Parachute

Cards

McKenzie can be a bit out of hand sometimes. She refuses gifts unless it's her birthday, and she always wants you to do what she wants to. And this is only because she can. She doesn't really have the same disciplines as we do. Her older sister tries to help her with more disciplines, but it just makes McKenzie a bit upset.

Now one day, my mom asked me to make McKenzie some cards. I used to make a bunch of crafts and cards, but now I paint, draw, and write. So I made McKenzie a whole box full of cards I made myself. They were for her to give away to other people like on their birthday or something so you don't have to buy any cards from the store. When I gave them to her, she decided to make me a thank you gift. She got together all my cards, ripped them all apart, and made her own out of the scraps.

Some people might be grateful that they got a thank you gift for their months of hard work, while others might be completely upset about their poor cards. I was upset... very upset, but I did give the cards to her for her own purpose, eventually, I got over it, but it was hard.

Between that time, I began to feel more uncomfortable around McKenzie. This was around the first year I meet her. I tried to ignore the girl, especially during church. When we were in class at church, I tried to find a seat where two people were already sitting on the other two sides of me so McKenzie didn't have the optrotunity to sit next to me. It was rude and I think McKenzie began to notice that I was trying to get away from her.

Every Sunday, I would try to find a seat away from her, but it didn't always work. Later, she began to hold my hand in the hallways in church. I felt really umcomfortable, only because I didn't liked being touched. I didn't even like having my best friend hug me. The only person who I willingly let touch me was my mother because she was someone who I could trust.

Soon, I just gave up. I let McKenzie touch me, I didn't try to ignore her, so she then invited me to her house. I felt like I was forced to accept, so I did. Her home was modern and warm. I mainly followed McKenzie around the house because I didn't really know what to do. With my old friends, we had a routine so we would do certain games first and then move onto some other games, but I didn't have a routine with McKenzie. I didn't know what games she had, what she did for fun, or how she entertained her guests, so I felt like I was just a piece of dust floating in the air while McKenzie blew me around in the air with a giant fan.

I was pretty bored the first visit because McKenzie kept mentioning, "You're the guest so you get to choose what you want to do." I liked her hospitality, but I didn't know what my options were for me to choose form, so I sat on her bed the whole time while McKenzie played music and either gave me hand sanitizers to smell or paper to draw on.

A few visits later, McKenzie showed me her art work because she soon figured out that I liked to draw. Often, she would try to be exactly like me. If we went for ice cream and I got vanilla, she would get vanilla, if we were drawing and I was making a pony, she would make a pony, and so on.

McKenzie showed me her artwork and described what each of them were. Most of them were of people drawn in marker. They were not like a Mona Lisa, but at least they looked like people and not just stick figures. When she described each picture to me, I finally got an inside to what was going on in McKenzie's mind. I realized that she just wanted to be friends with everyone. Most pictures were of her with some friends, some of horses, and others were her being left out from groups. I felt horrible. It made me want to be closer to her. I wanted to be there for her. I wanted to be someone who cared, which is what I did. Even though she may be different, that doesn't mean I can't be nice to her. So for another year, I hid some of my emotions from her and tried to be super friendly. I liked doing that at times, but it still felt awkward for some reason. I didn't know what to do.

When we went from elemantary to Junior High, things changed again. My best friend used to go to the same elemantary as I did when I first moved into the state, while McKenzie was at a different one. Soon, my best friend moved to the same school as McKenzie's. They already knew eachother a little, but they never seemed to interact. Then, when we all went to the same junior high, McKenzie really began to show that she was jealous about and me and my friend being together. She mainly wanted me to herself. I have gone through this experience many times before. It's really odd. In 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th grade, people would despise eachother because they wanted to be friends with only me, and I wanted to be friends with both of them. I haven't realized how many times this has happened before until now. It's shocking what jealousy does.

What McKenzie did was nothing too out of hand, but it was noticable. During lunch, she would give me gifts as my friend was around. McKenzie acted like she wasn't even there. Sometimes, she would give a glare or something to my friend. We both asked her why she did it, and she would give an answer that didn't really make any sense at all. Later, she realized that it's okay that I had more than one friend.

Things still feel awkward, though. She stopped giving me so many cards and even hand sanitizers, but then she went onto notes. They came every time I saw her. Either it was on a sticky note, a piece of lined paper, a page from an old book she owned, or on a tissue, I would get them. They were always about me. An example is:

"Dear Addie,

You are so funny and sweet to me. You crack me up. BFF'S forever!!

P.S. Ask your parents if mine can adopt you."