Benjamyn Caroline Barton

Greetings.


Bennie is in one hyphenated word soft-spoken. She is the sweetest, most sincere, most loyal, and quietest person I know. But once you get into her head, she won't shut up. And we all love her for it.

When I met her in eighth grade, I was weak and vulnerable. I had had... a bad experience in seventh and I went to Eileen Herald Memorial Junior High School, where Remy and Aaron had graduated from the year previous, for a fresh start. A girl named Tanya showed me around, but she was one of the popular girls; she didn't want to have anything to do with me even though eighth grade was one of my thinner years. But I was picked up by a few others: a group of five girls named Darleen Lopez, Zahara Izyan, Lacey Griggs, Ana Dotefsky, Riley St. Norton, and, of course, Bennie Barton. By the middle of November, Zahara and Ana were gone and me and a girl named Toni DiAngelo had replaced them. Out of all of them, Darleen and Lacey were the most ruthless when they dumped them. I should have learned my lesson, but no. About the middle of April, they dumped me too. Only Bennie came to me and apologized. Only Bennie didn't want to do it. She had gotten into an argument with the others about it. But she and Darleen had been best friends since they were babies and she had to. I understood; I wasn't mad at her.

When we entered high school at Horizon (the newest school in the county and, only in its second year, had one of the best academic and athletic reputations in the state), Toni and Darleen went to different schools, Riley and Lacey pretty much stopped communications with Bennie, Zahara and Ana went their separate ways, and Bennie and I found each other. We didn't know anyone else except for me knowing Joseph and we needed someone. For the first two weeks, we stayed out in the courtyard and Bennie never met Joseph. But finally, once it started getting cold, we moved inside the cafeteria and we have stayed with each other ever since.

Bennie is amazing. She stays true to you no matter what, unless you betray her trust. She and I are alike in the fact that we trust too hard and, sometimes, not too well, as in the case of the other girls. She is shy onstage, only able to speak with someone else, preferably me (or Joss once sophomore reared its ugly head), with her. She is kind, beautiful, and dependable. She's smart and a fairly happy person. I love my Bennie. She is the one who got me into manga, first addicting me to FRUITS BASKET, and I dubbed her Bennie-chan, chan being an term of affection in Japanese culture. I love my Bennie-chan.


Hugz
HM