Be Real, Macy Weaver

Best friendships were tricky. One day you were in. The next, you were out. At least, that was the case with Mia. And Darby. And Payton. Macy Weaver avoided looking over at any of those flakes as her teacher wrapped up
the last few seconds of fifth grade.
“Remember to read at least one novel this summer to keep those brains ticking,” Ms. Parker said, fanning herself as she wandered around the warm room. Outside, the groundskeeper hummed along atop his ride-on lawn mower. Inside, Mia and Darby whispered to each other, while Payton snuck her phone out to text under her desk. Macy didn’t pay attention to any of that. Instead, she
focused on drawing a large rainbow on her wrist. It wasn’t exactly neat, and some of the colors ran together a little bit-but it was there. As Ms. Parker finished speaking, Macy’s eyes flicked over to the ticking long hand moving its way around the wall clock. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting, until- yes! dismissal. Jumping out of her seat, Macy smoothed down her six crooked braids, then she tapped the rainbow on her wrist for good luck and darted from the room. All around her, hope bloomed. The days were warmer. Brighter. Girls huddled near water fountains, and boys shot fake hoops in the air. Lockers slammed extra loud. The last day of school had finally arrived. It wasn’t easy dodging through fifth graders in short-sleeved tees, high-top fades, and dingy house-key necklaces, but Macy made it work. She hopped over forgotten textbooks
and ducked under falling banners that warned the students to always practice good citizenship–until finally. “Matching tats!” Macy waved her arm in the face of her newest best friend, Josie Miller. Forget Mia. Forget Darby. And definitely forget Payton. Josie was the kind of girl who stuck around. There were times, these last few weeks, that Macy didn’t think she’d make it to this moment. But class time was over, her final textbook was turned in, and Macy Weaver and Josie Miller were still best friends, This was a huge win. For the first time in all the years Macy had been in school, she’d finally get to spend her entire summer break with a best friend, doing whatever it was best friends did. Josie swept her dark brown waist-length micro mini braids out of her face, revealing her glossy rainbow temporary wrist
tattoo. “Oh- cool,” she said, giving Macy a half smile. Macy breathed a sigh of relief as they walked toward the big double doors. Josie hadn’t said anything about Macy’s matching hairstyle that morning. But good thing she’d thought of something else to impress her. When Josie arrived toward the end of fifth grade, Macy,fresh off her latest bestie breakup, figured Josie would never
see her as friendship material. She’d already blown through three best friends in one school year–which might sound like a disaster but for Macy was an improvement. Last school year, and all the years before that, Macy had no best friends at all.Macy had no trouble using her eyes—-but all the trouble in the world using her mouth, so for her, making friends was kind of hard. Struggling to figure out just the right words and just the right way to say things made the creepy-crawlies show up -a tingling feeling that made Macy even more nervous. Her dad called it anxiety. Macy’s anxious feelings usually made her shrink down
further- and shy away more-until weeks, and months, and whole school years went by without finding that one kid to get close to. Well. The creepy-crawlies-or any of the other anxious feelings weren’t going to hold Macy back another year. She had spent the summer before this school year obsessively googling best friends. And this is what she learned: Best friends smile a lot. Best friends are always laughing. Best friends wear matching T-shirts sometimes. Best friends know everything about each other. So, on the first day of fifth grade, Macy smiled brighter than the sun. She laughed at everyone’s jokes and lent out so many pencils, her dad thought she was running a school store. But her hard work paid off. After laughing with Mia Brown one day, Mia turned to Macy and asked,”Want to become best friends?” Macy quickly nodded yes and scooted a little closer to her new bestie at the lunch table. Her heart nearly burst open from her good fortune. And things were perfect. Macy wanted to
keep things that way. So whenever she didn’t know what to
do, she copied whatever Mia said and did. If Mia wore purple,
Macy wore purple the next day. And if Mia accidentally
burped at lunchtime? Macy forced enough air up her throat to
let out a tiny burp, too. Until one day, Mia dumped her.
Boom- just like that- crushing Macy’s heart like freshly
fallen snow under a boot.