The government has entrusted me with

a middle schooler.

What could they have been thinking?

Yes, as of today, Mo is finished with elementary school and is moving on to middle school.

My best friend during those years was Diana. Her wealthy family moved in across the street only after the neighborhood had gentrified. She had snow white hair and a lightning fast mind. I loved her immediately.

We were troublemakers in a way that never attracted punishment. We were always up to no good in ways that never made us look bad. Nobody ever questioned us when we showed up at school with no shoes. They only sent us home to put some on. We slipped outside, put on our shoes we'd hidden in the bushes and snuck off to the park to smoke a joint. Nobody questioned our carefully forged notes saying we had to leave early for choir practice at our church. People waved and smiled at us when we spent our lunch money on coffee and cigarettes at the Hurtz Cafe every morning before school. Nobody batted an eye when we dressed up and walked to church every Sunday even though our church was really the Alvin Hotel and the amazing cinnamon rolls they served at the restaurant.

Later we went to different high schools. Her mom and dad divorced and they moved. She got pregnant. She kept her baby at a time when wealthy girls didn't. She got her GED and a job in computers back when nobody had computers and she did very, very well for herself. Like I said, she had a lightning fast mind.

Anyway, I'm kind of missing Diana today and so I invite you to tell me about your best friend during the years of your life you spent in Jr. high/middle school/whatever they called it when you were there.