Memories (part one)

"Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose." -The Wonder Years

In the sixth grade I started straying away from my elementary school friends, not that I didn't like them. We had different classes, and we all kind of change when we go to middle school, do we not? My first of my new middle school friends were Lacey and Caroline. Mostly I didn't talk much when I was around them, as I felt I had nothing to say. I stay near Ally, who was and still is one of my closest friends, while she would chat mostly with Caroline. I noticed Lacey didn't speak much, but nor did I, so it didn't bother me. It wasn't until the seventh grade that I finally got to know Lacey. We were in the same C period (yes, the idiotic letter schedule) and we'd walk to lunch together. I used to tell her my theories and these crazy ideas I had. We often got into debates about topics. It was fun. We shared a many laughs and smiles. I went through something awful in the seventh grade. Lacey noticed when I stopped laughing. Are lunch trips were no longer were filled with chatter. She stuck by me though....even when she had no idea what was going on. And well, we've been friends ever since.

When I entered the gifted program in the third grade I was nervous and for weeks I didn't really talk to anyone (except Ally of course). I watched the kids for a while. I was the only one in my third grade class in the gifted program, so I didn't know a lot of the kids. One stood out as quite obviously the smartest. Viv. I didn't talk to her, but when she shared something with the class, it often went over my head. One time she read a short story she had written about protons and neutrons. We, a bunch of ten-year-olds, stared blankly at her as she laughed at some joke we couldn't even begin to understand. The first time she talked to me was in the fifth grade I believe. She asked me what my reading level was. I told her. She said, "Really!? Me and Catherine Branch are at that reading level, too." I thought it was so weird for her to ask me that. I can't imagine what fifth grade version of myself would have said had I told her that Viv would eventually come one of my best friends. Though, I think the younger version of me would be more surprised that someone had traveled from the future to talk to her....

I didn't have a lot of friends in my Math Research class (a class dedicated to practicing for Mu Alpha Theta) in the seventh grade. Normally I would sit behind Ally (sorry to keep bring her up, but it's just the way it is) but one day someone had taken my seat, and I was forced to sit at the next seat back. Behind me sat a boy. I had seen him around, even had some classes with him the year prior, but I had never really spoken to him. That day our teacher said to us, "We don't have the practice books yet. You'll just have to do your homework or read a book. If you don't have either of those write a letter to your grandmother, but stay quiet!" The boy behind me tapped me with his pencil. I assumed he just wanted to borrow a sheet a paper. Surely he did not want to talk to me? I'll I knew about him was his name, Jonathan. He pointed at his paper which said "Dear grandmother..." He grinned as he wrote down ridiculous things to his grandmother who would never receive this letter. I eventually turned around, being amused for all about 5 seconds. But he continued to tap in my shoulder, laughing at the new sentences he had come up with. Finally I told him to leave me alone, that he was being annoying. I think when I said that I finally gave him a reason for living. From that day one he came up with new ways to annoy me. Eventually he stopped doing so much crap to me, and we grew to be quite good friends.

-Brianna

(PS I'll have a few more parts coming, not just with the Power Bloggers, but with all my friends.)

(PPS Happy first day of fall!)

(PPPS Heroes premieres tonight!!!!!!)