My close friends and I often spend time being ourselves, and only doing what interests us at that moment. As freshmen in high school, we were carefree and would hang out together as much as we wanted. That all changed as time went by because of our competitive nature, of wanting the most credits and highest average. The history of our friendship is similar to the story about a god who lived alone on a mountaintop, and would peer down to earth and notice all the animals playing with one another. One day the god decided to invite the animals to a banquet. He invited the rat, the cow, the dragon, the snake, the sheep, the tiger, the rabbit, the pig, the dog, the rooster, the monkey, the horse, and the cat. The gathering had brought much happiness to the lonely god. The animals and the god promised that even if they died and were reincarnated a thousands times, they would always come back together for banquets.
“That wouldn’t be true happiness, if we continued to hold the same banquet,” said the cat, “All things must come to an end, no matter how bad or how good.
“How dare you!” furiously shouted the god, “You are to never come again.”
When the cat died and was reborn, he never went to another banquet.

Freshman year of high school holds the best memories for my friends and me. I had met the five-foot-one bubbly, and hyper Mei Ly, who has become a big part of my life, and the artistic, little fun-sized Mandy Franco, who thinks outside of the box, yet on all sides of a Rubik Cube. Mei can attract the attention of a room with just a glance of her dramatically-all-pink attire, while smarty-pants Mandy hides under layers of her self-designed sweaters, and shirts.
We spent a complete day together at the end of freshmen year, running around 5th Avenue near Sunset Park. The three of us had met up at a playground with a grassy field, where we tried a feeble attempt of playing catch with a football. After about an hour we were done embarrassing ourselves and decided to explore the neighborhood, which was a mixture of residential, industrial, and commercial zones. The block was full of Asian stores, mixed with the American corporations like Burger King and McDonald’s.
We went to eat. Mei and Mandy stuffed down sandwiches, while I grabbed myself some lemonade. We bought friendship rings, and explored the insides of a pet shop. The day was ordinary, but for someone like me who isn’t allowed outside of the house much, it was memorable. It was the first time in my teenage life when I got to hangout with my friends. It was also the last day, because after that summer day, the three of us drifted to other cliques, and got serious about our education.