I saw her in the halls sometimes, and I knew she was bullied. Whoops, forgot to introduce myself again. I am Ciara Goodman, and this is the story of how I met, and basically saved my best friend life. Her name is Alejandra. Like I was saying, I saw Alejandra in the halls but I never really knew her because I never really tried to get to know her, I had never really needed to. But the day I talked to for the first time, it was horrible.
She was taking all of her books home, and the soccer jocks and their promiscuous girlfriends in their short miniskirts, were making fun of her. Calling her names, names I can’t bare to speak of or even write. I had to admit, she looked pretty nerdy, taking all of her books home on a Friday but I could not stand the way they were shoving her and tripping her, so I went over and stood up for her and said, “Hey, Mishka, is there a problem here?” Mishka, i smirked and said, ”Nah, if you don’t got one, unless you wanna fight? This ain't any a your business, get outta here ya wuss.”
I stayed where I was, standing over Alejandra, I felt like I was protecting her from doom. Alejandra quickly stood and stuttered, “I-I-I’m fine Ciara, I-I-I-I don’t need any help.” I looked her Mishka straight in the eye, ignoring Alejandra’s wished for me to leave, and said, “I would fight for my friend any day of the week! You just gather up your groupies so they can video tape me kicking your butt!“
The look on Mishka’s face said more than 1,000 words. It was hilarious, she huffed and puffed and walk off. I turned back to Alejandra and said, “Hey, are you alright? Mishka’s a real hypocrite sometimes!“ She stared up at me with a look of pure despair on her face, “Yea, but n-n-now she going to have it out for y-y-ou too… I should go home, my m-m-om is waiting for me.”
“Hey, you’ve got a lot of books, I’ll walk you home and carry half!”
“O-o-h, sure that’d be great.” We begin to walk to her house, which I realize is just one block from mine. When we arrived on her doorstep, she said, “Hey thanks, I can take it from here.” She took the other half of the books from me and waved a cheerful goodbye. I began to walk away but then thought of something, “Hey!” I yelled. “Wait!” She turned and responded, “Yea? D-did I forget something?”
“No, I was just wonder, do you want to come to a sleepover I’m having tonight and tomorrow?” Her face lit up like Times Square on New Years as she said, “Sure! I’d love to!” Her face faltered as she asked me about 20 questions. “What should I bring, who else is coming, I don’t know if I should, I would just get in the way…”
“Oh you should really come! I’ll be loads of fun! I can make you a list of stuff to bring, and I live just a block over so you could walk to and from. And it would be you, me, Lucy, Maeve and Scarlett. And you know what they say!” I added, “the more the merrier!” Alejandra smiled again and said, “Hey why don’t you come in? I’ve got paper inside.” I walked into her house and gasped. It was the coolest house I had ever seen. First of all it was spotless and the walls were tan with blue, yellow, green and pink polka-dots. She studied my face and said, “You actually like my house? I hate it. It reminds me of a looney bin where everything is painted nice fun colors.” I gapped at her, “Your house is the coolest! I love all the colors! If you house is this cool, I can’t wait to meet your mom and dad!” She looked down at the carpet and said, “You can’t meet my dad, we don’t live with him anymore.” She looked up, ”Thats why we moved here, to get away from him and his stupid drinking.” I felt like a total idiot. “I’m so sorry I didn’t know. Well, where is your mom then?”
“Oh shes here, probably cleaning again… All she ever does it clean, she won’t go out and make friends with the neighbors at all, she just stays inside and cleans all day.”
I raise my eyebrows at her. “Oh shush! I know I haven’t made too many friends either!”
I stick my tongue out and say “Well, you’ve got me now!” She grabbed a notepad and pen and gently tossed them to me saying, “Here, write down the stuff I will need while I go get my mom.” As I quickly scribbled down a few items, Alejandra walked in with a tall, pale, blond women. She was very pretty in those ‘Little Black Dresses’ you always see advertised in high profile stores. “Why hello there dear! Alejandra said you were having a little sleepover and are inviting her! Thats awful nice of you!”
