Anyone remember Bobby Jack?

This was me at age 12 with my Bobby Jack sweater :) but sadly I didn't have this sweater for long. I've got a bit of a sad tale to share regarding my sweater u_u

But just to give a bit of context, in the 2000's, Bobby Jack, or any brand with a monkey character on it, was probably the most popular line of clothing of that era. If you had a piece of their clothing, you were deemed popular or cool! Personally, I didn't really care about popularity status (that's a lie, lol) BUT my reason for wanting Bobby Jack clothing was how cartoony, crazy and mischievous of a character he was with a bit of an attitude. He reminded me a bit of myself thus why I loved Bobby Jack. He was so me coded, lol!

I remember my fake friends flexing their bobby jack gear. While they never ridiculed me for not having it, they hoped I got it too so we can all flex our clothing together. Cool, right? Sadly, despite its popularity, Bobby Jack was very expensive to own. Regardless, I asked my mom if I can own myself some Bobby Jack clothing. She didn't know what it was so I gladly showed her some of their clothing. "EW, NOOO!!" she said "And plus, you don't deserve it" so my dreams of having my own Bobby Jack clothing were crushed and now all I could do was admire my friends for having such awesome clothing.

A couple weeks later, my school yard duty got word that I was devasted when my mom refused to buy me Bobby Jack clothing. She approached me and said "Hey, you like Bobby Jack, right?" I said "Yes! I love Bobby Jack they're so cool! I want it but I can't have it :( and I don't think I'll ever will." My yard duty cheered me up and said, "Give me about a week and I'll get you a sweater." I lit up like "Wow! Okay! :)" and I just carried on about my day. Fast forward to a month, my yard duty came up to me with a surprise. She hands me a green Bobby Jack sweater. If you're in the know, the green sweater was considered luxurious in the brand, so I was jumpin' and screaming when she gave me the sweater. I hugged and I thanked her :) I was soo ecstatic! She told me, "I found it at the lost and found. It hasn't been picked up in 2 weeks, so I kept it in case the original owner was looking for it, but they never came around." I didn't mind the sweater being pre-owned. I was too obsessed to even care. I was just happy I now had my very own bobby jack clothing.

Picture day was right around the corner, and I thought it would be awesome wear my bobby jack sweater and have it engraved in the yearbooks forever. I swear I'm not exaggerating, but on the day I wore it, I was getting looks like "wow you are rocking that sweater" type of looks lol.

As days go by and I keep this sweater on, one of my fake friends (let's call her Velasco) comes up to me and says how much she admires my sweater. To give a bit of an introduction, Velasco was a fake friend who was very notorious for making me feel bad for the way I dressed and called me names like ugly, loser and weird. I've known her before she became nasty, so I thought if I kept her around long enough, she'd go back to her old ways and be nice to me again. So she compliments my sweater, and I said "Thank you! The yard duty got it for me." Velasco and that yard duty hated each other. In fact, anyone who was kindhearted, Velasco for some unknown reason always had beef with them (I should've picked up on this red flag :/) Anyway, she asked if she could borrow the bobby jack sweater. I said "Yeah! go for it." She had it for 3 days and now I wanted it back. Velasco gets a little hesitant and asked if she can borrow it for one more week. I said, "Sure go for it! :)". It's now been over 2 weeks and I've given her enough grace so now I really wanted the sweater back. Velasco becomes upset and she tells me "If I give you this sweater back, you can forget being my friend and you better not get your little sister to demand for it because I've now noticed that whenever I take your things, you always have her threatening the principal on me if I didn't return your things... So, think about that." She was right. I did tell my little sister to have Velasco return my stuff in the past. I didn't know how and she was very good at confrontation. So, I let out a really big sigh and told her "Fine.. you can keep it."

Since then, Velasco has been proudly wearing my sweater. One day, we see a girl and she had a really nice outfit on. I tell Velasco about this random girl and how nice her outfit looked. Velasco had the nerve, and while wearing the bobby jack sweater I gave her, smirked at me and told me "Well maybe you'd look that good if you didn't wear ugly clothing all the time."

She walked away and I just sat there and took it.

To this day I still regret giving her that sweater. I gave it to her at the cost of maintaining our friendship only for her to not be my friend after middle school or ever.

But one thing I'll never forget was how happy I was to have had the privilege (and bragging rights lol) of owning a piece of Bobby Jack clothing when they were at their peak! :) <333