When I was four years old I had my first dance lesson in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. There, I had to be partners with another girl who was in my lesson. Later, after getting to know each other more, I found out her name was Ariahna S., and she turned out to be my best friend.

Over the years Ari and I have had a lot of fun adventures together. The adventures were exciting, witty, scary and really fun!
Part one: Root beer

I was eleven years old when my sister, Peytin, and I went to Ari’s humongous house to play. It was a scorching hot, 90 degree summer day in August of 2008, and after running around playing on the swings and zip line, the three of us go real thirsty. So, we went inside the air-conditioned house to get some water with the ice cubes that you get from the outside of the fridge. We sat down in the chairs at the kitchen table and happily sipped our water. Just looking around, we were trying to think of what to do. Then we saw it. The thing that started this hilarious story…an old, trashed milk bottle in the open cabinet. That’s when the idea randomly popped in my head! We should make root beer!! So, all of us went out with the jug and filled it up with hose water. Figuring the three of us can’t really make real root beer, we walked to the garden in the front yard and gathered dirt. Next, we put the soil in the bottle. We wanted to see if the neighbors around would buy this nasty liquid. So, Ari, Peytin, and I made up logos like,” Ice, cold root beer for sale, come and taste a nice sip of gold!” Also, we make up prices. We did 50 cents per cup. (The cups were big, plastic cups!) Then the three of us got out Ari’s old, red wagon from the garage, and we started walking around the cul-de-sac.

“Root beer! Ice cold root beer for sale!” Ari, Peytin and I kept shouting for the neighbors to hear. People looked around, watching as our “trolley” was wheeling around. Children were coming toward us with money jangling in their pocket! So many people came as if they actually believed it was real root beer; even a little girl started begging her mom for some! We were so thrilled; our hopes were rising- maybe the three of us will get some money! But, of course they left and went back to their house’s when they saw up close what it was in the bottle…muck!! All of the people were grumbling as they walked back to their houses, so we were disappointed.
As we were turning our wagon around when we thought our root beer business was over, there was a young girl who stayed. She wanted to try it! Ari and the rest of us weren’t actually going to let her drink it, especially because she didn’t have any money, and it was probably bad for her. But, when we told her she couldn’t, she had a fit! So we decided, okay if you want it that bad you can try some for free!! She was really delighted! Ari then poured a little bit of the root beer in the cup and handed it to her.

“Enjoy!” Ari laughed. Eyes boggling, we watched as she was lifting it closer and closer to her lips until the rim of the cup touched, and she took a little sip. She put it down and grinned.

“Mmmmmmmmmmmm… More! More!” She announced. The little girl actually liked it! We exploded with laughter, thinking we were going to faint it was so hilarious! Then all of us sprinted away before she could pout to us for more. When Ari, Peytin, and I got back to Ari’s house, we waited until the girl went inside. Finally the mud drinking girl went in her house, and we decided to see if anyone else wanted to try it. Then, pulled the wagon while the other two followed, and we went to a different place and started shouting:

“Ice, cold root beer for sale, ice, cold root beer for sale!”

“Taste the glory in each sip!” It was fun, but we didn’t have any more customers; that was too bad!

Maybe someday we will have the right ingredients to make REAL root beer, but then again, it would be fun to make fake root beer so the other neighbors can try it!!
Part 2: The Bluffs

That same summer of the root beer experience, my mom and Ari’s mom decided to take us to a beach in Port Washington. The lake was Lake Michigan. I put on my two-piece swimming suit, packed my goggles and ocean-themed towel, made snacks, and put gobs of sun-screen lotion on. I went with my mom, my two sisters, Peytin and Sidni, and my only brother, named Jesse, where as my dad was at work. When we got to the vast, sunny beach, we met up with Ari, her sister Alexania (nickname is Gootie), and her mom. We had to walk an extra mile to get to the main swimming part, but when we got there, there were no people swimming in the lake. We noticed a small warning that said NO SWIMMING! I think it was because there was some bad garbage spill or e-coli in the water. All of us frowned because we were looking forward to swimming.

Then my mom said, “Since you guys can’t go swimming, why don’t you play on the bluffs?!!” She pointed behind us and we looked around. Our eyes got big and round when we saw those humongous, steep hills. We looked around at each other and smirked. The six of us all had the same idea to climb to the tippy top and have the adventure of our lives. So, putting on the clothes we wore over our swimsuits, and aged, junked up shoes, we said farewell to my mom and Ari’s mom. The six of us started on our way up the steep bluff with Ari in the lead, Sidni second and I was third. It was hard starting up! There were lots of sharp bushes with scratchy leaves and big prickly weeds. Also, there were a lot of roots and tiny trees. The mud had and auburn tint, so we thought it had some clay in it. Our shoes got really muddy. After about five minutes, we were about halfway up the bluff. Sometimes the person in the front would accidentally slide down, so we had to grab onto roots and braches and sometimes the hood of the person in front. Rocks would tumble down crushing our ankles, while lots of our skin not covered by our clothes got cut. I got very itchy, which was probably caused by poison ivy. It was not that fun after awhile; all of us were aching. So we had a little rest on a boulder, hearing nothing but the crash of the waves and the roar of the wind.

“Well…should we keep going?” Jesse wondered aloud.

“Oh yeah!!” We replied. The six of us looked up at the path we would take to get to the top. The six of us just had to make it; then we would be great ‘mountain’ climbers. I knew that it would not be easy.
At the top, I saw we had to climb on a piece of land that was not just steep; it was more than steep. Getting closer and closer everyone else started realizing the hazard it would be to try and climb that. Of course, my brother was too chicken to go up that way. Ari and Sidni didn’t fee comfortable as well, so they went a different, safer way lead by Jesse. But, Gootie, Peytin, and I decided to head up the scary way. When we got to the art that was difficult, we glanced down the part that we climb up and gulped. That was a long ways down. We could barely see the little specks of our moms watching us and chatting. There were rocks that had rigid, sharp edges, and tons of braches.

