Dear Fidelis,
I’m starting to get into the whole ‘Dear you’ sort of thing. I feel really stupid for not telling you about my best friend Molly Crest. I wanted to slap my forehead and say idiot to myself, because of all people I shouldn’t have forgotten about her. By the way, I found out how to clear my mind. All I had to do was imagine an ocean like thing to wash away the clouds of insanity that rested on my minds shore. Pretty cool if you think about it. Anyways, I told you about my mom, dad, brother, massive crush, but have yet to tell you about my best friend. That’s what today is gonna be based on.
Well Molly and I technically met in kindergarten when it was my first day there after a few weeks of school, but we started hanging out in the third grade. I went late because according to my mom, I threw a lot of fits, and huge tantrums. In my mind, I was just negotiating in the only way I knew how, but whatever. I knew I had to go sometime, I just didn’t want to go that specific first day. Moving on, I went after a few weeks or so ‘cause my mom promised me cookies if I went, and I love me some cookies. I sat secluded in a little corner of the rug that seems to always rest in the middle of the room. The rug was filled with blocks and legos and crying kids who still won’t let go of their mothers after all this time. I felt like I was in the middle of a war-zone. And talk about mama’s boys. Yes, most of the crying kids hyperventilating were boys. True story. In my little corner I saw bouncy blonde pig-tails holding tiny curls that just screamed, “I should be holding a giant swirly lollipop and have bright pink rosy cheeks.”
Well I was wrong, twice. She had no lollipop, figures, and her cheeks weren’t the color of her plaid pink dress. She looked like a regular kid, but when you look regular, you kinda get that hint that you’re gonna be the mean girl of the school one day. She had that popular vibe radiating from her smile filled with baby teeth. She sat next to me, but I was awkward as heck so I scooted over a little bit to provide some space between us. She noticed that I had moved and practically booty bumped me when she scooted right back to me, brushing my elbows while she tried to get comfortable. Now I know I get these quite often, but, flashback time.
“Hi, my name is Molly Crest. You’re new here, just like me, and I wanna be your friend. We’ll be best friends forever. I can tell.”
“Hi Molly, my name is Juliana. My daddy calls me Liana, and my big brother calls me Julie. You can call me whatever you want.”
“I’m gonna call you Lee, ‘cause I like Liana, but Lee’s shorter. Is that ok?” She had the warmest smile I’d ever seen on anyone. She really did want to be my friend. Maybe I can fit in this way, but she seems just so nice and I don’t have any friends at all. I wouldn’t use her like that. Who cares if she gave me a name that was meant for a boy, I just wanted a friend.
“Yeah, I like it. So are we best friends now?”
“Of course we’re best friends! Now that we know both of our names, we’ll be the most bestest friends ever!”
Right after she used the unofficial word ‘bestest’, she gave me a strong hug that had me on my back in seconds. She must have been really happy to be friends to give me such a strong hug. I couldn’t help but laugh at my own joy and hug her back. I had a best friend and I didn’t have to try so hard for one. I thought it came to me a little easier than it should’ve, but that didn’t occur to me. The only time I realized it was such a quick best friendship to give, she had left me in the exact same year for the giant group of girls that eyed me every day. One of the girls was Cassandra, the leader, who gave that same regular kid look and radiated the popular smile. I should’ve seen it coming. I always thought they were jealous of me having a ’best friend’ but even after she had left me, I felt like I was a threat to them. What the heck was so threatening about a little girl who had no friends or even anyone to talk to for that matter? I hung out with the class guinea pig. A dang guinea pig, who ate nasty smelling food pellets and chomped on my clothes when I took him out to play at recess time. I regretted that year with my life. But then again, kids that age do what Molly did almost every single day. It may have been a brief friendship, but that didn’t change how strongly she wanted to be friends. I felt the exact same way, I finally had a friend and she wasn’t going to get away that easily. Cassandra was gonna pay, and me, being a devious little master mind with gloriously full proof plans, knew exactly what to do.
By third grade when Molly started to fade away from Cassandra, she was dressing like a preppy girl with skirts and sweaters with them still. Never understood how that was all the rage back then. But since Cassandra’s outfits were so precious to her, I thought I’d help her redecorate. My kindergarten teacher had retired my first grade year, and she thought I would like to keep Nibbles, the cloth chewing gerbil. I graciously accepted even though I had unexplained holes in different areas of my shirts and jeans for the rest of that year. One day I hid him in one of her posse’s backpack, knowing that they would beg to go to Cassandra’s house that day. It was Friday, and every Friday meant sleepover at Cassandra’s. Molly was sick that day so she was safe. The last thing I wanted was Molly getting hurt in my clever ways of revenge. Cassandra never had that much of a close eye on me to know I had been given Nibbles in the first place, which made what was going to happen all the more pleasurable.
When school was over I slipped by the cubbies which held our backpacks. I found Cassandra’s, Katie’s, and Monica’s backpacks in an instant, since they were the only three girls in school with bright pink backpacks. I filled their jackets and spare skirts with food pellets, thank goodness not the smelly ones. Their stupidity of carrying spare clothes, was to my pure advantage.
Now, to this day, I never knew what happened at Cassandra’s house, but let’s just say, it wasn’t pretty from what Molly had told me on Saturday. She said Cassandra was upset and never wanted Molly to hang out with them.. Ever! Who would’ve thought that blonde haired bimbo would know it was me getting Molly back. So when she came to my house, baring my unmarred Nibbles, she gave me a look I never wanted to receive, along with our friendship again. She said she was sorry for ditching me for a posse of Barbie dolls, her words exactly. Then after she applauded me for my marvelous revenge, we decided we would continue my ways, as a duo.
The rest of grade school was verbal war of the worlds. Me and Molly had the snarky comments to spit back after her failed attempts to make us shake in our shoes. She thought as per usual she would strike a nerve telling us how unhealthy our faces looked and that we needed major products. We’d counter with, ‘Our faces are naturally beautiful, but you wouldn’t know. I mean natural or even the word beauty doesn’t even know you exist when all you’ll ever know is botox and implants.’ That one never failed to get her red in the face and drop an occasional profanity bomb, which a teacher heard almost every single time. Me and Molly always won, most of the time. The only time she would win was when she cornered only one of us, and that one would be me. Even the mightiest couldn’t win when the enemy knew their weakness. But Molly would come to my rescue the next day, and we’ve been left alone ever since we had our whole grade bring water balloons and sneak attack them in the halls at recess. Molly and I have been inseparable like a stick super-glued to another object .Other than that, there’s not much more to tell about Molly. Hopefully I’ll see her soon, along with my parents and brother. I can’t take this place anymore.
Love,
Juliana
