English 100
13 Feb 2001

After leaving my half sister and half brother on the mainland, I'd suddenly become an only child and spending my time alone quickly became a pain like no other. Like any other child, 'pretend' was my favorite game. I would most often imagine I had a twin sister, often named Jodie named after my favorite actress at the time, Jodie Sweeten (Full House). These bouts of 'pretend' ended when I realized I was rather old to have an imaginary sister. I never had trouble making friends, but for some reason, I found I hated to be alone. Friends came and went as I began to get older, but little did I know, high school would not only provide me with an education, but with a best friend.

When I entered high school, I quickly became friends with a girl who had moved from Canada. She'd spend every waking moment comparing Hawaii to Canada, almost always beginning her sentence with "Well, back in Watersburg" which bothered me to no end, but not everyone was perfect, so I didn't to let it get to me. Once summer doled its way into our lives, she moved back to Canada, and I haven't heard hide nor hair of her since. My letters and phone messages go unanswered, as do my e-mails.

With a new school year upon me, I dreaded what was to come as my best friend was in Quebec ignoring me. I spent the first day eating lunch with a mild acquaintance, and on a trip to the bathroom, we met a girl a year younger than us who'd just moved to Hawaii from Virginia. "This is Becky, she doesn't have any friends, so she's going to hang with us." My friend told me as I came out of the stall. While I was wondering what kind of loser hangs out in the bathroom during lunch, I felt sorry for her. Then another girl, with whom I was on again off again arch rival/best friend, Star, introduced me to another freshman, Judy. Apparently Judy's only friend was Star since she'd just moved back to Hawaii from Florida.
Becky, Judy and I soon became very close, but as Becky's birthday drew closer, Judy and I began resenting Becky and her "Well, back in Virginia" thinking. This short, fat, glasses wearing girl had befriended me by accident, as I would never had spoken to her that day in the bathroom. Judy and I soon began dissecting everything Becky said or did, and hate and anger rose in what used to be our friendship. Becky finally caught on to what we were doing as we celebrated the New Year. Every move she made, and everything she said we would twist and contort to make it seem like she was trying to spite us. Assuming we would grow out of picking on her, Becky let it slide. Then once fateful night, Judy and I were talking on the phone, (about Becky of course), when Judy and I briefly hung up so Judy could confirm plans with Becky to go to her house the following day to use her computer.

Moments later, I called Judy back and upon asking what happened I was greeted with a simple, "I think I ended our friendship with her." I asked Judy for the details, to which she relayed to me that Becky canceled plans with her because Becky's mother needed to use the computer that day. Since Judy knew that was a lie, the two got into a verbal spat, to which Judy hung up on Becky. Similar fights followed between Becky and Judy, and Becky and myself, and finally after days of the cold shoulder, put downs and dirty gossip, Becky confronted Judy and I, who'd begun hanging out with a different group of people. Slamming down her lunch in tears, Becky looked at me, "What?! What did I do, what did I say?" She yelled at me as she cried, "Did I do something to make you mad at me?"

Looking up at her as I stood up, I forced back a smile which had crept over my face as I looked to Judy, who nodded softly back at me. She knew I'd been waiting almost four months to do this, but Judy had wanted to milk the opportunity for all it was worth as she had only using Becky for the pool in her back yard and the enormous van her father owned. "Why? You want to know why? FINE! I'll TELL you why!" I screamed back as I got the attention of a few dozen people, "Ever since you birthday you've been a complete BITCH." I said, raising my voice at the final word, "Everything is about you, what you want, what you need, where you want to go, what YOUR parents want! And, Oh, oh, let's not forget what things are like in Virginia. Heaven forbid you LET us forget! Wake up and smell the sun screen, you're not in Virginia anymore! Allison and Carley aren't here! Snow is not a part of winter anymore." I told her as I took a breath, not giving Becky a chance to retort, "And further more, whatever I was thinking when Jen introduced us falls somewhere between 'what kind of loser spends lunch period in the bathroom' and 'If she falls in the toilet will her fat ass float?' That is, if she can fit into the tiny toilet bowl." Satisfied I stared at Becky waiting for her to respond. Instead, all two hundred plus pounds of her turned and left.

