best friends

It's Wednesday, and that means it's time for the Weekly Writing Assignment from Mamakat. This week I chose the prompt: "how did you meet your best friend"


Two years ago, my mother's best friend past away. Maryanne was the coolest person I ever met. Quite possibly the coolest person on earth. I'm not positive about that, because I have a long-standing theory that Jack Johnson is the coolest person to ever live, simply because in one lifetime, he has held the two coolest jobs there are: professional athlete and rock star. However, since I have not at this time, actually met Jack Johnson, I'm gonna stick with the assertion that Maryanne was the coolest.

At her memorial service, I met no fewer than five people who told me that Maryanne was their best friend. That really struck me as something to aspire to. To have such close relationships with five people that they referred to you as their best friend? Why, that's even better than the cool factor.

Well, I haven't reached the five person mark yet. But I am lucky enough at this point in time to say that I have three best friends.

Shell and I met when she moved in across the street from me. I was in third grade, she was in second. She first met Mickey, who's house was next to hers and diagonally across from mine. I noticed that there was a new girl in the neighborhood who could skateboard ALMOST as good as me. So I went on over to Mickey's with my Goofy Foot Malibu Freestyle Board.

"Hi!" Shell said. "I'm Shell. I'm eight."

"I'm Heather." I said, skateboard defiantly against my protruding hip. "I'm NINE."

We skateboarded for a while and then I had to go home. Later I learned that after I left, Shell turned to Mickey and said "Does she really think I believe she's nine? She's about six."

I'm happy to report that our level of trust has increased exponentially since then.

A couple years later, J moved into the house behind Shell's. By this time, I was in the middle school while Shell was still in elementary. (SEE???? ONE YEAR OLDER!!) (four inches shorter) One day, Shell came off the bus with a girl from school I had never met. I was sitting in a tree when they walked over from the bus stop.

"Hey," the new girl said, "that branch doesn't look very strong."

"Oh, no." I said. "I sit on this branch all the time. It's perfectly safe." I proceeded to bounce up and down on the branch to illustrate its safety.

CRACK!

I came plummeting out of the tree right on my kiester. J and I became instant friends.

Isabella and I met our senior year in college. We were living in an on campus townhouse with six single bedrooms. Though we both knew some of the other girls in the townhouse, Isabella and I did not know each other. She had apparently had a rough time with her roommate the previous year and and was not looking to make new friends. I could take a hint.

But one gray, rainy, November morning, we both found ourselves in the kitchen with no classes until later in the day. I was eating my food, she was eating hers. We both had our noses stuck in textbooks. We more or less grunted at each other and sat in close proximity, but didn't interact.

Then something happened. I looked out at the low, low, impossibly thick clouds and thought of a song.

"All the leaves are brown..." I sang.

Isabella looked up from her book: "All the leaves are brown." she harmonized.

"And the sky is gray..." "And the sky is gray."

"I went for a walk..." "I went for a walk."

"On a winter's day..." "On a winter's day."

By the time we reached the song's end, we were standing on the table together, singing into spoons. Nothing bonds like a good spoon singing session.

Three down, two more to go.