When I was in the fourth grade, I was chosen to take a IQ test or some such test that would determine how smart I was. There were only a selected few of us, mostly fourth-graders, a few fifth. I was excited because it meant that I was out of class for a few hours, I didn't realize how important that test really was. Several of my other friends were chosen to take that test, most of whom I've known since kindergarten. It wasn't until after we got the results to the test that we found out what it was really for - a gifted student program. They had developed this new program so that those of us who were bored in regular school curriculums could be challenged and excelled to higher levels. My best friend at the time, Heather, was accepted into the program with flying colors. I was left behind missing the cut by one or two points. It was the downfall of our friendship.

Heather was a very bright girl with passion for the outdoors. I remember that she always wore sweatpants, never skirts or jeans. She lived up in the "pasture" on a tiny farm that can only be related to a farm by the coop of chickens they kept by the house. We played outside every day, rain or shine. We even created our own club, it was going to be the coolest club ever! We picked at rotting logs until we made a fine dust of tree fibers, caught and kept various types of bugs, potato bugs and tent caterpillars our favorite, and cleared out a whole area in the tiny stretch of woods and briar bushes. We had so much fun together, until she got accepted to the gifted program. Once she left my little school we didn't really have as much time together as we used to, and eventually her parents moved her away so that they would be closer to the new school. I never heard from her again.

Nine years later, I heard news. Through the amazingly complicated grapevine system of colleges I caught word of a Heather, my Heather. She's now attending the University of Great Falls in Montana and is persuing a degree in Cultural Anthropology. From what I have heard she has always been the top of her class and is planning on getting married this coming May when her husband-to-be graduates.