A Special Someone

This is a place that became very important to me just over this past weekend although it's been a spot for a while now. This senior year I kind of pushed everyone away but there were a few others like me who stuck around and who I still talk to everyday at lunch and consider my best friends. At lunch, we had our routine. We all sat in the same spots everyday and it was always like that. There were usually just seven of us, me, Mya, Brooke, Autumn, Lauren, Hailey L, and Meghan. Sometimes Haley H and Sheena would show up but not all the time. This was the happiest part of my day. We were this little group that didn't really make sense since we were all from different “groups” as they call it. Some of us were from the “populars”, different grades, some were online for some of highschool and then came back out of the blue and some of us seemed to have fallen off the planet and people just forgot we existed. But one thing about us is that we all didn't care about any of that, we were just happy to have real friends again. 

This spot became ours in less than a week. When Mya and I found out about the hour lunch we picked our spot and claimed it. We made sure we got there as early as possible everyday so people knew to back off. This spot was brilliant. It’s the area downstairs in Mr. Schellerts hallway by the stairs where the railing is blocking off the windows. That's our spot. It has always been our spot but nothing really that special until now.

On April 29th around 11:45p.m. I lost one of my best friends, Brooke, in a car accident. I got the text around 9:30 the next morning and didn’t know what to believe. That whole day it was phone call after phone call trying to figure out what happened and what the truth was because to be honest, I didn't want to believe anyone or anything. How can someone be there and then just be gone? I was just talking to her, she isn't dead. Right?

Monday the 30th was the hardest. I went to school trying to keep in the tears knowing she wasn’t walking around the building or sitting in her classes, probably sleeping or watching her netflix shows since she never actually participated in classes. I could hear the kids talking, trying to make assumptions on what happened on the road that night. Finally lunch hit, and our spot had been blocked off for AP testing. I broke down. I could feel her sitting in the closed, lonely stairwell area alone waiting for us to come sit next to her. She wanted us over there talking like we usually did, laughing, messing around just like it would be if she was still there. 

After sitting outside our usual area in pretty much silence for a good 30 minutes I went to Dr. Lindquist. I talked to him about Brooke's spot at lunch and how much it meant to me and how I think it would be a fun and memorable way to decorate her spot. And of course, with him being the type of person he is, he was all for it and offered to help. So now, next week my lunch group and I will spend lunch decorating the landing area by the stairs with the giant windows in memory of Brooke and all the love and memories she brought to us all. This personal essay was about a place that has now become so special to me but, it is also about a memory, a value and most importantly my person, Brookie.