Middle School Drama

Ok, ok...I realize it's been <cough>...a while since <cough> I was in middle school.  So long, in fact that at the time, it wasn't even called middle school.  At that time it was called jr. high. Ha!

Anyway, I clearly remember hanging out with my friends and having so much fun.  My group of friends would talk and laugh about everything under the sun while we walked to and from school.  And we really did, since we had to walk about 5 miles to school, uphill both ways, through the desert,....ok, I'm kidding.  But only about the desert part  (:   
If memory serves me right, my best friends and I only had one disagreement.  One.  Uno.  That's it!

Things in middle school sure are different now.  At least for my daughter.  Gabriella has always been very smart, beautiful, popular, outgoing, and every other adjective that pretty much = awesome.  Even in elementary school she always had lots of friends and her friends usually bickered back and forth amongst themselves because "so and so" is "hogging Gabriella."  She was always caught up in the middle of this stupid bickering.
Well, unfortunately, not much has changed.  She is once again faced with this petty nonsense.  And it irritates me to no end.  This time it went on for almost a couple of months (!)  She got to the point of telling one of her best friends that tried again and again to make her choose between her and another of her best friends.
I must say I am very proud of her for standing her ground.  She simply told this friend that they, and a handful of other girls were all her best friends and that she would not choose one over the other.  She also told her that with her birthday coming up, she was inviting a few of them and if someone didn't come because of others invited, so be it.

Well, it worked.  This friend told her today that her parents had yelled at her for acting stupid with Gabriella and basically that friends like Gabriella are hard to come by.  And she apologized.  Even better?  She made a sincere attempt to befriend the other girl.  And that made Gabriella so happy.

I must say that I wholeheartedly agree with those parents.  And I sincerely hope this is the end of it because it was causing my baby lots of grief.

Marko, on the other hand, asked me a few times why girls have so much drama.  He mentioned how he has never, ever had any disagreements with any of his friends.  Ever.
I just whispered under my breath, "Because boys are so flippin' easy."