On my first day of high school, I fixed my recently styled hair, put on a big, fake smile, and walked in there with my head held high. On the inside, I was shaking in my converse sneakers. My best friend at the time, Mavis, had decided to attend the catholic high school, an hour away. I knew only a few people, and I hoped that I'd get to meet a few new friends, and hopefully, meet someone as amazing as Mavis.

It wasn't long before I met Caleigh, Kiersten, Abbey, James, Daniel, and Brittany. For the first time, since beginning high school, I felt comfortable. I was happy. Kiersten and Caleigh became my rocks as I went through some tough experiences, during the first few months of school. This following story is an example of one.

After about two weeks of sitting with Lizzie, Allison, and a few other people whom I had known from kindergarten for lunch, I decided to take the step, and sit with a different table for a change. I felt, at the time, like it was the best thing I could have done. I hadn't really liked Lizzie anyway, and had only been sitting with her because I didn't have Mavis to sit with, and my other close friend had already decided to become a goth, and had ditched me.

I began sitting with my elementary school friends less and less, and I was happy. It didn't take long though, before my old friends began to get jealous that I had left the "nest" before they had.

I was talking to my new friend Mona by the water fountain, when Maddison, a girl I knew from art class ran up to me.

She skidded to a stop, breathless. "Shania, did you hear what Lizzie and Allison have been saying about you?"

I looked at Mona, who seemed to be turing pink. I knew at that moment that she knew what had been said, and it wasn't nice.

The rumours varied. One day I'd be known as "the b**** that ditched us", "the s***", "a stuck up b**** who thinks she's popular", and the one that hurt me the most.... "a selfish girl who eats lunch in the washroom".

None of these rumours were true, and I knew that, deep down in my heart. Still, they hurt me, and I became very depressed. I hadn't ditched them on purpose, I was just trying to find my place in this crazy thing we call high school. I was trying to meet new friends, and become comfortable with my own identity. Is that a crime? A crime that deserves things like THAT to be said about me?

I soon began distancing myself from my new friends, scared that one day they'd think of my as a stuck up b**** too, and leave me. I also began to notice that people had begun to mix and mingle with each other. Lizzie, who had spread rumours about me ditching her group, had began hanging out with some new girls.

Then, one day, I finally began to understand that Caleigh, Kiersten, and everyone else whom I had become close with over the past month, were real friends.

I was eating lunch in the library, depressed, and alone, when all of my new friends came and sat down at the table with me. Caleigh was the first who spoke.

"We love you," she said, with a smile on her face. "Forget about Lizzie and those kids. You have us, and the past month we've spent with you, getting to know you, has been really fun and we want to experience many more months with you, but we want the you we had met on the first day of high school. The one with a smile on her face."

I will never forget what she said to me, and the next thing I knew, everyone was hugging me. I grabbed my lunch bag, and exited the library.

With my new friends, I walked right past Lizzie and her new friends, and sat down at a table, with Caleigh on one side of me, and Kiersten on the other. I was ready to enjoy a dramaless lunch, with my true friends.

I swear, a tuna fish sandwich has never tasted so good, as it did that day, as I ate it, surrounded by love :)