Monday, October 26, 2009

raven

Tears. Hugs. A few second laughs. Anything we could do to try to hold on to the last few minutes my friends and I would spend together. We heard the most awful thing anyone in my position could hear. Those two dreaded words that would have anyone close to tears.
"We’re moving?!" I half said half yelled at my mom. This news just came out of nowhere and I couldn’t mask my feelings. I stared in utter disbelief at the person staring back at me and that’s when I realized she didn’t respond.
"Well?"
I was defiantly intolerant and of course wondering why me, which crossed my mind a couple of times. Here I was totally blissful and accepted. I was a cheerleader at Springdale middle School and had just recently been promoted captain, and now I was being uprooted to a place I never even heard of. incongruous! I ran upstairs wondering how my sister and brother took the news. I soon found out as I saw my sister laying on the bed crying and my brother sat staring at the wall in gauche and inclusive silence. It was that severe.
"Kentucky, home of the Bluegrass, What kind of saying is that?" I thought aloud. Even though we were only moving across the bridge I never knew Kentucky existed. "What school is we going to ?" My sister asked who impressively warmed up to the whole situation . "I think the school is called Two Rivers Middle School, and it’s not that far from where we stay, so ya’ll can still catch the bus" my mom replied. "Well aint that great". I mumbled sardonically. My brother and father rode in comprehensive stillness the entire trip, that didn’t last that long. Intermittently, my fathers lips would turn up into a faded smile.
I felt the car slowing down and as we approached the house, my nerves started to kick in. We carried in the kitchen and Bathroom marked boxes, and I allowed my mind to roam. I thought about what the people would be like, I would if I would like them, and I wanted if they would acknowledge me. Most of all I wondered if I would ever find good friends that would fill the null and void gap in my heart.
"Good morning students and staff" the principals voice boomed over the intercom. Yupp, you guessed it. It was my first day of school. Lucky for me everyone else already had friends from last year, so I had no one to conversate with. I walked into my first class with all eyes on me. I knew what they were thinking from the looks on their faces. "Who the hell is she?" I heard one girl barely whisper. More as a statement than a question because she knew as I did, no one knew the answer to that.
"Hey girl!" I called to my best friend Porsha. "Hey, Bay, where you headed? Class?". "Girl of course" I replied as she came up aside of me and started chatting away. "Girl you know we-" Porsha started. "Practice Tomorrow!" Ashley called to me. "I know girl" I said as I waved her off. "Ok Porsh what was you saying?."
"I was saying, did you know we was getting a new girl today?" she asked apprehensively. "No, and I really don’t care" I said. She gave me a sideways look that I knew oh so well and I laughed that said girl shut up. I laughed and continued walked into my class. I thought nothing more of the new girl, even though I should have, because she changed my life forever.
"Yes, lunch" I thought aloud, which I tend to do a lot. I yawned and punched my friend Mike that was asleep on my arm. We rubbed our eyes and went on our way. My best friend Breanna met me in the lunchroom. "Who is Porsha sitting with?" I asked her curiously. Before she could answer, Porsha called me over there. "Nandi, Bre, come meet my friend Raven." At that moment I was kind of confused about how she knew her, but I later found out they knew each other since they were like, babies.
"Hi" I said. I didn’t know what it was about her, but for some odd reason, I didn’t like her. Porsha and Bre took a liking to her, right away, which I didn’t understand. The whole lunch bell I sat there listening to her and Porsha catch up on their friendship.
Walking to fifth period I heard someone calling my name, ignoring it I kept walking but the calling kept getting louder and louder. "Nandi!" I turned around to find Raven, struggling to catch up with me, my first instinct was to keep walking because I had absolutely nothing to say to her. Instead I stopped and decided to wait. "Hey girl! Where you going?". She was short and mixed with long hair and a round happy face. "To my class" I answered dryly. I didn’t know what she expected out of me really, and I didn’t care to know. "Oh girl me too, I think we got it together, who you got?". "Mr. Jhonson" I answered while she checked her schedule. "Yay! , we got it together". We continued walking. On the way I was praying she wouldn’t be put by me. Almost by destiny, once I got in the room Mr. Jhonson decided to surprise us by assigning a seating chart. Looking back its funny, but at that particular moment I knew it meant trouble. Long story short, Brea sat on one side of me, while you know who sat on the other. I tried to decide on an approach to the problem at hand. I contemplated ignoring her, but finally gave in an decided to talk to her. We laughed and talked the entire time that we got threatened to be sent out three times. When the bell rung and we collected our things, I asked her what her next bell was and was disappointed she didn’t have it with me.
I’ve known raven for a couple of years now and every year our friendship does nothing but get stronger. She has helped me overcome so many different obstacles in my life and in the process we have both found out more about ourselves. I love her a lot and I don’t know how I would have made it to where I am, or even be who I am today, without her. She’s there whenever I need her and I never have to front or not be myself around her because she doesn’t judge me at all. She’s more than my best friend she’s my other half.

Thursday, October 22, 2009