13) Reconnect with an old Friend

check.
Although, it wasn't my doing at all..it's one of those things that just kind of happened.

Ari was my childhood best friend. We met when I was 6 and she was 7. We lived down the street from each other - her family moved in about a week before mine did.
I still remember the day we met. It was June, right before school ended. But it was cloudy and I had on pants with a tanktop. I was riding my bike, as far away from my house as I was allowed to go. I had just learned how to ride a two wheeler and was so proud of myself. Ari was riding her bike in the street in front of her house, which I thought was the coolest thing ever. I stopped and watched her as she rode with no hands. This girl, in my 6 year old mind, was so cool. She noticed me watching her and rode over to me, pulled up right along side of me so that our front wheels were touching.
"I'm Ari." she said. "I live in that house. I'm in second grade. Who are you?"
"I'm Girl," I said. "I live down there. I'm in first grade. I'm not allowed to ride my bike in the street."
And so began our friendship. Over the 2.5 years that we shared a neighborhood, we had many infamous schemes and ideas. Among the most famous was our idea to have a neighborhood cheerleading squad and a neighborhood band. We wouldn't play the instruments, just direct the band. Neither one of us could play any instruments.
And then, my mom and stepdad got a divorce and my mother whisked me, my sister and brother away in the middle of the night.
A few days later, she came back to get our belongings from the house. Ari came running down the street when she saw my mother's car. She handed her a piece of paper with her address and phone number on it.
We wrote 1 letter a week, each, for 4 years, until about midway through middle school. We sent emails after that, but at some point in high school, we just lost touch.
This morning, when I logged onto my facebook, there was a friend request from Ari.

I still have every single letter she wrote to me.