I have been dreading this day for quite sometime now, I, Zoey White am going to be a middle schooler. I am going from a top of the food chain as a 6th grader, right back down to the bottom as a 7th grader. My older brother, Chris, has told me some stories from when he was a newbie in middle school. He is now a top dog senior in highschool.

Anyway, Chris has told me that on his first day of the seventh grade he saw someone get a whirley in the bathroom because the kid wouldn't give someone else his own lunch money.Chris also told me that people have boyfriends and girlfriends in middle school. EWWW!
  I have been preparing for this day for the whole summer, with my best friend Grace. I thought that we should just play the whole sick card when you put a thermometer in the hot water. But Grace told me she doesn't think it would work our whole middle school career. So we came up with a plan B. We trained for this day. We took karate classes for the bullies trying to give us whirleys and still our lunch money. We also made a pact to never have a boyfriend until we were older and in high school. (Not like we would even want one) .  We have learned all the things that the big bullying eighth graders do from my brother, and we are as prepared as can be!
I woke up this morning to get ready for school an hour before I even had to leave! I had to make sure I looked perfect for school. I am going to wear a blue skirt with a white tank top with some black flip-flops. I need to sneak into my moms room to borrow some of her make up when she isn’t looking.  I went downstairs for breakfast wearing a mask over my face so my mom wouldn’t see the make up, and I  wore a jacket over my shirt so my mom wouldn’t make me change. Right when I got into the kitchen my mom said “ Zoey, why  do you have that on your face, and take of your jacket I want to see your outfit for your first day!” I slowly took of the mask hoping she wouldn’t notice and slowly inched off my jacket. “ZOEY WHITE, your face is orange! And your eyes are as black as can be!” She took me upstairs to wash of my make up. “Zoey you can’t wear makeup until you properly know how to put it on and wear it, I will teach you tonight if you want.”
“Ok mom” I said, “I understand.”
  My mom picked up Grace on the way to school, and we got dropped off together. We got out of the car and I was really nervous. Grace and I had first period together. It was math. Ew. But anyway, we got to choose our seats in class so that was good. That was the only class we had together till after lunch. We went to second, third, fourth , fifth and then we went to meet up at lunch, only to find out we had DIFFERENT lunches. Why would they do that to two best friends? Who is in charge of this? I need to know!  I neeeeed to tell Grace about my day so far. I mean nothing too exciting has happened, but still. So I had to sit by myself at lunch.
At the end of the day Grace and I met up and we waited for her mom to pick us up. Grace started talking about lunch “ It stinks we don’t have lunch together, but I found other people to sit with. They were really nice, you should meet them!”
“Uhh yeah, I sat with other people at lunch today also, uhh I really liked them..” I lied.
Her other friends aren’t going to replace me, they can’t I am Graces best friend!
“So what are you going to do this weekend Zoey?” Asked Graces mom when she picked us up. “I’m not sure yet” I said. “Oh, well if you are free do you want to come to the pool with Grace?” Grace interrupted, “ Actually mom, can my other friends come also, I met them at lunch today.” “Uhh sure,” Said her mom.
When I got home I asked my mom to teach me how to do make up. We went up stairs and she taught me and I was really excited to wear it to school tomorrow. If Grace doesn’t want me as a BFF anymore, then I can change too and make other best friends. When people see me at school tomorrow they are all going to want to be friends with me.
I showed up to school with my make up all done ( I applied a little more in the school bathroom, because my mom wouldn’t allow me to wear this much.) When  I came out from the bathroom I saw Grace with her other friends. She introduced me, “This is Zoey, Zoey this is Brooke, Lexi and Mike.” “Hi,” I said. “Are you all coming to the pool this weekend?” asked Grace. “They all replied so happy with the biggest “YES!” I just proceeded to walk on. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go or not. Maybe if I went and was super crazy and annoying they wouldn’t want to hang out with Grace anymore and then I would have her all back to being my best friend!
This weekend came around fast and I was waiting for Grace to pick me up. I was the last stop out of all of her friends and I got stuck in the back. I didn’t talk the whole time on the way there. Once we got there I was ready to do my plan! One of the girls asked me to apply sunscreen on her back, so I sprayed it all over her and I got some in her hair. And there was another girl who didn’t want to get in the pool because she didn’t want to get her hair wet. She just sat at the edge with her feet in, I made sure to do the biggest cannon ball right next to her. Mike hated olives, but at lunch I snuck one onto his sandwich. That was the best one because he thought that Grace put it on there when she was making them. Grace and her mom were very upset with me by the end of the pool day. My plan didn’t go as well as I had thought. Graces mom recommended to not see each other for awhile. She thought I was a bad influence or something.
At school a couple days passed, and we didn’t talk to each other at all and in math class she changed spots. At lunch though I had other people to sit with and talk to, but we didn’t really have much in common, at least not like Grace and I. Grace and I also stopped carpooling to and from school. I didn’t have much to do on the weekends anymore, and I could always hear Grace talking in math from across the classroom about all the fun things she does over the weekend. It was like she was making sure I could hear her.
After two weeks had passed of Grace and me not talking to eachother I decided to go and talk to her. “Grace..” I said. “I am sorry for not being the same. I was jealous of you having other friends. I wanted to be your best friend and I didn’t want anyone else to take that away from me. I thought you were having more fun with them though, so I just let you guys be because I didn’t want to ruin the fun. I am sorry for being such a bad best friend and I understand if you never want to see me again and if you hate me.”
“Zoey, I don’t hate you. I never could. You are my best friend for forever and always. Those other people are just my friends not best friends. And I have way more fun with you anyway.”
That made me feel a lot better and it made me realize something. I realized that when growing up and starting middle school you don’t have to be worried about boys, or about bullies and getting your lunch money stolen. You need to be able to know who your real and true friends are. Because when all the bad things are happening and you are getting bullied you aren’t going to get through it on your own. You need your best friend. And Grace is my best friend.