Short Story

         On this planet Earth there is a continent named South America, and within her is a state called Illinois which has a blemish called Chicago across her face. In Chicago, there’s an elementary school called Greene. Nathaniel Greene School at 35^th and Honore is a neighborhood school; to attend you had to live in the parameters they set.  Two girls by the name of Kate and Jennifer attended this school at the same time, in the same class even. Little did they know what was in store for them.

            Somewhere within the first two weeks of school, Kate had grown tired of the boys at her table. She still could not understand how in a table of seven, she could be the only person required to wear a skirt. It was lunchtime, and the play area gated in for the young students was muddy from rain, so they were kept inside. This gave Kate an opportunity to talk to the shy girl at the table across.

            “Hey!” Kate said, tapping the girl’s shoulder simultaneously.

            “*gasp* Oh, hi.” The girl said, relieved.

            “What would your name be?”

            “Jennifer. Yours?”

            “Kate. Would you like to do something with me for today? We can have fun?” Kate said with the aim to coax the girl into getting to know her, and give her some company.

            “Sure!” Jennifer said, with a small smile, for she was not sure how this would go, and one of the first interactions she’d had with anyone in this class.

            The girls ended up just talking to a game of hangman. When the teacher had exclaimed that everyone should get ready for the next assignments, she stayed in her seat, while Kate took a short walk back to hers. They ended up talking everyday and hanging out when they could at school until Jennifer had stopped being shy almost completely. For her to know whether Kate was really a person she wanted around, she asked her one day,

“Would you like to go to my house?”

“Sure! I’d like to meet your family.” Kate replied.

So, later that day, Kate’s mom picked her up, and the parents talked, and when they got home Kate rushed her homework so that her mother and she could leave. When they walked past the car, Kate was puzzled.

“Aren’t we driving there mommy?”

“No Katie, that’d be silly. They live right here.” Her mother answered. She then pointed toward a house almost directly behind hers, yet to the left one house if you’re looking from Kate’s back porch. It excited the children when they realized just how near they were. Within 30 minutes, Kate had met the family, done a few things with them, and then gotten in trouble. Jennifer and she had rode the bike through the alley, Kate on the pegs, and gotten in trouble with her own parents, for they did not want her on the pegs. The girls giggled, and then got saddened by the fact they may never get to hang out again. Happy to later found out they had over exaggerated, they’d never realize just how wrong they were.

Now, about 9 years later, Jennifer has moved twice, but the latest move on the fifteenth of June 2009 separated them by 800-1000 miles, one in Illinois, and one in Virginia. But it could never be a problem, for they had been connected from that day in second grade on, and were now so close in so many ways, it is impossible for them to ever split. Especially with the crazy ties Kate now had amongst their entire family now. It is an amazing mess that they hope to organize, yet never rid of.