The most unlikely friends

           In the beginning weeks of when my best friend Brittany and I first met each other, it was a pretty rocky start. It was the beginning of first grade right around the time of my birthday, and it was also my first year at Legacy, so I was naturally a little shy. I kept myself somewhat reserved, or really just away from the crowd of talkative but friendly girls and observed from afar. I wasn't fond of the energetic kids, but then, lucky me, at lunch this little ball of energy comes to investigate the new kid in the grade on the hunt for friends. Once I was settled in the middle of my lunch table, I watched this loud little girl head my way, and I was a little intimidated. She was very short, about 3'3, so she disappeared into the crowd easily, only to be occasionally seen by her swaying, mid-back long, golden hair. She made her way to my area and claimed the seat next to me, and immediately starts to strike up a conversation. Now she was incredibly friendly, but I was not fond of her energy which mirrored that of Buddy the Elf, and I felt like Walter Hobbs. I was bombarded immediately by questions and comments,
              "Hi I'm Brittany! What's your name? Are you new here?" and I became overwhelmed in a hurry. Despite how much she rubbed me the wrong way, I wanted to treat her nicely in return, so I tried to mimic her energy level which only resulted in a more hyper conversation. I found myself caught in a loop of conversations for the next few days, always trying to distance myself from her, until the next week when she found a new topic to talk about. My birthday party invitations that had been sent out over the weekend to the holy grail of all birthday party places for a first grader, Chuck E. Cheese's. I hadn't invited her, because she got on my nerves and it was definitely irritating and upsetting to me, so the last thing I wanted to do was ruin my party. Although the guilt weighed down on me and felt as if my blood had turned to lead, I did not want to invite the girl that irritated me to the point of anger. So I trudged back into school that Monday knowing I probably made some mistake. And even though I felt guilty, I knew I would have to keep a stiff upper lip and not show any signs of it, but this came off as a tad bit aggressive and also resulted with a cold shoulder attitude. Although I came into class and my attitude was a little off, Brittany luckily didn't seem to notice a major change. Class soared by and lunch arrived, and by this time, anxiety began to kick in knowing I was about to be interrogated, so whatever shame I felt turned to fear. At lunch, everything was actually as it usually was, except I was a little jumpy when she asked her usual questions like,
"How are you? What did you do this weekend? Was it fun?"
and she may have noticed I wasn't exactly like myself that day, but nonetheless I made it through the first day of the week unnoticed, and I only had to survive for four more days before my party. Tuesday came, and I noticed that Brittany wasn't as hyper as she usually was in class, but instead had a curious investigating look about her, as is she were a detective in the heat of a case. The worst part of me automatically assumed that she must have been investigating about the invites, and the butterflies in my stomach began to flutter and my palms became sweaty, for now I became nervous that this would become the center of the lunch time conversations. Lunch came around again, but instead of an almost flawless lunch like the day before, just about everything that could have gone wrong occurred. I sat down nervously at lunch around my other friends, and Brittany came bobbing in as usual to claim her seat. And the topic that I wished would not come up sprung up first thing. Someone decided to ask people around me about my birthday party and if they got invited, all the details and such. Unluckily for me, Brittany overheard this, and I knew it too. My mind began to race, my stomach felt like it was skydiving, and a burst of heat flushed from my chest up to my head while I was waiting for her to ask the dreaded question. And then I heard it come from Brittany's sassy tone,
"Oh yeah, Avery did you invite me to your party?"
My heart began to race as I didn't know how to answer her question, but then I felt that anger started to boil over at her rudeness. I decided to answer her with the simple truth,
"Well... uh... no I didn't"
She seemed outraged and confused, so she bickered back,
"What?! Wait, why not?"
I was absolutely fed up with her attitude and decided to not be a roll over anymore, so I lashed back with the cold-blooded truth,
"Well, I don't think we were ever actually friends, you just kinda got on my nerves..."
She repulsively stared at me with an astonished and disgusted look on her face, as if she had just eaten something bitter. She responded in a defeated tone,
"Oh... alrighty..." 
            Anger was one of the only emotions that ran through my mind. Sadly, I felt almost happy that I got her to be quiet for a little, and that I got the peace I desired.  She sat silently for the rest of lunch and I watched her with a close eye to make sure she didn't run off or immediately start talking to the person next to her about what just happened. But no, to my surprise she sat as still as if she were paralyzed, and only moved when the teachers said it was time to go. She stayed in a trance for the rest of the day, and I began to feel a little guilty. But nonetheless, I only had 3 days left until my party after that. I came to school the next day, and noticed Brittany's behavior was once again a little off. But this time, it was for the worse, she became uncannily sassy and rude towards me. She tried to act totally defiant towards me, which was aggravating because I never really signed up for this problem anyways, so this only fueled my anger more and more. She tried to act like others were far more important than I was at lunch, and without hardly saying a word to me. She was like a child who was pouting that something didn't go their way, and she demanded an apology. That became evident when I got home that night, and my Mom confronted me with some interesting news. She informed me that Brittany's Mom had been emailing her about how upset her daughter was, and how she deserved an invite to my party. This absolutely set me over the edge anger wise as it grew to a red hot boil. I could not believe what child would have the audacity to make such a big deal over something she shouldn't have even been in in the first place! These thoughts were ushered into Thursday, which was filled with nothing more than salty glances and bitter emotions. Every bit of me was repulsive towards her throughout the day, and it only got worse that night when my Mom updated me on the email dilemma. She said that Brittany's Mom and her formulated a plan to fix all of this, and in my opinion was probably the worst possible thing that could happen. They decided since it was to late to include Brittany in the birthday party, she could just go to Chuck E. Cheese's next Friday with us, but with just Brittany and I on our own little play date. My whole body seethed with rage when my mom told me this. But I swallowed it like a bitter pill eventually, and dealt with it, accepting that I would have to spend 3-4 hours with my so called enemy. Friday came and went faster than expected, and the party was a blast despite all the chaos surrounding it. But when the party was said and done, I knew that I would have an interesting week ahead of me. That Monday when I came back to school, everything felt dreary and gray, as if my emotions had short-circuited from being overloaded with rage due to the previous week. But unlike me, Brittany once again seemed energetic so I assumed her mom told her that we were going to have a play date, which annoyed me that she was so happy this worked out in her favor. I later found out at lunch that this was the case as that was all she talked about, and she couldn't have been happier about it. As the week went on, she was continually excited, and to my surprise, her positivity actually began to rub off on me. My hostility began to soften, and I realized that 3 hours with her can't be so bad. Friday came quickly, and Brittany couldn't be more ecstatic. I wasn't exactly looking forward to the forced playdate, but at this point I didn't despise it. Upon arrival to Chuck E. Cheese's I felt pretty happy to be at one of my favorite places, but not overjoyed at who I was spending my time with. But when she strutted in with her bedazzled outfit, she acted differently than her school self, and I took a liking to his version of her. Instead of her energy coming straight on to me, she seemed to funnel it into the games we played together and in her competitive spirit, which I related to. We kept learning more and more about each other over miscellaneous games through out the night, and I loved every second of it. It was as if all the negativity that we carried over the past two weeks had vanished, and became the base of an incredible friendship that has stood the test.