I was sad that nice old Mrs Wilson next door passed away. She always had had a soft spot for me. The sadness was mitigated when I heard that a family with kids would move in instead. The Gadin family came from Sweden. That wasn’t what excited me. It was the kids.

Oh, there were lots of kids in the neighborhood. The trouble was that I didn’t associate with preschoolers. At the age of 10 that was unthinkable. Just as unthinkable as having anything to do with the numerous girls my age. And the high school boys wouldn’t dream of having anything to do with a little kid like me. I was lonely. And now this family was coming with a boy and a girl. Gun aged 10 and Love aged 8. Those Swedes sure had strange names. But a boy named Gun must be a great gun, right?

Then they arrived. I was called out to meet them. The was the big moment when I’d meet my new friend, Gun. Well, the boy was there when I came out. Too bad the boy was Love (pronounced Loooveh and not the way it should be). Or should I have said “boy”? At first I was convince that Love was a girl that fit the name. Cute, girly. To say I was disappointed was an understatement. What about Gun? She fell at my feet as soon as she saw me. Of course that had more to do with the branch she had climbed out on not being as strong as she thought.

Apart from the minor thing that she was a girl Gun was everything I had dreamt. She was just like me. A lively kid prone to get into trouble. We really were very alike. She was only just a little bit faster than I and I was only just a little bit stronger than she. A beautiful friendship. A friendship very much based on friendly competition. We go into all sorts of scrapes that exasperated our neighbors. Even if we were equally responsible for what we did Gun was considered as a bad girl. I wasn’t. I mean, of course I wasn’t a girl but I wasn’t tagged as bad. Perhaps because Gun was braver than me when it came to take the blame. Anyway, the neighbors weren’t happy. Apart from doing all those “bad” things she was bad example for all those good little girls in the neighborhood. Some people were even prepared to talk sacrilege. A concept that just being uttered could cause a person to be ostracized in our state was bandied around more and more: Gun control!

Well, they grew out of that. Partly because the everlasting competition between me and Gun carried over to school. This made us both the teachers’ headache and star pupils. Of course Gun and I were always together.

What about Love? you might ask. Well, he fitted in quite nicely with the girls. After my initial disappointment I found out that even if he was a wimp he was a rather decent kid, for a girly boy that is. Since Gun was fiercely protective of him so was I. In primary school and middle school Gun and I were always close enough to stop bullies getting stupid ideas. Gun and I had a certain reputation. Partly because of what happened to the bully that DID try to bully Love. I mean, just the idea of bullying such a fundamentally nice kid like Love …

So life went on with the Terrible Two being inseparable. That is until last year of Middle school when they started a football team. Of course both Gun and I wanted to be on it. Gun had no problems getting the required parental permission. I failed. I pleaded. I begged. I even whined. No success. My parents wouldn’t budge. Then I resorted to blackmail. If I wasn’t allowed to try out for the football team I’d try out for the cheerleading squad. They were only to happy to agree. After pushing so hard I could hardly back down when they called my bluff.

Gun got on the football team and to my embarrassment I got on the cheerleading squad. At least I wasn’t required to wear a sissy skirt. I got a boys’ version of the uniform. Was I teased about it? Of course I was but only gently. Gun and I had a certain reputation, which of course made people wonder even more why I had wound up as cheerleader and not a football player.

Even if we didn’t compete against each other, for once, Gun and I were still very competitive. Gun became a star football player and I the best cheerleader in school. Perhaps not such a good idea since this made me noticeable.

When we started high school my parents were still adamantly against me playing football. On the other hand I was given a spot on the JV cheerleading squad by special invitation, just as Gun was on the JV football team.

Some stupid bullies tried to make an issue of the cheerleading thing. Not a good idea and that foolishness soon stopped.

Otherwise things continued mostly as usual. Gun and I got top grades. We still got into scrapes. Fewer than before though, since we spent much physical energy on the field. Don’t let anyone fool you into thinking that cheerleading is for sissies. The only thing that really changed was that Love didn’t have our support in school. Not good. I spent more time with him to cheer him up and to bolster his confidence. Since I came from outside the family I noticed something that none of them had realized. So I asked Love straight out

- Your really are a girl and not a girly boy, aren’t you?

After thinking for a while he, or rather she, looking surprised answered.

- You are right!

That answer surprised me. Not for the content, that was as I expected. No, the real reason was that Love had a disconcerting habit to answer A or B questions with ∑. Anyway that started a long process for Love. No official changes while in middle school though. Especially as Gun and I weren’t there to protect her. At home Love blossomed. A nice and lovely boy became an even nicer and lovelier girl. And pretty too.

