Chapter 3 - The childhood friend

MY FATHER WAS NOW the administrative manager of the capixaba branch of an important travel agency and was in excellent financial conditions in Espírito Santo. The divorce settlement had established that he would pay my mother a monthly allowance for the years they had been married and for the offspring of that marriage, in this case, me.

The money Dad deposited in Mom's account was enough for us to pay the basic bills, but it was mainly earmarked for my education. As soon as her ex-husband moved to Vitória, Silvana decided to remove me from public education where I had studied since pre-school and enrolled me in one of the most expensive schools in São Paulo, where, according to her, I would finally have better conditions. of learning and equal opportunities with other more affluent students in any entrance exam that he wanted to take in the future.

Dom Pedro II was one of the most prestigious schools in the city and whose high school students annually obtained the best averages in competitive entrance exams such as those at USP and UNESP. I had been quite euphoric to study in such a serious place and where the smartest students were starting to embark on the dream of their future careers, but there was also a side of me that was scared to death to mix with those people so rich and so far away. of the modest life I led.

Recurring thoughts that I would not adapt and missing my old classmates from the public school I attended almost froze me at the slightest possibility of having to get up early every day to face a new reality, but as everything in my life was always loaded of urgency, I had to quickly get used to the idea.

The studies enhanced by Dom Pedro II's severe teaching method and the friendships I ended up making at the new school began to occupy a good part of my life in the years that followed my father's departure for Espírito Santo and I didn't have any time to whining or whimpering—although I wish I had. Because of Mom's shifts at the hospital and her lack of time for household chores, I had to learn to fend for myself at home, which made me a very active girl.

My routine started very early in the morning, when I would clean the house, put the dirty clothes in the wash and make something simple to eat in the kitchen. I've always been a terrible cook, so I just made do with what I had in the fridge, in general, easy-to-cook vegetables, vegetables that didn't need seasoning or ordinary rice and beans.

Before noon, the school van service that my mother paid for to pick me up at Itaim Bibi and take me to Avenida Paulista would pick me up at the door of my house and I would go from there to Dom Pedro II with some colleagues who lived in the same neighborhood. that I. I stayed in class until around seven o'clock and almost promptly re-boarded the van that took me home.

In that rush, there were days when I would find my mother making our dinner in the kitchen at home, but most of the time, I would only find her notes pasted on the fridge door. “I'm on duty today, Nic. I left chicken in the freezer”, “Your dinner is in the microwave. Bon appétit, my love”, “Mommy had to work today. Do not meet strangers at the gate and behave yourself.”

Nurse Silvana's routine hadn't changed much because of the divorce and with that, I ended up having to fend for myself almost always since I was a little girl, while she worked to pay the house bills.

I was aware of everything that woman gave up so that the two of us could have our daily bread on our table, exactly for that reason, I didn't want to be another burden in her life. I did my part within the possibilities and when she arrived from the street, the house was always well taken care of. Mom never had anything to complain about.

In addition to taking care of things at home and at school, I did everything to justify the large sums of money that Silvana paid for Dom Pedro II's tuition. I paid attention in class, did my homework diligently, and always got good grades. In that regard, I never let her down. I was one of the best students in the class and all the teachers praised my efforts since the first year I had set foot in that school. I was indisputably one of the highlights of my class and that went on for quite some time until a new girl emerged to share the spotlight with me. Until I met Kelly.

Kelly Ferraz Schneider studied at Dom Pedro II since the first year, but we only ended up in the same class at the beginning of sixth grade. At that time, I had already adapted to the routine of a private teaching institution and I was very well inserted in that world. He knew most of the teachers, the secretary's aunts, the janitor, and even the cleaning staff. He had classmates in study groups, he socialized with the boys on the basketball and soccer teams, and he was even quite popular in the hallways at school, although he still didn't have anyone he could really call a friend. I didn't know that I would one day be able to defend that girl with my life, but like the beginning of many great friendships—and I was ashamed to admit it—I didn't like Kelly at all. .

The girl who had German ancestry had very light brown hair, almost blonde, and her green eyes were really beautiful, which caught the attention of the other students. Most of them already knew each other from previous years, but, as almost always happened, a lot of new people had been added to the group. Kelly wasn't exactly a novice, but as she was “fresh meat” among the people who studied with me before, she soon started stealing all their attention, which made me a little jealous.

