B.F.F.

“Hey Sam,” I heard a shout through the hall way at Cedar Pine middle school. “Oh, hi Josh!” Josh is one of my best friends, Alyssa is the other one. “Where is Lyss?” I asked in wonder, “It’s nice to see you too,” Josh stated sarcastically. “Sorry Josh, It’s great to see you, but I can’t find Alyssa! Are you spending the night tonight or what, that’s why I am waiting for Lyss.” “Yeah, sure, but my mom doesn’t know so I gotta run home real fast, wanna come with?” “If I find Alyssa,” I said. I ran down the hallway toward the restroom, there was Alyssa, just coming out. “Sorry Sam,” she began to talk, “I had a HUGE zit and I just wanted to fix it up.” She always had cover up with her, she was so afraid she’d break out any minute. “C’mon,” I said, “We hafta find Josh; he was waiting for us down the hall.” We charged down the hall to see Josh walking through the classroom door. We ran after him. “Thanks for waiting!” Alyssa said sarcastically. At least we weren’t late, because the teacher wasn’t in yet. Jennifer Kelson, 8th grade’s prettiest (at least that’s what she told us), snobbiest, blondest idiot was being, “Teacher.” She began to show of in front of Josh, “Hello Samantha, hello Alyssa, oh, hello Josh.” If you noticed she didn’t call him Joshua like Ashley her best friend did. “Now everyone, please take your seats,” she said. Ashley joined her up front, “Yes, sit down.” Josh, Lyss and I didn’t listen to Jennifer, but we wanted to get seats next to each other for the last period, after this we would be going to my house to sleep over. After all we lived 30 seconds away from each other’s houses. Jennifer tried again, “Please take your seats!” This time we grabbed seats across from each other quickly. Lucky us.
Then Sarah Tiny walked into the room she got teased a lot in class by Jennifer. But this time, since Josh was here, Jennifer let it go. I would be rejoicing if I were Sarah. Sometimes she was mean though. “Ah, hello Sarah,” Jennifer snubbed. Josh, Alyssa and I shuffled and nudged each other. Then Mrs. Walker came in. “Jennifer Kelson, what in heaven’s name are you doing behind my desk?” Jennifer looked startled, but then she held her head high and chose the seat in front of Josh, Alyssa giggled. Jennifer gave her a long rude look, I kicked her. “Well ladies and gentlemen,” I love it how Mrs. Walker called us ladies and gentlemen instead of children. “I see Jennifer has been teaching you, I am sorry to be late, but tell me, what has Jennifer taught you?” We all burst out laughing. “How to primp and be a blond,” Bobby Wheeler burst out. We began to laugh harder. Jennifer stood, “Well if you know it ALL,” she began, “Then you know that people’s hair like Bobby’s are brown because they don’t wash it!” She began to cry and turned her droopy lip to Josh looking for comfort. Josh cracked up immediately as well as the rest of the class was in hysterics. “Girls and boys,” Mrs. Walker cried, “Bobby and Jennifer will be going to detention after class, and if you do not quiet down you ALL will!” We stopped laughing that instant, but Josh had tears rolling down his cheeks he was laughing so hard!
After school we saw Jennifer walking to cheer practice. “Hey,” Josh began, “You are supposed to be in detention!” “Not if I have cheer practice Joshie.” Oh brother, I was sick of Jennifer Kelson. “Wanna come watch me,” she said in her whiniest voice, barf! “No thanks, cheer leaders creep me out,” Josh laughed which got us all started again. “Well, where are you going that is SO important?” “I am going to spend the night at Sam’s,” he replied. Then we walked off. “Wait, Josh, come back!” We ran right then as fast as we could, “Barf,” Alyssa said. Then we laughed our heads of as we walked up Josh’s drive. We waited by the door as Josh screamed in, I‘m going to Sam’s Mom!” Josh, Lyss and I had known each other since we had moved in 7 years ago; we had been best friends since, so Josh’s mom new who “Sam” was. Then we left. It took us exactly 53 seconds to get to my house, I like to time it. And as we approached the front door there stood Jennifer.
