I was three when I got my first best friend, Becca. Each day at nursery school we played together on the monkey bars, pushed each other on the swings, made up stories together and acted them out. Never did we argue or fight. When we visited each other's houses we would dress up and create fantasy worlds. Little did I know that my best friend had a life-threatening kidney disease that caused her not to grow, but she and her family were not depressed about it. They always seemed so happy and cheerful.

Our friendship grew until we went to different schools for kindergarten. I felt a deep loss in our friendship although we still stay in touch.

In kindergarten I met my second best friend, Lucy. Lucy may have looked like a rag doll but she was the smartest most interesting girl in the class. For the next three years we had the same teachers and spent a lot of our free time together playing on the computer, drawing, catching crickets, playing in our treehouse under a giant pine, swimming and biking together. One of the things I found fascinating about her was that her mother had died of cancer when Lucy was only four. I wondered what that was like and she said she was too young to understand at first, but it got easier as years passed.

Lucy and I aren't really alike. I like to use my imagination, but Lucy likes to talk about things that are real. She is always talking to her Dad, so she talks about grown-up things. One day she was talking about her I.Q. and I said my I.Q. is really high, the doctor says I can see really well. She laughed and told me that I.Q. meant how smart you not how good your eyes are. Lucy has changed a lot since I've been away. She looks more like other girls and she started to do more fun things like singing and acting. We write as often as we can and we'll always be best friends