Julia sat at a lunch table in Riverby Middle School with an enormous smile on her face which had been there for hours. She constantly wished for time to go faster just like her heartbeat. As much as she was grinning, thoughts of dread flooded through her mind. She was in 7th grade, one of the most important years in middle school. 6th grade had been overall a good year because of the new friendships she had made. Now it was going to get better, or so it seemed. She was going to see her best friend, Alice, from 2nd grade. It had been 5 years since they talked to each other. Julia barely remembered what she was like except for the fact that she had an older brother, who graduated the previous year from Riverby, and the emotions she had when they were together. Julia remembered feeling joyful when she went into Alice's classroom hoping to play with her, the excitement on playdates, and the sorrow of finding out she was moving. Julia remembered very little of Alice, which actually frightened her. What if she changed? she thought. What if she's disappointed that I remembered so little of her? Then she was calmed by the thought she could learn those things again and new things about her friend if they continued their friendship, hopefully making the most of 7th grade.
Julia saw Alice from afar and hugged her as she got close.
"Alice! It is so nice to see you again!" Julia exclaimed as they were hugging.
"It's so nice to see you again too Julia! I missed you!" Alice replied.
Once they sat back down, Julia noticed Alice seemed a little different. She was wearing a hoodie and black jeans which showed of her slim figure, and had applied a little bit of makeup which was very trendy. She still had her radiant blue eyes and silky straight black hair. Her smile and her personality had stayed the same, for now.
They sat down and talked about their lives since 2nd grade.
"What happened after 2nd grade?" Julia asked.
"Well," Alice replied, "I went to Waverly Elementary School and the school also had 6th grade so this is my first year here."
"Wow!" Julia said. "How is your family doing?"
"They're doing well."
After that was complete awkward silence. For some odd reason, neither of them could think of what to say to each other. Julia noticed Alice didn't have a school lunch tray in front of her or even a lunch bag. Julia wondered if she should end the conversation in order to let Alice eat. However, her mind was so scrambled, she couldn't remember the thought she just wanted to say. Instead, she decided to ask a question.
"So," Julia started, "What do you do during lunch?"
"I usually hang out with my friends on the blacktops," Alice replied as she pointed to the round table with an umbrella next to the black pavement where kids usually played soccer, ultimate frisbee, or kickball.
"Do you eat the school lunch?"
"I don't. I actually don't eat lunch at all in school."
"Okay," Julia responded.
There were another few moments of awkward silence. Julia was trying very hard to come up with other questions. Her mind just seemed to be completely blank. Julia kept thinking of something to say, anything at all. Her mind seemed to just be too scrambled to concentrate. Then, one of Alice's friends came up to her and started talking to her. Alice briefly introduced her friend to Julia, who only remembered that this girl was from Waverly. What amazed Julia was that the conversation between the two was fluid, not awkward and silent like theirs.
"The bell is about to ring soon," Alice said after some time. "I'll see you around, okay? Perhaps we can talk later and hangout one weekend."
"I would love to do that," Julia replied.
"See you later Julia," Alice said while hugging her.
"Bye!" Julia said as Alice left the lunch table.
However, they never met again that year. They both were eventually busy with school and when they did plan to see each other, something always came up. One time it was because Alice caught a cold but the others times were mainly because Alice never confirmed to meet. The only times they saw each other was when Julia was walking with Alice to the end of the block of the school. Even during those times, there was nothing they could say to each other either because Alice was talking to her friends or they couldn't make a conversation happen. What really annoyed Julia was that Alice couldn't take the time to meet with her but was always seen hanging out with her other friends. Even worse, Alice became the popular girl in school and had friends who seemed to be bad influences. These people were always doing crazy stunts. For example, a couple of videos went around the school of these "cool kids" dancing and lip syncing with a knife in their hand. Just the thought of those videos made Julia shiver. They were often sent to the dean's office and a couple of them were expelled from school. If Julia didn't know that Riverby was a middle school, she would have thought it was a place where gangs hung out. One of them was Jacalene, who was considered to be the devil of the school and that group.
In eighth grade, Julia had the feeling that Alice changed. Alice seemed to become just like her so-called friends: disruptive, rowdy, and mean. The only thing they cared about was keeping up with the trend and maintaining their popularity. Alice also seemed to become more ashamed of Julia. One time, when Julia and Alice were walking together, Alice's friends seemed to be laughing at Julia. Julia inferred that perhaps they were laughing at the fact that Julia had a rolling backpack, which was seen to some people as childish, and her lack of knowledge with the trend. Still, Julia wanted to believe that perhaps Alice did want to become her friend again.
