57

One chilly morning in the bitter cold northern state of Massachusetts, my friend, Ushma (who had brown eyes and brown, wavy hair), and I (who had black, curly hair and brown eyes) were sitting at the cedar wood desks that we usually sit at. Normally, my friend, Gabrielle (who had blue eyes and blonde, straight hair), would sit with us too. She would usually chat with us until Mrs. Osgood, my 2nd grade teacher, who had a soft, nice face and nice straight blonde hair, came into the classroom and told us to settle down in our bright, colorful, and spacious classroom.Ushma and I thought this was really strange, so we stood up to look for her. Suddenly, I saw her sitting at the back end of the classroom alone. She seemed really lonely. For a second, she caught my eye, though she quickly turned away. I poked Ushma and pointed at Gabrielle. Ushma gave me a shocked face that looked as amused as if someone had just thrown her a surprise party. After a minute or so, she came back to Earth and told me that we should walk up to her and ask her why she wasn't sitting with us. I agreed with her and together, we went up to Gabrielle. Undoubtedly, Gabrielle was trying to ignore us.

"Why aren't you sitting with us?" I asked her calmly. She didn't answer me. With no doubt, Ushma asked her again before I could.

"Why aren't you sitting with us like you usually do?" Ushma asked suspiciously. Again, Gabrielle didn't give us and answer.

"Why don't you want to tell even your friends the truth and your problems? Maybe we might have a good solution to your problem. We're just trying to help," I exclaimed as serene as I can possibly be.

"Than maybe we shouldn't be friends because I am not comfortable of telling you guys anything! You don't have to know everything about me," Gabrielle shouted in an irritated voice. Ushma and I looked at each other with shocked looks. Just then, Mrs. Osgood came in the room wearing a pink shirt and black skirt. Everyone was quickly seated. Then, we started class that day.

Through math, Ushma and I were eyeing Gabrielle with anger in our eyes. At lunch, the whole lunchroom was filled with the sweet aroma of pizza. The lunchroom was a large spacious room filled with hungry students. Gabrielle sat at a table with all the popular kids. She was talking to a girl named Alison. We ignored her that lunch period, and I must admit that I was so hungry that day, that I could have eaten a horse. After lunch, when we were in reading, Ushma and I were sitting our usual desks ,when suddenly Gabrielle came up to us and said, "Loser. Get out of my way." Without any doubt, our friendship had ended.

I was outraged by that point, by Ushma calmed me down. Ushma told her, "You're the backstabbing liar, so stop calling others names that seem so like you." Gabrielle snickered and walked away that day with a disgusted look on our face. Finally, I decided that our friendship was officially over. = = From that day on, Ushma and I never spoke to Gabrielle again. We decided that we would always have each other no matter what happened. We would stick together even if the sky fell down. From the day of the fight on, Gabrielle had become best friends with Alison and they were spending most of their time together. They would work on projects together and hang out with each other during recess. Gabrielle had just become such a monster. She would tell others to get out of the way. She would yell at others and bully them. Even her grades were going down. She was lacking in school and not behaving appropriately during class. Gabrielle had definitely changed.

On a day when even the sky looked sad, Ushma and I were just hanging out at recess, when Alison came up to us. She seemed really upset when she saw us. Gabrielle sick that day and didn't attend school. I felt a sudden rush of panic come over me. Instead of her bullying us, she sat down. She sat there for a minute or two with Ushma and I eyeing her. Then, she suddenly spoke with her eyes watering immensely.

"I'm sorry for the way I am behaving. I don't mean it. Gabrielle is somehow being really mean. I liked it a lot better when she was hanging out with you because now she's not nice to anyone. The other day, I saw her yell at her mom because she didn't buy her a book at the book fair," Alison sniffed.

Then, Ushma told her calmly, "I know it's not your fault. We never blamed you. We like Gabrielle a lot better before too. It's not you who should be apologizing, but Gabrielle.

"Friends?" I asked in a hopeful voice.

"Of course," Alison says.

For the next three months, Ushma and I refused to talk to Gabrielle. Alison wasn't as close either. Gabrielle felt lonely again. Unfortunately, she was still lacking in school.

During Easter, Mrs. Osgood hid Easter eggs with each of the student's name on it. When Gabrielle looked in an extra desk, she saw an egg. She took it out and read the name. She threw the egg into the desk and looked disgusted. I knew it had to have been Ushma's egg or my egg. When I looked, my prediction came true. It was mine. I inspected my egg and found a crack in it. For a second, I wanted to tell her off at the principal's office, but decided not to.

After a week or so, Ushma was sick, so she stayed at home. Those days she was absent; I thought Gabrielle's heart and feelings were made out of stone. She made fun of me because I wasn't as fluent in English as her. When Ushma finally came back, the bullying finally stopped. = = For the next few months, Gabrielle was still mean to us, but she was starting to stop bullying us. We were ignoring her when she made a rude comment. I would ignore her when she said something mean to me. I was somewhat pleased that she gave up trying to insult us after a while. Gabrielle was trying to gather groups of girls to gang up on the others. She would also brush her blonde hair onto our face. I wasn't satisfied to see that now she was bullying other kids. This would make me fell sorry for the others because I remembered that I was once in that position. Somehow, I felt that I could've taken action and stood up for those kids, but I didn't.

