Me and Lucy met in year 6. I don't know if she even remembers the day, but I do. We were at Wavell for an induction day, a sample sports lesson, and she went to Guides with two of my primary school friends. I don't really remember what we said to each other, or what I thought of her, I just remember being introduced to her.
Flash forward to year 11 and we've been in a similar sort of social group for a while, but never really been that close, and we find ourselves in a very different sports lesson. By this point the teachers have stopped caring what we do in mandatory P.E, and our girls group alternated between trampolining and workout dvds and the only person I knew well enough to consider an actual friend was Lucy. She and I were both having boy trouble, 15 year old boy trouble, so we bonded in between sessions on the trampoline. The more we talked, the more we wondered why we weren't better friends. As we struggled with our social group, we ended up taking refuge in a music room every so often, and then pretty much every lunch time. By the end of the year, we were best friends. It was just the two of us and this group of boys so there was never any drama, never any competition, issues or bitchiness; it was just us.
We stayed this way, going on to college together, until the following summer when Lucy dropped out and started work at a nursery. I was worried that we would lose touch, that we just wouldn't have enough in common, but we stayed as close as ever, perhaps even closer because we had to make time to see each other; it was no longer something to take for granted. She was there for me when everything went crazy, and we even managed to stay best friends as I took a year off and traveled to South Sudan and Asia. Even when we worked completely contrasting shifts in completely contasting jobs, we would do breakfast dates to squash in an hour or two of chatting about life.
And now, ten years since we first met as tiny eleven year olds, Lucy is hopefully off to the University of Surrey to study midwifery and I am off to live in America! It's crazy and amazing and I know that through skype dates and facebook and this little blog, we will stay best friends.
All this year we have been trying to find a weekend free from Lucy's gigs and my uni work so that she could come and stay with me in Canterbury. This weekend was pretty much the only one available, so, in spite of the ridiculous amount of revision I needed to do, she came up on Friday and was the best exam distraction ever!
On Friday, I took her in true Canterbury style to Westgate Wetherspoons for burgers and then we got ready to go out. As it isn't officially term time, our student union wasn't open (sorry Lucy, you'll get there one day!) so we decided to go to Chemistry instead. As most people were revising/tired/broke/still at home, we had a pretty small group, but it ended up being a really good night. I rarely stay out in Canterbury past about half two, and we stayed out until four! I know that to most hard-core clubbers, that is probably really unimpressive, but I was proud!
Saturday was much more low key, we got up slowly, went for an amazing long lunch at La Trappiste, humongous sandwiches, salad and garlic mushrooms. I literally could have died it was so good. I love that place. Then we pottered round town for a bit, got a couple of bits for Adam's birthday on the 6th, and then came home and watched Louis Theroux documentaries and Clueless with Chinese takeaway.
We ate so much food it was unreal.
It was literally the best form of procrastination, and I was so happy she came! Love you, Lucy!
