Friendship Has No Age

“Lauren! You’re home!” is the sound that greets me every day when I get home from school. The sound is coming from my best friend, Emma. Emma and I are different from other best friends. We do the same things many best friends do like watch movies and share secrets, but Emma is my sister and I am ten years older.

That might sound strange to people who don’t know us, but we have more in common than people might think. On a typical day together, we might do each other’s make-up, watch Gilmore Girls, then eat lunch. After lunch we might go shopping on the square, get some ice cream, then go home to watch a few more movies. Although my make-up job on Emma usually turns out better than hers on me and I understand Gilmore Girls better, we still manage to have fun. Emma and I love to be outside, so we will sit on the swing set and eat ice cream or go swimming together in the summer. As well as hanging out like regular best friends, we get in fights, too. We don’t have blowouts but we do have little spats now and then, usually about dumb issues, like she spilled something on me or I broke something of hers. No matter what happens, I can always count on Emma to be there for me when I need her, and she knows she can count on me. Even though she may not understand boy problems or pimples, she is great at listening.

I love teaching my sister new things, like how to rollerblade or how to paint her nails and seeing the excitement on her face, but there are things she teaches me. Emma has taught me that it is okay to be naïve in a world like ours. Some of my “grown-up” friends always call me “sheltered” and “naïve,” and they don’t usually say it like these are good attributes to have. Emma does not care if I’m naïve, because she is, too.

Finally, Emma is my best friend because she is funny. She has my sense of humor, which comes from my dad. She is absolutely hilarious, and she knows it! Sometimes, if Emma can tell I am sad or upset, she will pull a quote from Harry Potter out of her head and recite it to me, like, “What’s wrong with you, you filthy little mudblood?” Even though she is only six, Emma knows exactly what to say to make me laugh. I am just as good as she is at humor. For instance, if I say “Brazzlefrat,” I know she will burst into giggles because that is her favorite quote from Gilmore Girls.

When Emma gets older and more mature, I look forward to being there when she has her first crush on a boy or gets her first “zit.” She means the world to me and I am constantly thankful for a best friend like her.