The three of us were sitting in front of the hotel room door as a steady stream of blood trickled out of Reagan’s freshly wounded big toe. Even though it was late in the afternoon, Florida’s thick humidity hugged us like a soft, yet ridiculously over priced, Disney World blanket. We took advantage of this knowing that all would be lost once returning home to the frigid state of New Jersey in only a few short days.

“Umm... guys? My toe is stinging!” cried out Reagan. “That’s the last time…”

I was still laughing. “The last time you do what, exactly?” I asked. I looked over to see Sabrina who was still determined to open the locked door with her feet. The only person out of the three us who managed to do it was Reagan, who scraped her toe in the process. The hotel that we were staying at replaced all of their room keys with these electronic bracelets that allowed people to store money or pictures on it in, called Magic Bands.

After traveling the mystical voyage to Disney World twice before, I was expecting the third time to be a little lacking in the magic department. Unlike the first time when I went to Disney World with my family in 2009, the second and third time was with the high school marching band to perform in a parade at the Magic Kingdom. To be honest, I was not as excited to have a second chance to perform a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity as I was to visit to new addition to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios.

The main reason why I was going on the trip was that my parents believed that it would be a good idea for me to spend time with my friends since it was my last year in high school. Since most of my friends were in the band, this worked out pretty well. One person I was really looking forward to spending time with was my friend Sabrina.

Sabrina and I have been best friends since the seventh grade ever since we picked the same book for Reading class. The book that we picked, the first book in the Percy Jackson series, became the basis of our friendship and we have read every book in the series together since. When we were younger, we used to get into all kinds of trouble such as stealing (than returning) props from a play that we were in for a production of our own creation, or coming up with an entire secret handshake and code system. We always imagined we would stay best friends forever. Over time, I saw Sabrina less and less, and there were not even anymore Percy Jackson books that could spark a conversation. The older we got, the farther we drifted apart. I came to the conclusion that even though we were not as close as we once were, but we were best friends. Then Nick came into the picture, and I could not help noticing that Sabrina and Melanie quickly became Sabrina and Nick plus Melanie far off to the side.

The main reason why this bothered me so much was not that I was losing a best friend but, we were growing up. Since my birthday is at the end of August, and Sabrina’s birthday is in the middle of September, we were always branded as some of the youngest in our class and we managed to stay children longer than the rest of our friends. Now that Sabrina has a boyfriend, it seems that she was moving forward in life, while I stayed behind. Growing up meant no more silly after school missions or crazy unachievable future plans. Growing up meant responsibility and college application essays.

I was immediately against the whole Magic Band room key idea since I hated the feeling of anything around my wrists. Not to much surprise, on the third day of the trip my Magic Band was not in the usual location at the bottom of my backpack. I was not too worried about it. It was Reagan who ended up finding the bracelet.

“You left it there on the table,” she was attempting to do a large amount of history homework while working on a crossword puzzle on her cell phone. “Maybe you should think of a better way to keep it instead of just throwing it in your backpack.” she said over her mountain of textbooks. “Where’s Sabrina?” she asked.

“Probably with Nick. I haven’t seen her all day.” I told her as I picked up my own pile of homework and joined her. A different way to wear a Magic Band, huh? Put the bracelet around my wrist, then immediately ripped it off.  What if I… I secured the band around my ankle, which was a perfect fit. As this was going on, Sabrina came into the room.

“I was with Nick. Did you find your Magic Band?” asked Sabrina.

I showed her my ankle. "Maybe this is Disney's way of taking over the world. Like the Cybermen on Doctor Who."

"I don't know what-"

"So you know the show Doctor Who, right?"

"Yeah."

"There are these things called Cybermen, right?"

"Okay."

"And they have these things, right?" I pointed to my ears.

Sabrina looked confused. "Sure?"

"Then they take over the world, and then they delete stuff." I did my very best Cyberman impersonation. She stared at me. I stuck out my ankle again. "Magic Ankle Cuffs. Once you enter, the magic will never end.” I exclaimed. This was the first conversation we had in a while.

Some unknown force willed Sabrina to pull the bracelet off her wrist and secure it to her ankle. She smiled at me and I knew exactly what she was thinking.

“I bet you I can open the door with my foot.” she said.

“You’re on.” We ran outside. Reagan put down her book to see what all the commotion was about and tried to prove to use that it could not be done. In the end, Sabrina ended being able to open the door in a handstand position with one foot over the keypad and the other turning the knob. I tried to do the same but it only resulted with me obtaining a massive foot cramp that forced me into door opening retirement. The whole experience stayed with me because it was the very last crazy ridiculous thing that we did together. I already know that in a few months both of will be attending different colleges will probably lose contact altogether. Part of me is disappointed that we have drifted apart as friends, but the other part is grateful that I was able to take part in such a memorable experience like the Door Opening Olympics with her for the very last time.