It was Sunday morning and I got a text message. It was
Paula. She was telling me about her night before with Sam. She said
that they kissed. I didn't want to talk to her because I was still
mad that she chose him over me Saturday night. But like a good friend
I talked to her about it. She seemed excited about it but I didn't
say what my thoughts were. I was a little worried about what was
going to happen the next day at school and about what rumor was going
to be going around.
Paula was very popular and pretty. All of the guys
liked her, even older guys. She had a lot of freedom and her parents
let her go wherever she wanted to go and gave her whatever she
wanted. I loved to hang out with her, but for some reason, at times,
I felt that she was using me. Like I was only there for her when she
needed someone to hang out with. Paula had blonde hair, blue eyes and
pail skin just like me. She also had a lot of self confidence. Like,
if someone didn't like her she wouldn't have a problem going up to
them to tell them off. The one thing I didn't like about Paula was
that she liked to play the dumb game a lot. She was always acting
dumb and using the blonde excuse.
Paula
influenced me to not be myself. She taught me that it was good to do
bad in school, swear and to be just an all-around mean girl. I loved
the attention I got from hanging out with her. Everybody knew who I
was when I hung out with Paula, even people that I didn't know. Every
minute that I hung out with Paula I changed more and more. After
about a month hanging out with Paula, I started to play the dumb
game, and I could tell people were starting to get annoyed by me. I
noticed people that I was really good friends with didn't even care
to talk to me anymore. They just seemed like they didn't care for me
anymore. The worst part was that the close friends that I had before
Paula were starting to pull away from me and didn't talk to me
anymore.
I wanted to pull away from
Paula a little bit, but it was so hard! We had the most fun times
together! Everyday we would text each other in the morning asking
each other what we were going to wear to school that day, so we could
show up looking the same. We always hung out at each other's house on
the weekends and went shopping on like every weekend. Another fun
thing we did together was that during basketball season we both made
A-team our sixth grade year. Every practice Paula and I would fill
the water bottles up together and would be partners for foul shots.
Both of us usually made around 5 to10 foul shots each. She shot hers
differently. She would click her heels when she would go to shoot the
ball. Filling up water bottles was fun with her too because we would
always get wet from filling them up too much. Our teacher would let
us out before the bell rang at the end of the day, so we could change
early. We would get there before the other girls got there so we
wouldn't have to wait. I had a lot of fun times with Paula during
practice!
After a while I started to
see the real side of Paula. I was still friends with her when she had
her first “real” boyfriend, Sam. One day she asked me if
I wanted to come to her house for the weekend and I said that I would
ask my parents that night. I went home and asked my mom “Mom,
can I go to Paula's this weekend?” My mom said “Umm I
don't care.” So I went to school the to tell her my mom said I
could go and she said that she already had plans to hangout with Sam.
I was so mad! I thought to myself a real best friend wouldn't blow
you off to hangout with a boy, after she made plans with me.
When we came back to school
that following week she had told me that her and Sam kissed. I really
didn't care. I was still upset with her, but I still talked to her.
Towards the middle of the year I started to get annoyed by Paula. She
would always say that she was better than me just because she had
already kissed a boy. Paula already had a bad reputation and kissing
Sam made it even worse. Once Paula had a bad reputation, I had a bad
reputation just because I hung out with her. It was hurtful having
nobody like me and I didn't like my life anymore.
Finally I brought Paula's
name up in the car on my way to school one morning. My mom said “
Lindsay, you have changed and I just think you need to pull away from
Paula a little bit.” I just sat there and didn't say anything.
I kind of felt mad that my mom would say that to me and sad because I
let all of this happen. Then she said “ I'm not saying you guys
can't be friends, but you need to just pull away for a while.”
She also said that Paula had a bad influence on me and that I needed
to pull away. She said that I was doing bad in school, sports and
that I was constantly fighting. When I thought about it, I did
change and I wasn't myself anymore. So I finished off the school
year and that summer Paula and I did not really talk at all. Paula
sent me a few text messages but that was it. The only time we did
hangout over the summer was at summer camps. Other than that I didn't
hangout with Paula at all. Some of my friends told me that she was
mad at me because I didn't hangout with her all summer but I didn't
care.
Now I'm in seventh grade and
I haven't hung out with Paula at all this year. We're still friends,
but not like we used to be. Sometimes I get annoyed by her and her
dumb side. And i've noticed one thing about Paula by not hanging out
with her. She always makes people feel bad about themselves to make
her feel good. People who never talked to me are talking to me now.
Paula still has a bad reputation and her and Sam broke up a few
months before summer vacation. I'm so happy that my mom talked to me
about it otherwise I wouldn't be myself again and Paula and I would
still be hanging out..
