Alexa and Brittany were best friends. They’d known each other since Brittany moved next door in 2nd grade. They hung out almost every day after school when they were getting along.

They were very different people. Alexa did great with her school work, read a lot of books, and took ballet classes. Brittany, on the other hand, would rather play soccer, chat with other kids at school, and rarely sat still for long enough to finish reading a chapter of a book.

Often, Alexa and Brittany would play together at the park across the street. They’d play on the equipment, or play soccer. If it was raining outside, they’d go in one of their houses to play video games, or do their nails. Some days they could spend hours together without a single problem, but other days they just could not agree on what to do.

One day, Alexa said. “Come on, let’s play on the equipment. We’ve played soccer for the last three days!”

“They just cut the grass, I love playing soccer when the grass is nice and short. I don’t want to play on the equipment,” Brittany replied.

“We always do what you want to do, Brittany. It’s my turn to choose.” Alexa was getting frustrated.

“Fine, go play on the equipment by yourself! I’m playing soccer,” Brittany shouted.

Alexa left. She was really angry. When she got home, she realized she still had Brittany’s notebook. “Well, I’m not giving it back today. I’m too mad at her.” Alexa thought.

The next day at school, their teacher asked for their notebooks. Brittany didn’t have hers, and asked Mrs. Stone if she could bring it in tomorrow instead. Mrs. Stone let them have just one late assignment a month, but Brittany had already used hers. Brittany looked upset. Alexa was having an internal (内心的) conflict. She knew she should tell Mrs. Stone that she had the notebook, but she was still mad at Brittany for not agreeing with her at the park yesterday. At last, she decided to admit her mistake.

When it was time for lunch, Alexa talked with Mrs. Stone.

After school, Mrs. Stone sat down and talked with the two girls.

That day, the weather was very hot, and I was very nervous, unable to keep still and think calmly. My friend John and I were discussing a problem. Everything was going well. However, in the middle of our discussion happened an unexpected incident — he made ink from his pen on my new notebook by accident. I was very angry and I said to him, “Why did you do that?” As I spoke, I deliberately spilled the ink from my pen onto his book. “You, you did it on purpose,” he said loudly. At that moment, he was very angry. His face was red with anger, his eyebrows were almost raised, his forehead was wrinkled (皱起) more and more tight, and his mouth was wide open. Suddenly, he pushed my things on the table to the floor. When I saw him do this, I was so annoyed with him that I pushed his to the floor, and angrily said to him, “We are no longer friends!” “Well, it’s you who break off the friendship!” The friend shouted like a lion. I immediately took my things and left.

From that day on, every time I met him, I would take another way to avoid him. Though he seemed to want to say something, I didn’t wait for him to say anything, and ran away like an arrow.

Since that incident, I had been reflecting (反思) on myself, feeling that I had done something wrong, but I didn’t have enough courage to apologize to him. I knew that he didn’t mean to make ink from his pen on the book that time, but I exactly did. I shouldn’t have made his book wet in ink by design. I hated myself all the time. I was angry with myself.

One day, I suddenly heard that John was going to study in another school.

I was so happy that tears of joy welled up in my eyes.

The first time I saw Jeff was when my best friend, Brian, and I were in the fourth grade. When our teacher introduced Jeff to the class, she explained that he was sick and that he might not be able to be in class all of the time.

Jeff was completely bald (秃顶的) from cancer treatments, and he wore a hat. That was one reason that he and I bonded right away. Being the tomboy that I was, I liked wearing a hat — only I wasn’t allowed to wear one in class. Jeff was allowed to wear his hat all of the time. Other than that, he was a normal friend to both Brian and me. Some things he couldn’t do as well as the other kids because he had tubes in his chest for his treatments, but we never thought of him as sick because he didn’t act that way.

The only time that we would realize that Jeff was sick was when he went for his chemotherapy treatments (化疗). We’d notice the difference, but we’d just sort of think, yeah, Jeff was not feeling really well, but then it would pass and things would be back to normal.

Jeff, Brian and I were really sports lovers, and we became best friends. We would swim, jump and run together. As fourth grade progressed, Jeff seemed to get worse. During the summer between fourth and fifth grades, we spent tons of time together outdoors, running everywhere, although it had been hard for him to finish the run. Still, he was really happy when he was able to cross the finish line, and so were we.

Before school started, Jeff told me that he would be away for a few weeks to have his operation.

“Bye, see you in a month or so,” I said to him as if nothing much was happening.

Then came the night when the phone rang. It was Jeff’s mom.

Brian and I decided to do something to help everybody remember Jeff.