My Best Friend is a Girl!

My Best Friend is a Girl!

A story of first love

Alicyn M. Radican

         
"I am the CHAMPION!" Carl pronounces to himself in the mirror. "No one will dare come against me, I will crush you like a bug" holding his arms up to flex his muscles. Carl has stripped down to his underwear, which is a normal thing, it's usually the first thing he does when he comes home from school. He looks around the bathroom he shares with his two sisters and rolls his eyes, "Everything In my life seems to be surrounded by the color pink." Carl looks back in the mirror and continues flexing and admiring his huge muscles.
 
Right in the middle of his declaration of awesomeness, a knock at the door causes him to pause. "CARL! I need to get in the bathroom....please come out! What are you DOING in there?!' Cassy, his older sister screamed. "If you don't come out in 2 seconds, I am telling mom!'
 
Alright! Geeze, calm down!" Carl yells back. "I never have any privacy in this house" Carl mutters to himself. "I wish I could live in a house where I was the only kid!"
 
Carl Simmons is a 12 year old boy who lives smack dab in the middle of the estrogen ocean. He often finds himself day dreaming of a space ship coming to take his sisters away to be researched, leaving him the only child left and he wouldn't have to deal with all of the girly things anymore. In his opinion, Carl thinks that his home is being taken over by things pink! Barbie's and pink zebra prints, pink clothes and purses. He can't escape it. He is lucky if he can keep his GI Joe and WWE wrestling action figures from being dressed up in Barbie dresses and shoes!
 
Carl takes one more look in the mirror as he flexes his biceps, and then opens the door. He is meet with the evil glare from Cassy. "It's about time Carl, what the heck are you doing in there anyway?"
It is none of your business, but if you must know, I was creating my speech for my big show as a Professional WWE Wrestler!" Carl informed her. Cassy rolled her eyes, and slammed the door before he could say anything else.
 
Carl trotted downstairs to do his homework, brooding over his sister's bathroom takeover. He hated having to share the bathroom with his sisters. Especially Cassy, she ALWAYS had to have the bathroom, and when she was in there she took forever. She spends so much time primping and grooming, it's almost like an obsession.
 
Later that evening, at the dinner table, Carl's mom Tammy was asking her children if they were excited about the first day of school. "Tomorrow is your first day of High School Cassy, aren't you excited!" She asked her oldest.
Cassy, who lately has hit overdrive with the teenage hormones, was staring at her plate, and pushing her peas around with the fork. "I guess, it's really not a big deal mom, Gosh'" Cassy would never admit to her mother that she was absolutely terrified of the first day of High School. "What if they don't like me?" Cassy says to herself. That mere thought caused her to sink deeper in to her sulky attitude.


Recognizing the conversation would be a losing battle, Tammy turns to her youngest daughter, who at age 9 still loves to talk to her, and that makes her feel so good, "So Chrissy, how about you, are you ready for 4th grade!" Chrissy's blue eyes light up and she squeals with delight, "Yes I AM!" "I cannot wait to meet my new teacher, and sit at my new desk, and write with my NEW Pencils!" Tammy smiled at her daughter, Chrissy was such a lively and outgoing young girl. It's was nice to still have a daughter in the house that smiled.


Carl rolls his eyes, his little sister was somewhat of a drama queen who was excited about everything. It drove him crazy because she was always wanting to show him things that never really interested him like Barbies. He always feels bad for getting upset at her and ends up giving in and playing, but lately he just wanted to be left alone.
"How about you Carl, your first day of Middle School. Are you nervous?"
Carl looks at his mother, and can see the look in her eyes. She just wants to interact with her children, and he has always been a momma's boy and he never wants to disappoint or upset her, even though it happens often. "I am excited to see my friends. I hope I have a guy teacher this year." Tammy see's the longing in her son's eyes. It is very unfortunate that her husband Bob has to travel so much for work, and she is very grateful that his job allows her to be home and available for her children, but she sees a change in her son and knows that only a male influence can help him.
 
