The first time I ever saw Maggie's face turn purple was the first time I ever met her.
"Okay, start counting."
"One, two, three.."
"No! You have to say Mississippi after each second."
"Oh. One Mississippi, two Mississippi.."
Maggie wanted me to count how long she could hang upside down on the monkey bars at the park before she had to get down. She got to twenty-three Mississippi, and then her face turned purple. I was five when this occurred, Maggie was seven. And just like that, we were inseparable.
I was two grades behind Maggie. She lived three houses down from me. We went to the same parks, the same restaurants and the same church. She liked to talk, and I liked to talk more. We were both athletic and both shared a love of reading and writing. She ate the inside of the poptart, and I ate the crust. It was pretty much the perfect friendship.
We spent our summers living at each others houses, going on vacation with each other, spending every waking moment together for years. Maggie was always my best friend. She came first, before anyone else.
The summer before my eighth grade year she had to go to cheer camp for a week. I thought I was going to die from Maggie-deprivation. When she came back she explained how cheer camp was just about the greatest thing ever, and I had to try out next year, all while eating five slices of pizza at one time because the food wasn't the best, apparently. She stayed at my house for four days straight. She missed me, too.
My eighth grade year was fun, and I made a ton of friends who I spent time with when Maggie wasn't around. Maggie got pretty angry at me if I had made plans with them while she was in town, though. Between all the sports we played, and all the other activities we did, we never had too much time to spend together that year. But absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Even if we went a month without seeing each other, we always texted and called and our friendship never dwindled. We where always as close as we had been before.
The summer of my eighth grade year flew by, and before I knew it, I was a freshie.
"Hurry up."
"I am."
"I don't want to be late."
"Laney, chill. We have a whole five minutes to walk two steps to the classroom."
I slammed my locker shut so it would close right. I grabbed my backpack off the ground and put it on one shoulder. "Okay. Let's do this." I said.
Behind Maggie, who was my best friend, there where a few different people. Laney was not one of these people. She was fun and she was a good friend, but she was too pushy. It drove me crazy to be around her too much at a time.
"Are you excited?" She asked me.
"Not really." I responded. I walked into the classroom and saw immediately this would be an easy first period class. It looked like one of those classes I could sleep through and still make an A, even though my guidance counselor told me Ancient History would be challenging.
I threw my backpack on the back of a random seat and sat down. Almost everyone was here. I looked around, taking in the faces. I recognized a few other freshman, but I didn't really know anyone else but Laney, who sat in the seat in front of me.
She turned around to make more small talk before the teacher got in. "When does Maggie get back?"
"The seventeenth. The team already placed first in three competitions, now they're competing in the last round."
"I can't believe she's missing the first day of her junior year! Why didn't you go compete with the cheer team?"
"Since I'm a freshman they kept me on JV. All the varsity spots are filled by upperclassmen."
I was one of eight freshman on the JV cheer team. There where six sophomores who did both JV and Varsity. The only time I would get to cheer with Maggie this year was at football games. Our competitive, football and basketball cheer teams where all separate.
At this time, our teacher walked in. He was the newest teacher here, and he was also fresh out of college. He had on a collared shirt and a tie with dark dress pants. His dark hair was short, and his face was very attractive. Maybe I wouldn't be sleeping through this class.
He sat down and the class continued it's chatter until the bell rang. The vice principal ran through morning announcements, such as if you haven't bought a parking pass, stop parking in the school's parking lot, and that season passes where on sale in the office, and that everyone needed to buy one before the first football game.
"Class," The teacher began, "I'm Mr. Chase. I'll be teaching you for the next eighteen weeks."
And so began my freshman year of high school.
