OMG my arch enemy when I was 10!?! That was so long ago, and I don't think that we were really "enemies" as much as she didn't like me and ended up coming between me and one of my best friends at the time.

We all remember back in the day at recess. There were so many different cliques, even in elementary school --- it's really ridiculous looking back on it now. For some reason or another I had become really good friends with this girl in my class, Kristen. I didn't really have a whole lot of friends at the time and generally stuck to sitting off in a corner by myself. This wasn't because I was ugly or stupid or whatever. I was just quiet. Minded my own business. I was easily embarrassed.

For some reason this girl Kristen took to me and tried to incorporate me into her group of friends. Now, I've never been much a fan of hanging out in huge crowds. I'm smaller than most people my age and my voice is pretty quiet so people in a group setting don't seem to hear me a lot. Anyways, she would invite me to her house with everyone or she'd tell me to come sit with her at recess. It felt really nice to find a friend who didn't mind that I wasn't outgoing [obnoxious] or super athletic [jock strap!].

But one of her friends, Debbie, was a total bitch and for some reason just didn't like me! I had never done anything to leave a bad impression with her. I had never pushed her, taken something from her, said anything negative about her. I just think that she felt like I was taking away from her and Kristen's time together. Maybe she felt threatened, although I really don't see how a tiny pea of a girl like me could have come off as threatening. Basically then, Debbie got the rest of her posse to turn on me --- which would continue as we passed through elementary school to middle school. It's funny though, how karma comes around. It's like they always say, the most popular/cocky/bitchy kids from school almost always turn into nasty ass human beings later in life. AND at 5 year reunions act like you were "such good friends when we were little."

Getting back to age 10 though ~ Kristen was one of the best and most inspirational people of my childhood, because she wouldn't let Debbie come between us that year. She ended up having to split her time between the friends she had known for years and me. Obviously, it would have been so much easier for this little girl to just choose to go along with the pack. But she didn't. I remember playing with Barbies with her and playing Super Mario Bros. at her house. She knew all the codes for getting special items and for skipping to different levels.

Kristen ended up being pushed from behind by another student on the pavement at recess one day. Nobody really knew who did it. Just that it happened. Rumors go around though, as they do, and someone got blamed for it. Obviously this was an outcast, who none of the other kids liked. Cliques in schools can be so ridiculous. As a result of the push though, Kristen ended up scraping the entirety of her face and having to endure scabs for the next month. Even with this horrible even that she had to put up with, she didn't lose her kindness and friendly nature. At the end of the school year, though, her parents decided [maybe with a little help from the incident] that she would be better off in a different type of school system. This came on very suddenly and I didn't even know until I was at her house one day and when I was leaving she told me. I was heartbroken. My one and only good friend was leaving me. I'd have to start all over at school, trying to fit in with the ever-changing recess cliques.