"Well, maybe you will, that will be a good change huh?" "Ok, time to clean up, I believe it is your night."
Cassie looks defiantly at her mom "Mom, I have so much to do, I have to find the perfect outfit, and make sure all of my summer reading assignments are ready." Tammy sighed and looked a at her oldest t daughter. "Fine, but you get double duty the next two nights." "Carl, you take dishes tonight and you will have the next two nights free." Carl knew it was no use arguing, and no amount of pleading would change things. He gets up from the table and starts clearing the dishes muttering to himself, "Once again girl attitude wins." He begins to clean the dishes with a bit of an attitude, making sure every glass clanked in the sink. He was so tired of being surrounded by all of this girl attitude and raging hormones. As he is drying off the last plate, he throws the towel down on the counter, and turns to walk up shaking his head. Girls, always surrounded by girls.
 
"CARL! CARL! CARL!" the crowd screams his name. Girls are swooning, as he makes his grand entrance into the wrestling ring. He turns around and lifts up his hands to his fans, and then tears his shirt off in one tug. At that moment, a girl jumps through the ropes, and begins kissing him all over his face. Carl is smiling and laughing....oh stop, you are making me blush.......
He slowly opens his eyes, and it takes him a while to realize Chloe, his Golden Retriever was sprawled on top of him licking his face. "Yuck! Chloe, what are you doing, Get out!" Realizing he was dreaming, he growls at the dog, throws the covers off of him and gets up to go to the shower. "What a dream?" Carl muses, "One day that will be real, and it's going to be great!" Coming out of his bedroom, he sees the bathroom is empty, he picks up the pace so he can get in before his sister can hog the bathroom.
 
"CARL! Come downstairs and get your breakfast" his mother calls to him. "It's getting cold and Kate and her mother will be here in 15 minutes."
"I'm coming mom" he calls back down to her. "I'm getting dressed, I'll be down in a min."
 
Kate Waldon and her parents have lived next door to them since he can remember. The two families do everything together. Kate is the only child and Carl has always been so envious of that. Kate and Carl have been good friends since both families met. It is ironic to most of Carl's friends that his very best friend is a girl. He is surrounded by girls in his home, and his best friend is a girl. His friends at school, those who don't really hang out with him, tease him about Kate. The group of friends that he has hung out with for years understand that Kate is just like one of the boys. She did everything the boys did, and sometimes better. Kate loves sports, climbing trees and any activity that causes her to get dirty. Her mother has been trying and failing to get her to be a bit more girly, but that is not happening.
 
As Carl is getting ready in his room, he thinks about his friend, "It will be good to see Kate again" Carl says out loud to his reflection. Usually Kate and Carl are attached at the hip but Kate had been gone the last two weeks of summer with her family. "It's going to be great to have the whole gang again, Tim, Sam Kate and I can pick up where we left off last year." with one last look at himself in the mirror, Carl charges down stairs just as a car horn is blowing outside.
 
"Beep Beep!" the car outside honks and Tammy yells upstairs, "Carl, they are here, hurry up!" Carl races downstairs, grabs a piece of toast and some bacon, takes a swig of OJ and runs out to the car.

"Hey Carl. Are you ready for the big day?" Mrs. Waldon says to him.
"Yes mam, I am." he replies.
Carl hops in the back seat, and looks up at Kate. Something is different, when did Kate's eyes start to sparkle and where did she get such golden blonde curly locks. Carl shook his head, as if things would change when he looked at her again. He did not like that his best friend was looking more like a girl. He could see her looking at him thru the rear view mirror, but he could not stop looking at her with he was certain was a very confused look on his face.
"What are you so dressed up for today, what's with the new clothes" Carl asked her after several minutes of gawking. Kate turned around in her seat and looked at him, matching his gaze with an expression that was just as confused as his. "These aren't new clothes Carl, I have worn this before." She continued to stare at him, then asked "What is wrong with you Carl?"
"Nothing is wrong with me?" Why do you ask?" "I am fine."
 
