1. Everyone knew us as A&As, like M&Ms. We were always together, and both of us always had on our signature color: mine was brown; she liked yellow. It wasn’t liked we planned it either. I just like the color brown (really pink and brown together, but M&Ms aren’t striped or polka dot or designed with those two colors together, so I stick with brown, which most of my clothes are anyway). Alexis has a closet full of bright colors but can usually be found wearing some sort of yellow color. And we both love M&Ms, so our nickname works for us.
2. “A&A, you both ready for the pool?” my mom called up to us. I had just found my bathing suit, Alexis was already in hers, bag over the shoulder, ready to go.
3. “Come on, Andy, let’s go. You know there won’t be any good spots left if we don’t get there soon!”
4. “Hold on, hold on. Give me two seconds!” I went into the bathroom, quickly changed, and braided my hair into two pigtails, came out, and grabbed my cover-up. “Ok, let’s go. Man, we just decided 20 minutes ago we were going to the pool; gotta give me a little more notice next time, ok?”
5. My mom was waiting at the bottom of the stairs with the beach bag that had all the sunscreen, towels, snacks, and some big thermoses of cold water and juices. Now I was ready.
6. Every weekend, we tried to go to our neighborhood pool. When school was out, we would go a few times a week. Whichever house we were getting ready at, it was the same routine….one of us was rushed, and either mom was at the bottom of the stairs waiting for us and bag in hand, ready to go.
7. The pool was our thing too. Just like the M&Ms. Our classmates, other kids in the neighborhood, and our families knew if we weren’t at each other’s houses on the weekends and all summer, we’d be at the pool. That’s what we did.
8. I sometimes wonder if it will always be this way between us: A&A, the pool, M&Ms, our colors, our friendship. But whenever I start wondering about it, I always say to myself... why worry about it now?