Until then, I was the big star in the room and Kelly was overshadowing my role. She was very talkative and expressed herself very well for such a young girl and in a short time, she became the teachers' darling. I didn't used to be jealous of anything or anyone, but I thought I needed to recover that position that in previous years was mine alone. Being the teacher's favorite gave me advantages that I liked to take advantage of and so I decided to get to know my big competitor better, getting closer to her to find out what her weaknesses were.

Contrary to what I imagined, however, Kelly was a very sweet and gentle girl who completely defused any kind of animosity I planned to cultivate against her as soon as we met. It wasn't remotely a threat to me or my academic performance, and it didn't take long for me to realize that I was being a huge asshole to think otherwise.

Between one conversation and another during class breaks, I found out that Kelly and I were practically neighbors in Itaim Bibi and that she lived in a building on the other side of my street, less than a block away.

— Seriously — she said between smiles —, I live in the Recanto Dourado condominium, on the corner of Rua Mendes Souza. It is less than ten minutes from your home.

I could never imagine such a coincidence.

Kelly's mother was called Claudia and she was a publicist who owned an agency called Illuminare, located in Vila Mariana. She herself made a point of leaving her daughter at Dom Pedro's door every morning in the car before work and many times, I took a ride with the two of them instead of boarding the school van. Due to our proximity, it didn't take long for Claudia to meet my mother and the two ended up becoming neighborhood colleagues. The publicist was probably the only person Ms. Silvana had interacted with in that entire neighborhood since she'd moved there, and that made me happy, as I understood the benefits of having someone to talk to from time to time.

Over the course of that year, Kelly and I became virtually inseparable, and many people envied our friendship. Unlike most of the alliances that formed at school in that period, those full of falsehoods and as fragile as china, my connection with Kelly was strong and sincere.

I saw her as a faithful confidant to whom I could tell everything that happened in my life and I felt that it was reciprocal. I vented to her about my fears, my insecurities and even the excessive longing I felt for my father. We spent hours advising each other about our doubts, our anxieties or even discussing a silly episode of some romantic series we watched, but it was as if our repertoire of conversations never exhausted. Sometimes the teachers had to get our attention so that we would stop chattering during class and it was funny. We had an incredible rapport with each other.

Like me, Kelly spent a good part of her childhood being cared for by people other than her parents and my identification with her was instantaneous. The girl had been orphaned at the age of six, when her father, Charles, suffered a massive heart attack while at work and couldn't resist.

Just like my mother, the publicist had to do her best to raise the girl alone while studying Advertising in college and doing an internship at one of the real estate agencies that her father managed. For all the wealth that permeated her family with wealthy relatives who owned profitable companies, Kelly hadn't had an easy childhood either, and it took a lot to grow up to be the humble, level-headed teenager I knew.

In her daily rush and after all her period of mourning, Claudia entrusted little Kelly — six or seven years old — to two of her closest teenage cousins, and they were the ones who helped her take care of the girl in her absence. Siblings Henrique and Natalie Schneider lived in the same neighborhood as their cousin, and since they had a lot of free time, they were the most obvious option for staying with Kelly during the week and not having to hire a nanny.

The mother of the two, owner Stephanie, took care of the curation of artistic exhibitions that took place frequently in the city, so she also had little time to keep an eye on what her teenage children were doing in their leisure. The Schneider family took advantage of that lack of parental supervision to escape to the coast on weekends, and their destination was almost always the spacious summer house that the family owned. As the girl Kelly was almost always under the supervision of the duo and away from the eyes of adults, it didn't take long for them to start dragging her with them on their excursions to the beach and there they would spend hours and hours of pure fun in front of a scenario natural and paradisiacal. My friend loved it and didn't hide it from anyone.

“You talk so fondly about your cousins,” I remarked to her once, making a remark, “they must both be really nice.

— They're so much more than nice — she replied with a twinkle in her emerald green eyes —, Rick and Nat are the most fun part of my life.

Some time later, I would better understand Kelly's fascination with her older cousins when living with both of them in person. I still had no idea, but the Schneider brothers were more interesting than I could have even guessed.