Gun and I had the usual high school experience. Well, usual for girl jock and boy cheerleader swots. Hm, perhaps not that usual come to think about it. After the first semester people had got used to us in our non-standard roles. Of course we didn’t share locker rooms with our respective teams. I found it a bit lonely and I gathered that Gun did as well. Our competitiveness didn’t diminish though. We took the same courses and alternated to be the top student in each of them, even when we fell in love and got a girlfriend and a boyfriend, not each of course. Just for the record, we did NOT compete in this field. Bill was a basketball player which meant he was taller than Gun Not something that was obvious. I, to my great surprise found myself in a relationship with the most beautiful girl in school, Aurora. We were happy. Things couldn’t be better.

In our junior year Love joined us in high school. The girl Love. That caused some waves but those soon dissipated. Love didn’t follow in my or Gun’s footstep. No football, no cheerleading. Love was not a very physical girl. Nor was she academically gifted. The Gadin family and I didn’t love Love any less for that. At first she had a problem with the boys. Not because she was T. She was too lovely and sweet for that. No, she complained that all boys that got interested in her and vice versa were intimidated by Gun and me. We pulled back a bit. Of course we kept an eye on the boy she was dating. We did some research and reluctantly came to the conclusion that he actually WAS good enough for our sweet Love.

Then senior year came and with that the problems. It all started the very first day of the Fall semester. Both I and Gun were dumped. Not carefully and trying to minimize the hurt. Actually I was more affected than Gun. I had been named head cheerleader and suddenly found myself with a very depleted squad. Apart from the usual attrition of girls leaving school I lost two more. One who had become Bill’s new girlfriend and one who become Aurora’s new girlfriend. Apparently Aurora had been “testing the water” by dating a male cheerleader but decided to go for the real thing as she expressed it. Both cheerleaders decided that staying on the squad would be too complicated.

The new squad had two more boys on it. Not alone in the locker room any longer? You are right. I started to change with the girls. The blatant behavior of the two boys, very much in love with each other, made the girls take pity on me and offer to change with them. To be honest, much less embarrassing.

Neither Gun nor I got a new girlfriend/boyfriend. We concentrated on the race to become valedictorian instead. That competition was followed by our fellow students almost as closely as who was going to become Prom King. Prom Queen was obvious. Aurora was a shoo-in and no one even bothered to run against her. On the male side though things were more uncertain.

By the time of the last exam Gun was just a smidgen ahead of me so it all depended on that exam. I was worried since I expected both of us to get 100% on the test since it was a relatively easy subject. To my surprise Gun arrived just the last minute and in an obviously bad shape. As expected I got 100% but Gun got only a B-, the first time ever in her life. When I tried to talk with her she just asked me to go away. Of course this meant I was to be valedictorian. I felt no joy. Something had happened but I didn’t know what.

I was even more surprised by what happened afterwards. The powers that be decided that there had to be at least 2 candidates for Prom Queen and Prom King. No girl wanted to be humiliated in such an uneven race. Suddenly I found myself nominated. I protested but was overridden. Oh, not by the Principal. By my squad who threatened to go on strike unless I accepted the nomination. Another strange development was that Gun was nominated for Prom King. Talk about the school buzzing. My support came mainly from the cheerleading squad but to be honest I failed to get momentum. That was not true of the Gun campaign. With the massive support of the football team, the basketball team and the cheerleaders That is all the heavy guns. Why did the basketball team support her so vigorously? Anyway, as the Prom closed in the odds were shortening, even if Gun still was a dark horse. Sadly the same did not apply for me.

I, reluctantly, arrived at the Prom all dolled up in a dashing (and damned expensive) dress and shoes to die for, or rather to die from. I was one of the two contenders for Prom Queen after all. No matter that I didn’t have a chance to win. To be honest, by then I wanted to win. Just to get back at Aurora. Anyway, I was quite pretty. Love had helped me with a crash course in Girl 101 for boys as well. Gun was very handsome in her tuxedo. It fit her perfectly. For the first time since that exam she looked happy again. She was even happier when she was crowned Prom King. I ended up without a crown.

Neither Gun nor Aurora was interested in doing more than a token dance together. Then Gun asked me to dance. I did as well as I could in those *!”# high heels. Gun commiserated me on not getting the crown. In her opinion I was much more beautiful. A minority opinion to say the least. Then she started to explain how it came that she was elected Prom King, or rather why the football and basketball team had got her elected. (The cheerleading cheerleading was all due to me.) The night before the exam Bill had called her. He had been set up and publicly humiliated by his (ex)girlfriend and he wanted to apologize for the hurt he had done to Gun before it was too late. Gun had pricked her ears at that and in the middle of the night she had gone to Bill. Just in time as it turned out. Then she spent hours talking him down and making sure he got professional help. She had not slept at all that night. She was happy that I was to be valedictorian and had no regrets about that. However, both the basketball team and the football team had heard what she did for Bill and they decided to reward her. Since the Prom Queen was de facto already decided they went for Prom King. She thought they were nuts but also very touched.

I locked down on Gun (the heels were VERY high), bent down and kissed her. In all the years of our friendship we had never kissed before. On the other hand I had also never been as impressed by my childhood friend as I was then.

- You are a better man than I am, Gun Gadin.