “What does that mean?” I muttered to myself, flipping through the pages absentmindedly.

For a moment, I considered asking my parents about it, but I held back. Considering our current relationship, I wasn’t sure how they would react to me snooping in their attic.

So I remained silent about the situation. I decided to keep the book hidden, and instead maybe question my siblings about it later.

That same night, something happened.

I was sitting in my room, examining the book and trying to do some research on it since I had never seen it before. Suddenly, there was a knock on my door.

Instinctively, I shoved the book under a pillow and closed the tabs on my computer before the person at my door came in. Immediately, I was filled with a sensation of annoyance and resentment.

“Why bother knocking if you’re just gonna come in anyway?” I asked, rolling my eyes.

My sister, Oliva, stood at the doorway, a confused look on her face. She crossed her arms and leaned against the door frame. “You don’t have to be mean, you know.”

I shrugged. “What do you want?” It sounded more like a statement than a question, mainly because I knew she wanted something. Anytime she barged into my room like she did, it was always because she wanted something out of me.

“I don’t want anything.” She stepped into my room, looking around with a blank expression. For some reason, that annoyed me further.

“Then why are you here?”

“Mom and Dad want to talk to you.”
My heart dropped, but I didn’t let Olivia know that, mainly because I knew she would make fun of me.

It wasn’t that I was afraid of my parents, but our relationship had been so strained lately that I had been doing my best to avoid them. In the back of my mind, I wondered where we had gone wrong, and if this even was a problem that I could fix.

“Do you know why?”

Olivia crossed her arms again. “No. They want to talk to all of us at the same time. So hurry up and come downstairs.” She turned around and started back out the room

“Wait!”

This time, Oliva was the one who looked annoyed. “What do you want now?” “Do… do you happen to know anyone named Selene?”
Her brow creased. “Uh… no, I don’t think so. Why do you ask?”

I sighed. “No reason.” Olivia rolled her eyes. “Whatever,” she replied, walking out the door. “Hurry up.”

I slumped down in my desk chair, playing with a strand of my hair. Knowing my parents, they never liked having big family talks; everyone always did their own thing without bothering each other, and it always worked out. This was extremely unlike them.

Thus began the series of unfortunate events that I called my life from that moment on.

“We’re what?”

“Moving, June. We’re moving.”

Those words coming from my mother’s mouth felt like someone was throwing rocks at my stomach. We had lived in our house for all 17 years of my life, and although there were some bad memories with it, I was content for the most part. The life I had built here was the life I was happy with.

And they wanted to throw it all away.

“Mom, do you know what this house means to me? To us? Why would you just leave it like that?” I asked, my face flushed red from anger and fear and a thousand other things.

My mother shook her head. “June, you wouldn’t understand. We think it’s best to leave this house behind; it’s been with us for so long, and we’re better off with a fresh start. We’ve already had some really good offers on the house, and your father has been looking at houses on the East Coast.”

“So you guys went behind our backs and did all of this stuff regarding our house- since, you know, we all live here- without consulting us in the slightest? Not even a heads up? No opinions needed? It seems like you guys made up your minds a long time ago,” I interrupted, trying to control my anger.

Olivia grabbed my arm. I turned around, and was surprised to find not another annoyed look on her face, but a pleading one. “June,” she whispered, tugging on my sleeve. “Please calm down. We can’t do anything about this.”

There was a searing hot shard of pain making its way up my throat, but I forced it down. “What are you talking about? We live here too; we should have a say in what you do with the house!” I shouldered Olivia’s hand away, standing up.

My oldest brother, Mark, shook his head. “June, you’re right. They made up their mind. We don’t have a say in this decision, they were just informing us, so please sit down.”

I shot Mark an incredulous look. When it came to arguments with my parents, usually he would be the one to defend me, but this time he looked defeated. Almost like he had tried and failed before.

I whirled around, and saw Olivia was staring at me with the same sad and subdued gaze.

“You both… both of you guys knew about this already, didn’t you?” I forced the words out, not wanting to know the answer, mainly because deep down, I already knew it.