One cold and snowy day, we were in class and we were working on a project. Mrs. Osgood said that we would be working in partners. Loud cheers filled the classroom.

"But, I will choose the partners," Mrs. Osgood exclaimed abruptly. This time, moaning filled the classroom.

"Okay. Kayla pair up with Kaycie... Natasha pair up with Ushma... Phil with Tony... Sophie with Gabrielle..." Mrs. Osgood announced.

Sophie and Gabrielle? Was Mrs. Osgood out of her mind? A rush of panic came over me. I was definitely blue in the face. How can Mrs. Osgood do something like this to me?

"Everybody pair up with your assigned partner," Mrs. Osgood told us, " We are going to write a paragraph about the life cycle. Then, you and your partner will make a poster of the life cycle. Finally, you will present your poster and paragraph to the class. Now, go to your partners."

Gabrielle slowly walked up to me. She sat down quickly. There was an awkward pause. After about 30 seconds, Gabrielle spoke.

"Um...I guess we should start on the project now..." she said in a high-pitched voice.

"Yeah... I guess so... Are we doing the poster or the paragraph first?" I asked.

"Paragraph. Then, we can work more on the poster," she replied hastily.

"Okay. I'll write the paragraph," I exclaimed reaching for my notebook.

"All right. I'll write the poster," she told me with a cheerful smile

After that, we worked until the day ended. We had most of our assignments finished and we would be all done the next day. The Gabrielle I knew was back. = = Over the next month or so, Gabrielle, Ushma, Alison, and I were becoming really close friends. It was the beginning of summer, which was as hot as the sun, so we would go to the pool a lot. One day, I decided to call Ushma.

"Hey, I was just wondering if you could come to my house on Saturday. We could go in my pool!" I exclaimed.

"Sure, but just the two of us. I feel like I don't get to spend as much time with you as we used to," she told me softly.

"Of course it could just be the two of us. Besides, Gabrielle and Alison probably already have plans," I replied.

So that was our plan. That Saturday, she came over and we walked to our pool through my backyard. That Saturday, it was very warm and sunny outside. My backyard had pine trees, oak trees, daffodils, tulips, and grass growing all around. It was almost like a botanical garden. When we got to the oval-shaped pool that was in the ground, we were ready to get in.

"1...2...3...!" we yelled together.

SPLASH!! We had just dived into the pool like cannonballs. The freezing pool water made me feel cold all over. All our neighbors looked out to see the source of the boisterous noise. We hid in the cerulean-filled pool water feeling embarrassed that we disturbed so many people. For the next minute, Ushma and I went up for occasional breaths. When we felt it was finally safe because there was no noise, we surfaced our heads out of the water. We laughed about it for a while. Then, we decided to have a race from the shallow end to the deep end.

"1...2...3...GO!!!" I screamed so loudly that my neighbors looked out again. Instead of hiding in the water like before, we decided to ignore them. My arms were paddling so hard; they were like engines. The deep end of the pool was so close, I could almost taste it. Finally, I reached the deep end of the pool. Ushma was a short distance away.

"You were great! Do you want to have a game of pool volleyball?" Ushma asked me.

"You bet I do!" I replied anxiously.

"I'll get the beach ball and you can swim to the shallow end of the pool," Ushma explained.

"Okay!" I said excitedly. Finally, we started to play. = = "I had a great time! Bye!" Ushma told me when it was finally time to leave. Like the known saying--time flies when your having fun--that Saturday went by so fast, it was as fast as a light year. Then one day, we had a little fight about a very pitiful thing. We had a fight about why I wouldn't let them use my new crayons. I wouldn't let them use the crayons because they were new and they had a lot of things they didn't let me use. I figured that Alison and Gabrielle wouldn't be best friends with us forever. I wasn't heartbroken or anything because I saw it coming. Ushma thought it was incredible how I didn't feel sad, mad, like a mellow lad when I had the disagreement. I simply told her that true friends will not get mad of you if you do something that means so little.

"You're right. True friends don't mad at you if do something that is almost meaningless," Ushma said. Then, she gave me a hug. I gave one back.

A few more days later, it was the end of school. That meant that it was almost my birthday. I sent out invitations and ordered my charter. My first choice on my "invited list" was Ushma (of course). I thought twice before inviting Alison and Gabrielle, but in the end I decided to invite them anyway. I came to the conclusion of having a pool party at my house.

The day of the party, Ushma was the first to come. She helped me set up everything, so I let her take a peek at my cake. I was a giant chocolate cake with layers and layers of frosting. After that, we changed into our matching pink bathing suits (obviously not in the same room). When we went back out, guests were pouring in. When everyone was finally there, we let the guests change into their swimwear and go in our pool. Obviously my nosy neighbors looked out again, but that didn't matter. What mattered was that everyone was having a great time. Suddenly, Gabrielle walked up to me.

"Nice party," she murmured. Then she whispered something under her breath. This did not bother me because if something so small bothered us, you would have so many difficulties in life. This also told me that Gabrielle could only be considered as a normal friend, not a true best friend.

When the party finally ended, I told Ushma to stay a little later.

"You're a true friend. Thanks for being there for me when I needed someone the most. Thanks," I said to her after everyone was gone.

"No problem. That's what friends are for," she replied. Finally, I thought, so this was what true friends are. They're there by you're side when you need it the most and they are always ready to stand up for you.