LJ Idol Week 5: “My enemies are all too familiar. They're the ones who used to call me friend"

[flipflop_diva]

Jennifer and Madison were best friends. At least everyone said so, so it must be true. Jennifer’s mom said so, Madison’s mom said so, the other kids at school said so. Even the teachers said so.

After all, there was no reason in the world they shouldn’t be best friends. Jennifer and Madison lived next door to each other, and had since they were both brought into this world eleven years before, Madison just eight days before Jennifer.

They spent countless days playing together — board games and soccer games and video games, and before that, Barbies and Legos and tea parties. Their parents had pictures of the two of them together as babies and of them together in every year since.

But Jennifer had a secret. She hated Madison.

Not all the time, you see. She liked her enough in the long days of summer when she needed someone to talk to or to play with. And she was great for letting Jennifer borrow her clothes or the cute little bracelets that she always wore. And Madison’s mom was an amazing cook — she was always making them brownies and cookies and Kool-Aid when Jennifer was over visiting.

But at school, when the other kids were around, well, there Jennifer hated Madison.

Madison was uncool. She was too shy and too quiet and too awkward, and the popular kids didn’t like her. They called her names when she wasn’t around and laughed behind her back. Jennifer did, too, because why not? The popular kids liked Jennifer. They thought she was pretty and funny and one of them. And Jennifer knew in the depths of her soul that she was one of them too.

When Jennifer’s twelfth birthday rolled around, she convinced her mother to let her have a sleepover.

“Are you going to invite Madison?” all her friends groaned.

“I don’t know if I want to come if you are,” Amy, the most popular girl in the school, chirped.

Jennifer shook her head and tried to look disgusted. “Of course not,” she said. “Ewwww.”

That afternoon, when her mother gave her the invitations to hand out to her friends, she carefully slipped the one labeled “Madison” into her pocket so she could dispose of it properly in the school trash can. A couple days later, she told her mother that Madison had told her she couldn’t make it to her party.

“What?” her mother had said.

“Something with her family,” Jennifer explained. She tried to look devastated. Her mother patted her comfortingly on the shoulder.

•••

The night of the party finally arrived. One by one, Jennifer’s popular friends showed up at her house, wishing her happy birthday and complimenting her on her outfit and her room and how cool her mom was. But as the party wound into the late hours of the day, and the pizza ran out and the games became repetitive, the girls all looked at Jennifer.

“This is boring,” Amy said. “Let’s go TP-ing. We can start with Madison’s house.”

The other girls laughed. Jennifer was worried. “I’m not sure how much toilet paper we have,” she said, but at the looks on the other girls’ faces, she quickly added, “But we have paper we can use!”

She hurried from the room and went straight to her mother’s office, grabbing one of the rolls of paper she always had lying around.

She went back to her friends.

“Let’s write her nasty messages,” Amy said, “and tell her how ugly and stupid she is!”

The other girls cheered. Jennifer didn’t really like that idea — the thought of it made her stomach flip — but her friends were so happy …

She went and got the girls markers, even sitting down to write her own messages. “You’ll never be one of the cool girls.”

When all the messages were finished, and the toilet paper Jennifer could find, along with trash cans of cut up paper, were gathered up, the girls headed out. Madison’s house was completely dark, her whole family probably long in bed.

They worked fast, covering the trees in the toilet paper and the grass with the pieces of cut up paper and the nasty messages taped to every part of the house they could reach.

The girls snickered and gloated, so proud of their work.

“That was so fun!” Amy said to Jennifer as they headed back to Jennifer’s house.

“Yeah,” Jennifer said unconvincingly. “It sure was.”

•••

The pounding on the door woke them. Jennifer’s mother’s stern, “Jennifer!”, sent her scurrying down the hall to find Madison’s father standing on her front porch.

In his hands were the nasty messages the girls had written the night before.

“You’re going to clean every single piece of paper off my lawn,” he said. “And then you are going to leave my daughter alone.”

Jennifer stared at him, her mind spinning. How …

“Next time,” Madison’s dad said, and Jennifer had never seen him look so angry, “don’t use paper that has the logo from your mom’s job printed all over it.”

•••

None of Jennifer’s friends helped her pick up the mess. Madison watched from an upstairs window, but every time Jennifer glanced her way, she disappeared behind a curtain.

As Jennifer was nearing the end, she bent down to pick up a piece of paper. Turning it over, she saw something familiar.

“You’ll never be one of the cool girls.”

She tucked it in her pocket.

She should have known that someday it would apply to her too.



A fictionalized account of a true story. Where I was the Madison of the story. But the other girls weren't nearly as mean. Though they did TP our house with cut up pieces of paper (no nasty messages, though) and my dad did make my friend clean it all up. My sister and I stood outside and watched that with great joy. Serves her right for not inviting me to her party xD


This was written for Week 5 of therealljidol. I hope you enjoyed it! If you would like to read more entries, you can head over here. If you would like to vote for any of the entries, voting should be up Monday night at therealljidol.

Comments

[static_abyss]

It does serve your old friend right for not inviting you to her party. Also that's some pretty inventive pranking. TPing would have never occured to me as a prank.

[sweeny-todd.livejournal.com]

I'm glad your real experience was not like this! I forget how mean school kids are...

[brkfastatholly.livejournal.com]

Omg this story :(
When I was in middle school I TP'd the houses of popular kids with my very unpopular friends...idk if that makes it any better though haha

[nikkiii-brown.livejournal.com]

Awww. I hate that she succumbed to peer pressure. ): Kids can be so cruel!

[millysdaughter.livejournal.com]

I never saw TPing in real life, but have read about it in books.

[adoptedwriter.livejournal.com]

Karma is a bitch!

[marlawentmad.livejournal.com]

Yikes! I am impressed with the care you took to tell this from the friend's perspective who betrayed the other.

[ellison.livejournal.com]

This is well told. It's weird, because I've been (sort of) in both positions in my childhood. I like that you told it from Jennifer's perspective, because it's true, people make mistakes and try to do things to be impressive or included, and hurt people. And sometimes they realize it as they're doing it, but don't know how to get out of it. Being a kid is hard work - so many hard lessons won about true friendship, and what constitutes irrevocable damage. Did you and your friend ever become friendly again, or did her mean prank split up the friendship for good?

[murielle.livejournal.com]

Excellent cautionary tale! Brava!

[halfshellvenus.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm so sorry this is close to something you went through yourself.

School (especially middle school) is such an awful time for all of this. When we're grown, we realize we can choose the friends we like and want, and if other people don't like them, too bad!

[alycewilson.livejournal.com]

I'm so saddened to learn that this really happened to you. It's great that your dad and your sister had your back, though.