School Before School

I met 2 of the very precious people to me in this time frame. It's mind blowing to me that I've stayed close friends with both of them for the past 15 years despite Catholic school versus public school and moving to buttfuck nowhere and back.
I think I was the happiest in my childhood in this time, and I owe it to them. We went to Bethel Lutheran Pre-School. We were the morning class with Mrs. Leuders as our teacher.
Maureen Elizabeth Miller (now Nickita Riley Kross) is the one person I can act like a complete and total nerd around. She is truly the only person to see that side of me. Since the beginning of our friendship, I've always been the collected one, she's always been the goofy one. She was the blonde haired, blue-eyed, innocent one; I was the black haired, black-eyed, dark one. This has changed, she no longer is the Catholic school girl who never said, "Oh my God!" but she still has an innocence that I associate with her, mostly I believe because I've always been the "older sister."
Katherine Mary Cairnes is the constant in my life. I can always count on her to be Katie Cairnes, the person I've laughed with the most, the musical one, the one who loves bacon, the one I can say the weirdest things to and she gets it. I can always count on Katie Cairnes to be tall. I can always count on Katie Cairnes to be online so I can squeal about some guy or bitch about some girl. I think we had a fight once in middle school and quickly realized how stupid it was. Other than that, it's been all laughs. I'd be a fat-ass if it weren't for all the laughing we've done together. The list of inside jokes is endless. We even had the same first crush in pre-school, who we ended up going to high school with in the same program.
The three of us would fill up Maureen's pool with water balloons and give them names. Katie would take us on "rollercoaster rides" with the pool mat. We'd play "The Mean Mother" in the hot tub, where Maureen was always the mean mother, and Katie and I were the slave daughters. We'd make up moves on the trampoline and games like "The Log," "The Rain Dance," and "Demon Baby." We had "The Battle Cry."
Katie's mother was the best at bending the movie theater rules. She'd bring gigantic bags of home popped popcorn, Eckerd's bought candy, and juice boxes for us. Then she'd tell us to put our sweaters over the seat in front of us so people wouldn't sit there. This is probably the best trick I've learned in my life.
Maureen's mother, Donna, is really like another mother to me. The shit she puts up with is incredible! And yet she still manages to make cupcakes and homemade blueberry waffles for us with a smile. The "Rolly Ball" cookies are still my favorite. Her collection of Star Trek media never ceases to amaze me. I remember her making a full on Thanksgiving feast in the middle of June one summer.
You know that one song, the "Make new friends but keep the old" one? Yeah, they're my gold.
I really don't remember much else from pre-school other than falling off a wagon and some brat running over my elbow with a tricycle while I was down. Oh, and this boy who liked to eat grass (who also ended up in the same program as me in high school). I hated Santa Claus. I hated the Easter Bunny. I hated the characters in Disney World. I tried gymnastics, but this nasty girl said I sucked at doing cart-wheels, so I got pissed off and quit.