I never gave Hana Fay a second thought. She was always just Hana Fay in my head. She wasn't one of the popular girls, like the gorgeous girls Stara Channing and Lisa Kylesson, or an outcast like the rebellious Tay Riley. She was like me, a girl that classmates hardly gave a second thought. She, like me, was not hideous or beautiful. She, like me, was not part of a "best friends" pair like Stara Channing and Lisa Kylesson or Melanie Handler and Brittany Bailey. She was just Hana Fay. I was just Julie Parker. But even though we were strikingly similar, I never noticed it, and if she did, she never said anything about it.

My friends were Jaclin Vermont and Katharina del Caral, even though we weren't all that close, but it was an unspoken knowledge that we hung out because we didn't want to look pathetic. But now that I think about it, Hana didn't have real friends in the class, but she didn't look pathetic. Maybe that was because she was polite to everyone abd carried herself with grace. And while Tay Riley had no friends in the class, she didn't look pathetic because she always talked about her friends that go to the high school. But me and Jaclin and Katharina -we'd be lying if we said we had friends at the high school, and we just couldn't have carried ourselves with the grace that Hana had alone without each other. We just couldn't.

One day, though, our teacher, Miss Timmons, announced that we would be changing seats. I was horrified, Jaclin and Katharina had been on my left and right since school began, and we were two months into the school year. Miss Timmons moved me to be between Tay Riley and Hana Fay. At the time, I was terrified - Tay had a bad reputation, and I hardly knew Hana. Jaclin was placed between Stara Channing and Lisa Kylesson, and Katharina was placed between Melanie Handler and Brittany Bailey. Jaclin, Katharina and I looked at each other sympathetically.

Over that week, I was grateful that Tay ignored me, though she did shoot rubber bands at numerous people, but that was typical of her. Hana, though, started talking to me that day I was placed next to her, which surprised me - she usually didn't do that. She said, "Hey, Julie, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out at the park after school today. I go there a lot." "That sounds cool, and I'm not busy," I said. "Great. Meet me at bench 8," she said - the ten benches at Brookley Park had numbers from 1 to 10 written on them, and she was referring to the bench that had a big black 8 painted in black on it. I agreed, and that day, when the bell rang, I got my stuff and walked to the park and sat on the bench. A minute later, she came and joined me.

We started talking, which surprised me. I didn't know we had so much in common - we both had an older sister, mine was named Kary, her's was named Amy. Our sisters were both thirteen, and we were both eleven. "What do you think of fifth grade?" I asked Hana. "It's cool," she said. I smiled because that was what I thought, too. "Hey, let's meet here tomorrow," she said. "Cool," I said. "I call this bench Hana's Heaven," she said. "That's a cool name. Why do you call it that?" I asked.

"Because, it's my heaven. I come here a lot. Bench 8 is my home away from home. I started coming here when we first moved here when I was in fourth grade. I was the new kid. I started three months into the school year and life was really hard, so I started coming to this park to be away from Amy when she was in a bad mood. I chose Bench 8 because it was the only free bench the day I came for the first time, and I decided right away to call it Hana's Heaven. I even sleep here sometimes," Hana said.

"Amy's moods get that bad? She doesn't physically hurt you, does she? Why don't you tell your parents?" I asked. "She doesn't physically hurt me, but her life is hard, like mine, so naturally she gets bad moods a lot. She's not mean, just hard to be around when she's in one of her moods, so I come here. Mom and Dad died right after fourth grade started, that's why we moved, to escape the sadness, it's just me and Amy," Hana said. "You live with someone who's only thirteen?" I asked incredulously. "We don't have a choice. Amy knows a lot," Hana said. "Wow...Well, come over to my house any time you want to," I said. My opinion on Hana had definitely changed in just one day. "Maybe I will, thanks," Hana said, smiling at me. "I have to go now, but let's meet here tomorrow," I said. "Okay, bye," Hana said, smiling.

I walked home and did my homework and three-way called Jaclin and Katharina and ate dinner and showered and went to bed that evening. The next morning, as I was leaving for school, I found a note slipped under our front door. I picked it up and read it.

Julie,
I looked your address up in the city directory, that's how I found your address. I just wanted to tell you that Amy and I are moving far away. You know what I said about moving a couple years ago to escape the sadness after Mom and Dad died? We didn't escape it, that's why we're moving again. We're going off in search of a better life. We don't know where we're moving yet. We're just going to take a bunch of trains and stuff like that until we find somewhere good. Goodbye, maybe I'll write you again, maybe not, and feel free to visit Hana's Heaven.
-Hana

I screamed out of shock and sadness. How could Hana just leave me like that? I had only really known her for one day, and yet I felt she was my only true friend. But I had one thing to do before school, and I didn't care if it caused me to be late. I grabbed my paints and headed to the park.

I found bench 8 and painted a star in black paint over the 8. Then, after the star, I painted in black paint HANA'S HEAVEN. This was Hana's place, even if she wasn't going to come to it ever again. I decided other kids could use this place as an escape, like Hana had used it. Or maybe it would act as a normal bench. I didn't care. I just wanted people to know that Hana had used this bench.