Once Upon a Friendship

The List

They say high school is the best experience you'll ever have. You hear about how eventful, joyful and spiritual it is — let me assure you right now, it is truly not. Well, at least not for me. You may prefer parties and red cups, I prefer sitting in front of my laptop and apple juice. You may be into Friday Night Lights, but I'd choose pizza night any day. I'm aware I don't live the most social life, but hey, the chances that friendships in high school have a very slim chance of lasting.

"Corey!" I hear someone yelling my name. I turn around to see a mop of brown hair rushing towards me. Recognizing that mop of brown hair, I knew it could only be one person, Kaden Cordell, my best friend.

Kaden moved here during the beginning of freshmen year, and was my lab partner. One disastrous explosion after another, we ultimately became each others best friend. He's the complete opposite of me, but we made our friendship work.

"Bro, what's wrong? I'm pretty sure you knocked some freshmen down on the way," I said putting my hand on Kaden's shoulder as he tried to catch his breath. "I don't get it, you're on the football team, yet you couldn't handle that sprint?"

Kaden, who looked like he had enough time to regather himself, gave me a dirty look for my remark, "Give me a break man, football season just started, and I'm a little off my A game!"

I rolled my eyes at his exaggeration, "You're such a whiner, Cordell."

"Let's not talk about athletic abilities, Stevens."

"Touche," I said. "So, what was your dire message that couldn't be said without trampling innocent freshmen?"

"It's that time of year again, look," he said, taking out the colourful paged booklet out of his backpack, and handed it to me. I didn't even need to ask what it was.

"I don't see what the point of this is," I muttered. "I mean, it's just a self-esteem boaster for the people who are at the top, which by the way, is the same people. Not like anything changes."

"Um, you should take a look for yourself this year, Corey," Kaden said nervously.

"Wait, you went through it already?" I asked, stunned. Usually Kaden and I go through it together.

"No, but -- ugh just go through it already!" Kaden exclaimed frustrated.

"The List" is basically a booklet ranking each grade from the coolest to the lamest. Again, another popularity boaster, as the same people at the top stay on the top. I sighed and flipped through the pages to see how far down the list I was this year. After a few seconds, I was able to recognize my name.

#48. Corey Stevens

"Well, how far are you?" Kaden asks, breaking the silence.

"48."

"Well look on the bright side, you're in the Top 50!" Kaden says nervously in an attempt to cheer me up.

I shrugged it off, "Kaden, I could care less about a lame popularity list. Where are you?"

"Uhm, that doesn't really matter, Corey," Kaden said nervously, again. He was even doing his awkward head scratching thing he does when he's nervous. I gave him a stern look before grabbing the list again.

I don't know what surprised me more, where he was in the list or who was two numbers below him ...

#7. Kaden Cordell

#8. Fiona Woods

#9. Jerome Tylers

#10. Stella Baldwin