Stepping through the dark red door, I am greeted by the light of the pointed ceiling in the gym. Today, was the ice cream social night, the day before my first day of kindergarten. Preschool had not been the best experience, with its many snobby girls who did not like me and stupid boys who ignored me because the girls did. But, that is not the point of this memory and is to be saved for another time. I was now standing in the line for the ice cream counter, gazing around through the crowds of families. I was standing in line behind a light blonde haired girl with very pretty ice blue eyes. I looked at this girl and decided she was going to be my friend.

Tapping the quiet girl on her shoulder, I said, “Hi, my name is Maddy. What’s yours?” “Abby.” she responded meekly. Those words may have been insignificant to most, but to myself, I would not be the same person today without them. After the introduction, I joined my dad sitting at the end of one of the white collapsible tables. He was chatting with another father, slightly bald, with a grin that made anyone feel welcome. My dad explained to me that he had a daughter going into kindergarten as well. At that moment, Abby walked up to the table with her mother and younger sister Sarah. The man chatting with my father approached me and said, “Maddy, this is my daughter, Abby.” All I can remember thinking was I was glad to already make a friend before the first day.

Kindergarten flashed by very quickly and Abby and I became very close friends. We shared many adventures involving ice skating birthday parties, Halloween as princesses and cowgirls, and sprinkle pancakes for breakfast in the mornings at Vandenhouten house sleepovers. One of my biggest adventures with Abby actually was during the summer before first grade on an eventful trip to Disneyworld, Florida.

To start off this tale, we set the scene about one week before our flight to Orlando. I had made a major milestone in the life of a grade schooler, a loose tooth. This tooth was not very easily removed; it was almost ready to snap and hung by one fleshy string in my mouth. I refused to painfully rip it from my gums and my parents tried every trick to remove it from biting into an apple to simply wiggling the pest. So from then on, the tooth was named “The Snaggle Tooth” due to its habit of sticking up through my lips like the bulldog from a “Tom and Jerry” cartoon. The tooth remained a close companion during my trip to Disneyworld and was gawked at by many tourists at the park as “one of the ugliest loose teeth he or she has seen...”.

Our flight to the theme park was surprisingly very smooth for two families with small children. We checked into our hotel right on the grounds of the park. It was Pocahontas themed with beautiful Floridian woods surrounding the grounds. Our rooms were small condos wrapped around a pool shaped like the head of Mickey Mouse. The first day was rough. We were forced indoors due to a major hurricane passing over Orlando. Both families huddled in one of the rooms and intently watched the local weather service for live coverage. I had never been in such a powerful storm and was grateful Abby was just as scared as I was. The storm soon passed and luckily the damage was minimal.

Our second day became a much happier scene. We started off the day in the Magic Kingdom, going on every ride we could, and ending the day at the iconic “Its a Small World” boat tour. The line for this ride was tremendous; even buying a “Fastpass” would result in a 45 minute wait. So there we stood, snacks and drinks in hand, when finally our turn approached and we settled into the light red boat.

The ride was fantastic! Lights, music, and animatronics covered every square inch of the scenes in the river boat tour. Then.. it happened, the soda and pretzel I had eaten in line before the ride had made its way to my bladder. Now, if there could be any more inconvenient place to sit with a full bladder, it would be on a boat ride with different water displays and the sound of rushing water wherever you turned and you would be stuck there for what seemed like an eternity.

We were just about to the climax scene of the ride when I could not take it any longer. The water from inside myself was relieved., the people in front of us were thoroughly disgusted, and Abby’s father had sacrificed his socks to help dispose of the accident. I was mortified. Til this day I am still regularly tormented when “Its a Small World” or Disney World is involved in any conversation.

There was one important discovery I had made with my experience in Disney World, Abby was still friends with a weak bladdered, snaggle toothed girl who was probably one of the most awkward people on the planet. She did not care what I looked like or what people thought of me. She just wanted to be my friend.

The rest of grade school moved forward and our friendship bonded to the point where people would ask if we were sisters. We had grown up together now for six years and were an inseparable pair. Together, we discovered each of our passions in music; Abby with piano and myself with singing. Also, another of our favorite loves was reading, we always shared books with each other on a regular trading schedule. The biggest craving we had as elementary students was volleyball; we started playing the sport for our school in the fifth grade. Ever since the first practice in that tiny gym, Abby and I have strived to push each other to our limits in the sport. Volleyball was an activity that could keep us together and give us a reason to stay in contact in the future.

At the end of fifth grade, Abby and I left Mrs.Manders classroom laughing and having fun planning our summer together. We were also ready to move on to middle school wing of St.Bruno. It would be a big change in our lives, but if the two of us stayed close, we might just make it.

Unfortunately, the attack plan to make it through middle school did not last long. I spent the summer with Abby and it was fun, but it was always the same routine of going to eachothers houses in the day and then pleading our parents for a sleepover at night so we could stay up and gossip about school and share our biggest secrets. But, how fun can it get when you already know everything about your friend’s life.

