Dear Friend,

I write this today with my usual thought about our friendship, or better, the friendship we use to have. It is regular that I ponder about the days and nights we spent years ago. We were young, silly, naive, and had way too much energy.

Flashback nine years ago in Ms. Bussell’s art class. I was the new kid and only saw one girl that I knew, Daisy. As I went to sit with Daisy, you were right there with her at the table. Vividly do I remember you pulling a chair out for me sit in then when I go to sit down you pull it right out from under me. I fell to the ground embarrassed and upset. That day I hated you so much.

Days went on in my favorite class and you were always there. You and I began being the class jokesters and quite the troublemakers as well. I began to like you. Something about how loud and crazy you were made me want to befriend you a lot. Through substitutes getting kicked out, razor cell phones, paint fights, and running our teacher away, that sixth-grade year was the best. We even attended our first school dance together at the skating rink. Who could forget their first time listening to "Low" by T-Pain. Those were the days, but just the beginning. First hour wasn’t as nearly as bad as art class, but there was no doubt that Mrs. Rolland hated us. We were such a great pair of gals (said heavily sarcastically). Constantly, we would walk to school from my house in the mornings with huge cups of coffee having to purposely use the bathroom about five times in her class. I’ll never forget our first "victim." Walter Glass and the everyday torture we put that little guy through. We laughed about his high waters at all times. We were bullies, but at that time and there, we didn’t want to admit that.

Flash forward to the next year. We were seventh graders now. You went back to Ninnekah and I stayed at the best school ever (we both know how much of a lie that is). Even though we went to different schools we still hung out all the time. My mother to this day still does not let me down for all the times we got on her nerves. She didn’t like you, but I didn’t care. We were ride or dies. Your parents liked me because they thought I was a good influence on you, and we all know we were both equally immature little dorks. We hung out at my place in town way more than going to your out in the country. We ran the streets, found our way around town and found our own kind of fun.

Let’s skip a year, and flash forward to the nineth grade. We were getting older and things got real for us very quick. I moved to a new town and we didn’t talk as much. Soon after, I got my first car and boy did that change things up for us like never before. For a while I was only 15 and we would take my car everywhere. We saw a lot of things that year. One memory I’ll never let go is driving around Cottonwood estates at about 11 p.m. with you. We had the radio up to its loudest dial and the speed was way beyond the limit. We drove around the neighborhood for a good 30 to 45 minutes just having the time of our lives being ridiculous. After all, that’s what we did for fun most days. Upon making it back to your place we got out of the car to find Scott, your stepdad who happened to be the Chief Police Officer to greet us. I couldn’t ever forget him asking us the simple question of If we won or not. We instantly think about the movie Talladega nights and the joke stuck with us for years to come.

After that year, things changed even more. As teenagers, we experienced things together and had each other’s backs along the way. Things would happen at home, but we were each other’s gateway. After Sophomore year you and I didn’t really talk again that much. “Hey” wasn’t something I saw very often and we never hung out. We were getting older. Our lives were taking directions we didn’t think they would. We barely even talk today, but you will always be my girl! There are far more stories that I could recap on but don’t have the space in this article. We had a fun and adventurous teen years and I will never forget the awesome memories we made together!

Love always,

Sam