A Friendship is Born

I will be linking up to Mama Kat on Thursday for this prompt:
What made them so interesting? Remember a unique classmate from your past. Write about him/her.


At a large high school, it was scary to be like a lone Nemo freshman among all the sharks. Just like in Napoleon Dynamite, you need a Jose. You need protection.

It was very important to always have a partner to walk with from class to class. I had a close friend with me during all the right times, except walking to math class. I needed to find someone to walk with to math class.

I don’t even remember how we began talking, but we did, and I was all set.

She was so confident. If you didn’t have her attention, she would breeze right past you with her head held high. She was usually alone, and fine with it. She was beautiful, with curls in her hair. She was daring, with high heel pumps almost every day. Even through the feminine grace, you could tell that she had an edge. She carried herself as though she chose her own feelings. She carried herself with a hell-be-damned attitude. It was probably a bit of a wall, a bit of a defense against what had hurt her before, but at the time, it just came off as very impressive.

From our “honors,” smart-kid language arts class, we would walk together to our math building. We would chit-chat, make small talk, nothing much of importance.

There was one condition. Upon entering the math building, we would have to stop at her boyfriend’s classroom on our way to our math class.

She was that cool. She even had a boyfriend. He was older. She got to stop everyday and be held and kissed in front of others.

I would hang back and wait, trying not to look like I was watching. But, I found her, and her whole world, so interesting.

At the end of that school year, we never spoke through the rest of high school. We never again had classes together and had no reason to walk together. A friendship had not been born, yet. Her boyfriend was enough for her. I would see her walking, and wonder and marvel…

……………..

Unlike other college students who may turn their noses up at living in a dorm, I was heady with the excitement of living away from home, no matter that I was confined to a small boxy room and a strange roommate. I welcomed the independence and fresh start. I was tired of the labels and confines of the high school social structure and ready to break out of my shell.

One floor below me, she was moving in to the dorms. Gone were the heels, grunge was in style. But the attitude was the same, and her charisma pulled me to her.

We met, again, and a beautiful friendship was born.

Sixteen years later and still going strong. My best friend, Juli, and me.