The first day of sixth grade had now approached; returning upperclassmen confidently strode through the entrance to one of the three homerooms while the eight incoming students bashfully made their way through the hallway to their new classroom. Abby and I walked into the classroom and found our seats to be on opposite ends of the small room. She took her seat near the window while I sat by the door.

Looking around the new surroundings, I noticed two blonde girls at the center of the room chatting and giggling with all of the boys in the class. Wow, I had no idea how these girls caught the attention of the boys. I needed to know their secrets. One of the girls sat down next to me on the right and the other right behind me. “Hey.” I said. “Oh hi Maddy,” they both replied, “how was your summer?”. I panicked trying to think of the right words to say. “Uh, really cool.” Awesome, my first words to these girls since the end of the school year and I already sound like a blubbering idiot.

Class proceeded on and the girls were quite the outgoing sixth graders, making jokes and giving their input in class discussion. At the end of class I packed up my books and walked through the door. I really wanted to be part of the girls’ group so bad. The year before, the same girls made their own snowboard design club, but it was for snowboarders only. I did not know how to snowboard and prayed every day that I could maybe become as cool as these girls someday so maybe I could be part of the club too.

At the end of that first week, the girls had invited me to sit with them at lunch, play football at recess with them and the other boys, and they actually asked if I would like to go to the movies with them also. I was super excited of course, I was for the first time being noticed! This thought carried me all the way through my sixth grade year. At the beginning of seventh grade, it seemed that I had entered the secret society of the popular girls. It was all I ever wanted at the time, but then it seemed it was reality’s turn to step back in.

As the start of the school year passed, so did the attention from the girls I had befriended the year before. The girls began to keep secrets from me and intentionally leave me out of plans. My mom was helping watch one of the girls while the parents were out of town. One of the nights my mom stayed over and was telling this girl that she missed seeing her around my house. My mom questioned her sudden absence. The girl’s reply was this,”Well, your daughter Maddy, she's kind of strange. I mean it was fun to hang out with her when it did not matter, but to be truthful, Maddy is a loser. She is a teacher’s pet in almost all of her classes and actually likes to sing for the choir at school. She has even missed part of lunch for choir. That is just weird.”. My mom was so shocked she did not tell me for a while until it came to a point where I never really had any friends to hang out with anymore.

Seventh grade just seemed to get worse every day, the girls I used to hang out with would rub it in my face when they had awesome plans that they thought about inviting me but didn’t. Eventually, abuse like this caused me to have very weak emotions. I remember points in that horrible year when I would break down in tears because the girls would tell me that they had the best weekend ever or I would overhear the girls gossiping about me behind my back. I sat in my room just dreaming about how other people were living their lives while I was stuck in some sort of vortex that isolated me from the rest of the seventh grade community. As I write this paper, I still get a pang of grief recalling that god awful year.

Close to the end of the school year, I had a change in my mindset. I finally thought one day to myself that why should I let two girls control my emotions everyday? So that was the last time I ever let someone push me around, I was as invincible as ever. Then, I had one last epiphany, where was Abby? I now felt like a complete fool, I had left Abby for most of an entire year. I actually had the nerve to leave my best friend and try to join some popular cliche. Abby must have forgotten all about me.

Towards some of the last days of school, Abby approached me in the lunchroom. Oh god, how could I ever even look at her again without feeling guilty? “Hey Maddy, have you been ok?” she said, “I have been trying to talk to you for a really long time now, but you have either been gone or something else. I miss hanging out with you, we need to make plans today.” How was Abby not mad? If I was in her position, I would make me apologize or ignore me for a long while. But, somehow, Abby does exactly what I need right now, she acted like a best friend.

Abby and I reconnected over that summer before eighth grade. It was like we were both in kindergarten again and spent as much time as we possibly could together. Now, that I had my real friend back, I had my own new found confidence and walked with pride past people I used to hide in fear from. I no longer cared about other people’s opinions and my classmates respected me for this. All the energy I had put into my fear was put into learning how to play guitar, singing regularly in front of the school at events, and even winning the science scholarship for my class while Abby won the award for school leader.

At the end of my days at St.Bruno, Abby and I were sad to leave each other, but were trusting one another to not lose contact. We both knew that there was no reason to be afraid of high school because we could always talk to one another. During my time in middle school, my world seemed to grow huge, but in the end , it came crumbling down on me and I was isolated from other people. But in the end, I realized I should have been concentrating on the important things in my small world. Abby was honestly, one of my biggest heroes, without the continual help of her friendship throughout my life, I do not know if I could have been shaped into the same person. I know that I am probably one of the luckiest people in the world to have not only a best friend, but a person who will be in my life no matter what comes into our future friendship together. I do not know what my future will hold, but I know I can beat anything now that I have a magnificent person to fall back on.