I thought it would be cool to share my history with my close group of friends, Brad, Mark, and Chris. My friends have formed an important part of my life. Being an only child, I didn't have anyone to fill that brother/sister role until I met my current friends. When I was in third grade, I moved to a brand new town, the town in which I would spend the rest of my life. On my very first day at school, I met Brad. He and I hit it off instantly when I sat down next to him at his table and he complimented me on my lunchbox. Since then, we were practically inseparable. He lived just down the block from me so we were always at each other's houses. At school, we always did everything together and always seemed to be the center of attention.
By fifth grade, he and are were great friends. Our own parents had become friends too. That year, we had another new student, Chris. Chris seemed kind of shy and spoke very little to anyone. One day, Brad and I were curious about him so we invited him to sit at our table for lunch. We got to know him a bit more and he seemed more comfortable although I think it bothered him having so many other people around. We didn't become real friends until a few weeks later. Brad had a rivalry going with a kid in the other 5th grade class. Somehow I got involved in this rivalry so basically our group despised his. So anyway, one day, we were hanging out at the basketball courts after school where everyone would congregate. Brad and this guy got into an argument over something and a fight began. I got involved to back up Brad but this guy had two more friends helping him. When we needed it, we saw Chris jump in to help us. Eventually we beat the guys but had to run off when some teachers showed up.
Brad, Chris, and I ran until we got back to my place. We spent the rest of the afternoon laughing about what happened and how scared those guys were. At that point Chris became one of us and our duo became a trio. We got to learn a lot about him and we found out that he had a lot of problems at home. It seemed that his mom and dad fought a lot so he spent a lot of time hanging out at my place or at Brad's place. Other than that, he was an awesome kid. He liked a lot of the same stuff we did so we got along great. He was always the one there to listen to any problem you had and would go above and beyond to help you out without expecting anything in return. When I had my surgery, both of them were there everyday for me. They treated me as if nothing was wrong and did anything to cheer me up.
One time in seventh grade, his parents really embarassed him when they broke out into an argument while dropping him off for school. So Brad and I cut school with him that day and went to the mall so that he could get a break from all that. Within the next month, his parents separated and eventually divorced. It was really hard on Chris. Brad and I always made sure that at least one of us was around to help with him or just listen to him vent about stuff. We would do sleep overs at my house or Brad's so that he could escape all his home trouble. Eventually, things settled down for him and his home life got much better. His parents were happier separately and he got more attention from them. The three of us remained very close throughout junior high. As usual, any problem any one of us had, we would turn around and at least one would be there. For some reason, they always came to me with any girl questions they had and somehow I always gave them the right answer. They really helped me get an understanding of what having brothers is like, since I never knew what it was.
Things continued the same when we entered high school. We somehow convinced all our parents to send us to the same private school. When we entered, we laughed at all the scared, nervous freshmen. We were all confident since the 3 of us already knew each other. We had most classes together except math. The two of them aren't math whizzes so I had the more advanced class. There, I met a kid named Mark. Mark seemed pretty cool and was into sports. He played for the school's freshmen soccer team. Although I never was too into sports, he and I hit it off. I introduced him to the guys at lunch and immediately our trio became a foursome. We all fell into our little roles. I was the loud, somewhat smarter one that they always came to with girl problems. I was also the baby of the group and was watched after. Chris was the quiet one that would occasionally let loose. Brad was the clown and Mark was the jock.
I found it really helpful having them around when my parents hit a little rough patch in their marriage around sophomore year. It was great having someone to talk to about and they were always there. Luckily for me, my parents worked everything out and they are still together. Unfortunately for Mark, his father passed away that year from a heart attack. It was so sad for all of us. We were there in the waiting room when Mark got the news and it was just terrible. We did nothing but comfort him and tell him that his Dad was in a better place and would always be with him. We tried our best to make him feel better although at times he would just want to be alone. This happened right before summer vacation. As soon as we went to break, he kind of disappeared. We heard nothing from him. About a month before school, he reappeared and he was the same guy as usual. He told us he and his family need to get away so they had gone to visit family in Maine. He thanked us for being there for him and he apologized for becoming so distant. We told him that we had nothing to forgive.
With Mark back, the four of us were as if nothing had happened. We always laughed and joked about the most idiotic things. For example, you know those golden, crunchy cookie fish in the white bag, well we found them hilarious and would through them at each other during lunch. We also snuck into the school late at night once just to see what it was like and it was pretty freaky. This may sound wrong, but we even cheated in a class to help each other out for our Chemistry class. We had these calculators, the Ti-83, that let you type out programs. So, we started typing in our class notes as "programs" and sharing them with each other since the calculators linked. So each time we took the test, we had access to all the notes we took. In order to ward off suspicion, we made sure to get a few question wrong so that our grades were on the 90s. Another method was through notebook paper. You know how notebooks are perforated so that you can tear them out and leave that cut up string behind? Well, in instances when the calculator would not be available, we would share answers by tearing out a piece of notebook paper and writing the answers on that string that was left since it was always either A, B, C, or D. We would roll it up and pass it back to each other (we always sat near each other). We never got caught and got As that year in Chemistry.
We kind of became known at our school the 4. People always wanted to sit at our table at lunch and it was kind of fun having that power. We had crazy rituals like going to midnight movies or going to eat at a diner at midnight, stuff like that. Things became easier once Brad learned to drive. We went everywhere and we always got in trouble with our parents for breaking curfew. They also supported me when I decided to loose weight and they helped me out a lot. I don't think I could have done it without them there for me. Once senior year rolled around, we decided to stick together and go to the same school. We helped each other study for the SATs, fill out applications, write essays, and get recommendations. Once all thtat was out of the way, we really enjoyed our senior year. We were always at parties and even eventually threw some of our own when our parents were away.
One special thing happened halfway through senior year. Mark's family always struggled financially and they had a problem where they could not afford the last half of the tuition. Mark was in danger of leaving school and needed like $3,000. So, I got together with Brad and Chris and we talked to our parents about it so we got what he needed together and paid off the amount. Mark was so grateful with what we did. He even cried. We were just happy to spend our senior year all together, no matter how. We made sure we enjoyed every last moment and did so any way possible. Once graduation came, it was sad but we knew we still would be together. That summer we still spent it together until we went off to college, but that would be a story for later. I just wanted to give you all an idea of what my friends are like and why we have gotten so close and the history we share.
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