The best memories of my childhood were of my best friend, Victoria and my older brother, Jason. When I was six years old, and my older brother was fifteen, I was very attached to him. He was patient with me though. On the weekends I would beg to sleep in his room. I would drag my sleeping bag in, and we would play play station, watch T.V., and sneak downstairs when everyone else was asleep, to get popcorn and sodas. I felt special because I got to stay up late with him.
About a year later a little girl named Victoria moved in. After a while my little sister and I met her through the gate. I still remember us talking the whole day. We played at the gate almost every day after that.
Soon we started going over to each others houses. When we got lazy going through the front door and walking up the street to get to the other person's house, Victoria pulled a part the bars on a section of the fence so we could squeeze through. she did this secretly, of course, so she wouldn't get in trouble. Some how my head always got stuck! We seemed to fight a lot because we saw each other everyday, but the great thing about being that age, at least for us, was that we could slip into a fight one moment and be perfectly fine the next.
I remember one time when we sneaked powdered doughnuts from her kitchen. Victoria's older brother asked if we took the doughnuts. We denied taking them. What we didn't know until later, was that as we said we were innocent we had powder from the doughnuts on our faces!
When I started homeschooling at age eight I had to wait all day for Victoria and Jason to get back from school. When Victoria did get back she would always let me and my sister know by calling through the gate. She always called my sisters name, which is April. When Jason got home a little later I would watch him play computer games. He would turn on his music and I would beg him to put on mine. Sometimes he gave in.
The next year my life started to change. Jason was eighteen, and had just gotten accepted into a good college quite a distance away. Right after he opened the letter and announced in his quiet way that he got in, my older sister said 'be happy for him! This is what he wants.' So even at the young age of nine I knew to pretend. I pretended to be happy, and not to care that he was leaving us to go to the other side of the state. That summer he did extra things with me and my sister. When he left I didn't cry. Even when I hugged him good bye. But as soon as he drove away I burst into tears. It suddenly hit me. He was gone. He was coming back for Thanksgiving and I counted the days till then. I still had my friend next door, but life wasn't the same. When he did come back to visit I became a little shy of him. I missed what we used to do together.
I became closer to Victoria and we still saw each other all the time. But when I turned twelve she had sad news. It was just an ordinary day when she said, 'Oh yeah, I'm moving.' Less than a month later she was gone. I was lonely but my sister suffered the worst. The whole summer seemed ruined. We rarely saw her other new house. We could go a few months without seeing her or talking to her.
Then last year after I turned sixteen some good things happened. Jason moved into the area. He comes to visit us a lot more now. I'm not shy of him anymore, although we don't get to stay up late playing video games. And Victoria moved shortly after that. This time a little closer to us. Now I have a cell phone so we can talk and text. And we email each other. Going over to her house is like the old days, except for stealing powdered doughnuts!
Sometimes I wish I could go back to those days. Knowing I can't go back makes me want to even more. Although I can't relive those days I'll have memories of them forever.