September 1976

He was tall for his age. He had always gotten that. Tall for his age, that's what he had always been told. That's what the doctors said. Tall, quiet and serious. His nose always in a book, preferably one about dinosaurs. He was only in second grade but he was reading way above grade level and he was reading a grown-up book about brontosauruses when he saw her for the first time. He was sitting at the lunch tables, his book wide open, when he looked up and saw the tiny brunette sitting with his sister. Monica always seemed to have a new friend. That friend would be with her for a few days and then leave and that's what seemed to be happening now. He watched as Mindy, Sharon and Nancy, those three mean girls in his sister's class, walked over to her and then the tiny brunette got up and walked off with the three girls leaving Monica looking sad. He contemplated getting up and sitting with her, but she always sat alone although never for long. She always had another friend come along.

The Geller kids were not considered popular, not considered cool and Ross accepted that. His sister was having a more difficult time accepting that. Ross had two friends which he was fine with. Some might say that he had a very mature outlook for someone his age. He was fine with his two buddies, no need for more.

"Look what I found?" Will Colbert said, sitting across him and dumping a bunch of rocks on the table. Will was a classmate of Ross'. He was heavy set but with a handsome face that made him attractive to a lot of the girls and was one of his closest friends. One of two.

"Rocks."

"How cool would this be for the volcano. Actual rocks," Will said.

Ross smiled, picking up a rock and turning it in his hand. He and Will had come across a terrific idea. They would be making a volcano but would be making it with actual rocks instead of plaster and a soda bottle.

"Very cool," Ross grinned. "So awesome. We could make it explode."

"That's the plan."

"Maybe we can stick my sister in there," Ross mused.

"She wouldn't fit in there."

"If we make the hole big enough," Ross said.

Will laughed as the two boys began examining the rocks, picking them up and making a giant mountain on the table. It would be amazing to figure out how to make a giant volcano. A big, giant volcano that they could set up in the backyard. Maybe Jonathan Eliot would write something about it. Write a story about it? Jonathan was his other close friend in second grade and he wrote stuff a lot. He liked to write stories, especially about Ross' dinosaurs or comics. He liked to write comic books.

Ross Geller liked comic books, dinosaurs and was the prodigal son, at least in his parents eyes. Monica would get in trouble, but he was the golden boy. He walked the straight and narrow line, never making a wave. His parent-teacher conferences were meetings that were held up as what every parent-teacher conference should be and his parents were far less strict with him than they were with Monica. Ross would never do anything wrong, as far as they were concerned.

After school, he'd ride his bike down the street towards Astros Comics and meet Jonathan and Will. They'd walk up and down the aisles, reading and playing in the store until they became far rowdy for Angelo, the owner, and he told them to leave. They'd end up sitting out on the curb with comics that Angelo would give them and they wold sit and pore over the pages.

"Batman or Superman," Jonathan mused. "Who would win in a fight?"

"Spiderman," Will said.

"That wasn't a choice," Jonathan said.

"Batman. Batman's the best," Ross said as he looked over the magazine.

"Hey, that girl goes to our school," Will said pointing across the street at Olivia's Boutique. Ross looked up and saw the little girl who had been with Monica earlier. She was walking into the store with an older lady whom Ross assumed was her mother.

"I'll be right back," Ross said standing up and walking to the curb. He stopped and looked both ways before running across the street towards Olivia's. He walked in and saw the older lady talking to a woman behind the counter and the little girl standing by a mannequin, tugging at the skirt. Ross watched her as she carefully pulled the skirt off the mannequin and very gently began replacing it with one she had next to her.

"Are you allowed to do that?" Ross asked.

The little girl looked at him strangely and turned back to what she was doing. She was super focused as she moved the mannequin in a way so that she could easily fix it.

"Yes, I am," the little girl said. "My aunt owns this store. She lets me make sure the dolls are dressed nicely."

"Oh. We go to the same school. I think you were eating lunch with my sister. Monica."

"I know Monica, but I didn't eat lunch with her," the little girl said.

"My sister's a weirdo," Ross said.

"Is she sad?" the little girl asked.

"She's always sad."

The little girl smiled at him. She looked very pretty with her long brown hair. He thought she looked sweet. Although, it had occurred to him that he had not even gotten her name.

"I'm Ross," he said.

"Rachel."

"Sweetie, are you about done?" The older lady asked from the counter. Rachel looked towards her and nodded.

"Yes, mommy. See, Aunt Olivia. It's prettier with the blue skirt," Rachel grinned.

"It is, you are definitely right," Olivia said.

"Okay, I'm gonna go. Tell Monica not to be sad," Rachel said walking off. Ross stepped back and walked out of the store and looked at his two friends across the street. He looked both ways and then walked across the street to rejoin them.

"Did you kiss Rachel?" Will asked.

"Ewwww," Jonathan said, laughing.

"No. Gross, Will. I don't kiss girls. Girls are gross."

"No, Mrs. Singer is pretty," Will protested. Mrs. Singer was their second grade teacher.

"Mrs. Singer isn't a girl," Jonathan said.

"No, she's….she's like….like Wonder Woman pretty," Ross said as the three boys let that thought sink in. Soon, they got on their bikes and immediately began to ride back home, racing each other down the streets before separating and Ross carefully put his bike back in the garage making sure it was tightly locked. He walked into the house and ran to his parents in the kitchen. His father was sitting at the table going through some mail and his mother was starting to make dinner.

"Guess what Angelo gave me?" Ross asked, shoving the Batman comic book to his dad.

"Nice," Jack said, flipping through the comic book. "How much money do we owe Angelo, the comic book guy at this point?"

"I think we might need to mortgage the house," Judy joked as she looked at her husband.

