The Evergreen Lion

13 years ago

"Good morning class. Today we are going to end our lessons on Space, and begin Dinosaurs!" Mrs. Farner says to the class of five year olds. She looks scans the colorful classroom of children, and expect them to be excited, but sounds of disappointment and rage fill the room instead.

"But I like space."

"I want to learn more about Aliens!"

"Is Pluto a planet?"

The five year olds start to bombard her with questions about space, but Mrs. Farmer gets them to settle down.

I look towards the left of me, and I'm surprised my best friend hasn't said anything about it. For these past two weeks, all he could talk about was space, and how he was going to be an astronaut. On the other hand, I could care less about space. I wanted to be a ballerina when I grew up.

"Leo, are you okay?" I ask him as the teacher continues to talk about the lesson. He nods in reply, but doesn't say anything. Meanwhile the teacher shushes me, and I decide to ask him about it on the playground later.

* * *

"Are you okay Leo? I thought you would be sadder about ending space?" I ask him.

"Well," he starts off. "I was thinking that I want to be an astronaut, but you want to be a ballerina, and those aren't the same thing." Leo squats down, and starts to run his hands through the sand in the sandbox.

I pout, and place my barbies on the ground. "Why can't I be a space ballerina?"

"Because those don't exist Juny."

"Well I can make them exist! And I'll do it before I die!" I proclaim as I climb on top of a bucket in the sandbox.

"Get down, Juny!" Mrs. Farner shouts at me form the other side of the playground.

I frown and grumble as I jump off the bucket.

The smart-Alec of a little boy rolls his eyes and continues on with his speech. "Anyways, since those aren't the same thing-"

"I'll make those a thing." I interrupt him.

"That means I won't be on earth, and you won't be in space and I can't leave you."

I was already opening my mouth to argue with him again, but I stop. "You'll stop being an astronaut for me?"

Leo blushes slightly. "Yeah. I think space is overrated if you're not there with me." He shrugs. "Besides who would fight aliens with me?"

I look at him, confused. "What does overrated mean?"

He sighs. "You have a lot to learn."

I push him, and he loses his balance in his squatting position and falls to the sandy ground. "Stop being such a nerd." I stick my tongue out at him.

He grabs one of my brown pig tails, and pulls me down to the ground with him.

"Stop being so annoying." He teases me, and we proceed to wrestle on the ground until a teacher pulls us apart.

We were covered in sand, and dirt, and probably a few scratches from each other, but we didn't mind. The teacher continues to give us a speech about how fighting is wrong, but we turn to look at each other and smile. We know we were just doing it for fun. You have a best friend so you could fight one day, and then laugh about it the next. If that's not a best friend, I don't know what is.