Olivia closed her eyes as if attempting to collect her thoughts. “June, you have to trust us. We-” “Trust you? Give me a reason to!”

“June!” Olivia exclaimed. “Please, listen to us. We did talk with Mom and Dad when they initially told us. And we did try to fight them about it. But the more we thought about it, the more it made sense to start fresh, you know? We all agreed that it would be the best and healthiest option for all of us, and most of all, for you.”

I turned to fully face Olivia, glaring her down. “Who are you to tell me what’s best for me? Did you ever ask me about all of this? Communicate to me your plans? You knew about this before I did! And you still want me to trust you?”

A thick silence cut the air. I stared at my parents, who hadn’t uttered a word.

“Nothing to say?”

Either of you?” I asked.

My father decided to speak up. “Look, we didn’t tell you because we knew you were going to be the one to take it the hardest, considering… well, many factors. We wanted to tell you, but we
just didn’t know how.”

I scoffed. “Are you listening to yourselves right now? Am I seriously the only sane one here?” I looked around, meeting everyone’s stares with a glare of my own. “Use your words properly.

Tell me the exact reason you guys chose to sell the house and move away.”

The problem was, I already knew why they had decided on this. I just needed to hear it from them.

My parents looked at each other, uneasy. “Um, June, you know why, don’t you?” “No, I don’t, Mom. Please enlighten me, if you would.”

Mark shook his head. “Mom, she’s just being stubborn, don’t listen to her.”

“Yeah, don’t listen to me,” I said bitterly. “Don’t face the fact that you’re running away from what happened to Elane!”

“June!” My father shouted. “That’s quite enough out of you!”

My arms were shaking, my breathing was shallow. I gave my parents one last look of indignation before running up the stairs and slamming the door shut, locking it behind me.

I slid down the door, pressing my knees to my chest. Tears began streaming down my face before I knew it, like torrential rain. I sobbed quietly, trying to keep the noise down even though my parents and siblings already knew I was crying.

I had never had a fight with them like that before, especially not about this subject.

The truth was, I had a sister once. And although no one really believed it when I had told them, she had been my twin.

It was mainly because we looked nothing alike. My parents described us like yin and yang; I was all dark and cold and sharp edges, she was light and warm and soft, all things comforting. She was day, I was night. Elane didn’t like when I called myself night, because according to her I was “warmer and brighter than any night she had ever experienced.”

That was her, though. She was day, after all. But despite our differences and strangers insisting that we were in no way related, we were insepaThat was her, though. She was day, after all. But despite our differences and strangers insisting that we were in no way related, we were inseparable.

All I had of her now was shards of dreams and photos I refused to look at because the memory was too painful.
Elane died around a year ago, a month before our sixteenth birthday. On our way home from school, we had gotten caught up in an accident involving an intoxicated driver bulldozing through the empty lot beside the school parking lot. She had been the one to push me out of the way, and to this day I blame myself for it.

What was supposed to be our sixteenth birthday party turned into a funeral where, strangely, I don’t remember crying. I remember a swelling feeling in my throat as I stared at the casket, having lost my lifelong best friend, but oddly enough, no tears.

Maybe it was at that age that I realized that hiding emotions was one of my talents.

I loved Elane more than anyone else on the planet, but I hid my feelings because maybe, just maybe, I thought I didn’t deserve to be sad for her, because it was my fault she was gone.

In fact, this was probably the first time I had cried for her since she passed.

Our lives had gone downhill from there. It almost seemed like it was forbidden in our house to even mention her name, because by association, her name would only bring memories of pain and a light blue casket adorned with daisies.

From that moment on, it seemed like my family tried to forget Elane was ever a part of our family. Her room was packed up in boxes, locked, and never touched again. All framed pictures of her were taken down and shoved in some abandoned dusty corner. The only clues that she ever existed in our household was one family photo at the end of the hallway that was taken days before the accident, and an opal necklace of hers that I had stolen from her room before my parents locked it away forever.

I touched my neck, feeling for the coolness of the metal against my fingertips. It was gifted to Elane by our parents after she won her first contemporary dance competition, and she rarely ever took it off after. She cherished that necklace like it was her job. She thanked our parents for it almost every day.

