Once Broken but Never Lost

It's late spring of 8th grade year I'm a student at King Middle School; while attending an elective fair with my best friend Eliza Jo who was actually leaving at the end of the year to attend Orange Grove in the fall. To me this was the worst thing possible being she's my only friend and I didn’t know what I'd do without her being next to me for the next four years. We walked into the gym where we saw a variety the booths that carried possibilities. The room was filled with next four years of my life, the options that would give me a distractions I needed for my utterly boring adolescent life. If I had to describe myself I would say I was a simple girl with brunette hair, a flat chest because for some reason my mom’s genetics gave me her face but completely skipped the boob factor. Lets just add that I wore glasses and usually church dresses or jeans and black jackets. So I wasn't gods gift to the world with style. Also my other somewhat friends that weren’t that close tried throwing away my black jacket one year, trying to get me to come out from my shell. Luckily enough I found it on a restroom break stuffed into one of the trashcans in the cafeteria. Oh! How I hated my life! Eliza pointed out a few different electives as we strolled toward the back of the gym, which all I could do was roll my eyes. My enthusiasm wasn’t that great. See Eliza Jo is a blonde hair blue eyes, boobs(average), tall and skinny she was complete opposite of me and a social butterfly as they would call it. Which, honestly I don’t know what it was that she saw in me, but everything she pointed out like dance team and cheer leading weren’t anything that I was interested in. I mean I was the yearbook geek that year and looked forward to being it the next four. I suck at athletics, so future jock wasn't in the cards. But sadly in high school you couldn’t be on year book unless you were a sophomore. Urgh ! Eliza always saw only but the best for me and for some reason I couldn’t. As we rounded the gym almost coming to the end I couldn’t help but see out of the corner of my eye, a man in wearing khaki slacks and a khaki button up shirt. He had all of these ribbons lined up so…neatly. With a khaki belt that had a shiny brass buckle that if you got close enough I'm sure you could see your reflection in it, and as soon as I look down to his feet he’s wearing black polished shoes and I’m pretty sure that if he looked down he could see himself.  Next thing I knew I'm two steps in front of the booth and as I read the pamphlet the man approached me, “Hi there, my name is Master chief Ramsey!” he said so sternly. Stuttering, “Lila...ja” Is about the only thing I could mutter out.I mean who forget their own name. Lila James..you dummy.     “Are you planning on joining JROTC..Lila Ja” J…what? I didn’t know what the heck this was but all I knew was it was interesting enough for me to say.     “I am thinking about it, but umm… what is it exactly?”     He just gave me the slyest grin, “why it’s the Naval Junior Officer Training Corp, where young men and women like yourself learn discipline, Naval Science, learn to march, and learn everyday skills that can be applied to most careers.”     There was a long pause...till he inserted a, "It also looks good on a college application!"                         Bingo!! Am I about to join the Navy or is this an elective at a high school  I thought to myself as Eliza and I walked away. It sounded interesting enough; my grandpa and uncle both serve in the military and hell if this is the closest I got, than I sure as hell want to try. But I think my mom is going to have a field day with this. As we exited the gym Eliza had this look on her face like she just got awarded student of the month.     “Why are you so smiling so big?” I asked her.         “You look like you found something that might just bring you right out!” she said.  All I could think was, out…out of what the closet? Ha! I just looked at her with a sad look on my face.         “But what would it matter if I don’t have you there!”     She sighed, “I know it’s not going to be the same, but we will talk every day and tell each other how our day at school went.” And deep down inside I knew that would only last a few weeks.  Till there would be no communication. Walking toward the cafeteria to so we could fill out our schedules for next year, all I could hear was the loud echoing of preteen ambition, everyone stating how they can’t wait to be a freshman and how this year just went by so fast and they look forward to the next. All I could think was, what I was going to do without my best friend. As we sat down and given the run down on when to expect our schedules to be ready for pick up at the high school on the coming Wednesday. Along with our supply list. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sitting in my grandma's love seat across from her as they discussed my high school decisions. I started wondering if I was the only loser that signed up for the Summer Boot Camp, and the only scene that kept replaying in my head was the one from Full Metal Jacket, where Gomer Pile was given a soap party cause he didn't know jack from s**t. Was I gonna be Gomer Pyle? Either way it being too late, being that my mom already signed my permission slip and was actually a lot more enthusiastic with my choice in elective and gladly paid the $30.00 for me to go, than I was. My grandma was the one having a hard time accepting it and all my mom could do was keep telling her, “It’s not like she’s going into the military it’s just a program at school that will probably help her keep her grades up.” My grandma would just sit on the couch huffing and puffing. To my grandma I was everything; she was actually more of a mom to me than my mom was when I was growing up.  “Es mi Reyna, I don't want anything bad to happen to her.” "She'll be fine Victoria!" my mom assured her.