My Best Friend J

J and I have been friends for about 23 years now. WOW, its really been that long, it makes me feel so old :) Anyways, this is the story of me and J.
I still remember that day in 3rd grade. It was midterm and schools had reopened long back. I saw a new face in our class, dressed in a different uniform. And a man with a big moustache and wide smile on his face, wearing an expensive safari suit was standing right by her side. Then that man asked all the students to be seated and we did. He introduced his little daughter J, told us that she is a warm and friendly girl and as she is new to our school, we should help her out. I had never seen any parents make a speech like that before in our class. I looked at the new girl J, she had greenish brown eyes and her hair was tied in two tight plaits. There was something about her. I had this overwhelming urge to be friends with her. I had always been a last bencher being the tallest in our class at the time - yes, guys included. I saw Miss. Smarty Pants, who sat in the 1st row, offer her a seat next to her. She was overly friendly to J and even heard her saying "From today, you and me are best friends. I will help you with everything", and J quietly nodded in reply. That hurt, but I wasn't ready to accept defeat so soon. I found a chance to talk to J the very next day. I asked her where she stayed and she said "X Area, Road No.3". And I was elated as she stayed so very close to my place and in my excitement, got it confused with Road No.2. Not only that, I also forgot to ask her which building, block, house # it was. My house was at the intersection of all these roads. So that evening, I set out to find her. I walked the entire Road No.2 up and down calling out her name. I think I had watched too many hindi movies to think that she would come out of some window. Anyways, she didn't. The next day I told her what I had done and she rolled with laughter. Then she gave me the right address and from then on we became good friends. We played together every evening, walked to school singing songs on the way, spent days and nights at each other's place. In short, we were together ALL the time. We crossed a few other hurdles too. There was this girl in her building, who was very close to J before we met. She felt very jealous about our friendship and tried to shoo me away in different ways. But J and I stuck together.
During the school vacations, J told me about her plans of visiting USA with her family for a few days. I missed her terribly when she was gone. Then, one fine day, I got a call from her. She said "I'm BACK P. Lets meet." I was out of the door before she said Bye. I half ran and half hopped towards her house and in the distance I could see her running towards me. As we got closer, we opened our arms wide. We hugged so tight as if we were meeting each other after ages. Then we walked together, an arm over the other's shoulder, exchanging stories about the time that we were away. This time away had made us realize how close we had gotten and how much we loved the other. So one day, we built a tiny hill made of sand, gathered some leaves, twigs and what not over it. Then we joined hands and made an oath- "We will be Best Friends Forever".
Even after all these years, we still remember this oath and I'm proud to say this that we are always there for the other.