The Making of a Best Friend

The inevitable had arrived; my family was moving to the sunshine state of California once and for all. Although I had known about the move nearly a year, I dropped into a state of dismay as the move drew closer. I had a long established life in my current home of Minnesota, which I wasn't ready to let go of. Being the timid 13-year-old boy that I was, entering the 7th grade in a new environment was the equivalent of crossing the Red Sea in my adolescent mind.
To make matters worse, the differences between Minnesota and California were infinite. Moving only 15 days prior to the start of school, I began to take notice of the lack of hospitality, I was accustomed to the affable people of Minnesota. I assumed my attempts in making friends would be hopeless with these covert people, which were foreign to me. Little did I know that my encounter with the best friend I would ever have lay not far ahead on my path to a new life.
One searing august afternoon, I was ridin...