If 3 is a crowd, 4 is awesome!

         I don’t remember much from when I first met my best friends, but the things I do remember have become great memories.
         In kindergarten, my best friend was Anna M. We had some good times together. That is, until the next year where she just vanished. Presently, I have no recollection of where she went. Each day at recess I would sit on the the sidewalk thinking to myself.
         One day, a stranger came up to me. Turns out, her name was Emma and she was in need of a companion too. Emma had long brown hair, knee socks, and lots of freckles. We became fast friends and had many adventures together such as “Finger Dudes”, or “Raining Mice”. Sadly, our playground adventures soon came to an end with the school year.
         We were second graders!!! A week or two after school started, I was at a birthday party at Jungle Quest. While watching the safety video, someone leaned over and told me there would be a new kid in Mrs. Metzler’s class. Her name was Emma too and she was moving here from Florida. I automatically tried to picture her. In my mind, she was tall with long brown hair. She had glasses and looked like the “all about books” type. She was super smart. I was eager for our new classmate to arrive!
Sure enough, she was there the next Monday, and not at all what I saw in my head. Instead, she was average sized with short brown hair and glasses. She was smart, but not ALL about books. She was kinda shy, but when she made friends, she became a social butterfly. I liked her.
         Now, I had TWO Emmas in my life. The more the merrier!! However, I was in a dilemma. I would ask one Emma to come over to me, and the other one would come. Eventually I devised the plan where they were Emma O. and Emma S. We still use this system.
         During the winters, I was the only one who “skied”. There was an icy hill by the playground and I would teach them how to “ski” by sliding on our boots down it. Emma S. was from Florida, so she had never skied and Emma O. had just never gotten the chance. I thought it would never end. I thought we would never get older and spring would never come. I wanted it to go on forever. And, most ironic of all, I thought that was it for my friends.
         But in third grade, I was, as usual, eating lunch with the Emmas. Out of nowhere, a girl I hardly knew named Anna (tall with short blonde hair and a smile) walks up and says “Hi!” to Emma O. She ended up playing with us at recess every day from then on. I ended up loving her too.
         To this day, we are still best buds. We laugh constantly, come up with more games everyday, and just LOVE to have fun with each other. We have other friends too, of course...
         In fourth grade we started to hangout with Jack and his two friends Adam and Liam. We already knew Jack, but Adam and Liam were new to us. We called them The Wierdos. Jack had super short, fuzzy blonde hair, and red cheeks. Adam had brownish yellow hair that went down to his ears and glasses. Liam had black hair (longer than Jack’s shorter than Adam’s) and spat while he talked a lot. Now we weren’t just four, but seven!!! I’ve never had more friends than I did in that year. I have more than that now, but it was a lot at the time. I went home sad that I had to leave my friends each day.
         I liked Adam and Liam and Jack, but we will never be as close as I am with Emma and Anna and Emma. And none of it would have happened if that day when Emma O. said hello to me hadn’t happened. Just that one day means the world to me. I don’t exactly remember the day I met Anna or Emma S, but I’m sure they were incredible too. Just think: If Emma O. hadn’t been lonely that day, if she hadn’t came to say hello, I might as well still be that little lonely 1st grader sitting on the ledge.
         Thank you, Emma S, for moving here from Florida.
         Thank you, Anna, for asking to play with us at recess.
         But most of all, Thank you, Emma O, for coming to say hello to me that day; for without you, none of this may have happened.