Best Friends Forever

Lessons

We park on the side of the road near their mailbox. Number 314. My dad opens up the door to the backseat of his truck, letting me out. He also grabbed my purple and blue tie-dye backpack, black stuffed pony, and my Disney Princesses pillow.

"Here Olivia, take your pillow and pony please."

I take the pillow and stuffed pony from him and we slowly walk up the driveway. There's a little white car sitting on the right side of the driveway. The little silver car says "Malibu" on the side and has a weird looking gold plus sign on the front. The basket of the basketball hoop sways a little over the car.  Then I notice sidewalk chalk covering the 2 slabs of concrete closest to the garage. There's little drawings of My Little Pony as well as little hearts. On the other slab of concrete there's a drawing of Spiderman and Iron Man. I walk around the drawings and onto the winding sidewalk that takes us to the front door. On the porch there's a hanging bench on both sides of the door. It gently sways in the breeze. There's a doormat in front of the door that says "The Smiths''.

"Go on, ring the doorbell." My dad points at the black rectangle with a white circle doorbell.

I step up onto the porch and slowly walk up to the doorbell.

"Ding Dong" the doorbell sings.

I stand there patiently hopping from foot to foot. I could hear movement as someone made their way to the door. I look back at my dad holding most of my stuff standing on the sidewalk with one foot on the front porch. I hear the door unlock and quickly look at the door again, standing up straight.

"Hi! Come on in! You can take your bag up the stairs, 3rd door to the left!" Zoey exclaims as she opens the door and let's my dad and I in.

The stairway is directly in front of the door with a dining room to the right and a tiny living room to the left along with a hallway that appeared to lead to the main living room and had a bathroom to the side of the hallway. My dad shuffles me inside and hands me my bag. Just as I enter the doorway Zoey's parents come around the corner and walk right up to my dad.

"Hi I'm Eric, this is my wife Amy." My dad shakes hands with each of Zoey's parents.

"Hi, I'm Mike. Nice to meet you."

As our parents keep talking Zoey shows me to her room. The walls are a pale yellow and she has a wooden loft bed. Against the wall facing the loftbed is a tv sitting on a small brown stand with a mini yellow couch facing the tv. There's a self under the tv on the stand that had an Xbox 360 with 2 controllers. The game "Kinectimals" case sitting to the side of the xbox. In the corner beside the tv there's a grey cat tower and suddenly I see something move in that direction. I take a step closer to realize there's a gray cat sitting at the top.

"That's my cat Cloud by the way. Oh and that's Swiss" Zoey points up at the top of her loft bed where there's a small dog bed with another cat.
I'm not a fan of cats because of some bad experiences. When I was younger I loved playing with the cats but they always turned on me and would scratch me up and/or bite me. Even the cat at a nursing home shredded my skin after the nurse said the cat is friendly. Cats just don't like me. I set my bag beside the tv in between a dresser and bookshelf that sits against the wall across from the loft bed.

"Ok, here let me show you around." Zoey gives me a tour of her house.

Upstairs are all the bedrooms. Her parents, her brothers, hers, and an office her parents share. Her and her brother share the hall bathroom. She takes me down to the kitchen and opens up a door that reveals a staircase that goes down to the basement. Downstairs there's a huge living room that has 2 couches and some chairs facing the biggest tv I've ever seen. There's a bathroom to the right and on the left a home gym.

"Hey Olivia? Why don't you say hello to Zoey's parents?" My dad motions for me to come talk with them.

"Hi Olivia, I'm Mr. Smith, Zoey's dad. Nice to meet you" He puts his hand out so I can shake it.

I look back at my dad and he nods. I put my hand out as well and gently shake it.

"Nice to meet you too sir." His handshake was firm.

"I'm Mrs. Smith, welcome to our home."

"Thank you" I reply giving a small smile.

I hate driving by Zoey's old house. There's so many memories there and it's weird to not see that white chevy malibu and basketball hoop in the driveway. The new owners remodeled the house so it doesn't even look the same anymore. It's really a bummer considering it was a historical house.

"Ok Olivia, adjust the seat till your comfortable and adjust your mirrors. Then move the gear to reverse. Ok?" Mr. Smith put on his seatbelt while I fumbled with the buttons to adjust everything. "Now very slowly take your foot off the break, DON'T touch the gas pedal." I do as he says and slowly roll down the driveway.

"Good now start turning your wheel to the right, but not too hard or you'll hit the mailbox".

He let me drive to the first stop sign on our road before we switched and he took me to my elementary school's parking lot. He taught me how to park, turn, control my speed, come to a complete stop and even started parallel parking. Then he let me drive him on the back roads all the way back to home. On my first day driving! He always pushed me to be the best I could be.

After my dad died, he took me under his wing. Mr. Smith used to tell me what a gentleman is. He used to take Zoey and I out on "dates" to show us what a gentleman is like. He always walked on the side closest to the cars, open doors for us, and overall treat us well. He also taught us how to be independent so we could live on our own. He taught us how to do taxes and do well financially. Mrs. Smith taught me how to cook and some cleaning hacks. I didn't know I'd need their advice so soon.