Life360

1 - A New Friendship

I'm just going to say it, life sucks. Some people just breeze through life with no challenges whatsoever, but people like me, we can barely make it through the day without wishing we were some other person. I was never really nice to anyone because all I knew was hate from my older siblings. My parents however, tried the hardest they could to force friendships they knew would never happen. 

A group in particular had a forced "friendship" with me where all they did was bully and push me around. My parents threw so many parties where they invited a lot of kids my age, but the only ones that showed up were kids that were clearly forced by their parents. I cried from pre-school up until second grade.

It was third grade year, when something amazing happened. During recess I was climbing up a tree into one of the clubhouses from the neighbors of the school. Usually I was the only kid who knew how to climb or even knew about the clubhouse. I heard a beautiful voice singing a song I didn't even know. Carefully I opened the hatch and saw a girl around my age with jet black hair, brown eyes, holding a microphone.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" She screamed.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't know anyone else came up here. Please forgive me." I started sobbing.

"No no it's not you. Hurry inside before he escapes!" 

I scurry inside, shutting the hatch and locking it. Looking around I see a bean bag chair and plop down on it.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you. I usually come up here by myself every single recess." I say to her.

"It's quite alright. This is actually my clubhouse that I just started using. And what is recess exactly?"

"Oh that makes sense. Recess is where you go outside and play with people on the equipment." I say while pointing out the window and to the playground.

"You must not like the other people at your school then. I didn't like people at my school so my parents are homeschooling me now. It gets quite lonely when I don't have anyone to talk to and play with. You should be homeschooled with me! It's so much better than regular school and you don't do homeschool as long as regular school either. I'll just ask my parents if they'd be fine with you attending my sessions with my teacher Ms. Nischter."

"Ok, well you can just tell me tomorrow and then I'll talk to my parents depending on your parents decision. One question though, who is going to escape?"

"His name is Archie and I found him stuck in the tree this morning. So I gave him bath, some food, water, and took him up here to give him a tour of our property. Archie is like my baby and I'm his mom. Do you want to be his other mom with me?" She said while walking over to pick up an orange cat in the corner of the clubhouse.

"Sure! I've always wanted to have an animal. Any time my family has one my older siblings manage to scare it too much and we have to get rid of it." 

We both giggle for a few minutes before the recess bell rings.

"My name is Harley by the way, Harley Watts." I say before I climb down the tree.

"And I'm Josephine Macey." She yells down at me.

I run to get into lines before going into class. All night I couldn't get that smile off my face.

"Ew bitch you're smiling too much. What's wrong with you?!" Stephanie screams at me during dinner.

"Stephanie DeeAnne Watts! Do not say that word in front of your sister, and do not even think about cursing again!" My mom yelled across the table.

"Settle down everyone. We mus'nt frighten Collette. She would be the fifth maid to leave us this month. Now, we need to discuss something." My father said before sipping his wine.

"Yes father?" I asked.

"Since your quadruplets are graduating in two weeks from being gone last year we are going to have to make some decisions about your schooling Harley. You can either continue schooling at Maret School or be homeschooled. Might I remind you that if you were to be homeschooled, your mother and I would be gone from six in the morning until seven at night. That would mean after school you would have to find something to do." 

"You know Russell, she could be homeschooled with one of the local homeschooled children. I know the Maceys have a daughter who is homeschooled, and I'm sure they'd be delighted to have Harley over. I'll call Valerie after dinner and ask if they'd be alright with that." My mother said before calling into the kitchen for Collette.

"Josephine Macey! That's my best friend! She is super nice and we found a cat while I was at recess and named him Archie!" I jumped up from my seat to celebrate.

Collette came out with our dinner, veggie burgers with asparagus and peppers. Yes, my family and I are vegetarians. Although I've always wanted to try meat but my parents don't really allow it.

"Thank you so very much Collette. Father and mother, may I lead us in prayer tonight?" I said to them. 

They nod their heads and I begin. "Our dear Heavenly Father, we thank thee for this food. Feed our souls on the bread of life and help us to do our part in kind words and loving deeds. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen" 

"Amen." Everyone says in unison. 

After dinner I work on my homework, while everyone else is watching Netflix in the downstairs family room. While laying on my bed I start to think, could this be it, could I really start breezing through life because of this miracle God has gifted me with? 

A week later I started homeschool with Josephine. We got along so well that people occasionally thought we were twins. Her parents adored me and loved how easily Josephine and I got along.

Throughout the rest of elementary school and middle school we both knew our lifes weren't perfect, but we didn't care. As long as we had each other nothing would stop us from overcoming all the challenges life threw at us. Her parents fought a lot so we spent most time together at my house. My parents were never home which in high school gave us a better chance of going to parties. 

When we were Freshmen, Josephine's parents divorced. Valerie moved to New York City while Alexander stayed in Washington D.C. It wasn't much of a drive but since Josephine was homeschooled she could travel to visit her mother whenever she wanted to. 

Valerie would occasionally come back to Washington D.C. and have girls night with Josephine, my mom, and me. We would go to the movies, do each others nails, go to a concert, or do those little sleepovers elementary schoolers did.