The same parents who chose to forget about her.

I buried my face into my knees and let my tears fall, unaware of my surroundings. It was so unfair that after all the good that Elane brought to us, our parents didn't care enough to honor her memory properly. Everyday I spent in the house with them, I was reminded exactly how they let her down.

And similarly, how I let her down.

My crying drowned out my thoughts and any semblance of my bearings was lost through the ringing in my ears. It was almost enough to drown out the sound of knocking at my door.

Almost.

Between the ringing in my ears and the throbbing pain of my head, I heard someone knocking quietly. “June?” the person called out, worry clearly in their voice. It was a more feminine voice, and since it obviously wasn’t my mother, it had to be Olivia.

“June, are you okay?” she asked, her voice soft.

I didn’t answer. Instead, I sat with my back pressed against the door, staring out my window, letting the tears dry on my jeans.

There was silence for a moment. I heard some movement on the other side and felt slight pressure on the door pushing against me, meaning she probably sat against the door as well. I heard her sigh.

“I know you probably don’t want me here, and that’s fair. But these feelings you have, these memories you’re holding onto, they’re the exact reason Mom and Dad chose to move.” Olivia paused momentarily, and continued with a slight shakiness to her voice. “What happened to Elane, it’s hard to talk about. She was my sister, too. You were closer to her because you guys were twins, so I see why it might be harder for you, but we’re all the same blood. We all lost someone that day; you, me, and Mark lost a sister, but our parents lost a daughter. Could you imagine how that feels? I don’t even want to think about it.”

Half of me wanted to yell at Olivia, because there was no way she was defending our parents’ actions of acting like Elane never existed. I wanted to scream that she wasn’t just my sister, she had been my best friend, my only friend, the person I had confided all of my secrets to, given all of my trust; how could they act like she was nothing at all? But the other half of me knew she was right; people had their different ways of coping with loss, and I guess our parents' way was to keep her out of sight, so it would stay out of mind.

Still, it wasn’t fair for Elane.

“All I’m saying is to keep an open mind, okay? This could just be their way of getting over her passing too, so be a little open to it. It could be good for all of us. We could all use some closure and peace.”

We sat in silence for a moment. I would never tell Olivia this, but deep down I knew she was right, as much as I hated to admit it. Still, my stubbornness got the best of me.

“In the end, we can’t do much about her being gone,” Olivia continued. “Mom and Dad’s methods are… well, questionable. I was angry too when they locked up all of Elane’s things in her room. But after a while, I realized that Elane wouldn't want us to be stuck in the past; she would want us to move on with our lives. Maybe this is the step we have to take in that direction."

Staring out my window, my gaze wandered to my bed, where the corner of a book was shoved haphazardly under my pillow. In all of the commotion, I had forgotten all about the mysterious book I had found.
Without saying anything to Olivia, I crawled over to my bed and picked it up, tracing its matte cover with my fingertips. The moonlight streaming from outside made the book almost glow silver.

I traced the title's bold letters. When the Moon Came Down. I stared for a moment, then looked back out at the moon shining brightly in the clear sky.

Clutching the book to my chest, I stood up and pushed my curtains to the side, popping the window open and kicking out the screen. It fell on the lawn, a good 15 feet down. I swung my feet out, feeling the cool night breeze for a moment. I propped the book up against the chimney and climbed up to the top of the roof, which was my highest vantage point.

The view was beautiful. The horizon was dotted with tiny points of light each representing either a home or a car driving back from work. The combination of the slight breeze, the sound of crickets chirping nearby, and the distant rush of cars on the road made the night feel alive.
Although, at the same time, it was quiet. The night was vast and dark and solemn and… Lonely.

I took the book in my hand and, illuminated by the full moon, began to read.

The book was about a little rabbit who befriended the crescent moon. As they spent more time together, the moon slowly began to fill with the love it received from the rabbit, until it became the full moon.