 
 
 
"Kate, time for dinner" Mrs. Waldon called upstairs to her daughter. "I'll be down in a minute mom" Kate called back to her mother. Kate Waldon is going to be in middle school tomorrow. The last few weeks, something has changed in her and she started to become nervous about the first day of school. She stood in front of her mirror, all of the clothes in her closet were thrown on her bed, the pile was so high, you couldn't even see the covers. Kate tried all of the clothes on in her closet, and was in a sort of panic. "Ugggg, I have nothing to wear. Nothing looks right!" Kate sat down on her floor and lays her head in her hands. "Ok Kate, pull yourself together. The same friends will be there, they know you and they don't care how you are dressed." Kate took another look at herself, let out a big sigh, and then turned to go down for dinner.
 
"What are we having mom?" Kate asked her mother as she entered the kitchen. Before her mother could answer, Kate squealed, "Oh yay, pizza!"
 
"I know it's your favorite, I swear sometimes I think I had a boy in a girl's body." Susan looked at her daughter, such a lovely young woman she was becoming. She has tried all summer to get Kate to care a little about things like clothes and boys and typical girly things, but Kate was not having it.
Kate rolls her eyes and lets out a tiny moan, her mom has been pushing this issue all summer on her, and she just wanted to be left alone. The worse part, is here lately she has actually been a bit more interested in how she looks and the clothes she wears. She was not used to this change of though nor did she like it at all. "Mom, just because I like sports and don't want to prance around in a frilly pink tutu, does not make me any less of a girl." "I just have different interests than most girls." There was no way she was going to admit her recent interest change to her mother, if she did her mother would have her at the mall before she could blink an eye and in the latest frilly pink dress and shoes!
 
"So, you ready for school tomorrow?" Susan casually asks her daughter. "Yeah, it will be cool to hang with the boys again, and get back to basketball." Kate was hoping that once she got back around her group of friends and into her normal routine, these strange thoughts and worries about how she looked would go away.
 
At the dinner table, Kate sat down to eat with her mother. Tonight it was just her and her mother for dinner. She had no brothers or sisters, and her dad was on shift at the Fire Station.
"Mom, are we picking Carl up in the morning?" Kate asked "Yes, Tammy has asked that he ride with us in the mornings to school, since they changed her work schedule." "He will be riding with us all year." Susan replied.
Kate looked down at her pizza, why in the world was she nervous about seeing Carl. They had been best friends since they were toddlers, so what was this feeling of uncertainty.
"That is ok with you right Kate?" "Kate!" Kate looks up, "What?"
"I asked you a question, are you ok dear?" "Is something bothering you?" Susan softly asked her daughter. "No, nothing's wrong, I must be tired." "I'm going to go upstairs to get ready for bed." "Ok honey, good night." Susan kissed her daughter and watched her walk slowly up the stairs.
"Well well, it looks like my little tom boy is starting to become a lady." Susan smiled up in the direction her daughter went and stood to clean up from dinner.
 
The hallway was smoky, like a thick frog. Kate could hear the beat of the music, as she slowly made her way into the gym. Her heart was pounding, and she was worried her dress was too childish. As she made her way through the double doors leading to the dance, her palms began to sweat. Just at the moment she looked up and gasped. He was coming her way. "Oh no, what do I say, oh gosh, I think I am going to faint........Just then the fire alarm started ringing. That's weird, Kate looked up, why would an alarm be going off in the middle of the dance....Slowly opening her eyes, Kate realizes the "alarm" was her clock waking her up for school. "Whew, just a dream. Why in the world was I dreaming that. And why in the world was I so worried about Him. Kate shook her head a few times to help herself wake up. Sliding out of her pink camouflage covers, she stumbles her was to the shower.
 
In her room, Kate is once again in front of the mirror looking at the outfit she chose to wear. "Oh man, I hope this is good enough." "Gosh Kate, stop worrying, its fine!" Kate argued with herself again, frustrated.
"Kate, come on down honey, you need to eat and we need to leave in 15 minutes." Susan called up after her daughter.
"Ok mom, be right there." Kate called after her.