"Anyone want her lunch?" I asked as I picked off the bread roll from her plate. My friends congratulated me on finally getting the 'extra baggage' off my back as we ate Becky's lunch and made jokes and mean stabs at her. What few friends Becky had besides Judy and I weren't willing to bring her into their group, except a gay senior who was tight with Judy. Becky attempted to spread nasty rumors about Judy and I, (how evil and manipulative we were) but we'd quelled them before they had a chance to reach very far.

In the end, the truth was Becky missed home, and she'd picked the wrong people to become friends with. With Becky out of the picture, I began to wonder where Judy and I stood, as our only common ground was how much we hated Judy and Star. But time passed, faster than I would have liked, and Judy and I became closer and closer. Soon, I realized I was closer to her than with any of my other friends. I had a few other best friends besides Judy, some I'd known forever, but only Judy knew the little things in my life. My grandmother was evil, my mother was over protective, my grandfather had died four years before, leaving a hole in my heart no one could fill and my secret dream was to become an actress and marry Steve Burton (General Hospital).

Judy truly became the sister I never had. We could communicate with just a look, or just the ambiance of the moment we knew what the other was thinking. We'd spend hours and sometimes days on the phone just reading the same magazine, arguing about stupid things like Britney Spears' milk mustache ad, the 'real' meaning of what Ingo Radamacher's character said last week on General Hospital and just how we would stalk Ben Affleck (Good Will Hunting, Saving Private Ryan) when he came to film Pearl Harbor. By the end of her freshman year, we knew each other inside and out. We could anticipate each other's next sentence, when we would phone the other, and where we were on campus. We knew which school lunch we would buy, and which one would force us to go to McDonald's. Our passion soon became the soap opera General Hospital and anything related to TV and entertainment. I'd become hooked the summer before I met her, and I soon pulled her into the evil clutches of the daytime drama.
Among our other interests, she was in love with a number of men, and swore she would abolish the bigamy rule so she could marry five men at the same time. Soon we had so many private jokes; it took an entire page just for me to write then down. Just a single word or phrase, (Ivy's college years) would either spin us into fits of giggles or one of many never ending debates we would strangle to death with dissection of every possible meaning.

I found myself one night comparing our friendship to the friendship of the main characters of Disney's The Fox and the Hound. Judy was a studious, nice, quiet girl who wouldn't speak up or yell while I, a slacker of the deepest kind found no way to humiliate as I would do almost anything without hesitation. We were complete opposites, but we both shared a love for our true passions. We both wanted to move to Hollywood where Judy would write and direct, and I would take the role of staring in her feature films.

Our dream will never come true unfortunately. As my senior year began, Judy stopped coming to school. For a long while, she was sick with the flu and other ailments. However, soon her mother, who did not have legal custody over her, began literally camping outside of her house where Judy lived with her father and his girlfriend. Her mother was threatening to send her father to jail for not making Judy go to school. Judy would make a rare appearance at school once a week, if even that frequently and there was a point when she didn't come to school for four months. Judy had always had a thing about answering her phone, (she screened calls) and NEVER called people, she was afraid of who would pick up the phone. She wasn't in school long enough to sign my senior yearbook, and perhaps all I have left of her are our jokes, the yearbook entries from previous years, and our love hate relationship with horror movies-I love them, she hates them.

Judy came to the commencement ceremony when I graduated high school in spring of 2000. As I hugged my sister and left for Project Grad, I knew that would be the last time I would see her. I've called her countless times since graduation night, mailed her letters and emails, but all to no avail. I recently found she's not enrolled in school where we used to attend, and no forwarding of her records was ordered. Her private phone line was disconnected quite a while ago, and the main phone line was disconnected as well. A forwarding number was left, but I haven't been able to contact anyone at that number either.

I spent three wonderful years as Judy's friend, she was the closest friend I'd ever had, and probably will ever have. She was my best friend, my confidant, and my sister. She was the one I went to after fights with my mom and grandma. She was the only one who knew me just as well as I knew myself. She was my sister and I've lost her.

Author's Note: As of late, I found Judy!...okay, she found me. She called me out of the blue one day...so now we email and chat, sisters united!