“Hi Samantha, shouldn’t you invite me in?” “No,” I said and we all laughed. Alyssa began to open the door and we all walked in when my mom came around the corner. “Oh hello Jennifer,” I didn’t know you were coming too, and in your cheer clothes?” “No she’s not mom, she just walked with us home.” So I quickly said bye and shut the door. We ran into my room and watched Jennifer pout down the street. “It’s hot out!” Alyssa went to the fridge and pulled out some lemonade, we always had it, “Let’s go outside,” she suggested. “Good idea,” we ran out the door and told my mom we were going to the park across the street. We drank our lemonade and watched a little kid fall off the monkey bars. Al got up and helped him tipping over her lemonade in the process. “Man,” she glared at it and suddenly her eyes lit up. Let’s go watch the football game. Al and I are tom boys and Josh loves football so we went. It was 3 bucks per person so we paid, then got slushies and sat to watch the game.
“I think it’s 282,230,” Alyson tried to figure out our last math problem, “I just wanna watch the movie,” she complained. We were sitting on my bed, Al, Josh and I, doing our math homework. I really wanted to watch the movie, they didn’t come over to do math homework. “Let’s just make it that,” I giggled at the two. “Okay, whatever,” Josh assumed, I could tell he was hungry. We quickly wrote down the problem. “DONE, FINALLY,” I screamed. I went into my Mom’s room and asked if I could have a few bucks to rent a movie and get some popcorn and soda, and maybe candy bars. “Okay, but try not to use the ENTIRE $10.” I agreed hastily and Alyssa stared, mouth agape at the large bill, “Aren’t we just renting a movie,” she questioned. “Yeah, but we can get some food too, Mom said.
As we came around the corner of block buster there stood Ashley Jennifer and the gang. “The gang” includes Brad, Matt, and Dakota as well as Ashley, Jennifer and Nicki. I hated every one of the gang. We tried to dart away but they saw us. “Why hello Joshie,” how come you didn’t watch me cheer?” “Cuz cheerleaders creep me out,” he replied. Lyss and I glared at the freaks. “We are going to get a movie, then we’re leaving,” I stated in a rude manner. “Yeah whatever dude,” Dakota sneered in my face. “K, guys just shut up and Sam and Josh, let’s go inside, okay? Okay.” Alyssa ordered.
We shoved past the freaks and into blockbuster. “Wow it’s warm in here, oh great Jennifer came in,” I added in a whisper. We ran to the back racks ignoring Jen and the gang. We found a movie, “Hmmm, how ‘bout ‘That 8th Grade Detective.” It sounded good enough, it was with Alexa Vega. Jennifer brushed her fingers against everything Josh had touched. “You three should come over some time,” she said. “In yer dreams bub,” Josh laughed out. We got candy bars, pop and soda, then checked out, “That will be ten dollars and fifty cents,” the cashier told us. “Oh great,” Alyssa absentmindedly stated, “I have fifty cents,” Jennifer piped in. “Cool, can we have it,” I asked even though I knew the answer. “Not unless you invite me over to watch the movie!” “Ummm,” I pretended to think about it, “NO! Hey guys, I’m gonna run home real fast,” I told them.
Three minutes later I charged back into the store. There stood Lyss and Josh being pestered by the gang, “Oh shut up you guys, gosh,” I told all of the idiot ‘cool’ people. Josh gave me a weak smile. Oh no, Jen had said something while I was gone. “Well Jen, cough it up!” “You still have to invite me over, AND the gang,” “Like NOT Jennifer Kelson, and YOU know it! My mom would never let me and neither would I!” I quickly paid the cashier fifty cents and grabbed our bag and Josh and Alyssa and we ran as fast as we could out the door, up the street, and inside the door with Jennifer on our heels. Luckily we had made it just in time.
I stuck the bag of popcorn in the microwave while Josh shoved the DVD in to the TV. We watched for a while, then it was over AND it was late, really late, 2:33 late, that’s how late it was! “Gosh, I am so tired,” Alyssa yawned as we popped out the DVD. “It was a pretty good movie,” “Not the best though,” I piped in. “Ugh, Ick, I am sooo tired! Let’s go to bed NOW!” Okay, okay, so we didn’t pick the best movie in the world, but I still loved having friends over to spend the night every Friday, and of course it was always Josh and Alyssa, and if they couldn’t come it was Lizzie Vandaroe. She was in 7th grade still at my old school, she was really nice and she only lived about 5 minutes away, I would time it some time.
