(12 years ago at the age of 4)

It was the end of summer, and I was finally going to start my very first day of school. It would be my first time ever going to school. Yep, you guessed it, I'm in kindergarten! I was so excited, and couldn't wait to make a bunch of new friends. I liked making friends. A lot. It was one of the many things that brought me happiness.

My daddy dropped me off in front of the school at 7:00 am; I thought it was a little early, but oh well. I didn't care that much. I waved goodbye to Daddy as I jumped out of the car, he must not have seen me wave goodbye, because he didn't wave back. I didn't mind that much; he was always either in a rush or busy, so I learned to get used to it.

I looked around and saw another car pull up. It was big, black, and shiny. Very, very shiny. I watched as one of the shiny black doors opened up. Out came another girl around my age, she was wearing a lot of black for one girl.

"No Mom! I don't want that! It's embarrassing!" I heard her yell at the top of her lungs.

She had a really tough voice. If her words were punches, I would be covered in bruises. So would the person in that big car. I would have coiled up into a little ball if I was standing right next to her, which thankfully I wasn't. I was probably a good 50 feet away from her.

"Please, Jadey," a lady voice begged the little girl. "You need a book bag to carry all of your stuff!"

A pink book bag flew out of the car. The girl watched as it hit the ground. She slammed the car door and stormed away, leaving the bag behind. The car drove away really quickly. The girl was in a really bad mood. Maybe she wasn't a morning person.

As the girl approached me, I was able to get a better look at her. She had brown hair, like mine but a little bit lighter. She also had some pretty blue streaks here and there. I liked her hair. I don't think I'll ever have the guts to dye mine like that. I don't think my parents would really appreciate it… She was also super duper pale

The girl shoved passed me and walked on.

"Hi!" I said and followed her.

She turned around to look at me. She was kind of intimidating if you looked at her long enough. By now, I was definitely scared. I would have peed my pants if I wasn't too old for it. She glared at me with her menacing blue eyes. She seemed as if she had so much confidence and pride just by the way she was standing. I was absolutely amazed by her.

"I'm Caterina… Caterina Valentine."

"Caterina? That's a funny name." she said with that tough voice of hers "I'm Jade. Where did your family come up with a name like Caterina?"

I told Jade about my grandmother. I told her that her name was Caterina. My parents liked the name and they gave it to me. I was shocked at how much she was listening to me. Any other person would've walked away from me the moment I said "hi"

"But… I don't really like my name that much. I get picked on by the older boys in my neighborhood because of it."

Jade looked at me for a couple minutes. Really taking the time to completely look me over.

"Why don't you change it? Maybe shorten it."

I never really had thought about changing my name. let alone shorten it.

"What would I change it too?"

"Well, you would change it to Cat, silly!"

I would never have pegged her to be the type of person to say the word silly. She didn't seem like that type of person. Not at all.

As the day went on, we discovered that we had the same class. I don't know about Jade, but I was pretty excited about it. Also, as the day went on, I discovered that Jade was one of the very, very, very few people who understood me. Like, she actually listened to me. I wasn't used to people like that.

As the school day came to an end, I discovered that I had really like Jade. I hoped that I would know her for the rest of my life. She was so enticing and edgy and just full of spunk. She wasn't afraid to yell at the teacher for getting angry with me. She also wasn't afraid to throw a book at him. She also wasn't afraid to walk all the way down to the principles office all alone.