Little Wonders and Other Works

Do I Know Her?

   Julia sat at a lunch table in Riverby Middle School with an enormous smile on her face which had been there for hours. She constantly wished for time to go faster just like her heartbeat. As much as she was grinning, thoughts of dread flooded through her mind. She was in 7th grade, one of the most important years in middle school. 6th grade had been overall a good year because of the new friendships she had made. Now it was going to get better, or so it seemed. She was going to see her best friend, Alice, from 2nd grade. It had been 5 years since they talked to each other. Julia barely remembered what she was like except for the fact that she had an older brother, who graduated the previous year from Riverby, and the emotions she had when they were together. Julia remembered feeling joyful when she went into Alice's classroom hoping to play with her, the excitement on playdates, and the sorrow of finding out she was moving. Julia remembered very little of Alice, which actually frightened her. What if she changed? she thought. What if she's disappointed that I remembered so little of her? Then she was calmed by the thought she could learn those things again and new things about her friend if they continued their friendship, hopefully making the most of 7th grade.
   Julia saw Alice from afar and hugged her as she got close.
"Alice! It is so nice to see you again!" Julia exclaimed as they were hugging.
"It's so nice to see you again too Julia! I missed you!" Alice replied.
Once they sat back down, Julia noticed Alice seemed a little different. She was wearing a hoodie and black jeans which showed of her slim figure, and had applied a little bit of makeup which was very trendy. She still had her radiant blue eyes and silky straight black hair. Her smile and her personality had stayed the same, for now.
   They sat down and talked about their lives since 2nd grade.
"What happened after 2nd grade?" Julia asked.
"Well," Alice replied, "I went to Waverly Elementary School and the school also had 6th grade so this is my first year here."
"Wow!" Julia said. "How is your family doing?"
"They're doing well."
After that was complete awkward silence. For some odd reason, neither of them could think of what to say to each other. Julia noticed Alice didn't have a school lunch tray in front of her or even a lunch bag. Julia wondered if she should end the conversation in order to let Alice eat. However, her mind was so scrambled, she couldn't remember the thought she just wanted to say. Instead, she decided to ask a question.
"So," Julia started, "What do you do during lunch?"
"I usually hang out with my friends on the blacktops," Alice replied as she pointed to the round table with an umbrella next to the black pavement where kids usually played soccer, ultimate frisbee, or kickball.
"Do you eat the school lunch?"
"I don't. I actually don't eat lunch at all in school."
"Okay," Julia responded.
There were another few moments of awkward silence. Julia was trying very hard to come up with other questions. Her mind just seemed to be completely blank. Julia kept thinking of something to say, anything at all. Her mind seemed to just be too scrambled to concentrate. Then, one of Alice's friends came up to her and started talking to her. Alice briefly introduced her friend to Julia, who only remembered that this girl was from Waverly. What amazed Julia was that the conversation between the two was fluid, not awkward and silent like theirs.
"The bell is about to ring soon," Alice said after some time. "I'll see you around, okay? Perhaps we can talk later and hangout one weekend."
"I would love to do that," Julia replied.
"See you later Julia," Alice said while hugging her.
"Bye!" Julia said as Alice left the lunch table.

   However, they never met again that year. They both were eventually busy with school and when they did plan to see each other, something always came up. One time it was because Alice caught a cold but the others times were mainly because Alice never confirmed to meet. The only times they saw each other was when Julia was walking with Alice to the end of the block of the school. Even during those times, there was nothing they could say to each other either because Alice was talking to her friends or they couldn't make a conversation happen. What really annoyed Julia was that Alice couldn't take the time to meet with her but was always seen hanging out with her other friends. Even worse, Alice became the popular girl in school and had friends who seemed to be bad influences. These people were always doing crazy stunts. For example, a couple of videos went around the school of these "cool kids" dancing and lip syncing with a knife in their hand. Just the thought of those videos made Julia shiver. They were often sent to the dean's office and a couple of them were expelled from school. If Julia didn't know that Riverby was a middle school, she would have thought it was a place where gangs hung out. One of them was Jacalene, who was considered to be the devil of the school and that group.