The next day was Saturday; Josh had a dentist appointment so it was just Lyss and I. We decided to shoot some hoops so we ran off to the elementary school play ground. I had forgotten the ball, blast it all. “I am so bored,” Alyssa just HAD to include her comments. “Yeah, well we usually are on Saturdays anyway.” “Well we could go to a fabric store and make scarves or something.” Lyss loved fabric. “Or we could make bracelets,” I added. “Naw, how ‘bout ummm we could make hmmm slushies! We could have a slushy stand in the park! We could charge three fifty per slushy,” Alyssa also loved slushies on hot days, well I did too but right now I was to tired to stand around serving little kids drinks who probably couldn’t even pay us 2 cents let alone 3 dollars and fifty cents. “Well I guess we could try but, how much are slushie makers,” I questioned? “We could go to the mall.” It was around noon and I was sick of standing in the basketball court trying to figure out what to do. “I know,” I suddenly piped up, “We could go to the bookstore, the one with that café and have lunch there and I have like fifteen bucks I could scrounge up and we could get some books!” This was our best idea yet, and by the look on Lyss’s face I could tell this was are final. “What about when Josh gets home though?” “Oh, well, we could leave him a note on his door,” “Good idea, let’s go!” So we were soon walking down the drive with our money and coupons in our pockets.
When we reached the book store I went right to the Nancy Drew books, they were my FAVORITES. I also loved the Alice books. I picked up two Nancy Drew books that I hadn’t read and I plopped down in a big overstuffed chair. Alyson did the same next to me, except her favorite books were books about dogs, space, and the Truth or Dare series. She picked out a book called A Song for Jeffery. It sounded pretty good. After we had read for about a half an hour we looked up, Josh had come, he gave us a fast smile, “I hate the dentist, she picks and picks AND PICKS my poor now probably dead teeth. At least I didn’t get fluoride, so I can still eat with you guys, unless you already did?” “Don’t worry, we haven’t eaten, but um have you seen Jennifer?” I prodded him for any clue. “No, I think she stopped bugging us for a while, at least HOPEFULLY on the weekend!”
He walked off to get a book, I knew he liked Hardy Boys and Lord of the Rings, they seemed sorta boring to me though. I really like books by C.S. Lewis, like the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. We were doing a play on it in school, I was the ‘evil dwarf’ ooooh, I am sooo scared. My part had quite a few lines but I wanted to be the White Witch or maybe Lucy. But no, I was stuck with the ‘evil dwarf.’
About an hour later, around 2:00 we had picked out our books and were paying for them at the cashier’s $4.50 he spat in my face. “Yes sir,” I reached into my pocket and pulled out the five dollar bill. The books I had bought were some of my favorites; a Nancy Drew of course, and two Truth or Dare books that I found on MAJOR CLEARENCE. I only bought books that were on sale, except for Nancy Drew. It seemed awfully inexpensive today though. Alyson ended up getting A Song for Jeffery, it wasn’t on sale though, and Josh didn’t get anything, he said, “Maybe next time,” I could tell he was disappointed though because of the look on his face, he loved to read!
After checking out we got Chinese take out and Baskin and Robbins. I got a milk shake, it was Chocolate chip, it tasted like Chinese take out.
“Oh man, it’s so late,” I woke up Sunday morning at 8:30, it took us 20 minutes to get to church and it was 8:30!!! Oh well, I jumped out of bed, I was looking forward to seeing Josh today. He was letting me borrow his DVD called The Icky Girl Named Jennifer, he made it himself, with, of course A LOT of help from Lyss, she was a movie making star, she makes really cool movies on our camping trips and stuff. I pulled a zebra striped skirt out of my closet and a white blouse. I put them on the brushed my hair up and curled a few strands. “Mom, where are my shoes,” I couldn’t find my black shoes anywhere.