Eventually, it had to return back to the sky. The rabbit begged the moon to stay, but they both knew that they couldn’t stay with each other. “Even though I’m not right next to you, look up, and then you won’t be alone anymore,” I read. “The moon is forever consistently inconsistent.”

I sighed, staring off into the horizon. “The moon is forever consistently inconsistent,” I whispered to myself, watching the stars twinkle in the distant darkness. I reached for my neck, feeling for the cool gemstone, and thinking about what I could've done for Elane.

Before I knew it, I felt tears start to fall again. Under the steady glow of the moon, I looked up at its silver face. "Are you up there, Elane?" I asked, wiping my eyes on my sleeve."Are you watching?"

"Hello?" I froze. "Who's up there?" the unknown voice asked, practically yelling. "You dropped your window screen!"

I cringed from the volume of the person's voice. If my parents found out that I was out here, I would be grounded until the end of time. I leaned out, peering down from the side of the roof. Standing in the backyard of my house was a complete stranger.

"Uh… hi? Sorry to interrupt," she said, smiling nervously. "I just wanted to check and see if you were okay? I saw you on the roof and I just… well, panicked."

I stared blankly, not responding. Illuminated by the moon, the girl looked almost like she was made of moonlight. Her hair looked silver, and her skin was washed in the same silvery tint of the moon. From up on the roof, her eyes were unnaturally bright. It might've been my clouded mind, but she looked like Elane from far away.

She laughed nervously. "Uh… you okay up there?"

I snapped out of my trance. "Oh! Um, yeah! I'm sorry but… how did you get in my backyard?" She pointed at the entrance. "The gate was open," she replied simply.  "Oh." I was surprised. Usually someone locked the gate at night, so I found it hard to believe. "So… can I come up?"

"Huh?" I asked, wondering if I heard her correctly. Apparently I did, because I saw her start to climb the side of the house with ease.

"Um… excuse me?" I asked, incredibly confused.

"I'm coming! Scoot over!" She swung her leg up and hoisted herself up, grunting in the effort. She smiled at me, slightly out of breath.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Selene."

I blinked. "Selene?" I sputtered, completely shocked at all that had just happened in a matter of seconds. "You're Selene?"

She tilted her head at me, confused. "Yup! Do we know each other?"

"Well…" I reached for the book I had just finished reading. "Is this yours?"

When she saw the cover, Selene's face lit up. "Oh my gosh! I've been looking for this for, like a year now! Thank you so much!" She grabbed it, hugging it to her chest and then flipping through the pages. "This story is one of my favorites; I've missed reading it so much."

Where do you live?"

Selene smiled. "I just introduced myself, silly! I live somewhere around here, but I move around a lot. And as to how you got my book, I don't know, honestly."

I stared at her. Maybe I was dreaming or hallucinating, but nothing about this interaction seemed real or normal. Now that she was close up, Selene almost looked like an intricate Greek statue in teenager's clothing. Her eyes were a dark grey but they weren't dull; they sparkled with life and cheer. Her hair was more platinum blonde than silver, but it reflected the moon's light. Around her neck she wore a similar necklace to the one that I wore, which was surprising.

"What's your name?" she asked.

I blinked. "June," I mumbled. "You didn't have to come up here, I'm okay. I just wanted to get some air."

"Yeah, that's fine! I just wanted to keep you company! Plus the view up here is amazing." Selene gestured to the sea of blinking lights that blended in with the twinkling stars. "I never realized how beautiful the sky was until I came here."

"Came here?" I wondered. "This is Glendale. The sky is the same pretty much anywhere." Selene shrugged. "Maybe. But where I'm from, I don't get to see this view a lot."  I silently mused about where this strange girl could be from that she wasn't able to see the skyline and the stars.

There was an awkward silence while I watched Selene gaze at the Los Angeles sky. She caught me staring and grinned from ear to ear.

"So…" I began, not knowing quite what to say. "So…?"  "Um… what's with the book?"

I motioned to the book that she was still clinging onto. As she looked down at it, her grin slowly diminished into a sad smile. "Oh. It was given to me by someone really special to me. Now it's really all I have left of them. I'm so relieved to have found it, I didn't even express how grateful I was that you found it."

