First Meeting

The teacher announced our names and we moved to our new seats. It was still early in the year in this new school so I didn’t know most of the kids. A few came over from Forest Park but most I hadn’t seen before. Mrs. Claytor called my name and pointed to the two seats at the table in the corner. I headed that way, hoping I would be seated next to someone I knew. Some of the other kids made me nervous. I didn’t think they liked me. I didn’t fit in. Too many new faces in class. The quiet ones were more for me.
I took my seat and felt the excitement in the room. New seating was always a gamble. Your next several weeks could be a lot of fun, or miserable, depending on who you got as an assigned neighbor. Of course you could get stuck next to a geek or a troublemaker. I was hoping for someone nice. Mrs. Claytor called another name. A big girl with red curly hair and glasses headed my way. I didn’t know her but she was not one of the rowdy kids in class. I smiled as she made her way over and took the seat next to me.
I told her my name and she told me hers. We sized each other up and neither seemed to feel a threat from the other seat. We watched the rest of the class take their new seats and settle in. We giggled a bit, chatted a bit, and decided we liked each other. Seventeen years later, Deneen is still my very best friend.