We always said we'd be friends forever. Sometimes this goal felt more attainable than other times. But still, we always had this unbreakable bond--AKA the Baby-sitters Club. Even when we broke up for a short while, I always felt like the BSC would weather things together.
And then we left SMS and, it seemed, the BSC behind. And suddenly history meant nothing; we were just another clique of friends that could succumb to the various forms of peer pressure and outside forces at any moment.
I was thinking of all this when I was sitting in Ms. Talman's English class. Daydreaming in English class--not a rare Claudia Kishi occurrence. That early October day, however, was different. This was the first time my friends were split without the BSC there to eventually stabilize things.
I sighed and doodled a little in my notebook. I loved my friends. I really did. But I felt that some of them, mainly Stacey, were being just a wee bit hypocritical.
A few months ago, which felt like an eternity, Stacey went through a stage. Well, that's putting it nicely. Basically, what Stacey did was dump us--her friends for life--for kids that she thought were cooler than us. Well, she learned from her mistakes and everything; but it took her a long time to get over how Kristy treated her. Kristy was so angry and had a hard time letting Stacey back in the BSC.
Now Kristy's in a similiar situation--except that she didn't ditch us or anything. She did something she wasn't supposed to do and got caught.
I reminded Stacey over and over that we've done things of equal or greater magnitude. But Stacey informed me that very few people know that. Everyone knows that Kristy was caught smoking and it makes us "look bad."
So how did Stacey react? She ditched Kristy. It was payback, I suppose; but come on. Stacey even got the rest of our friends to go along with her for a little while. Luckily, that had subsided, but still.
My friends were pretty upset. Mary Anne was practically heartbroken. I didn't understand why, exactly. I guessed because it was a sign that we're growing older and really leaving SMS behind. In middle school, we were all so innocent. We never did anything that other people, like Hannah Toce and Shawna Riverson, did--go to the high school parties and stuff like that.
But now we were _in_ high school. Things were different now. I tried in vain to explain this to Mary Anne. Things change, you know?
I think she'd like things to stay the way they were forever.
So the day after Kristy got caught, the BSC pretty much gave her her walking papers. Bye, Kristy. 14 years of friendship--gone.
While they were doing this, I didn't say anything. But I did call her two days later. I explained all this stuff I was thinking of to her. I told her about the wild parties Stacey and I went to in New York. Stacey had recently patched up things with Laine; and Laine invited us to this party that her boyfriend, Criag, was having at his older brother's loft. Saying that things got out of hand was an understatement. Let's just say that I woke up on a futon in Laine's large bedroom, hungover out of my mind.
Stacey didn't drink, thank God--it's way too dangerous for her, with her diabetes and all. However, she did hook up with this one guy. She told him she was sixteen. Yeah right! Anyway, this guy was a friend of the older brother. Stacey doesn't even remember his name and she feels so used.
So I confessed this all to Kristy. All she could say was "Wow."
Among my friends, I felt like things are changing. Some of us were leaving the others behind. I didn't like it. Not at all.
And then we left SMS and, it seemed, the BSC behind. And suddenly history meant nothing; we were just another clique of friends that could succumb to the various forms of peer pressure and outside forces at any moment.
I was thinking of all this when I was sitting in Ms. Talman's English class. Daydreaming in English class--not a rare Claudia Kishi occurrence. That early October day, however, was different. This was the first time my friends were split without the BSC there to eventually stabilize things.
I sighed and doodled a little in my notebook. I loved my friends. I really did. But I felt that some of them, mainly Stacey, were being just a wee bit hypocritical.
A few months ago, which felt like an eternity, Stacey went through a stage. Well, that's putting it nicely. Basically, what Stacey did was dump us--her friends for life--for kids that she thought were cooler than us. Well, she learned from her mistakes and everything; but it took her a long time to get over how Kristy treated her. Kristy was so angry and had a hard time letting Stacey back in the BSC.
Now Kristy's in a similiar situation--except that she didn't ditch us or anything. She did something she wasn't supposed to do and got caught.
I reminded Stacey over and over that we've done things of equal or greater magnitude. But Stacey informed me that very few people know that. Everyone knows that Kristy was caught smoking and it makes us "look bad."
So how did Stacey react? She ditched Kristy. It was payback, I suppose; but come on. Stacey even got the rest of our friends to go along with her for a little while. Luckily, that had subsided, but still.
My friends were pretty upset. Mary Anne was practically heartbroken. I didn't understand why, exactly. I guessed because it was a sign that we're growing older and really leaving SMS behind. In middle school, we were all so innocent. We never did anything that other people, like Hannah Toce and Shawna Riverson, did--go to the high school parties and stuff like that.
But now we were _in_ high school. Things were different now. I tried in vain to explain this to Mary Anne. Things change, you know?
I think she'd like things to stay the way they were forever.
So the day after Kristy got caught, the BSC pretty much gave her her walking papers. Bye, Kristy. 14 years of friendship--gone.
While they were doing this, I didn't say anything. But I did call her two days later. I explained all this stuff I was thinking of to her. I told her about the wild parties Stacey and I went to in New York. Stacey had recently patched up things with Laine; and Laine invited us to this party that her boyfriend, Criag, was having at his older brother's loft. Saying that things got out of hand was an understatement. Let's just say that I woke up on a futon in Laine's large bedroom, hungover out of my mind.
Stacey didn't drink, thank God--it's way too dangerous for her, with her diabetes and all. However, she did hook up with this one guy. She told him she was sixteen. Yeah right! Anyway, this guy was a friend of the older brother. Stacey doesn't even remember his name and she feels so used.
So I confessed this all to Kristy. All she could say was "Wow."
Among my friends, I felt like things are changing. Some of us were leaving the others behind. I didn't like it. Not at all.