“You guys do me favors…please don’t fall when you climb up!” I said and they nodded their heads in agreement.

“Well who’s goin’ first?” Gootie asked us. Peytin decided to go. Gootie and I shouted to her good luck. Peytin walked around this atrocious part, searching for a good place to ascend up. Finally, she gathered a few thicker tree roots and held on. Then she started up walking with her feet while holding on with her hands. Almost there, she finally grabbed one of the tree branches on the top and pulled herself all of the way up. Lucky her, now it was just Gootie and I to worry about going up. I told Gootie to grab hold of the same root Peytin used. I lifted her up, trying to be steady and not falling backwards and she grabbed a hold. I lifted her up, trying to hold my balance and stay steady, while she grabbed a hold of the root. I was pushing her up a bit while she started climbing. Gootie was scared to death. I told her not to look down, but most unfortunately she did. She started crying and told me to get her down. Peytin and I were trying to soothe her when the other three turned up on top of the bluff.

“What’s up?” They asked us.

“Gootie is too scared!” I said. We all started supporting her, telling her that it’s ok and she wasn’t going to fall. So, listening to our words, she decided to give it an attempt. I lifted her up again, and she was halfway up when she got really terrified again.

“I can’t do it! I want my mommy!” Poor Gootie cried out and started sobbing again. We started telling her it was okay again, and Sidni put her hand down to try and grab a hold of her. Gootie saw what Sidni was trying to accomplish and gained her strength back. She gradually climbed up a bit farther. Sidni grabbed her clothes and hauled her up. Ari and Jesse grabbed her hands, and all together we pulled her up. I climbed up with a bit of help, but it was easier for me. Soon we were all sitting in diminutive woods that were right on the peak of where the three of us climbed up. Looking over one side was a deep drop, and the other side was a young children playground that was only across a road on top of the hill. The six of us decided to go to the play set a different time, so we went down Ari, Sidni, and Jesse’s easier path. It was a great and horrifying adventure!
Part 3: Greek

In August of 2009, Ari, her sister and my siblings got to spend a few hours at my favorite camping place known as Mauthe Lake. There we went to the main part where people go swimming. The six of us visited the nearby playground for young kids. At the playground we ran to a green, twirly slide. We like to hang out in there because the slide was really wide, and barely anybody goes down it. It was probably because there were a lot of other fun equipments. Ari was keeping a watch out to make sure no kids were on their way to slide down. That was when she spotted a large group of kids, from the YMCA camp, who came for a picnic and to fool around.

Sometimes when Ari and I are together we can do anything that we normally would not do alone. So, for some odd reason, we thought it would be pretty funny to talk in a different, fake language and pretend we are from Greece. Besides, Ari is part Greece!

When this little girl with frizzy hair and darker, olivey skin came to the playground, we started talking in “Greek” language.

Then I said, “Greek?” I pointed at her and repeated it numerous times. Knowing she wouldn’t exactly understand what I meant, I asked her, “Eeenglish?” She finally understood what I meant. The little girl nodded her head, and then she skipped away. Jesse, Sidni, Ari, Peytin, Gootie, and I all thought this was pretty amusing; talking in random words to people.

We followed her and pretended like we wanted to be friends with her. Then Ari asked her, “Uhh loe de Greek?” I think that Ari was trying to ask her if she was part Greek. Ari knew that she wouldn’t understand so she said in what was “supposed” to be English, “Yow part Greek?” She understood what we meant so she said that she was Indian. This girl thought that all of us really didn’t understand English at all. Some other kids came by the girl and we heard her talking about us to them. We heard them laughing at us, as the girl said how we were following her and trying to be friends. They said a few snotty thins about us and went away. Well, we heard every single word they said even though they didn’t know, so we were laughing because the six of us understood what they were talking about. For a few more hours, Ari, Peytin, and I ( the rest were swimming) kept talking in “Greek”. Ari spotted the girl again on the monkey bars and she shouted, “Flend! Frliend!” She was saying friend! Friend! The girl sort of gave us a snotty smirk and came over. We started gabbing in “Greek” to her again.

We did not know what her name was, so Ari started talking as if she said “name?” The girl understood, so she told us her name was Isa. Again, we followed her around.

She got irritated with us and ran to where the adults were. Of course, we followed. Then Isa rolled her eyes at us and told one of the nearby adult counselors that we came from Greece.

“Oh wow!” The red haired counselor lady said, then asked us very slowly, “Do…you…speak…English?” She said. Then I said, “Ahh no no no joost Greek!” She nodded and sauntered to a different picnic table muttering about if this guy knew our language.

Half of a minute later, she came back with a man. He had charcoal colored hair that was very curly. Then, the lady told him we spoke Greek and asked him if he spoke Greek too. So he asked us, “Yeia ouuu ti kaveis?” Ari, Peytin , and I think he actually spoke in Greek. But the dilemma was, since we didn’t actually know the language, we had no choice but to run away.

We went swimming afterward, and at about 3:30pm we were leaving, and so were the YMCA kids who were getting on the bus. Ari, Peytin, and I ran over to the parking lot and started doing a short dance. We had felt guilty for lying, so we started chanting, “We are not Greek!” The three of us kept repeating it over and over until finally and elder girl shouted out the bus window, “We get the point!” Then all of us said right back, “Well, we aren’t Greek!” And that was the end of our adventure that we now call Greek.

It was just another grand time to be with my friend Ari! I can’t wait for more enjoyable times in my life with my bff…Ariahna!!