Best Friend Ever

When I was in the fourth grade, my father's grandmother died in her sleep.  Her funeral was over the Thanksgiving weekend, so during the break, Dad flew our entire family out to Spokane, Washington to attend.  I had never met my great-grandmother, so I was solemn at a lost life though not being exactly distraught with grief.

After the funeral, my dad took us to Oregon to visit my grandpa at the strapping age of 60, where I met my aunt and two uncles (all younger than me... go, Grandpa!).  At any rate, we stayed there for a day, but then we were on our way back to the airport at Washington to fly back to Okinawa.

Our flight was scheduled to leave at eleven, but since weather basically has a giant grudge against Spokane, it was delayed until midnight.  My mom, my dad, my two sisters, my baby brother, and myself all waited in the food court for our flight to be announced.  The only other people in the entirety of the food court was this family of three: a father, a teenage boy who looked to be in his junior year of high school, and his brother who looked to be my age.

Overhearing a conversation about Pokemon, I wandered over.  It was then that they passed on the revelation that the shell biting Slowbro's tail was actually a Cloyster.  Had no idea until then.  I just thought it was some random shell.

At any rate, the boy my age and I struck up a conversation, while his dad began chatting with my parents.  We both had Game Boys and a Pokemon game, and he had a wire connection, so we battled each other.  I soon realized I basically sucked at the game.  I was good enough to get through the story, but against people who actually had imagination?  I was getting my ass handed to me.

Soon, our flight was announced, and the boy, who introduced himself as Chris, and I shook hands and parted ways.

I never expected to see him again.

About a week later, my fourth grade teacher announced we had a new student in class.  I wasn't really paying any attention because I was reading and had gotten lost in the story, but I paid the courtesy of looking up.  The kid standing in the front of the class was staring directly at me, and I found myself confused as to why he looked so blasted familiar.  Our teacher told him to sit at the only empty seat in the room, next to me.  We continued staring at each other in confusion as he walked over and sat down.

And it hit me.  At exactly the same moment, we shouted "Chris/James!  I met you at the airport!"

Our entire class looked back and just went "Huh?"  And we had to recount the events that transpired the last week.

Ever since that day, Chris and I have been best friends.  We spent practically every weekend at each other's houses, played video games together, goofed off, wrote stories, and terrorized my little siblings and his older brother.

Even after I moved away, and even though we haven't seen each other in four years, we still chat online and on the phone numerous times.  Still the best of friends, all because we happened to like Pokemon and my dad decided to wait in the food court instead of at the gate.