I shook my head. "It's okay, I understand the feeling." Selene looked at me curiously. "You do?" My face flushed red. One of my worst qualities was unintentionally oversharing to strangers, which was one of the reasons I never had a lot of friends. "O-oh, well yeah. My… sister, she passed away. This necklace is all I have left of her."

"Oh, I'm sorry June, I didn't mean to pry." Selene looked at me with sympathy. "It's okay."

We sat in silence for a moment. After a while, the silence was almost comforting; we simply enjoyed each other's presence.

Selene broke the silence. "June, is it okay if I come back tomorrow?"

I was caught off guard. "Why?" I asked, not realizing in that moment that it was probably rude to ask that question.

Selene stared into the moon for a second. She looked incredibly at peace, and then she turned to face me, a slight smile on her face.

"I'd like to get to know you more."

It was the start of an unlikely friendship. Every day, I would anxiously await the nightfall. And every night, I would climb out onto the roof and meet with Selene.

The night after we first met, we spoke about basic things. Our favorite colors, foods, road trip destinations, hobbies. I learned that Selene didn't have a last name and that she had moved at least 20 times in her lifetime.

A few days later, she mentioned the person she lost.

"I had a sister too," she said. "She was so funny, bright, and warm. I want to see her again someday."

"Were you guys separated?" I asked.

Once again, Selene looked up at the moon. "It was something like that. I was forced to leave her."

I didn't say anything. Pity was sometimes the worst when it came to losing a family member. I squeezed her shoulder reassuringly, and she looked back at me with shining, grateful eyes.

A few days later, I opened up about Elane.

"You remind me a lot of her," I had told Selene. "You have her spirit."

Selene didn't look at me. Instead, she stared at her hands. "June, I need to tell you something." I was concerned; she sounded so serious. "What is it?"

"Well… I really don't know how else to say this except bluntly." She looked at me with watery eyes.

"I'm moving again," she whispered in a pained voice.

My heart sunk. Just when I thought things were going well, something had to be ruined.

"Did you try to talk some sense into your parents? They can't just force you to leave like that!" I had told her.

Selene shook her head. "It's not like that. It's a lot more complicated than you think."

"How complicated can it be?" I asked, annoyance setting in. "My parents did the same thing, and I assure you I'm not going down without a fight. You have to-"

"June, do you think the moon is pretty?"

The question came out of nowhere, so it caught me off guard. I glanced at Selene, who was staring at the moon so intently that it looked like she was trying to find her reflection in it.

"What?" I asked. "What are you talking about."

"The moon," she sighed, then turned to me. "Is she pretty?"

My brow creased; I was unsure of what to say. "Well, yeah. The moon is really pretty, why do you ask?"

Selene smiled sadly. "No reason." She rested her hand on her cheek. "I think tonight is gonna be the last time we see each other for a while."

"What? Why?"

"Well… it's like my book. When the Moon Came Down? Eventually, the moon has to leave back up to the sky."

I shook my head. "Selene, don't get philosophical with me. What's going on?"

Selen pointed at my necklace. "We'll see each other again, June. I promise. In the meantime, remember that the moon is the most loyal companion there is. Even if it disappears for a little, it always comes back." I noticed there were tears in Selene's eyes, but she scooted closer to me and enveloped me in a warm hug.

I sat in shock, utterly confused and in disbelief. My one friend, someone who understood me most in the shortest amount of time, was leaving me.

It was all too familiar, but it still stung.

"I'll see you around June," Selene whispered, making her way down the roof of my house. "If you ever feel alone, just look up." She pointed towards the moon, the consistently inconsistent moon.

I looked up, and when I tried to look for Selene again, she had vanished.

I looked around almost frantically, trying to find my friend. Turning around to the other side of the house, I saw Selene walking down the street, catching beams of moonlight and dancing away between them like spotlights. The way that she danced, her posture, and the fact that she was wearing an opal necklace that resembled my own, I realized too late that the resemblance to Elane was almost uncanny.

Except that instead of Elane being the sun, this time she became the moon, the inconsistent moon.