Together Again II Mat Barzal

One: Bela

Mat and I were five years old when we met. If I'm being honest, I've had a crush on him since then. He has always been there for me since Kindergarten. We sat at the same table in class and played football with each other at recess. I was never into playing on the swings like the other girls and the only other option was football. I was the only girl that played, though I barely knew how. It was two-hand touch, I wouldn't survive playing tackle with the guys who were in my grade, especially when they started growing up.

He would pull my ponytail every so often, which I hated him for. I told my mom about what he was doing. Even though we were friends, it still pissed me off. She told me that he might have a crush on me or something, which I found ridiculous.

We were close when we were little, but we didn't necessarily start hanging out until third grade when we got assigned to each other to be partners for a project. He watched me as I wrote down my name on our poster.

"You spell your name B-E-L-A?" He asked.

"Yeah," I said. "You didn't know?"

"Nope," Mat told me. "It's cool because I spell my name M-A-T instead of M-A-T-T,"

"That's cool," I smiled.

"We're different that way," Mat said. "I like it,"

"Yeah," I smiled. "I like it too,"

In fourth and fifth grade, it was weird to hang out together. Everyone kept singing that annoying "Sitting in a Tree" song, which absolutely pissed me off.

"Mathew and Bela sitting in a tree," They would chant. "K-I-S-S-I-N-G,"

"Shut up," I said to the annoying girls. "Find something better to do,"

They ran off laughing.

"I can't stand them," Mat stared them down as they skipped back to the swings.

"Ugh, me too," I said, staring at Kendall, the most popular and annoying one of all. "What a bitch,"

"A what?" Mat asked in shock. "Isn't that a bad word?"

"Yeah," I said, trying to sound cool. "So?"

"I'm going to tell Mrs. Kinney," Mat said.

I thought he was serious, so I immediately pleaded for him not to.

"No, Maty, please don't tell," I said.

"Relax," Mat smiled. "I'm not going to tell,"

"Thank goodness," I said.

Mrs. Kinney, our teacher, called us inside from recess.

"I'll race you," Mat said. He already started to run.

I sprinted as fast as I could.

"I win," I said, panting.

"I let you win," Mat told me.

"You did not!" I said. "Just admit that I'm faster than you,"

"You're not faster than me," Mat said.

"Of course I am," I smiled. "I won,"

"I'll get you back next time," Mat said. "You can count on it,"

I laughed.

Mrs. Kinney put us in order from tallest to shortest when we lined up to go inside. I was the second one in line because I was one of the tallest in my class if not my whole grade. Mat was towards the middle back of the line. I would always tease him for being so short, but it came back to bite me in the ass when he went through puberty.