Shuffling down the stairs, Kate sits at the table and pours her cereal, and proceeds to shovel it in her mouth like she was a prison mate at her last meal. She finishes, wipes her mouth with her hand, throws the dishes in the sink then looks up at her mom. "Ok, let's go!" Mouth agape, Susan looks at her daughter, not that this was the first time she had seen her daughter eat this way, but she was always shocked by it. Such a pretty girl, but so barbaric at the same time. "Did you even taste your food Kate?" amused, Susan shook her head, grabbed her keys and they headed off to get Carl.
 
They stopped in front of the Simmons house, Susan honks the horn to alert them they are there. They have been friends with the Simmons such a long time, that the formalities of ringing the door bell had long passed. A few minutes later, Carl comes out of the door. At the site of him, Kate sucks in her breath, she felt for a minute she was dreaming again. What happened to Carl? When did he start to look so handsome? And what was different about him, she couldn't quite figure it out. His dark brown hair and tanned skin was the same, but for some reason, it made him look so.....so......hmmm.....Hot! Shaking her head, as if to shake away some romantic fantasy, she looked away from him. In the rearview mirror, she could see him looking at her with this very strange, confused look on his face.
"What are you so dressed up for today, what's with the new clothes" Carl asked her after several minutes of gawking. Kate turned around in her seat and looked at him, matching his gaze with an expression that was just as confused as his. "These aren't new clothes Carl, I have worn this before." She continued to stare at him, then asked "What is wrong with you Carl?" "What's wrong with you Carl?"
 
"Nothing is wrong with me?" Why do you ask?" "I am fine."
 
The ride to school was awkwardly quiet. At least it felt that way to Kate and Carl. By the way Susan was carrying on talking about school and summer and whatever she thought of, you would think the tension in the car was only felt by them. After they got out of the car, they walked into the building to find their class.
 
Of course, they shared the same home room teacher. Normally, they would be ecstatic at that fact, but Carl felt the drastic urge to turn and run far, far away from Kate. He did not like this strange tension between them, and he particularly did not like how he could not stop looking at her eyes, and dreaming of getting lost in them.
 
During class, as the teacher began to explain the course and expectations, after the bell rings and the students are arranged in their assigned seats, Carl sat down and automatically slouched down in his chair. "This tension has to stop" he says to himself, "She is your best friend Carl, there is no reason for you to be afraid of her." he decided after class he was going to act like there was nothing wrong.
Carl began to daydream of last year, when things seemed so much easier. He would walk to class with Kate, occasionally shoving her this way and that playfully. They would talk about sports, or what adventure they had planned with Tim and Sam after school. It was nothing to be around her, she was just normal then. "Carl?" snapping his head up, he realized his Teacher was asking him a question. "Oh, sorry, yes sir." "I asked you what the reading assignment was, pay attention, or you will get lost in my class." "Sorry sir." Carl said embarrassed," great now I look like an idiot." Carl thought to himself.
 
 
When the bell rang to dismiss them to their next class, he stood next to Kate and walked with her to meet up with the boys.
Tim and Sam had the homeroom class across from Carl and Kate, so they were not hard to spot. "Hey guys" Tim and Sam said in unison to Kate and Carl. "Hey!" Kate exclaimed. "How do you guys like your teacher?" "It feels weir doesn't it, being in middle school now?" Kate said. Tim and Sam looked at each other, "Not really, I don't feel any different. I don't think it will be any different than last year. Right Sam?" Tim answered.
 
Carl chimed in a little too emotionally, "You are right Tim! It will not be different! Err, I mean sure it should be the same" At that moment he could feel the heat rising up his face. "You feel ok today Carl?" Sam asked curiously. "You seem a little uptight."
 
"NO, I am fine! Why does everyone keep asking me that?"
"He is a little sensitive today, he has been acting strange since we picked him up this am for school." Kate chimed in. Carl glared at her. He knew he was over reacting, but how could he stop it. He was not sure what was going on and he just wanted things to feel normal.
 
"I'm going to go to meet Sally, we are sharing a locker together this year and she wants to organize things. I'll catch you guys later at lunch." Kate takes another awkward look at Carl and starts off down the hallway to the lockers.
 
