The brightly colored door of Mrs. Krutaks fourth grade classroom opened ever so slightly, allowing a small olive skinned girl to slip into the room. She twiddled her thumbs anxiously and never broke her stare with the gray carpet. Despite her seemingly debilitating nervousness she came up to talk to me. That was the moment when I met S. 

From that point we became inseparable, every activity there was to do together we did. Everything from athletics, choir, cheer, you name it we did it together. Heck even our lockers in middle school (that were randomly assigned) were right next to each other. Which is why I never anticipated what she would do.

Since me and S did everything together, when she signed up for Color Guard our 9th grade year, so did I. I figured I needed an activity to keep me busy and boy, did Color Guard keep us busy. But somehow between the constant rehearsals, completions and practices, me and S still managed to find time to hang out. That was until about the middle of marching season, I had started hearing whispers about me.

“S told me that Mia’s a super mean and rude person. She always says mean stuff to S and about her.”

What? I had never said a mean word about S ever! But somehow for some unknown reason, S had started telling people that. It made no sense to me, my mom gave her rides, we talked all the time, and most importantly, I never said anything like that! 

This news broke me to my very core. I didn’t understand why she would say that. I decided it would be best to avoid the issue entirely. So I just stopped talking to her. Looking back on that now, I realize that that wasn’t the best course of action. Then again she made no attempt to reach out to me either. 

With that our friendship faded into obscurity for about a year in a half. I watched from the sidelines as she made new friends and connections, slowly forgetting about me. We didn’t talk, we didn’t hang out, and when I finally got my own car… I didn’t give her rides. 

However, one day the situation kind of changed. I had walked into my US History Class for Jr year, looked around, and saw no one that I knew.   I thought I would have to sit with strangers until—

“Mia! Come sit with us!” 

My head swiveled to the corner of the room where I found S, sitting with another girl, gesturing for me to come over. I was sort of confused, but I still walked over and sat. The bell rang, and she started talking.

“I haven’t seen you in forever! What’s going on? … I’ve missed you.”

She missed me? We got to talking and she apologized. She said she was sorry, sorry for all the rumors and lies, she said she didn’t mean it. So, I forgave her. I didn’t want to, but I figured it was better to move on. 

I did just that, I moved on. We’re friends again. We talk sometimes, we hung out once, and I even gave her a ride a few times. I realized after everything between us had passed, that she too was confused. She didn’t know why I had suddenly stopped talking to her. In the end we got over petty issues, and became friends again once more.