SYLVIA WESTRA: Welcome to today’s episode of unexpected friendships, where we find unusual pairs around SPA and dig deeper into how friendships form and how they last. I’m your host, Sylvia Westra and today I will be diving into the long friendship of ninth graders El Nelson and Claire Howard.

WESTRA: What is something that you like about each other?

EL NELSON: You’re very funny

CLAIRE HOWARD: I guess, yeah, you’re a nice person.

WESTRA: El and Claire met at their old middle school, Lake Country Montessori.

WESTRA: It’s a weird school.

HOWARD: Yeah, it’s a really weird school.

HOWARD: They go K through eight, it’s about 30 people per grade, and then you’re kind of split up, with your grades. So you’re split up with the people two years ahead of you, and then you go through that class until they’re two years younger than you, with you.

WESTRA: This was Claire speaking. Lake Country Montessori sends their students on annual bike trips, which El shares fond memories from.

NELSON: So we spend five days biking. The first year was in Wisconsin and the second year, it was

HOWARD: It was in Minnesota, I think it was in southern Minnesota

NELSON: Yeah, and it sucked the second year like it was bad the first year, but not nearly as bad as the second year. There were rolling hills and stuff. So we came up with a very thought-out plan to crash. So we did, we intentionally crashed our bikes and got out of a day of biking. We kind of crashed directly in front of the van where one of our teachers was sitting, which probably wasn’t the smartest, but it was a real crash, just planned.

WESTRA: El and Claire like to hang out outside of school together too.

NELSON: We hang out at our other friend, Anna’s house a fair amount, and we like to play overcooked.

WESTRA: What’s that?

NELSON: It’s a game, on, I think it’s on the switch.

HOWARD: It’s on the Nintendo Switch

NELSON: Yeah, it’s kind of like cooking fever, but you move around more, and it’s with a group.

WESTRA: They also are so close that they know each other too well to play two truths in a lie.

HOWARD: You go first.

NELSON: No, you go first.

HOWARD: I literally asked you to go first. Go first.

NELSON: I’ve watched four shows in the past week

HOWARD: that’s really concerning.

NELSON: I once threw a frog at my brother, and I skipped a year of preschool.

HOWARD: You did not skip a year of preschool. There is no way

NELSON: I never threw a frog at my brother

HOWARD: There’s no way like you didn’t go to school or you got moved up.

NELSON: I got moved up

HOWARD: No you didn’t

NELSON: Yes I did

HOWARD: I broke my brother’s front tooth.

HOWARD: I’m going to New York.

HOWARD: My parents are letting me get my helix pierced.

NELSON: That’s a lie

HOWARD: How do you know, what if they let me within the last three weeks

NELSON: Because I feel like you would’ve mentioned that

HOWARD: Would I or would I have mentioned, going to New York.

NELSON: I know you’re going to New York. Also, my guess is you can’t get your helix pierced.

HOWARD: I can’t. My parents are still not letting me.

WESTRA: Because Lake Country Montessori ends in eighth grade, both El and Claire had similar decisions to make as to where to go to high school.

NELSON: A lot of people went to SPA, Breck, De La Salle and Blake are usually the four main ones, and then just kind of scattered around. So I had applied for SPA and Breck and then made the decision to go to SPA

WESTRA: Claire had a similar experience.

HOWARD: I was deciding between Breck and SPA pretty close to the date. And one of my other friends is going here too. So I think I wanted to go somewhere where I knew anyone, because I didn’t know anyone going to Breck

WESTRA: Overall, both of them agree switching schools was better with a friend.

HOWARD: I’ve never switched schools before. I’ve always gone to LCS, so for a while it was nice to know somebody at the new school, so I wasn’t as nervous

NELSON: I’ve only switched to here and then, lake country and they are very different environments, so I guess it’s kind of hard to compare the two, but having people you know eases you into it a little bit more. It’s a lot less daunting.

WESTRA: If you want to listen to more podcasts, head over to Rubiconline to find more like this. Also, if you like this podcast, tune into our other episodes of Unexpected Friendships. See you next time.