Don't believe me? One time, we ventured to Mexican Village Restaurant as a family. She was 15, and received the 12 and under kids' menu. Wouldn't have been so bad except that my youngest sister, who was 10 or 11 at the time, got the adult menu. Her nickname is Bean, because she's skinny as a beanpole (I may be mostly responsible for that one...).
Lacee and I fought like sisters.... er, yeah. Lots of yelling, probably over toys. And then I'd sit on her, and she'd call me fat cow (which, compared to her, I really was), and I'm sure we'd end up giving each other the silent treatment. But we shared a room for most of our lives, and come bed time, we let bygones be bygones and played with our stuffed animals, Moonlight and Babs, when we were supposed to be sleeping.
Come middle school, she decided to homeschool, while I stayed with my friends and started wearing wide-leg jeans and flannel shirts. She tells me now that she thought I was going to hell (don't worry, we laugh about it!). Needless to say, we grew a part a little. Maybe because I also slept in the basement during this stint (I was so much more mature and needed my own room).
She didn't really become my best friend until I started high school (and I stopped wearing goth-like clothes). Lacee made it to state in Cross Country (a sport I went out for first), and I wanted to be jealous of her but was just too proud! We were in all 3 sports together that year, and it didn't take long to realize how much I loved having her around. She was so good, and we just sort of let each other have our own niche within each sport... she ran distance, I did mid-distance and fields. She did bars, I did floor and vault, and we both sucked at beam. We built each other up and were one another's biggest fans.
One of the saddest moments in my life was handing off the baton to her in our final 4x400 relay. Would have been sadder if I knew she was going to go to a different college!
We're both married, both have two kids. Still best friends. Love you, Bean.