“Oh it’s no problem Mrs?”
“Oh please, call me Madi! Alejandra said you made a list of things for her to take with her. Can I see it?” I hand her the list and she looks it over. “Alright, Alejandra I will go get you bag and pack it with all these things for you. Why don’t you start on your homework dear?” Alejandra rolled her eyes and said, “Ha, sure thing mom.”
“Uh, I’d better get home and get ready for the sleepover. See you later Alejandra!” I said as I walked out.
As I walked home I thought about all the classes I had with Alejandra and realized we had no homework in any of those classes. Why would she bring all her books home if we didn’t have any homework? I thought. She must just really like studying. I stopped thinking about Alejandra and started thinking about my sleepover plans.
AT THE SLEEPOVER
“Hey everyone!” I yelled as Alejandra walked in, “This is my friend Alejandra. She will be joining us tonight!” She blushed and looked down at the floor,”Hi guys, I hope you don’t mind me joining in…” A chorus of happy, ‘no’s and ‘not at all’ echoed toward her and she felt happy, for the first time in forever. Alejandra sat down and asked what everyone was doing. They were painting nails and so all through the night they talked and laughed at stories they told each other.
She had a great time at the sleepover, and on Monday she walked to school with me, Alejandra carried half her books and I carried the other. "Hey, I joked, you should go out for volleyball. If you carry all your books hame everyday you will be like a body builder before we graduate!" She looked up and said, "Hm, maybe I will!"
The next day at volleyball tryouts, she was there in her rainbow kneepads and black spandex. Everyone was buzzing about the 'quiet girl' trying out for volleyball. Most of the girls scoffed and said she wouldn't be good enough, but during the tryouts she was the star on the court, diving, scooping and hitting every ball that came her way. The next day at lunch she was surrounded by all the popular girls, and I was alone by myself. She slipped away and sat by me. She said if I hadn't stood up for her that day a few weeks ago, she would have never been able to have the courage to try out for volleyball. As we talked, I asked her if she had a 'best friend' yet. She smiled and said, "No, but I have a feeling I do now!" We laughed and walked together to our next class.
Over the next few years, Alejandra and I bonded, crying over boys, laughing over mistakes, but never having a fight that led to disaster. Lots of girls tried to split us up, tried to ruin our friendship but we wouldn't let them. When we were seniors, we had a bet to see who could be Valedictorian of the grade, because we were the top runners. The bet was, the winner had to buy the other whatever they wanted from dairy queen. It was a fair bet, but I lost and Alejandra won. She had to write a big speech, but the weird thing was she wouldn’t let me read it. She said I would find out what it was at the graduation ceremony.
AT THE CEREMONY
Our graduating class of 350 young adults was all sitting in the white folding chairs, staring at Alejandra, waiting for her speech. As every speech does, she started off with a few corny jokes to get the crowd laughing. Them she thanked all the people who helped her get to where she was now, but when she came to me, she slowed way down and said she had a ‘little story’ to tell.
“I remember,” she began, “The first time I met Ciara. It was the second semester of 8th grade. I was carrying all my books home, because I was planning to commit suicide and I didn’t want my mom to have to go to school and get them. I had been bullied quite badly since I came West High. Girls tripped me, boys mocked me, and I didn’t have any friends. But one day, the day I met Ciara, she stood up for me, and invited me to her sleepover. It was like she was a guardian angel, sent from heaven to stop me from making the worst decision of my life.” She looked directly at me and said with a slight tremor in her voice, “I am forever in your debut. I hope we will always be friends and that we never forgot each other after we go to college.” With tears in my eyes I stood and clapped as she walked off the stage, tears in her eyes as well.
After the ceremony, at our joint graduation party, we cried and vow to each other that we would set up a date to have lunch and a sleepover, just like the very first day we met.
THE END
Or is it?