Upgrading

March 8th, 2009

When I was ten years old, my parents made me change schools mid-term. We’d moved a few suburbs away and the 30+ minutes of driving every morning and afternoon was giving mum the shits.

I’ve never been able to make new friends easily, and I was no better at it back then. In fact, the only friend I managed to recruit that year was a girl named Kim, who wore thick glasses and constantly had the faint aroma of shit about her.

“Kim wears nappies,” the other kids gossiped, “cause she poos her pants all the time.”

I didn’t find the smell too bad, so I hung out with Kim and invited her over to my house a few times. She was nice enough and she always gave me half of her roll-up.

When school finished for the year, Kim went away on holiday with her family. She sent me a postcard from Jenolan Caves that read:

Dear Annik,

I miss you. I’m glad you came to our school. Thank you for being my friend and for not making fun of me like the others do.

Love, Kim.

After the summer break, Kim and I were enrolled in different classes because I was smarter than her. In my new class, a group of four girls, who were reasonably pretty, started letting me sit with them at lunch and invited me to the movies and their birthday parties. I never really spoke to Kim again after that.

recollections - 7 Comments »

7 Responses to “Upgrading”

All kids are douchebags. Adults are douchebags, too, but they’re better at hiding it.

Comment by Tanner on March 8th, 2009

@Tanner – I agree so wholeheartedly, it’s not even funny.

Comment by Annik on March 8th, 2009

I did that. But then I found out that the “popular” girls only talked to me because they felt sorry for me. Then I made friends with the class geeks. Nowadays I vaguely keep in contact with everybody. School sucks.

Comment by ellie on March 8th, 2009

I went to four different schools and this situation would come up time and again. School life was tough – the moment you felt good about things, you were hurting someone.

Comment by Penny on March 8th, 2009

Respect Annik. You taught her one of lifes big lessons early. You’ll lose friends if you crap your pants. Simple but timeless

Comment by andy on March 9th, 2009

Ah Annik… you’re an inspiration to us all! If it weren’t for you, poo-pants wouldn’t have had a friend at all that year! Kudos to your good deed!

Comment by Jessica Wood on March 9th, 2009

I feel a bit bad for her, but that could be because I’m imagining her as a lumbering landbeast with three pigtails and a roll of toilet paper trailing from her backpack. That probably isn’t fair either.

Comment by Helen on March 9th, 2009

Leave a Comment