Chapter 1: The Friend
My best friend's name is Kimberly, but I always called her Kim, sometimes Kimmy. We've been inseparable ever since the age of seven. I met her at my favorite park one day back in Jersey. I guess it was just one of those things, being in the right place at the right time.
It all started when a group of older kids came up to Kim. They began calling her nasty names and kicking sand in her face. I was watching from the swings. She gave such a simple, yet powerful rebuttal. "Can't you see I'm playing here? Leave me alone!"
My jaw dropped in amazement as I jumped off the swing to get a closer view. From then on, I watched and listened intently to see what would happen next.
"Why you little punk! Who do you think you are?" One of the older kids said angrily.
He picked her up off the ground and held her by her shirt. She was absolutely silent while he held her there just dangling above the ground. "Answer me, you little twerp!" He shouted in her face.
By this point, she now had my full attention. She slowly opened her mouth and began to speak "I know who I am. I'm Kimberly Hartford." She then spat in his face and boldly laughed.
The older kid was angry and surprised by this, and dropped little Kimberly right on the ground. Once she regained her footing, she laughingly ran away to her mother to tell of her accomplishment. I felt so inspired and confident. I felt as if I had just finished watching an adventurous film of some kind. You know the kind. The ones when the hero of the movie just busted the bad guys and gave the beautiful woman back her purse. He was then honored by receiving some kind of prestigious award and afterwards, his face was plastered on every news channel and every bulletin board as far as the eye can see. Then little kids who quickly found out about him and his good deeds wanted to be just like him. That was exactly how I was feeling; I wanted to be just like her.
I slowly and nervously approached her with the intentions of asking her to be my friend. When all of a sudden, I clumsily tripped and fell over one of my untied shoelaces. I started crying face down in the sand for what seemed like hours, until I looked up slightly and saw the little girl's shoes. "Why are you crying? Are you okay?" The little girl asked concernedly.
I sat up straight on the ground, sniffled a few times, and finally wiped the tears away from my eyes, stuttering, "Yes, I'm fine." When I saw the smile on her face, it was at that moment I knew we would be friends for a very long time. I then got up off the ground, swept the sand from my knees, and introduced myself as confidently as I knew how. "Hi, I'm Elizabeth Fields."
"Hi, it's nice to meet you. I'm Kimberly Hartford. Can I call you Kid?" Kim asked enthusiastically.
"Sure, I said cheerily. I've never had a nickname before."
"Well, you do now," she said as she smiled at me continuously.
Well, I was right about one thing. That was indeed the start of an incredibly beautiful friendship. From that day on, we did EVERYTHING together. We had sleepovers, told each other our deepest secrets, went swimming, got ice cream, sang songs and danced, watched our favorite movies, shared and exchanged our clothing - you know, girl stuff, the kind of girl stuff that really means a lot to one when she reflects back on it later. Yep, life was good. I had the greatest friend I could have ever asked for and she felt the exact same way about me.
At the age of nine, my parents died in a car accident while I was spending the night at Kim's. Kim's mom and dad were now the closest thing to family I had. Even though I was sad, I couldn't have asked for better replacement parents. Kim's mom and dad were so nice to me; they really made me feel like part of the family. Not only that, but Kim was always so supportive and protective of me. Even though we were the exact same age, she somehow felt responsible for me and all that I did. However, I didn't have any problems with that, in fact, I liked it. She was the older sister I never had, but always dreamed of having and now... I finally did.
At the age of twelve, we got into more trouble than you would think is possible for two girls. Nevertheless we did, though it wasn't like we wanted to be troublesome kids. We were just so curious and stubborn about so many different things. That's not a good pair: curiosity and independence, especially if you're a girl and about to have your thirteenth birthday. That's right. We were taking our first official steps into woman-hood. At least that's how Kim always described it. By this time, we had done so many things and had so many adventures, we had to write it all down on paper, or else we would have forgotten it all.
At the age of fourteen, we breezed through high school. It wasn't the hell people said it was, at least not for us, anyway. I know now that it was only because we had each other.
At the age of seventeen, Kim's mom died of brain cancer. The doctor said there was nothing she could have done to stop it. I think he was trying to cheer us up, though it didn't really work.
I forgot to mention what a beautiful woman Kim has become. She is a little above average height for a female, about 5' 7". She has straight, blonde hair; beautiful brown eyes, and the kind of complexion that makes supermodels turn green. She has a very slender physique and is striking to behold. Though, she definitely isn't the blonde haired, pretty faced ditz that people usually describe. She is very intelligent, actually. On the SAT's, she received scores of 2300 and up. I always thought the SAT's was some kind of sowing company.
On our eighteenth birthday, we were free women, free to do virtually anything we wanted to. When I was young, I wanted to become a treasure hunter, which I realize isn't the greatest thing to want to do, but I had dreams; I wanted an adventure. What kind? I didn't know. I just wanted to do something great; I wanted to go down in history, just like Indiana Jones; now he knew how to live. However, the adventure I got I was nowhere near prepared for.