Kim  1  

Jung Youn (Jay) Kim

Mr. Pye

Creative Writing

March 31, 2011

When We Are Together

When we are together,

I become the happiest person in the world.

There is nothing I can’t laugh over.

You are my vitamin.

When we are together,

I become a superhero.

There is nothing I can’t overcome.

You are my power.

But when I am alone,

I become the most powerless and useless.

I cry under my bed, feeling despair

and thinking that you are not with me anymore.

When you find me crying,

You say, “You are not alone.”

I look into your eyes and smile.

“Because we are friends.”

  Kim  2  

“Chae! Are you ready yet?”

“I am coming! Bye, mom!”

As always, my day started with Maddie’s loud voice calling me from the outside of

my house. I grabbed a bagel on the table and ran outside. I saw Maddie’s pretty blond hair in

braids on each side of her shoulders with pink ribbons. Then I saw Maddie in a shirt that says

Madeline with a soccer logo in the back. Since Maddie always heads straight to soccer

practices every afternoon and I watch her practicing, it seemed nothing special to me. I

hopped onto Maddie’s bicycle and asked,

“Are we late, Maddie?”

“Did you wake up late again? I think we can make it.”

Maddie concentrated on rowing her feet as fast as she could and in few minutes I saw our

school on the hill. Our school, which is located on a hill, is very large public school in

Burnaby, BC. It has a very long track around and huge field inside the track lines. I always

feel sorry for Maddie whenever I realize that our school is on a steep monster-looking hill.

When we were near by the field, we saw some kids running around and playing Frisbee.

When I stopped looking around and faced Maddie’s back, she shouted,

“Why are you so heavy, Chae?”

“Sorry for being so heavy! We are almost there!”

We headed to our lockers as fast as we could and grabbed the math textbooks and utensils. As

we ran up to the second floor and entered the classroom, Rosa greeted us. Rosa was reading a

thick book with very small letters in it. As she saw us coming in, she took off her glasses and

said as if she was proud of us.

“You guys made it!”

“Whatever. I hate you, Chae.”

  Kim  3  

Maddie replied as she sank into the chair, still breathing heavily. Rosa giggled and asked me,

“Did you come out late again, Chae?”

“Yea. Sorry, Maddie. I will get you a drink!”

Maddie, Rosa, and I became close friends at the freshmen retreat camp. We were in a

same group and we soon became friends by sharing some common facts. Unlike me, both of

my friends are very talented. Maddie is an ideal athlete – there is nothing she can’t play

perfectly from skiing to swimming – but most importantly, she loves playing sports. She

thinks that giving me a ride to school on her bicycle is like a morning exercise for her.

Although she always complains that I am too heavy and all, she is very kind to me and I really

like her too. On the other hand, Rosa is the smartest among us. She certainly hangs out with

us all the time, but ironically, she always gets 100’s on all of her tests and quizzes. I always

think that she is a genius. She always helps me with subjects I have difficulty with. She is also

very popular and a freshmen class officer. I can’t live without Maddie and Rosa – they are

very precious to me – but one day, our lovely friendship started to twist and crack.

Rosa intensely gazed at a boy in the first row of the class during the class. She

suddenly turned to me and whispered,

“Don’t you think he’s cute?”

“Who? David?”

“Yes!”

Maddie whispered from the back and continued,

“I think so too. He definitely is cute.”

“I can’t really see that. I seriously can’t.”

But we had to stop the conversation as our teacher shouted,

“You three in the back! What are you guys whispering about! Focus!”

  Kim  4  

David is very tall and he is in Varsity Football Team. According to Maddie, he is the captain

of the team and she thinks that he will be the MVP of the year. Unlike the huge body he has,

he has a “baby face” according to what Maddie and Rosa said. I think I heard that he is the

most popular boy in our grade, but when I heard it I couldn’t stop laughing. I thought that was

the most ridiculous thing that I have heard. They think that David is cute somehow, but I

couldn’t agree with them. If they knew the truth of him, they wouldn’t think like that.

As the bell rang, indicating it is time for lunch, Maddie, Rosa, and I headed to the

cafeteria. Cafeteria was already full of students and they were already making a long line to

get their lunch. I thought it is obvious what is going to be our lunch because the whole school

smelled like hamburgers and french fries with strong cheese odor, which are Rosa’s favorite

dishes. As expected, Rosa exclaimed,

“Yum! Burgers and fries!”

Maddie and Rosa were waiting in the line to get some food and I was looking for the seats for

three of us. I found empty seats and saved the space for Maddie and Rosa, but that instant

moment, David came up to me and asked,

“Can I sit with you?”

“Sorry, David, but I am going to sit with my friends. Next time!”

“Okay, see you later!”

As David walked away, I saw Rosa and Maddie standing with hamburgers and fries and

staring at me. They slowly approached to me with very serious expressions on their faces.

“What is this, Chae? You know David?”

“You said you are not interested in him! How could you?”

“Wait, guys. You are misunderstanding something. I am not…”

“Whatever!”

  Kim  5  

Since that day, it seemed like Maddie and Rosa were avoiding me. They didn’t even

listen to me. How could they so easily betray our friendship because of a guy? I felt so

betrayed as I saw Maddie and Rosa hanging around and giggling. It hurt. I thought I finally

met my best friends that once I thought I could give anything to them. Everything in school

was meaningless. Although I talked with some other friends, that was it. I couldn’t dare to

make another friend because they will leave me alone again. It was very common thing for me

before my freshman year at high school. I always tended to be alone in elementary and middle

school. When I finally met Maddie and Rosa, everything changed. I went outside of my house

more often and became more outgoing, but everything was done.

At the last day of school before march break, every girls were giving hugs to their

friends saying good byes like “have a great break”, “make sure you call me”, or “take a

picture and make sure it’s on Facebook”. Everyone seemed they were happy, except me, but

that moment, Rosa and Maddie came up to me and said,

“Well, have a great break.”

“We wanted to say sorry for several weeks because I feel like it was mean to do what

we did, but we didn’t know how to. Sorry.”

“We still love you. Will you forgive us?”

I couldn’t stop myself from crying that moment. Although once I felt so betrayed, I was just

so happy that we were friends again. I confirmed again, asking,

“So are we friends again?”

“Of course! We are sorry, Chae!”

That moment, I thought of a phrase that I read in my favorite poem.

When you find me crying,

You say, “You are not alone.”

  Kim  6  

I look into your eyes and smile.

“Because we are friends.”

They calmed me, who was now crying out loud, down and I started to quite down little by

little. They hugged me again and again until there were no more tears in my eyes. We headed

to a café with soothing coffee smell nearby our school. It was so bright outside and warm

which made me think that it is actually spring. We were laughing again like we used to.

Maddie with chocolate ice cream in front of her, Rosa with vanilla ice cream, and I with

strawberry flavored ice cream, we started to talk and gossip just like nothing has happened

among us.

“So how is it going with David, Chae?”

“What David?”

“David that we had fight over!”

“Oh, I tried to tell you guys this, but you guys didn’t listen to me. David is my

brother.”