30 minutes later I arrived at church in jeans and a sweater and fancy hair, what a joke! Oh well, it was more comfy anyway. I walked off to middle school after kissing mom goodbye. She loved getting ‘kisses’ I was sick of wet, red, slobbery kisses all over my face before youth group. I walked in, I was so glad Jennifer didn’t go to church, other wise she would probably come here, the only person in her gang that came to church was Matt, and he didn’t have any friends here. I didn’t really care but I tried to keep him away from Josh cuz he might take away my best friend. “Josh, Lyss, over here,” I yelled, everyone was sitting around playing games or eating the breakfast which cost $2.00 but was delicious! Today it was chocolate chip pancakes, lemonade (they always had it), and whipped cream with blueberries. Yum!!! I sat down next to Al and Josh and began to eat my breakfast. They stared at me strangely as if they were in trances. “HELLO PEOPLE!” I yelled at them loudly to get their attention. Oh sorry Sam they said and began to eat their breakfast. “I am so sorry, I’m just really…” she trailed off spilling whipped cream down the front of her shirt in the process. “Oh shoot,” she muttered. “What is the matter with you guys,” I tried to talk to them. “Sorry Sam,” she said, “But did you not realize you have red blotches all over your facet?” Oh my word, I had no Idea. I covered my face and ran to the bathroom, Lyss followed me in but Josh stayed outside. Omigosh!!! They were kiss marks from my mother!!! EWWW EWWW DOUBLE EWWW!!! Right on cue, Nicki, Ashley and Jen walked out of their stalls, washed their hands stared at me and said, “Wow, nice makeup,” and ran out giggling. I wiped off the disaster, I was never going to let my mom touch me again!
We grabbed Josh’s arm and went into service. Finally the room darkened and Pastor Tyler stepped up on the platform, he was our beyond cool youth pastor.
A few hours later Alyssa came home with me but Josh had to go clothes shopping with his mom.
Lyss and I flopped onto my bed and began to read magazines. I was bored, when it was just Lyss and I, we seamed to get bored a lot! I looked outside; Mrs. Lorinyalt was pushing a baby stroller and walking her puppy. Boring. Boring, Boring, BORING!!! Lyss stared at me, “I’m bored,” she said. “Ya, so am I, let’s look through the magazines and find something to do.” Alyssa gobbled up the magazines like a reading maniac, the thing about Josh, Lyss and I is that we all love reading. “We could go to the bookstore,” I suggested. “Naw,” she said, not really listening, “We did that yesterday.” I looked at the covers of my little sisters bed across the hall from mine, they had fairy tale creatures on them. “I know!” I rushed into Krystal’s room, and began to dig through her bookshelf. “Hmmm,” I stared into space. “FINALLY!” I had found the fairy tale book and brought it into my room. Lyss and I looked through the pages, both of us loved pretending, that is what we would do today, “We could go to the fabric store and play it there, nobody really cares what kids do there, plus it would be more fun, and we can pretend that all of the fabric is trees lined in perfect rows.”
For about an hour, that’s what we did until we heard a honk outside, it was Lyss’s mom, we came here a lot, so she might have guessed were we had gone. “Hey girls,” she asked breathlessly, “I have another job at Pottery Barn, so would you like to come to the mall with me for a few hours?” “Sure,” I stated enthusiastically, “But I hafta ask my mom first---.” “Already taken care of,” she interrupted, and I got your purse.” I grinned and Lyss and I settled ourselves in the backseat of the tidy PT Cruiser.
At the mall Alyssa and I enjoyed ourselves immensely. Alyssa’s mom, being rather wealthy gave us each 20 dollars to spend, it was a dream shopping spree. I was ecstatic! Quickly we ran to the nearest Jamba Juice, I, of course got Peach Pleasure, mmmmmmm, my favorite! We then strolled into JCPenny’s and purchased matching Shirts and Shorts for the hot summer weather. I still had 9.73 left and I went to Claires and purchased a hat, some earrings and two tubes of lip gloss. Finally it was time to go, tomorrow we had Friday Night Frenzy at Church, YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so physced, I loved it, we are going to watch the a movie too, fun fun fun! We hopped into my older sis’s car and drove Lyss home, then went to our own house where I flopped onto my bed and slept like a baby. I was content…at least for one day.
