If you were to ask me, “How many good friends do you have? Who are they?” I could name off at least 10 people. However, if you were to ask me, “Who's your best friend?” I'd tell you differently. Everybody should have a best friend. A best friend is someone who's here for you and benifits you. Someone to make you laugh and smile. Someone that gets you. Someone who isn’t uncertain to be around you, and sees your natural beauty. But most importantly, someone that is very important to you. Luckily, I ended up with the ultimate best friend ever.
Her name is Autumn Illingworth. She’s as sweet as the perfect Lindor Truffle. I can always count on her to make me feel better. Even on the days that I’m feeling down for the stupidest reasons, she’s here. Since she does this all for me, it made my dreading afternoon in period eight so much better.

Ding! Ding! The bell echoed in my head. ELA class was over. Unfortunately, it was time to push my way through rowdy classmates in the halls to get to algebra before the second bell went off. I exited ELA, and waited for the sea of kids to decrease. I never even realized how many kids were in this school. Chattering leaving the halls, I frolicked to algebra. Right as I hauled in with my heavy stack of binders, a shiver traveled throughout my body like we were all stuck in a giant freezer.

Our substitute trotted in and all the talking faded away. Kids quickly adjusted their posture and were now ready to figure out the bell ringer. He seemingly decorated the white board with various streaks of the shiny green Expo Marker. We were all doing it at the same time, so we were allowed to yell out the answer. The topic was really hard which the sub didn’t assist us at all. However surprisingly, I thought I got it. But.. nope. From this day forward I will never yell out an answer again.

“13!” I shouted, popping up off the rough school chair. “The answer is 13!”

For once I thought I understood something in algebra. The class was working with their partners to also figure out the answer as the conversations were echoing throughout my ears. Suddenly they stopped. I hoped that it didn’t get quiet because of me. Aren’t we allowed to yell out the answer? The sub shaked his head to inform me my answer was incorrect. Laughs from everyone surrounded me.

“Um, what?” someone blurted, one eyebrow raised.
“This is so easy.”
“WRONG!” my classmates shouted. My eyes started to burn and I slumped back into the chair, crossing my arms like a pretzel. I wished I had never yelled out anything. Why are they attacking me? I wanted to be invisible.
“Settle down!” answered the sub.
            

“We all make mistakes,” I replied, crossing my arms. I was so embarrassed.
             “The answer wasn’t even close to 13,” argued someone else while sitting up in their chair.
              “Leave me alone!” I shrieked back.
   

I couldn’t cry. I sat there as stiff as a stone. No one understood that even though they might have been kidding around, it really upset me. The rest of the period no one made any contact with me. I made it through the rest of the school day, and then was glad to be home. I immediately took a trip to Autumn’s house while kicking every large pebble that was in my path. Her house is blue and grey with beautiful bright green bushes beside the paint chipped steps. I was a sobbing mess, and I hoped she would understand. I still didn’t see why people cared so much about my mistake. My hair was now wet from my tears. It stuck to the side of my face like glue. She slowly opened the creaky door and motioned me to step in. I told her about everything. And I realize how good it felt to get everything off my chest. She understood me, and didn’t laugh or look away. She stared into my eyes and listened.

“It’s okay,” she whispered, as soft as a cat’s purr. “Everyone will forget about it. One time in ELA I had to sing a song in front of the whole class for a project. You know how bad of a singer I am. People were snickering at me and it was totally embarrassing. I got over it. Trust me, it will pass.” she assured me. I started to ask myself, was it even that big of a deal?

“Thank you,” my frown now reversed. I loved how she made me feel so much better. We started to laugh… and might have even snorted. I can always count on Autumn to brighten the bad days.

Everyone needs a caring best friend. Having a best friend like Autumn impacts my life and teaches me new things every single day from manners to advice. Since my best friend helped me with my problems, no matter how little, now I know to do the same for my future best friends. Sometimes we have our ups and downs, but at the end of the day she’s always a friend. And she changed me for the better.