What Friends Are For

Chapter Ten

CHAPTER 10

"Best Friends: It's a promise, not a label." -Unknown

The next recess, Annabelle and I decided to hang out, just the two of us. I found out later that Jacob, Alexis and Bella were spying on us. Alexis walked backwards, not knowing we were right in front of her, when she noticed us and screamed. She ran away like a chicken with her head chopped off, and Annabelle rolled her eyes.

"Honestly, when she acts like that, I can see why nobody likes her," Annabelle says rudely. I raised my eyebrows in shock, Annabelle was being so rude. I mean, she had honestly been so rude before, but I didn't expect her to be this rude at something so serious.

Annabelle catches my eyes and raises her hands in defense. "Hey, I'm just saying, okay?" she said. "If she wants people to not think she's a total weirdo, she should at least try to fit in!"

"She doesn't care what people think, Annabelle!" I answer, irritated. "And I like that she's herself, and she doesn't try to be someone she's not."

Annabelle rolled her eyes. She has been getting worse and worse. She'll be all cool and nice one minute, and then she'll turn rude all of a sudden.

She doesn't really seem to care about others, even though she denies that it's true.

"Don't be rude, okay? Geez!" I say to her. She looks at me in shock, like I just accused her of murdering a human being. She crosses her arms.

"ExCUSE me, but I'm helping her!" She scoffs! "She should stop acting like a freak if she wants to be liked! For example, I never really liked her!"

At this point, I was mad. I was about to storm off when she changed the subject. "Anyway," Annabelle said. "Do you think Mathew will ask me out?"

"I dunno," I mutter, still thinking about Annabelle's rude remarks.

We talked throughout the rest of recess when I thought about something. Annabelle never really liked Alexis or Jacob. In fact, she was furious when I started hanging out with them, and shot me jealous looks whenever we laughed together.

It got me thinking. People only disliked Alexis because she wasn't like them. I was now going to ask someone their thoughts on Alexis, and see who the good people are.

On the bus, I asked Alex. "What do you think of Alexis?" I asked him.

"Alexis?" Alex answered. "Oh, she's awesome. She's so funny! Remember that time last year when we all made those jokes together when we worked on our projects?"

I nodded and laughed. I recalled the time last year when Alexis, Alex and I worked on our projects together at the table, making dark jokes and laughing so hard we kept getting in trouble. It was such a fun week.

Alex didn't care that Alexis was different. He just liked the person she is. Alex lives across the street from me, so our bus stop was the same. We walked towards the playground to meet up with my younger sister.

I knew Alex since we were in first grade, and for some reason, everyone thought we liked each other. It was the thing I explained earlier: When a boy and a girl are friends, everyone sees it as a relationship.

"Alex," I asked him. "If you were in a super crazy situation, what would you do?"

"What?" Alex looked at me confused. Then his face lit up. "Oh!" He said. "Do you like someone? That's sweet! HA HA!"

I rolled my eyes. "No, you moron. It's more important than that. It's life threatening!"

"Life threatening? What's the situation?"