CRASH.

The large vivid pink lamp smashes into pieces. The piercing sound of glass floods through the classroom. Thoughts repeat over and over in my brain; Not a lamp, not a lamp, Not THE LAMP. The pink lamp-fold is bent and broken and the large white shaft is torn in half, only connecting through an electric wire. I look over at my partner in “crime” Abby’s face, catching of glimpse her expression of utter shock.

The twenty-four appalled faces of my classmates turn in our direction. I feel a burning heat steadily grow in my body and my face swell with a radiant red pigment. A realization comes to me, We actually did it, we broke the lamp, Mrs. Huck’s prize lamp. Oh no, I’m dead. She is going to KILLLLL me. I turn around in unison with Abby to face the physically small, but authoritarian teacher.

Mrs. Huck’s elfish and dwarfish small body stands up at her desk. I could see her petite pig-like snout pipe air in and out, as her cold dark blue eyes look at me. Just thinking of her looking at me, makes me get dizzy.
“What were you doing!” she yells pointing her stubby fingers in Abby and I’s faces.

“I’m so sorry, It was an accident, we were just getting a book and then…” I desperately respond.

“YOU BROKE THE LAMP, HOW’S THAT AN ACCIDENT! You two! It’s Always you two! Meet me at recess...AND BRING YOUR BOOKS! ” she screams across the classroom, allowing the entire school to hear what we did. 
I gain enough strength to choke up to Abby on our way back to our seats, “Oh no, oh no what are we going to...she is going to literally eat us alive.”

Humiliated, Abby responds, “It wasn’t our fault, we’ll be fine.”

“I hope” I respond on the verge of tears.

For the rest of class, I sat in silence. I contemplated over and over again what happened. My thoughts got worse and worse. Maybe I’ll be in detention for a day… a week…a month… maybe I’ll get suspended!

When it was time for recess Abby and I grabbed our books and met at the back of the line in a desperate attempt to get as far away from Mrs. Huck as possible.

“We’ll be fine, it’s just a lamp. ” Abby reassures my desperate self.

“But she lovvesssss her lamps! I think I counted four just in our classroom.” I try to joke in an attempt to calm down my nerves.

We walk through the rest of the concrete school until we reach the doomed playground. As soon as my fellow classmates wish us luck and flee, Mrs. Huck stomps over to us.

“You two, come here. Explain to me what happened.”

“We were picking out books from the self and then on the way back to our seat we accidentally tripped over the wire and the lamp broke and were sorry and we didn’t mean it ” I whisper in my sweetest kiss-up voice ever.
“Yeah, It was totally by accident. We are both really sorry.” Abby adds on.

Oh no here comes her answer, my mind kept thinking. Please be good Please, Please!

“That lamp was in my daughter's nursery and I am extremely mad that it is broken. You both are so immature. I don’t know how you could possibly destroy a lamp, not a lamp MY Lamp!! You two simply can not be around each other. I don’t want to keep you for recess, but you need to start to be careful in my classroom. I don’t think you two should be friends anymore. Something bad always happens when you two are together. ” Mrs. Huck hisses into our confused faces. Abby and I leisurely turn around towards the plastic playground.

“Did she just say we can’t be friends.” I rhetorically ask.

“She can’t do that; No one can break our friendship, especially not a bully like her.” Abby snaps. She was right. We both knew no teacher was going to tell us that we couldn’t be friends because we accidently broke a lamp. Our friendship wasn’t something that can be broken immediately. When Mrs. Huck tested our friendship, it helped us grow closer as friends. In fact, we made Sure Mrs. Huck knew we stayed friends.

In the last month of 5th grade, we were finishing our year long portfolios. Because they were presentations, she told the class to pair up with a friend and make edits.

“Abby! Want to be my friend?” I joked. Of course, I hadn’t noticed that Mrs. Huck was standing ...right… next… to us.

“Sure! Haha! I’ll go get my laptop from the cart.” she replied. We worked diligently all that day to make sure Mrs. Huck had nothing to yell at us for. Yet that night my mom got an email from Mrs. Huck saying that I was “talking too much” to Abby. Then again she “urged” that we shouldn’t be friends.

Those early days on false accusations have helped us grow as friends, companions, and partners. No matter how hard Mrs. Huck tried to end our strong bond, we stayed together. Our Friendship wasn’t something that is tangible, like a lamp. Our friendship was tested, but it grew, allowing us to become better friends.