when disaster strikes a perfect Friendship

名称：when disaster strikes a perfect Friendship
内容简介：
By Lissa Rovetch
Art by Amanda Morley and BB Sams

Dear Arizona,
　　My friend and I got into a fight. We haven’t talked in more than a week, and I’m afraid we’ll never make up. Help!
　 — Afraid in Alaska







Dear Afraid,
　　Aren’t friendships strange? One minute they’re going along great. Then some random argument happens, and your perfectly perfect friendship turns into the most disastrously disastrous disaster in the world!

My neighbor Ollie and I have been incredibly good friends since we were little. Of course, we’ve had disagreements. That’s bound to happen when you spend so much time with someone. But we recently had an incident that made me think I could lose him as a friend forever!

It started the day Ollie came to the Harvest Fair with my mom, my little brother and sister, and me.

“Time to board the Harvest Fair bus!” said Mom.

“There’s actually a Harvest Fair bus?” Ollie asked.

“Yep,” Mom said, pointing to our driveway and smiling.

“That’s not a bus!” Tex laughed. “That’s our van.”

It was a long ride, but the sky was the bluest blue, and the leaves were turning amazing colors.

When we arrived, Mom said to Ollie and me, “Tex and Indi want to try the pony ride. Since you’re too big for that, would you like to go play some games?”

Ollie and I started with the ring toss, where you had to get rings on purple plastic penguins. After a million tries, I finally threw a ring that was about to land on a penguin—when another ring knocked mine out of the way!

“Yes! Score one for the ringtoss master,” said the kid who’d thrown the intrusive ring.

I looked at Ollie for sympathy, then realized he was smiling at the other kid.

“Is that you, Ethan?” Ollie said. “What are you doing here?”

“Ollie! Great to see you, dude,” said Ethan. “You know what? I just won a soccer ball at the last booth.”

Almost immediately, they moved over to a patch of grass and started kicking the ball back and forth.

I followed them. “Um, I’m Arizona,” I said awkwardly.

“Oh hi,” said Ethan. “Ollie and I are on the same soccer team.”

“Can you believe that last game?” Ollie said, kicking the ball to Ethan.

“We got so crushed.” Ethan kicked the ball to Ollie.

“Everyone on that team was twice as big as us!” Ollie kicked the ball to Ethan.

They went on and on like that as if I didn’t exist.

“The Rope Ladder looks fun,” I said. “Want to try it?”


Neither of them even looked up. I thought about saying “Am I wearing an invisibility cloak or something?” Instead, I headed to the craft booth, where my mom, Tex, and Indi were.

“Doesn’t Ollie want to join us?” Mom asked.

“He ran into a friend from soccer,” I mumbled, picking out leaves for a harvest wreath.

On the ride home, my feelings were still so hurt that I couldn’t even look at Ollie.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, but I pretended not to hear.

Just before we dropped Ollie off, I said under my breath, “You are the world’s worst friend.”

He looked surprised and a little angry. When he got out of the van, he thanked my mom but didn’t even say good-bye to me.

Ollie and I didn’t speak to each other for an entire week. The next Saturday, though, we happened to be at our neighborhood park at the same time, and Ollie came over to me. “I can’t figure out what I did wrong,” he said.

“Are you serious?” I said. “You were so rude at that fair. You abandoned me when Ethan showed up!”

“You’re the one who left us! We were all having a great time, then you disappeared.”

“No. You two were having fun. You left me out completely.”

“You thought I was leaving you out on purpose?”

“Well, you weren’t trying to include me.”

“I was just surprised to see Ethan there.” Ollie shrugged. “I’m sorry.”

I took a deep breath.

“I think we both took things the wrong way,” Ollie continued. “Can we go back to being friends?”

I thought about it. Having Ollie as a friend made life a lot more fun, and it seemed silly to give that up because of one little argument. “OK,” I said.

So we started hanging out again. Things were slightly weird at first, but they went pretty much back to normal after a few days.

As you know, dear Afraid, arguments can happen between even the best of friends. When you’re ready, talk it out with your friend and make sure you listen to each other’s point of view. If you decide that the friendship is worth it, try to forgive each other and get on with your lives!

Ciao for now,

Arizona