One day, Julia was invited to Alice's slumber party for her birthday. This almost made Julia jump up and down and scream with excitement. She felt so joyous, she almost did a little dance. However, a little voice at the back of her head said she wasn't good enough for Alice and she needed to change if she wanted to fit in. Suddenly, a wave of anxiety flooded her delight. Julia was finally going to have the chance to hang out with Alice but she was nervous about the fact that perhaps Julia's friends would make fun of her. What didn't help was that Alice had been planning behind her mother's back to separate Julia from her friends probably in an effort to eliminate possible embarrassment. This resulted in only two friends being able to attend the slumber party: Julia and Jacalene, who according to Julia is the worst person in school. Now Julia's fears were elevated. She believed that perhaps Alice and Jacalene would purposely leave her behind at some point. Julia looked at herself in the mirror the day of the slumber party. Julia saw her everyday features in the reflection: her piercing black eyes, long eyelashes, small pale lips, pointed nose, and petite ears with pearl earrings. What Julia noticed was she wasn't wearing any makeup or trendy clothing. She was in her usual Riverby anti-bullying t-shirt and blue jeans. She was purely Julia and that was enough. Julia decided that she would just be herself at the slumber party and to not change who she was no matter what anyone said.
The slumber party began on Friday night which was at that point going well. Alice decided to do Julia's hair just because it was long and poofy, making it very fun to try different hairdos. Jacalene was mostly on her phone in her pink crop top and very short blue jeans. She had her straight dirty blond hair parted in the middle. Jacalene didn't talk to Julia at all which didn't bother Julia. There was nothing much for Julia to do. For most of the night, it was just Alice and Jacalene talking to each other which was OK for Julia. At least nothing bad happened to Julia at this point.
On Saturday morning, Julia and Alice both woke up before Jacalene and Alice declared that she was going to make breakfast. Julia helped Alice and learned how to make scrambled eggs from her. The way Alice acted towards Julia was like as she remembered Alice: friendly, kind, and calm. Alice thought that perhaps she would act this way through the rest of the day. But when Jacalene woke up, Alice acted differently.
Later in the day, the three of them agreed to go to the mall. For Julia, it was the weirdest and most boring experience ever. There wasn't much for her to do. She was the third wheel in that trip. When they went to a clothing store, Julia only tried on two outfits while Alice and Jacalene tried on several and made mini music videos with them. Julia got a very weird vibe from the both of them together. They had the same hairdo and the same trendy style. When they were seen together side by side, they looked like models in a photo shoot for the same clothing brand. Even weirder was how subordinate Alice acted in front of Jacalene. When Jacalene ordered a drink, so did Alice. When Jacalene took a selfie on Snapchat, so did Alice. This behavior was happening so often that it went to the extent where Julia wondered if Jacalene jumped off a cliff, Alice might do the same. Alice and Jacalene were making fun of an old lady because of her skin condition. Whenever Julia tried to engage with the both of them, she got the feeling that Jacalene didn't want her with them. Julia also believed that Jacalene may have shoplifted a pair of earrings. Julia just wanted to get out of the mall. When they went into another store, Alice and Jacalene shopped while Julia browsed. When Julia looked for them, she realized that they were not in the store. She frantically searched everywhere in the store for them. She tried calling Alice several times but Alice didn't answer. A chill went up her spine after she went to every corner of the store with no sign of them. To Julia it was official: Alice didn't care about her anymore.
After a while, Alice called Julia.
"Hey Julia," Alice said.
"Alice, where are you?" Julia said loudly.
"Oh, I'm in the dressing room with Jacalene," Alice replied calmly.
"Why didn't you tell me you were going there? I got worried!" Julia exclaimed.
"Well, don't be. I'll be back with you," Alice said nonchalantly.
"You know what, I think it's better if I just go home. What's the point of being here?" Julia said.
"Fine," Alice said firmly.
Alice and Julia never talked to each other after that. Julia decided to cut all ties with Alice since she saw that Alice changed for the worse. She heard all kinds of horrible stories and actions from Alice's so-called friends. Julia was lucky to have good friends and to not be acting differently just to become Alice's friend. Julia realized that some people change, whether it's for the best or worst, and the best way to be was to just be yourself.