The Lucky One

By Diane Stark

The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family.
~Thomas Jefferson

Megan Williams. The most popular girl at Northlake High. She was head cheerleader, Prom Queen, Student Body President and a straight-A student. She was so perfect that it made me want to dislike her, but I couldn't. Because the truth was that Megan was a really nice person.

When I passed her in the hallway at school, she always smiled at me but rarely stopped to talk. Megan was friendly with everyone, but her true friends were all in the popular crowd. And I wasn't exactly hanging with them.

But when I saw Megan at the drugstore one Saturday morning, she was chatty and all smiles. "Hi, Diane," she said. "How are you?"

I smiled back. "I'm doing great. How about you?"

"I'm good, but kinda tired. I had to cheer last night."

"Oh, yeah, I forgot about the game. Did our team win?"

She nodded. "You weren't there?"

I shrugged. "I don't go to a lot of school stuff."

"Oh, you should. It's really fun."

I shrugged again and said nothing. But in my head, I thought, "Well, sure, everything is fun if you're Megan Williams."

I glanced at Megan's cart and spotted several bottles of hair conditioner. Megan's hair was gorgeous and I instantly decided to switch brands.

"Well, I guess I'll see you later," Megan said, starting to push her cart down the aisle. "Have a fun weekend."

"Yeah, you too," I said, already knowing that she would.

I grabbed a bottle of Megan's brand of conditioner and the other things I needed and then went through the checkout line. Megan got behind me in line.

I waved awkwardly and said, "Hi again."

She smiled and waved back.

I paid for my stuff and went out to my car, an old hatchback. It was my brother's car, which was passed down to me when he went away to college. It was a real junker, but it was mine.

I put my stuff in the back and was climbing into the car when I heard someone calling my name. It was Megan. "Diane, your car -- it's so cute!"

"You think my car is cute?"

"Well, not the car itself, but the windows. That's really sweet."

I nodded and glanced at my car windows. I'd forgotten about the car's homemade decorations. On one window were the words, "I love you," written in wipe-off marker. Another window said, "You are beautiful," and a third read, "I believe in you."

"That's so nice," Megan said, "but I didn't know you had a boyfriend."

"Oh, I don't," I said, suddenly ashamed of my cute car windows.

"Then who wrote on your car?"

"Well, um, my dad did," I answered quietly.

"Your dad did that? Your dad took the time to write on your car windows, just to, you know, make you feel good?"

I nodded, wishing like crazy I'd thought quickly enough to make up an imaginary boyfriend from another school. But I'd told the truth, which was beyond embarrassing.

I looked at Megan and realized she had tears in her eyes. "My dad would never do that for me," she muttered. "You are so lucky."

My mouth dropped open. Megan Williams thought I was lucky?

"I bet your mom's great too, right?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I guess. She stays at home with my little brother and sister. She bakes cookies and helps me with my homework and stuff."

Megan sighed. "I'd give anything to have a family like that."

"But you have everything," I said. "A perfect life."

She shook her head. "Not really. Not in the ways that matter."

After that, Megan always stopped to talk with me in the hallway. We even started hanging out outside of school. I'd offer to meet her at McDonald's or Subway, but she always wanted to come to my house. She seemed to love talking with my parents over a homemade dinner and playing board games with my family.

It was totally uncool, but it was what Megan wanted to do. I didn't understand why, but I didn't care. I'd always wanted to be friends with someone like Megan. I thought hanging out with her would make me popular and that would make me happy.

But just being Megan's friend made me happy. The other stuff didn't matter anymore.

Months later, Megan and I were talking about the day my dad wrote on my car windows. "I was so jealous of you," she admitted. "People think I have this great life, but I have struggles too."

I nodded because now that we were friends, I knew the truth about Megan's life.

"But you know what? I decided something that day," she said. "Rather than feel bad that I don't have a dad that would do something like that for me, I decided to hang out with your family." She looked at me, determination in her eyes. "Someday when I'm married, I'm going to have a family like yours. My kids are going to feel so loved."

I realized in that moment that many things in this life are beyond our control. We can't change the family we were born into. Whether they're terrific or completely dysfunctional, we can only do our best to learn from what we're given.

Megan did that. And she showed me that I was the lucky one after all.

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