"And guess what? Will collected more rocks for our volcano and….well, look," Ross said as he reached into his backpack and pulled out a drawing to show Jack. Judy walked over to the table and looked at the drawing. It was a pile of rocks with the big writing of a second grader.

"Can we please make the volcano in the backyard?" Ross asked.

"Are we going to be able to stop you?" Jack asked.

"No, but we will be very careful. We will even wear goggles and hats," Ross explained. Jonathan says he wants to write a story about it. It could be for a comic book. 'Ross, Jonathan and Will Take on A Volcano.'"

"I'd buy it," Jack said.

Judy shook her head and looked up towards the window that looked out into the backyard. The expression on her face immediately changed as she walked towards the fridge and opened it.

"She ate Ross' cake," Judy mumbled before storming outside.

"I have a cake?" Ross asked.

"Your mother made you a chocolate cake for your first day of second grade," Jack said.

Ross looked confused as he walked towards the back door and peered out to see Judy grabbing Monica by the arm and spanking her. Monica was crying as the cake fell to the ground. Judy took Monica by the arm and dragged her across the yard, yelling at her about ruining Ross' big day. Monica kept crying as they walked inside and Ross followed, watching them. Judy dragged Monica out of the kitchen and Ross walked towards his father.

"Why is Monica always bad?" Ross asked.

"Oh, Harmonica is not bad….she's just different. I gotta tell you son, you're a hard act to follow. She'll find her way."

Ross nodded and looked at his comic some more. Soon he retreated to his bedroom filled with all the science stuff. He placed his comic book on the shelf, grabbed a Wonder Woman one and walked out of his room towards Monica's. He slowly opened the door to see her curled up on her bed, sniffling and eating a Hershey Bar.

"Too much chocolate is bad for you," Ross said, sitting next to her on the bed.

"Shut up," Monica said, still crying.

"It is. You know, I saw Rachel."

"Yeah, she's new but she's not going to be my friend."

"Oh. You want me to read you Wonder Woman?" Ross asked, not sure what he was supposed to say to that.

Monica nodded as Ross began reading the comic book to her. He showed her pictures as she quietly continued to eat her chocolate. He liked reading comic books to her. It seemed to be those moments where they could bond as brother and sister because those moments did not occur often.

Ross had heard about Monica's new nickname through the elementary school gossip mill. Rachel had called her, 'Monicow' and now people were oinking and mooing at her whenever Monica walked somewhere. He didn't want to moo or oink at her. He did not want to make those sounds, but Rachel was doing it. During recess, Rachel called Monica 'Monicow' in front of everyone. People began laughing and Monica looked on the verge of tears. Rachel looked over at Ross who was sitting with Jonathan and Will at the next table.

"Geek Geller, doesn't your sister look like a piggie cow," Rachel said.

"Well-" Ross began.

"You should moo at Monicow," Nancy said.

"And oink at her," Sharon said, "'cause she's a piggie cow. Get it?"

"Mooo, piggie, piggie," Ross yelled suddenly. He felt mortified as Monica glared at him. She got up and ran away from the tables in tears.

"That was mean," Jonathan said as Ross said down.

"Well, Monica's my sister. She knows I didn't mean it," Ross said.

"He just said it 'cause he wants to kiss Rachel," Will said.

"Ewwww," Ross said, looking towards his sister who was now playing with a red haired doll at the end of the playground away from everyone else. He felt sad and hoped Monica knew he didn't mean it.

Rachel was just mean or maybe she wasn't? Rachel was confusing to him. A few days after that moment on the playground, Rachel was over at the house. She and Monica sat in the Geller pantry and he wanted to know what was going on but he wasn't sure he was allowed in there to find out.

"You're weird," Ross said to Rachel as she emerged from the pantry to walk to the bathroom. He had been sitting on the couch, reading a dinosaur encyclopedia when he saw her walk across the room. She looked at him.

"What?"

"You're weird."

"I'm not weird. You're weird. What are you reading?"

"A Dinosaur Encyclopedia."

"What?"

"You're weird," Ross said.

"You're stupid."

"Why are you so mean to my sister at school but then you come over and stay in a pantry with her?" Ross asked.

"We're secret friends."

"That's weird. Why can't you just be friends, friends."

"'Cause….I don't wanna tell you. You were mean to her in the school."

"She's my sister. I'm allowed to be mean to her. You're not her sister. You're not allowed to be mean to her."

"I'm going to the bathroom," Rachel said, looking at the floor.

"I heard you almost got sent to the principal's office for being mean."

"I didn't."

"You cried your way out of it."

"How do you know?" Rachel asked.

"Jonathan's sister, Kayla, is in your class."

"Oh."

"Kayla told Jonathan that you're mean and you can cry to get out of getting sent to the principal's office."

"I'm not mean," Rachel said, suddenly, her eyes filling with tears. "I'm not mean, Ross. You take that back."

"Don't be mean to my sister."

"I'm not mean. I'm going to the bathroom. I am not a mean person," Rachel said as she walked off towards the bathroom. He looked back at his magazine when Monica soon approached him.

"What did you say to Rachel?" Monica asked.

"I don't know. Did she really cry to get out of being sent to the principal's office?"

"Yeah. I don't think she's really mean."

"Really?"

"I think she's weird," Monica said. "She's nice but not at school. Like she's two people."

Ross let that sink in, "girls are weird." He mumbled as he turned back to his comic book. He didn't understand that at all. Soon, Rachel returned from the bathroom and she and Monica retreated back to the pantry. He kept thinking about Rachel though and what Monica said. He walked up to his room and grabbed some crayons and paper and began drawing. Jonathan had taught him to draw comic books and he began drawing a girl with brown hair. She had two faces. He didn't know what to call the girl but the girl with two faces was good when no one else was around but evil when surrounded by other people. It was a new comic book character idea and one he would have to discuss with Jonathan and Will.