I was eating an organic peanut butter and jam sandwich on sprouted wheat and flax bread (it sounds super weird, but it's good. It's made in Canada. I love those Canadians) and I was thinking about how I ate a peanut butter and jam sandwich every day for lunch in fifth grade (though, probably on store brand white bread). I remember, because my friend Andrea said to me one day, rather snootily, I might add, "Don't you get sick of having the same thing every day?" I said, "No, not really," but immediately felt suspect and embarassed, and added quickly, "I don't eat the same thing every day." She said that I did, and she knew because we had assigned seats for lunch and she sat across from me every day. Andrea was a bitch. She was my friend, but she took every opportunity to call me out. She also accused me of not playing my trumpet in band. She said that I just pretended to play and that no sound came out. She also said that I broke her dishwasher, because one afternoon we were watching "Valley Girl" on television in her kitchen and eating Ramen and we were both sitting in dining room chairs with our feet resting on the front of the dishwasher. It's true that it later stopped working, but if it was my fault, it was hers, too. In the end, her parents never said anything to me and she ended up forgetting about it.
I don't know why Andrea was my friend. I guess because she was in my class and she lived two blocks from me and we were both girls. We had the same last name, too, but she spelled hers differently. She moved after fifth grade, though, and it was probably for the best. I'm sure she would have been a terror in middle school, and that was bad enough as it was, what with everyone clawing to be popular and to wear the right clothes and trying desperately not to do anything embarrassing.
So, as I sat in my car at lunch today with the doors open and the breeze blowing gently as I read a memoir about a meth addict (my favorite!), I thought of Andrea as I bit into my sandwich. And I thought of how I'm glad I can eat lunch by myself in peace and not in some school cafeteria around judgmental girls.
And, ok - full discolsure: I was also hoping that Andrea ended up getting fat and having a crappy life in a trailer spending her days making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (every day!) for a bunch of screaming kids.
What can I say, I can be kind of a bitch sometimes, too.
What can I say, I can be kind of a bitch sometimes, too.
3 comments:
I LOVED wearing dresses and skirts in 5th grade, while all the other girls were in their cool jeans. One day at recess, it was either Judi Rosenau or Suzi Sharp who called me out on it and said that they thought it was weird. I responded that my mother made me wear them.
Little girls can be so awful to each other! I'm so glad not to be in school anymore!
haha--i just remembered this friend "amanda" that i had in fourth grade. she was in fifth, but it was a split class so we had become besties. she brought me a birthday present the week of my birthday and it was a package of plastic, stretchy bracelets. i thought it was so nice. until she asked me where her birthday present was (her b-day was the same week as mine.) i said i didn't have one and she told everyone what a selfish jerk i was and took the bracelets back.
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