Can you be friends with everybody?

Yes, if you're a first-grader. That was a very happy time, wasn't it? Everybody was friends with everybody. You just go to school, listen to the teacher for a bit, then you eat, play, sing, dance... do whatever you darn please. Then, in a few years, you hit fifth grade. Do you hear a loud thud? I do.

The politics start. You can be friends with so-and-so, but not with so-and-so because of the silliest reasons. An absurd but true example: everyone in your "group" has pink backpacks, so you can't hang out with that girl who has a yellow one. I'm serious, this actually happened. Here's another one: don't hang out with so-and-so, because the car that picks her up isn't nice. What the hell?! Downright cruel? You bet. And true. Kids can be mean sometimes. Especially the snobby kids whose parents are somewhat twisted themselves.

Fifth grade is the beginning of the Queen Bee's evolution. You know who that is. The bossy girl who kinds of leads everyone into thinking that there has to be "groups". The nerds, the sporty kids, the quiet ones, the popular kids... She thinks she's Hitler. And almost everybody thinks so too. She even approves the "guest list" for the kiddie birthday parties. Mean, mean girl.

The Queen Bee is an evil creature. Oh yes, she is. She bullies the other kids into alienating the kids she doesn't like, she bullies the alienated kids into staying home instead. You know who she is, there's at least one in every school. My old school had at least 3 that i know of. Oh, the terror!

She gets even worse during high school. I don't need to elaborate on this. We've all seen more than enough teen movies to know this fact by heart. (Think: Mean Girls, Bring It On, Jawbreaker...) But, alas, people grow up. And they usually outgrow being in the clutches of the Queen Bee. When you're all grown up, you can choose your own friends and do your own thing. Or so it seems.

God forbid that the Queen Bee should stay the same throughout the years. But this happens too. You know some of the frou-frou old ladies in high society who can blacklist people from social events and stuff? You know of at least one, I'm sure. That's a shriveled up version of the Queen Bee for you right there. It's actually kind of sad. She gossips about other people's careers and financial situations, other people's kids, other people's parties... Life is pretty boring for people like those, I suppose.

The girlfights just don't stop.