How I Remember Us

The Very Beginning

The first time I saw him was in sixth grade.

I was just starting at a new school and was looking forward to meeting new friends and exploring this unfamiliar surrounding. I wanted to reinvent myself.

I thought the transition would be hard but I made friends easily, the only difficult task was navigating the expansive school. It took me weeks before I realized the system in which the class room numbers were organized, after that it became much easier to get where I needed to go.

I had English class last period of the day. It was my favorite class seeing as we studied Greek, Russian, Roman, and Norse mythology. I always tried my hardest in that class and put my full effort into it - what could I say, I was a teacher's pet.

Throughout the entirety of the year, the people in our class stayed the same. If I ever wanted to talk to someone I socialized with the girl who sat in front of me. But one day, our teacher announced we would be going to the computer lab to work on a project on our heritage. The girl and I were in the middle of plans to sit together when the teacher said we would be sitting in alphabetical order by last name.

She led the other children and I into the computer lab and pointed out where everyone was sitting.

It was here that I met him.

I was the first person to sit down since my last name began with an A. To my left was the printer, and to the right a boy sat down and began his work. (This later becomes a theme since our last names are right next to each other alphabetically.)

I started my computer and began to look for facts about Germany. We dutifully worked for 10 minutes before he began laughing lightly to himself. He proceeded to gently nudge my arm and point to his screen. The Wikipedia page for Antarctica was pulled up, and he gestured to two images. One was of a rather large looking aristocratic man, the other was a CD cover of penguins dancing on the moon.

I stifled a laugh at the pictures, but really what I was laughing at was how absurdly he reacted to them. His laugh was genuine and hilarious.

When we both had calmed down we exchanged names. His name was Zach, which fitted him perfectly, then the bell rang signaling our release from the class. We walked down to our lockers together and I asked about his relation to Antarctica. He explained that he was adopted so our teacher told him he could report on any country he wished. Over the next couple of months we continued to chat with each other and he would sometimes put pictures of the aristocrat in my locker, which I would return back to him while he simply laughed.

It became a game between the two of us, until we were both distracted by other friends and school work.

We didn't speak again until eighth grade.