School started the next week. For as long as I could remember it had been me and my two best friends, Brooke and Savannah. Our memories were filled with a mental scrapbook of sleepovers, silly moments and blowing things up in Brooke’s microwave until her mother caught us one summer day and told us the microwave was off limits — FOREVER! I couldn’t imagine that any friends could be closer than the three of us. We had been friends forever and would be friends forever. My mom called us the tripod, because we were like three legs all working toward the same goals.
“Kate!” Brooke ran up and threw her arms around me in a big bear hug. We’d just seen one another the day before, but she acted as though we hadn’t seen one another in months. Her enthusiasm and joy in living had started to rub off on me this last year. My mom said she’d brought me out of my shyness shell and I guess she was right.
“Let me see your schedule.” I handed her mine, hoping we had at least a couple of classes together.
“We have lunch together.” She squealed and jumped up and down, her pale blonde hair bouncing around her shoulders with each move. “Let me see your schedule, Savannah.”
Brooke snatched Savannah’s schedule out of her hands and glanced at it. “We have three classes together.”
Savannah always wore her blonde locks in a ponytail. Savannah was petite where I was tall. She was blonde where I was brunette. Her hair was straight. Mine was hopelessly curly; an eternal curse of frizziness and thick tresses. We were different, yet we were alike. We were opposite, yet we complimented one another perfectly.
“Want to come with me to Joy’s after school?” Savannah asked us. “I start babysitting with her today.”
“Sure!” Brooke clapped her hands.
I looked away, feeling uncomfortable, but not sure how to explain my feeling of unease. “I guess I’ll come.”
I had worked with Joy all summer. She ran a daycare out of her home and had hired me to work with her. One thing I had learned this past summer was that just because your name was Joy didn’t mean you had any joy in your heart. In fact, Joy was about as opposite from her name as a person could be.
“Well, don’t put yourself out,” Savannah said, looking a little miffed.
“No, I’ll come. I’m sorry. I’m happy you have a job.” I was happy for her. She’d have her own money, which I knew was important to her. I just worried about her.
The warning bell rang. In a ritual that we’d been doing for years, we circled up and each put a hand in the middle of the circle.
“One…” said Brooke.
“Two…” I added.
“Three…” Savannah finished.
“Let’s go tripod. Let’s go!” we shouted together, lifted our hands, turned our backs to one another and blew a kiss over our shoulders.
We all laughed as we walked away. I was truly the luckiest person in the world. When I’d moved to the little town of Henryville in the fifth grade, I had worried that I’d never make friends like the ones I’d had when I lived in Greenfield, Indiana. Then, I’d met Brooke and Savannah and the purpose and reason behind our move seemed to be set. I had to move here. A tripod couldn’t stand with only two legs.
