June 30, 2012 STUCK IN THE MIDDLE OF TWO FRIENDS This the first EVER Ask Nikki post! The question comes from Caris. She writes: I am 10 years old and I have a school trip. The driving time is 6 hours! Two of my friends want to sit next to me, but they both hate each other. I don’t know who to sit next to! My advice: Hi Caris! First of all, that’s a SUPER long drive! I hope you have some fun things to do on the trip. I wrote a blog post about my road trip essentials, in case you want to check it out. 🙂 But now onto your question! That must be totally hard, knowing your friends don’t like each other. When I was in the 4th grade, I had two friends who CONSTANTLY bickered. It was drama central 24/7, and I always felt in the middle! I bet that’s how you feel, too! I say be totally honest with them. Talk to them both separately, and tell them you really value BOTH of their friendships, and you would never want to hurt either of their feelings. Then tell them they both asked to sit next to you, and that puts you in a kind of awkward position because you don’t want to have to pick one of them. If they’re really your friends, they’ll totally understand how hard this is for you! Then maybe you can sit with one friend on the way there, and the other on the way back. This way, you get time with both of them, and no one’s feelings get hurt. Since the drive is so long, you’ll have plenty of time to talk. Maybe you can spend a little time explaining to each friend what you appreciate about the other. Who knows…maybe after this trip, you’ll ALL be friends! Do any of you guys have advice for Caris? Leave it in the comments!