What are friends? Are they the people you hang out at the movies with? Are they the ones you go to a concert with? Yes , they are all of those things, but friends also stick by your side through thick and thin. They are the people who you call when you’re upset. Friends are the people that know more about you than you know about yourself. Friends are the people who take you in as you take them in.

Her name is Gracie and I remember that day as clear as a lake in the summer. I had heard the usual whispers about a new kid , and asked some questions but then I got bored. See I have tried tons of times to get close to the new kids. I’ve tried to make the new kids my friends, but every time they started to get to know me they would stray away. So when I saw her I avoided her. I didn’t want to squeeze through the crowd to get to know somebody that wouldn’t like me.

We did our extremely boring work in our extremely boring classroom. And months flew by. I started to notice that Gracie wasn’t at school a lot. She would go weeks without going to school. I felt bad for her because our teacher hammered her about coming to school “ once in a while”. And Gracie came in every day for recess to catch up on work. She didn’t get time to hang out with the other kids too often. Soon she wasn’t the new girl anymore. The weird thing was Gracie never really strayed to the popular she didn’t have a social group at all.

I felt bad for her. Really bad. I know what it’s like to feel alone. I didn’t really have friends as it was. I Became a woman and .. I talked to her.

“ Are you Gracie” I asked looking back at my stupid question.

“ Yeah who are you” She asked.

“My name’s Bresz. Like the wind .” I said in reply.

“ Who named you?” She asked in interest.

“My dad named me” I answered “ why? Do you think it’s weird?”

“ No I think it’s pretty cool.”Then she saw me looking in her desk at something,” this is my collection of pull apart erasers. See?”

“ Sweet!!” I had never seen that kind of eraser, “ hey, do want to sit by me I’m kind of lonely.”

“Sure “She replied” see you then”

We sat together the rest of the year. And when we graduated from 6th grade that wasn’t the end . Even though she goes to an academy and has tons of homework I see her on summer break.

Gracie is more than my friend she is my personal message from somewhere out there. She reads that you should never judge a person by their looks, and in parenthesis she reads that I will find other friend if I just have hope. If I just build another shelter to a person who’s all alone.