When I was little, I used to run around and "play" with this girl named Asbak. We had met sometime in the neighborhood when we first moved in when I was about three. I only met her because I accidentally ran over hthiser with my tricycle. My father saw, and made me apologize to Asbak and her family. After that, well, we had to hang out together. We had a mutual understanding that neither of us very fancied the other. I had run over her on my bike, and she smacked me in the back of the head with a whiffle ball. However, my family and her family were delighted that their nonsocial children had "made friends" and so they stuck us with each other. For that whole summer, we couldn't wait until we could get to preschool and finally find some other person to hang out with so we wouldn't have to hang out with each other.

When we finally made it to preschool, I quickly attempted to make friends with the boy who sat on the orange square next to me. I suppose I tried too hard to the first day, grabbing his arm and screaming, "YOU ARE NOW MY BEST FRIEND." He cried. The next day, I was nicer. He was still wary with me, but the teacher stuck us at the same water table, so we talked. Mostly about how his father would sue me for scaring him, and about how he please please shouldn't. Needless to say, I requested another table, and got stuck with Asbak for another two years.

When I got to kindergarten, (finally) I was made partners with a girl named Celina. I was wary of her from the beginning, since she hung out with Aleen, the queen of the doll house. Aleen and Celina used the doll house each and every time during playtime, and wouldn't let anyone else touch it. It disgusted me. I wasn't allowed to dive bomb it with the superheroes either. But the thing that really irked me about Celina was her hair. Her perfectly curled blonde hair. It hung in small ringlets around her waist and bounced up and down when she ran. Fluttering with bows and ribbons of all colors everyday, her hair was one gigantic, gorgeous mess. As opposed to my chopped, straight black hair look. I found a solution. Of course, those ringlets were perfect for tugging on. You tug on one little curl and it flung up, like elastic. You couldn't be her partner without realizing the possibilities of sitting next to someone with elastic hair. Therefore, I attacked back. I don't have to explain any more in depth that I didn't find a new friend in kindergarten, do I?

It definitely came back and slapped me in the face when I got to middle school. Middle school sucked. If you didn't already have a friend from elementary school, (which I didn't) you were screwed. Those who didn't have friends were the object of others insecurities. I didn't mind at first, but, after a while, your already stressed teenage brain begins to wonder if those taunts really are true. I barely made it through the sixth grade. When the seventh grade came around, I was about ready to ask to drop out and be homeschooled. Luckily for me, it was in the seventh grade when I found my partner. Not a partner in the sense that we fell in love with each other, but a partner in the sense that which is deeper than love, which not many people can find.

I found my partner in November, when the last brown leaves were just beginning to fall from the trees. We were going on a field trip. Naturally, the teachers lumped the different groups together with different chaperones. The popular kids went with one chaperone. The smart people went with another. This group of friends went with another. That group of friends went with another. The basketball kids. The Asians. The Mexicans. The tech kids. The music kids. The kids who fooled around. That left the rejects and loners to go with one chaperone. Which included me. However, there were only supposed to be 15 kids in each group. In the group with kids who fooled around, there were 16. In our group there were 14. That was the moment that one of the teachers made a life changing decision.

"JJ! You're switching groups. Get in Group D!"

Mr. Moore probably didn't even know it at that time, and he probably still doesn't even now, but this was a decision that would affect the age of humanity. You have him to thank for this story.

To give JJ credit, he didn't make a big fuss about having to join the looser group. He could have dragged his feet and made cracks at our expense in front of everyone. He could have totally been a bastard about having to join a group with none of his friends. He didn't. He came over, introduced himself and asked for our names. I don't know why, but even from the very beginning of the field trip, he stood by me. Walked with me. Not even talking for the first 30 minutes. Not until we walked past the kitchen.

"Ikita!" he whispered urgently, a smile on his face. He grabbed my arm and pulled us away from the group, next to the kitchen. He was staring at the Employees Only sign on the kitchen door with a smirk on his face. I stifled my laughter and composed a straight face.

"You can't be serious." I hissed as he peered into the doors windows. His eyes widened. He hadn't been listening.

"They have a humongous chocolate cake." he whispered back, his eyes gleaming with anticipation. He looked back at me expectantly. I was still a bit wary. He grinned. "They also have a humongous pot of the cake batter." That did it. I grabbed his arm and dragged him into the kitchen. The cooks were all out, thankfully. The cake was indeed humongous. It was about as tall as I was, around 5' 2" and its bottom was probably 4 feet wide. I heard a sharp intake of breath beside me. JJ sprinted in front of me to the stove where a gigantic pot stood. I ran over. Inside the pot was a gorgeous smelling, creamy batter. He grabbed a soup spoon and tried some. He looked at me, and I could see in his eyes that it was beautiful.

We spent the rest of the field trip snacking on the warm, creamy chocolate batter, exploring the behind-the-scenes of the museum, and hiding from security guards. At exactly 3:02, we headed back out on a full stomach, and met back up with our group to head back home. They hadn't even noticed we were gone.

After the field trip, we ditched his friends and sat together on the bus, laughing hysterically.

This was only one of the many adventures that we had together. It would take a lifetime to describe them all. God, we stuck to each other like humans stick to their money. There was never 'Ikita' or 'JJ' after that. It was only we. I helped him learn how to treat a girl, and get his first girlfriend and he helped me learn how to approach others. If I were happy, he was happy. If he was sad, then I got out a gun and murdered whoever made him sad. If I came to him crying, he would take revenge on whoever made me cry. He was my best friend. He was going to be the best man at my wedding. And then he fell into the House of Worlds. And when you fall into the House of Worlds, there's no coming back.