As a child, only changed school twice. Once, when I left primary school and went to the local comprehensive, and then again after taking my O levels, when I went on to the Sixth Form at a different school. The first change was terrifying, and the second one, liberating.

When I think back, I remember there always being new faces, and gaps where kids had moved away. Both times that I changed schools, it was as I completed one stage of my education, and moved on into the next. That meant that I was never the solitary new face. There was always others in the same situation, feeling just as lost and uncertain.

This poem imagines a young girl who has moved across the country to a new home, a new school and a new start. Facing uncertainty in her home life, she decides that she needs the stability of a best friend, and so she seeks one out.

Forever Friends

New school, new start
The girl scans the classroom
Hoping to find a forever friend
Invisible to most, she fills your vision
When she looks your way
Your eyes meet and lock

The scribbling begins
On scraps of torn paper 
Images of hearts and tiny stick figures
Holding hands under a tree.
Words like “best friends forever” and “love” 
Liberally adorned with X’s and O’s

‘Do you love me?’
Her note demands
YES and NO writ large
Eagerly demanding an answer
Terrified of getting caught
But not of loving, or of asking. 

Choosing your thickest marker
There must be no doubt
Circling YES and underlining it, twice
You add kisses and hearts
Heart thumping, you slide it back to her
Letting the magic begin

Photo by ?? Janko Ferli? on Unsplash