You Can Always Count on Friends

My name is Jade Jackson. I am twenty-five years old and I have long black hair and purple eyes. I walked down the street in my new rainbow tie-dye T-shirt, black pants, and dark red Nikes. I walked to the park enjoying the nice fresh 60-degree weather. I heard a voice say “Mind if I join you?” I jumped a mile. 

“Sure,” I said and she smiled.

“Hi, sorry I scared you.” 

“Hello! It’s really okay, I know you didn’t mean to.” I replied. 

“Okay! Well anyway, my name is Laura Delany.” 

“My name is Jade Jackson, also you have a really nice name, Laura.”

“Thanks, you too! What’s your job?” She sat down.

“I’m working at home for the bank and I really want to be a veterinarian.” I sighed. 

“Why aren’t you one now?” she asked. 

“Because I don’t have the money for veterinarian school.”

She looked at her watch. “Well I have to get going now, bye!” she said.

“Wait! Can you meet me here tomorrow at lunchtime? I can bring food for a picnic.”

“Sure! Meet you tomorrow at 12:30.” she grinned and walked away. 

I walked home and collapsed onto my bed. I looked at my watch. 3:30 it said. It was a weekend. Anyway, I went to the bathroom and walked into the living room. Oh no! I forgot to mention I have a cat named Sandra, she’s a sweetie-pie. I pet her and curled up with my book The Day of the Wandering Girl by Rosa Cresta. I read till 5. I made dinner and ate. My cat curled up on me and I fell asleep. I slept till 8, made toast, and was excited about my picnic with Laura. I read till ten. Watched some of Star Wars; Revenge of the Sith. And at 12 I packed the picnic. Two ham & cheese sandwiches, two bags of sour cream & onion chips, two oranges, some chopped carrots, and four chocolate chip cookies. I ran to the park and I saw Laura patting the ground next to her. I grinned and walked over and sat down. 

“I forgot to ask you!” 

“What?”

“What’s your job?” she looked down and her smile faded. 

“Umm...Uhhh...” Laura stammered. 

“Hey, you don’t have to tell me.”

“It’s fine, I work as a janitor at a middle school. Amazingly it pays really really well! It pays like 300 dollars a day.” she smiled again.  

“Wow, that's a lot. Mine pays 300 dollars a day too.” I said.  

  “I’m starving,” she exclaimed, changing the conversation. 

“Me too.” I took out the picnic bag. We both gobbled up the food. We gave our crusts to the ducks in the pond nearby. 

“So, you wanna be a vet?” she asked. 

“Yep!” I answered. 

“I actually want to be an author. Once I get enough money I’m going to get into a creative writing program.”

“That's cool.”

“Yeah, guess what?” 

“What?” I replied with my eyes open wide in curiosity. 

“I know how you can be a vet!” 

“Really?” I screeched excitedly. 

“Yeah! You can apply and you can get a scholarship!” 

“How do I apply?” 

“So look up vet school.gov international, then apply and tell them all you know about veterinary so far.” 

“THANK YOU SO MUCH! HOW COULD I EVER THANK YOU?” I screeched excitedly. 

“That's what friends are for!” She replied happily. 

We said bye and walked home. I ran in and ran to my office with my computer and applied. Okay, I thought to myself. I only have to wait two and a half weeks for my answer. 

****

 One week later…. 

I was dying of excitement. I told Laura and she seemed as excited as me. I saw this creative writing program on TV and I knew Laura would die of happiness. I told Laura about the program and she was SO HAPPY. She told me that she was writing a story about two lovers and that they could never be together... 

*****

One week later….

I was dying for the answer. I told Laura to meet me in the park again. 

She brought some food since it was her turn. She brought two sandwiches, two apples, two slices of chocolate cake (YUMMY-YUMMERS), some chopped cucumbers, and two bags of Cheetos. She said she was in the creative writing program! I was SO happy for her. She said the prompts were scary. I told her I only had to wait two days for the answer. 

“I know! I’m so happy for you Jade!” 

“Thanks! I’m happy for you too, Laura!” 

I began the sentence. “Gosh, I wonder…”

Laura finished my sentence “When you are going to get in.”

We high-fived and fist-bumped. 

“We should make a secret handshake!” Laura said, one of her other great ideas.

“Good idea!” I exclaimed. We decided to grab each other's hand, shake it, high five then fist bump with the little explosion. 

****

One day later…. 

We met in Panera for dinner. 

“MMMMMM….I love Panera's mac & cheese and tomato soup!” I said happily to Laura. I knew the server heard because she flashed a big smile at me. I read the name tag. It said Eva Meadows. 

“I know, right? I’m going to order the mac and cheese and tomato soup.” Laura replied. 

Our server, Eva, wrote that down quickly. I said thanks and gave her a $15 tip. We gobbled up our dinner. 

“Let’s order something from here for dessert!” I said.

“Yeah! Great idea!” Laura said. 

“Let's order the brownies!” I practically yelled. Some people shot me with dirty looks. “Sorry,'' I whispered. 

“Yeah! Let’s also order the chocolate M&M cookies!” She said, licking her lips. 

We ordered and I got a notification on my phone. It was from the school! I looked at it while holding my breath. 

“Blah blah blah,” I started, thinking I was going to have a stroke.

“DID YOU GET IN? DID YOU GET IN?!” Laura shrieked, clapping her hands. 

“Hmmm, blah blah blah… I GOT IN! I GOT IN! WOOO HOOO!” I said, arms in the air, smiling so big, my face hurt. 

“WOOOO!” Laura cried. 

I was speechless. 

“Oh gosh,I'm SO HAPPY FOR YOU JADE!!!” Laura said, making jazz hands.

I laughed and said “Thanks!” 

We ordered our desserts and gobbled it down. 

“That was so good,” I said.

“I wanna see the school before you attend in a few months.” 

“Laura! You're a genius! That gives me an idea. We should take the bus to the school and see it!” 

“Why, thank you. Yeah, that's a good idea!” 

We ran to the bus station nearby and waited for 5 minutes. 

We saw the bus and hopped on board. We were on there for 10 minutes and onboard and said “Laura, thanks for being my friend” 

“You too Jade.” She gave me a grin.

We saw it and I knew there were so many opportunities I could do with my life.