"Ok, what is with you Carl, what is with the weird tension between you two?" Sam asked Carl after Kate was away from site. "I don't really know, but she is different. All girly and dressed up. You don't see it?"
Tim and Sam exchanged a look on curiosity, "No, same old Kate." Tim said. "Yeah, I don't see anything different." Sam added. Carl let out a sigh, "Never mind guys, let's go on to class."
 
Two hours later, the lunch bell rings and students begin to flood the hallways, excited chatter amongst friends gets louder as the students head to the Lunch Room. Carl waited outside the Lunch Room door for Tim, Sam and Kate. They always sat together at lunch, maybe things would be normal at lunch. Maybe this was just jitters from the first day of a new school. "Carl!" He hears Kate call his name from inside the Lunch Room. "We are over here."
 
Carl made his way through the line and sat down next to Kate. "Guys, I want you to meet Sally. She and I have several classes together and share a locker." "Hi." The boys reply sheepishly. Carl didn't understand, why Kate invited a friend to sit with us, and a Girl at that. She really was changing. "So Sally, tell me about yourself." Tim asks her. "What are your hobbies, interests, passions?" Sally laughed at his enthusiastic question. "Well Tim, I like to read, I have horses so I love to ride, and I love to shop." "Wow, ok, definitely girl things, but we can work on that." Tim said
 
"Sally has invited all of us to her Halloween party next month, she has a huge house and her parents put on a great costume party every year. Sounds like fun right guys?" Kate was looking at the boys, pleading with them to say yes, she thought it would be good for her to make some friends of the same gender. Maybe learn some girlie ways, Lord knows her mother would love that.
"Sure, sounds great, maybe we can do a theme for our costumes?"
"Yay!" Kate exclaimed. "It's going to be great."
"Well, I have to run, I need to speak with my English teacher before lunch is over. Nice to meet you all, I will have to introduce you to my friend Mary tomorrow, she is great." Sally got up from the table and went to throw away her half eaten school lunch. "Interesting young girl." Tim says thoughtfully, then looks up at the strange stares coming from his friends. "What?" "What did I say?"
 
Carl just shook his head, "Nothing at all Tim."
What was happening to them? Nothing seemed easy or normal, and now Tim was acting so strange. He just wanted to get through today and get home and away from Kate and all of the strangeness going on today. Maybe he was coming "You are changing Kate, dressing all girlie, and doing your hair all girlie. It's strange, and I don't like it."
 
Kate gasped, "You don't have to be so mean, I have done nothing to deserve for you to talk to me like that. Maybe its best we not talk to one another and let things cool off." She stormed off to her mother's Van. Carl followed after her, his head down and sat in the back of the Van. Nothing was said the ride home, except a fine here and there when Kate's mother would ask a question.
 
After he arrived home, Carl laid on his bed trying to figure out how things go so wrong. Why did he snap at Kate like that, and worse why didn't he apologize? All he knew is he liked her touch, and he could tell she felt the same thing. "But she is Kate, she is one of the boys." he said out loud to no one. "I wish I could figure out what is going on with me, and why I am having these feelings." Carl's dad would not be home until close to Christmas, as he was out of the country. "Oh well, we will see how things go, all he knew was now he could not stop thinking about Kate, and not in a just one of the boys type thoughts.
 
Kate rushed in the house, threw her book bag down in the foyer and raced up to her room. She was so upset at Carl. Why had he pulled away so abruptly when she touched his arm? She felt the warmth and the spark, but she thought it was just her. Was he that repulsed by it, or did he feel it too. "I am beginning to think that my feelings about Carl are no longer just friend feelings." Kate said to herself. "Girls are always more in tune to these things, I have been told, and I never thought I would feel them. Especially for my best friend." Maybe things won't change, maybe today was just a fluke. Kate made up her mind she was determined to make things smooth, all while trying to figure out what Carl was feeling too. Hopefully by the Halloween party at Sally's things will not be so awkward and tense.
 
Kate and Carl have just entered a new phase in their young lives. Neither one has ever had these type of feelings for anyone of the opposite sex before. The hardest part, is the feelings are happening between the two of them, and that could be very bad for the friendship. Will they be able to work through this time, or will they let their emotions and pride get in the way and cause disaster? Only time will tell.