MinHee was lounging on her bed with her headphones on and her composition book in front of her when the bedroom door opened. She looked up as Cora moved into the room, carrying arms full of take out boxes and pizza, and smiled. “Happy Anniversary,” She said, pulling her headphones from her ears.

Cora smiled, sitting down on the floor and putting the bags in front of her. “Happy Anniversary.”

“I don’t get it,” Ji-su said, moving into the room with the others. Maria sat beside Cora, Ji-su and Mikki sat on Mikki’s bed, and Reina and MinHee sat across from Cora and Maria. “You have an anniversary?”

MinHee and Cora nodded. “It’s been six years to the day that we’ve been friends.” Cora declared. She was already beginning to empty out the bags and placing the boxes around her. “No one touches anything until I separate the cartons.”

Mikki made a face. “Seriously?”

“I got specifics for MinHee, since I apparently am the only one who pays attention to what she likes,” She opened the first container. “Tteokbokki,” She said, handing the carton to MinHee, who smiled and stabbed her fork into the container. Ji-su stared at the carton longingly. “Plain Bulgogi,” Another carton towards MinHee. “Kalguksu, Bibimbap, and Jjajangmyeon.”

Ji-su groaned. “Why do you always get her all the good stuff.”

Cora chucked a plastic fork in her direction. “You haven’t even seen anything else that I got.”

Reina smiled, grabbing her box of medium bulgogi. “I forgot how you two met.”

MinHee hummed. “That was actually before we became friends.”

“Way before.” Cora laughed.

Maria turned to MinHee, confused. “So you guys weren’t friends to begin with?”

It was the third month of sixth grade. MinHee had just settled into her schedule. Everything seems to fit right. She was on her way to meet Reina by her class for lunch when she turned the corner,

And slammed right into another student. Both MinHee and the victim were thrown to the ground. “Oh, I’m so sorry.” MinHee started, climbing to her feet and offering her hand to the girl she’d knocked over. “I should have-”

“Watched where you were going?” The girl asked, fixing a glare on MinHee. She slapped her hand away. “Yeah, I’d agree.” She said, climbing to her feet on her own. “Who the hell do you think you are?” She hissed. Her group of friends were snickering, towering over MinHee, who was turning beet red. “God, I knew Asians are known for their eyes, but you’re giving it a whole new name. Should I get you some specks, because you’re clearly deficient in the eye category.”

One of her friends gasped. “Little harsh, Cora.”

Cora Matthews, the newest transfer student, from Germany. She had a reputation of being a complete stuck up brat, but this was a whole new category. MinHee looked down. “I’m really sorry-”

“Whatever,” Cora hissed. MinHee quickly moved around her and down the hall, towards where Reina was already waiting.

She had seen everything that had happened. “What was that?”

“I ran into Cora-”

“Oh no,” Reina murmured. “She’s kind of hateful.”

MinHee nodded. “No kidding. What happened to make her hate everything so much?”

Reina shrugged. “I don’t really know. But she has a lot of baggage for a seventh grader.”

“You seriously said that,” Maria asked, wiping with a napkin. When MinHee had started the line about her vision, Cora leapt in and finished, nodding her head and saying it was her favorite thing to say to people when she was in middle school, making Maria choke on the food she’d just put in . “You really called out her eyes?”

Cora shrugged, nodding her head. “I was kind of hateful about that fact that I was in Korea. And I really hated MinHee because she was better than me in everything in Orchestra.”

“Over Orchestra?” Mikki asked, laughing loudly.

MinHee nodded. “Cora’s really competitive.”

“We know,” Everyone offered.

The door to the Orchestra room opened and MinHee’s worst nightmare walked through. She was sitting behind the piano, working on her composition for the class, and nearly fell off the bench when she saw Cora stride into the room and hand the composer a yellow note.

“Ms. Matthews, it’s nice to have you back. Your old Cello is still in the back, if you’d like to tune and join us.” He said, smiling.

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