MUD

My given name is Maxine Unice Dupree. Yep, MUD. My parents were told after they had me that due to complications of my birth, my mother would not be able to carry a baby again. So, they thought they'd use both family name on one child. Lucky me. Maxine come from my mother's father, Maxwell, and Unice is my father's mother. Naming me this, they included both sides of the family and satisfied everyone-except me. All the trouble started in second grade. My inexperienced teacher, Miss Thompson, thought it would be a great idea to do a "spotlight" on every child in the class. Could anything be more stupid? A class full of children learning the intimate details of each others lives...That is a breeding ground for would be bullies to get embarrassing info on their targets. Needless to say, when it was my day to be spotlighted, I was very nervous. You see, nobody knew my middle name. Up until then I was just Maxie Dupree. So, as my teacher started reading my history, my face turned red and I put my head down on my desk. I did not hear anything accept my full name...Maxine Unice Dupree...after hearing that, it seemed my ears filled with water and nothing else was heard. Later at recess, I was sitting on a swing when I felt a rock hit my back. I turned around and standing behind me was the smartest, but meanest girl in my glass. She had a nice name-Emily. Emily was smiling cruelly and holding up something else in her hand ready to throw.

"Hey, Mud! That's your new name. Haa, haa, haa Mud. You look so dirty and you stink like mud! Hey everyone look, there's mud all over the swing."

With that, she let her hand fly and a nice round mud pie landed with a splat on my lap smearing my pink shorts with brown goo. I jumped off the swing and ran into the bathroom followed by the echos of laughter. You might think I was in tears, but I was not. I was furious! How dare my mother write my full name on my spotlight history? In fact, how dare my parents even name me what they did? And as for Emily, she was going to get it! I was angrily swiping at my shorts when I heard the bathroom door close. I looked up expecting to see my new enemy. I was surprised to see instead a small girl with long brown braided hair looking at me. I was even more surprised when she spoke in a loud voice,

"Hi. Sorry about your shorts. I heard what they were saying. Some people can be so mean. Here, let me help you."

I was stunned that anyone would want to help me right then, so I did not protest when she wet a paper towel and started wiping off my shorts. I finally found my voice and said,

"Uhhh, thanks... Are you new?"
"Yep", she said, "We just moved here last week. This is my first day."
"How old are you?", I asked.
"I am seven and three quarters", she proudly stated.

She was so small, I was shocked she said that she was seven. She must have seen the look on my face because she said,

"I was born too early and ever since then, I have stayed small."
"Oh. Well, my name is Maxie and I am seven too."
"I am River. River Brown. Do you want to be my friend?"
"Okay", I said. Suddenly my anger drained away ans I knew second grade would be alright.

Actually, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth grades were all good because of River Brown. Despite the fact that we were called "muddy brown river" by all the other kids, we were happy. River was the fourth of five children. Her family were Mormons. The only reason for me to have cared about this fact was that on Sundays River went to church and could not play that whole day. Those were my least favorite days back then. River's mother had died when she was only four. Sometimes River got sad about missing her mom, but she really did not remember her and I could always cheer her up. River's dad was a lawyer. He moved his office into their house so that he could be there for the kids after Rivers mom died. He was always very nice to me and called me "Maxeroo". River's oldest sister, Nicky, was good at cooking and keeping the house pretty clean. She was really busy and did not have much time for River and I. The rest of the kids were boys. Jimmy was eleven and always gone, Alex was nine and a huge pest. He was always ruining our tea parties with spiders and pulling off our barbie heads. Ollie was four and he was River's responsibility. He was good about dressing up and playing house or princesses with us. Until he got older. Then we would have to include Star Wars or GI Joe into our games or he refused to play. I loved spending time at River's house. It was busy and loud. Something was always going on. I always felt like just another kid around there. River's family moved away the summer we turned thirteen. I missed her terribly and have never found another friend like her.