my favorite girl

ix

N

/

Middle school jitters. I can't help but cling to Momo's arm as we walked together towards the campus.

I didn't like it here. Elementary school was way better.

"You're shaking," I hear Momo mumble next to me. She just lets me cling to her arm like a koala. I was grateful that she didn't mind. "Don't be nervous. It's just middle school."

She talks as if she's already went through it.

"We're just about to enter together. How come you're assuming it can't be that nerve-wrecking?"

Momo shrugs. "I just know."

I looked at her sternly. We reached the entrance of the campus and I find myself holding onto her arm tighter.

She pulls me out of my trance when she stepped away, and I was forced to remove my grip on her, thinking she'd be off to her classroom.

However, instead, she stood in front of me.

"Don't be nervous, Nayeon," she parrots her earlier statement, her hands reaching over to hold my shoulders in place. "You'll do great. You'll meet new friends. Middle school can't be that bad."

And then, I figured it out.

Momo wasn't nervous because she had been there: moving to a whole new place without knowing anybody, finding and making new friends because she didn't have one.

"Speak for yourself. It isn't a big deal to you because you already know what it's like to be in a whole new environment." I pout.

"Yeah, but you missed something." I frowned even more, confused. She just smiled. "I didn't have you back then, but now I do. That's why it's easier now."

I felt heat rush to my face.

Then, she pinches my cheeks and laughed.

"Don't worry. At least, you've already got one friend: me. Some of these kids here have no one but themselves."

It didn't make me feel completely okay, but it eased me somehow, because it came from Momo.

"Okay."

"Alright," she starts walking backwards, still facing me even though she intended to walk to her class. "Good luck, Nayeonie. Make lots of friends, but don't replace me, okay?"

I didn't have the chance to respond anymore, but if I did, I'd say she's an idiot;

For ever thinking she could possibly be replaced.