Andrea and I have so little in common that it's hard to believe we're such good friends. I imagine that people are often shocked to see us hanging out together. We really aren't the types that you would expect to see together at all. I guess that whole "sisters" thing must be pretty powerful, because, honestly, if we weren't related, I don't see how we would ever have been friends! I don't even know how we can get along so well!
I never have to wonder what I have in common with my best girl friend, Kendra Smith. She and I are like two proverbial peas in a pod. We could practically be twins! We are even exactly the same age. We have the same birthday!
Well, we almost have the same birthday. Kendra is only three days older than me, so we figure that it's close enough to tell people that we share a birthday. In fact, ever since we found out how close our birthdays are, we have celebrated our birthdays together with joint birthday parties or a special birthday dinner together.
Actually, it was the amazing coincidence of our nearly-shared birthday that brought us together as best friends for life. Believe it or not, Kendra and I did not like each other when we met! In fact, I really hated her at first.
Once upon a time, back in 1st and 2nd grade, I was the most popular girl at Whitcomb Elementary School. The girls wanted to be just like me, and the boys thought that I was pretty neat. Seth and his best friend, Kenny, even fought on the playground one day over who got to be my boyfriend. I never could understand that, because I didn't even love Kenny! I was sure that Seth would be my boyfriend forever, and I told my mom that we were going to get married one day. Still, I thought it was kind of flattering that they both wanted to be my boyfriend so much that they would fight each other about it!
When Kendra moved in, near the end of 2nd grade, she was an immediate hit. Rachel and Missy invited her to sit in the empty chair at our table in class, and they were enchanted by her description of life on her new ranch. No one even wanted to hear about my new tree fort that my daddy had built in my back yard.
At recess, Carla and Sharon told Kendra that she could be the princess stuck in the tower, even though I was the one who invented the Princess in the Tower Game! They wanted me to be the wicked witch, but I told them I was too busy picking dandelions for a bride's bouquet. Why would I want to be a wicked witch?
To make matters worse, during silent reading time, Seth let Kendra share the big beanbag chair with him. I usually sat on the big beanbag chair with Seth, but that day, I had to sit on the pillow pile in the corner with Kenny, Rob and Carla instead.
Still, I was certain that the novelty would wear off, and by the end of the day, everything would be back to normal. But then, Kendra played the ultimate "I win" card. She told everyone in class that they could come over to ride her pony, Dolly, any time they wanted. After that, I knew that I had lost. There was absolutely no way to compete with a pony!
For nearly a year, Kendra and I were bitter enemies. I prayed daily that she would go away. I hoped that she would move back to wherever she had come from. No such luck! And no matter what I did, Kendra always won. I wasn't the most popular girl in school anymore, because everyone liked Kendra too. Even Kenny stopped following me around at recess, because he decided that he wanted to be Kendra's boyfriend!
Then, in 3rd grade, I brought my favorite homemade cream-filled chocolate fudge cupcakes to school for my birthday. Every year, the kids in my class told me that my mom's famous cream-filled chocolate fudge cupcakes were the best ever, so I knew that this was exactly what I needed to restore the proper social order at Whitcomb Elementary.
I thought that I was going to cry when Kendra walked into class, proudly carrying a tray full of cupcakes as well! Hers were white cake with mountains of pink frosting and purple and white sprinkles. Each one was topped with a large rock-candy gemstone. They weren't homemade, because Kendra's mom doesn't enjoy baking like mine does, but they were very pretty, and I was afraid that I was going to lose again!
Our classmates all said that it was the best birthday celebration ever because everyone got two cupcakes that day. Luckily, Kendra and I don't like the same kind of cupcakes, because if they were the same, Mrs. Grover would have told everyone that one cupcake was plenty. She did that when Bryan and Brenda (the Baker twins) each brought a batch of cupcakes for their birthday. They had to take half of them home again, because Mrs. Grover didn't think it was a good idea for children to have too much sugar in one afternoon. But when Kendra and I brought our cupcakes in, Mrs. Grover couldn't decide which one she wanted to try, so she let everyone have one of each.
I don't think I will ever understand how anyone could possibly prefer boring white cake to a rich, chocolate fudge cake, but I didn't complain when Kendra whispered that she didn't like chocolate and offered to give me her chocolate cream-filled cupcake. I gladly traded my white cupcake for it, since I wasn't planning on eating it anyway, so we were both happy, even though I clearly got the better end of the deal!
Mrs. Grover even gave us an extra long recess that day. She said that we needed extra time to run off all of the sugar we had just consumed or we would never be able to concentrate on our multiplication tables. All of the girls decided that Kendra and I should be Twin Princesses in the Tower, and even the boys agreed to play with us. Seth was a brave knight that fought all of the evil dragons and ogres (Josh, Rob and Mark) and defeated the evil wizard (Kenny) to set us free. Kendra and I have been fast friends ever since.
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