It was 4:00, I ran across the street to Lyss’s house and we walked to Church, it was about a 15-20 minute walk, but with the warm weather, we didn’t really mind. As we walked into Church, the air conditioning surrounded us and brushed the hair back from our sweaty faces. We saw Josh and Claire, Claire was our group leader, there was Benny too, they were married and the most awesome leaders in the world!!! Josh joined us by the snack table and we sat down on a huge stack of pillows and waited for the movie to start. That night, it was the, Italian Job. That is totally my favorite movie so I snuggled further into my pillow and munched a pretzel. We watched the Mini-Coopers race around, oh it was fabulous!!! By the way, my FAVORTIE car is a Mini-Cooper, oh it totally rocks! But it HAS to be red with 2 white stripes down the front. I couldn’t wait until I was old enough to drive one.
Lyss and Josh and I all split up to go to our different houses, one after another after another all three in a row…mine was in the middle, ha ha….I was so worried, I was going out of town in two days and tomorrow Josh and Lyss were planning a whole day with just me and them, I was going to miss them so much!
I flopped onto my queen bed and turned on American Idol, du da du du! Then the phone in my room (it was a private line) rang and rang until my answering machine went off, “Hey guys! This is Sam, leave me a message or whatever okay? I’ll try to get back to you A-sap!!! See ya soon!” beeeeeeeep…the message started, “Hey Sam, I know you’re there so pick up okay? I just wanted to chat with you for a little bit…y’know without Josh and all, since he’s always with us, so could you please,” I picked up and she finished, “Pick up?” I began to laugh, “Hi Lyss!” Thanks for calling, you watching American Idol?” “Duh!” “Who do you think is gunna win?” Our conversation went on and on for at least an hour, and the only reason I had my own phone line is cuz I was paying my own bills, no way my mom would pay for all my blabbing, mostly with Lyss, who she felt it was pointless to call since she lived right next door, so, she insisted and insisted….and insisted….and…well you get the point.
I finally hung up and fell asleep around 11:30…I guess it was kinda early for me in summer, but it’s okay.
I leapt out of bed, “OH MY GOSH!!!” I screamed, realizing it was only 7:36 and boy was that early for me!!! The phone rang, I realized I’d better answer this time, “Hey Josh,” I croaked, since I had caller ID, “Why so early?” Josh whispered into the phone, “Come to the back alley in 5 minutes, and don’t tell Lyss, I have something important to tell you….” Then the dial tone…hmmm strange, that is so unlike Josh to hang up, mmkay then. I went over to my dresser and put on some jeans and a short sleeved shirt, it was still misty outside, and the cold nipped at my toes, but didn’t mind much.
When I finally got to where I wasn’t meeting Josh, sure enough, there he was. I walked up, “Hi Josh! Why so early?” I yawned. Josh blushed and looked at me from under his long eyelashes, they were gorgeous, I wondered why I never noticed that before.
“Well, uh…” he stammered, “I was just…well, never mind.” I giggled. “Whaaaat?” I whined. “Well,” he tried again, “Oh, yah yah, um, I’m going to California on summer break, y’know, like, next week and, uh, I’m aloud to bring one friend. Wanna come?”
“YES JOSH, YES YES YES!!!!!!” I screamed, then gave him a big hug and a kiss. He laughed, then kissed me back, but then, instead of kissing me on the cheek, he grabbed my mouth with his and next thing I knew we were playing with each other’s tongues. “Ew!” I sputtered, “What the freaking heck were we doing?”
“I have to tell you something, Sam,” Josh said, “I’m in love with someone.”
“Really?” I asked, “Who?” He laughed.
“You, silly, I’m in love with you Sammy girl.”
I stared at his beautiful eyes and his smiling face looking down at me, his blonde hair brushing his eyes. I smiled.
“Well,” I pretended to say seriously, “I’m in love with someone too.” Then we kissed again, this time I avoided saying, “Ew.”