During the summer of 2005, I met my first and lifelong friend. I was attending summer school. I had just moved to Amery from Hudson, Wisconsin. I was sitting in my miniature plastic chair where only a child could sit in my Cool Science class. I was bored out of my mind. My mom made me take this summer school class to have fun and meet friends, but she was wrong. This so- called, “fun” class wasn’t fun at all. I stared at the clock tick, tick, tick, twenty minutes until class was done. “Just twenty long minutes” I thought in my head. I was supposed to be coloring a scientist mixing potions, but I was never really one for art. I decided to stand up and wonder across the room to look out the window at the warm summer sun. As I was on my way to the window, I saw an interesting fellow. He was sitting down at the gray circle table in the middle of the room all alone. He was wearing a yellow V-neck sweater with black diamonds running down the center which were crisscrossed with navy blue diamonds. His hair was slicked back with gel that gave his brown hair a glossy look. He was working hard on his drawing, but it didn’t look very good. There were several colors all over his paper, and they were not inside the lines. The boy noticed that I was looking at him; he looked at me with a curious, but nervous expression. I think I freaked him out a little bit by staring at him. He looked away quickly and went back to his sloppy coloring. I decided I would walk and talk to him. I went up to him and said, “Your coloring is outside the lines.” He looked directly up at me and gave me a frustrated look. “Just saying,” I said. “My name is Ethan. What is your name?”

“I am James,” he said in a stern, quiet voice.

“What is that?” I said in an excited voice, pointing into his backpack.

“That’s my Leapster,” he said.

“I’ve only see those on TV! What games do you have?”

“Right now I have this math game in, but I have more at home.”

“Well, can I play it?”

“Not right now, we are in class, but what bus to you ride?”

Right that second, the bell rang, and a second later there were kids running everywhere. Someone bumped into my back during the rush to escape the sweltering classroom, so I naturally turned around sharply to see what happened. When I looked back to talk to James, he was gone.

In a split second, this new boy I met was gone, and that was the last day of summer school. I would have to make it through the entire summer friendless. I stuffed my things into my backpack, and trudged out of the classroom with my head down. I slowly walked out to the buses, and sat down exhausted in seat 6. I pressed my forehead against the warm germ covered window, as I shut my eyes. I was devastated. I would spend the rest of my summer with no friends, and have to start the school year not knowing anyone. There was no hope for my seven year old self. Suddenly someone tapped on my shoulder from the seat behind me. Who could it be? I didn’t know anyone. I sat up, and turned around to see who the person tapping on my shoulder was. I then saw the smooth defined face of James. His hair was still slicked back and looking glossier than ever. “James! Boy am I glad to see you!” I said in an excited but controlled voice. “I didn’t know you rode this bus.”

“I live on South Shore Drive, and I have always ridden this bus. Don’t you want to play my Leapster?” he said with a curious face.

Ever since then we have been best friends. That summer we saw each other nearly every second we could. We spent lots of time getting whipped behind his boat on a tube, and we spent lots of time playing his Wii. Our favorite game was Mario Baseball. We would play that game for countless hours and never get tired of it. Even though I never won, I always had a blast. We then found another activity we both liked, which was golf. Almost every day, we would go walk the front or back nine at the Amery Golf Course, and even though I beat him every time, I think he still had fun. If I would have known that I would meet my life long friend that day in my summer school class, I would have never complained. Without my mom I would have never had a best friend. She might not have been right about everything, but my mom was right about one thing, you can meet friends in summer school.