What if there was a girl you knew since first grade, but you were never really friends with? What if you wondered about her every year after that? What if she finally turned up in your class in fourth grade, and you got to know her and what a colorful character she was, and made friends with her friends in fifth grade?
What if she moves?
Not to Hillsbourough, or New Brunswick, or a place that you can ask your parents to go to this weekend. A place... like California.
Emily and Radhika were the girl's friends. In fifth grade, I made friends with them. But Flora was the girl; the one that moved.
It wasn't Flora's personality that I liked, it was her personalities. One minute, she'd be cute-little-panda-and-cookie-loving Flora. At recess, we'd burst through the doors and she'd scream, "Dude, wuz up?" Whether she was Flora or Flora, she was awesome.
Flora always made room for entertainment. In fourth grade, me, Flora, Emily, and Radhika were working at a table, and I went to get some markers. When I came back, everyone was giggling madly.
"What's so funny?" I asked. Emily has... uh... laughing syndrome let's just put it that way, so Radhika told me.
"Emily said 'Hi'-"
"And I said 'HAYRIDE!'" boomed Flora. Immediately, I fell onto my chair and laughed with them. Not just at the randomness, but also at the way Flora was oozing with enthusiasm when she said it.
At the beginning of fifth grade, the world turned from a huge blotch of color with gray specks to a huge blotch of gray with my friends dotting it with bits of color. Flora was gone. Never again would she fling color into the world when it was gray. Never again. Never again. Never again. We owe her so much and never again will she come back and let us thank her; the small holiday gift I'm sending her is nowhere near enough. Never will she break us free of the binds of school and its mounds of homework.
But wait folks, not all is lost! Have no (or less) fear! Email is here!
