24 Hours

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

                When I entered elementary school, things changed for me. Cody the artist moved away and now attended a school in California, which was halfway across the country. I still had Laura, Sophie, and Maxwell to hold on to, though.

                Sophie made new friends with ease and no difficulty whatsoever. Maxwell, Laura, and I had a bit of trouble though; we were frightened at the idea of meeting new people, and it was mainly because we had grown so accustomed to each other. We were stuck like glue, I suppose.

                But one day, a girl came up to use while we were working on an arts and crafts project; we were supposed to be making the shape of animal out of pieces of hard, uncooked macaroni. In my own personal opinion, I didn’t understand why we had to use food and glue to make the picture; the macaroni was hard to work with and the glue made everything super messy. But the other kids had seemed enthusiastic about the idea of food and art in one big assignment, so I just went with it.

                Anyhow, the girl who came up to us was about the same height as me. Her skin, however, was of a much darker complexity, and I now realize and know that she was Portuguese. Her hair had been pulled back into an elaborate and lovely fishtail braid. She wore small rectangular glasses that kept sliding down her nose, never ceasing the repetition. She would use her index finger to push it up, which she did as she walked up to us.

                “Hi,” she said, her voice radiating a sense of confidence and security, “my name is Tiffany Petals.”

                Tiffany then gave us a beautiful smile, one that displayed her teeth. She was missing a few of them up front, but the rest of her teeth were in close to perfect condition; they were a pearly white with healthy looking gums below and above them.

                Desperate for a new friend, I pushed back all my fears and stood up to face Tiffany. I looked her right in the eye, grinned, and said, “Hey. My name is Juniper.” Then I reached out my hand and waited for Tiffany to shake it, as you were supposed to do on such occasions. Instead, she looked at it and her mouth contorted into some type of line that to this day I still cannot describe in words!

                She continued to look at the outstretched hand for several awkward, silent moments. Her facial expression portrayed her confusion in a vivid manner; one eye brow was raised and she seemed focused and intent on figuring out the meaning of my gesture.

                To make matters just a bit more pressuring, my entire group of friends had stopped working on their piece of glue/food/art, taking a brief moment to watch fail to communicate with proper etiquette to Tiffany, a possible friend. I began to feel nervous, but I decided to help the girl out and end the awkwardness. Maybe – just maybe – it will save our potential friend from fading back into a mere acquaintance! I thought, using me secret, advanced diction to seize the opportunity for secret, advanced thoughts.

                “When someone you’ve just met reaches out their hand to you, you’re supposed to shake it with your hand,” I explained to Tiffany. I could feel the pressure to be accepted by this girl growing and growing as I waited for her to speak. When she did not, I began to feel quite nervous again.

                Then she smiled in understanding. “I see!” she exclaimed, then thrust her hand into mine as quick as the blink of an eye and shook it. We laughed. “I wonder why people shake hands,” she thought aloud to me, withdrawing her hand, “because it seems kind of weird to touch someone you’ve just met.”