Petty, not pretty

I used to be the boss on the elementary school playground. I used to play basketball with the boys (before they hit puberty), kick the furthest in kickball, pound at tetherball, make them run when I sparred in Tang Su Do. So I was usually team captain when team sports came around.

We decided to play kickball one day, and my rival and I were the usual captains. I chose my closest friends first (default), and then just picked from the rest of the group. I guess in elementary school, cliques have not been something of a distinction, so everyone was friends with everyone else. Some people think they're more of a friend than you would expect, and that's when the separation begins and feelings get hurt. One of my classmates expected to be on my team, but I ended up not picking her. She was one of those friends that you would talk to in class, but not really outside the confines of the academic world. She played on the other team, and was especially set on getting me out single handedly. I thought it was almost rude because she started making bad calls and bending the rules, but it was just a game.

We didn't really talk in class anymore.

5th grade came, and I remember we actually got into a physical fight under the shade of a tree one day. I don't remember why we fought, but I remember I pulled a big ugly bug out of my hair after school because she had pushed me to the ground. We ended up hating each other over something negligible that started a year earlier.

To me, not being on the same team is just something that happens, and is nothing really personal. Too bad something so little ended a friendship. I don't know where she is, or what she's doing now, but I'm sure if we played kickball again, I'd obliterate her.