Melissa Gonchar & Anika Shrivastava

Sophomore Melissa Gonchar couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw junior Anika Shrivastava walking towards her, holding a tiny white cake with the words “Happy Birthday” written on it with a swirl of frosting. However, her surprise quickly shifted to amusement as Shrivastava immediately started smearing vanilla frosting on Gonchar’s face, which destroyed the cake and left the writing on it incomprehensible. Uncontrollable laughter lit up their faces as they demolished the cake with spoons from the school cafeteria. To this day, Shrivastava remembers this moment as one of her fondest memories, because she was finally able to show how special Gonchar was to her. 

Gonchar and Shrivastava met on the first day of school in Gonchar’s freshman year — while other students were running around with their friends, both Gonchar and Shrivastava nervously stepped into their business classroom alone, hoping for a fresh start. Shrivastava had recently moved to Cupertino because of her dad’s job, her family leaving everything behind in Georgia. On the other hand, Gonchar had lived in Cupertino for a couple of years, but she eventually lost touch with her old friends due to COVID-19, and also entered high school with a clean slate. 

It was by chance that they both ended up sitting next to each other in class, but they instantly clicked — bonding over different tastes in music, their cultures and helping each other with their homework. 

“I was really worried about not making friends,” Gonchar said. “And then I [came] to business class and met Anika, and I think our friendship just sprouted from there, and I got a lot closer to her.”

Gonchar specifically recalls both of them desperately trying to contain their giggles in class when she introduced Shrivastva to a hardcore rock band named Fear Factory. Their friendship swiftly developed, from doing business presentations together to sitting at lunch together every day, and Gonchar believes that they were able to become closer in a short period of time. 

Shrivastava agrees, saying the little moments in getting to know each other is what encompassed their friendship and made it stronger. 

“I think all the small moments come together to form a relationship,” Shrivastava said. “And I think it’ll be fun to think about them when we’re both older, [as] they make really good memories for the both of us.”

Even though some things have changed — they no longer sit just with each other as they have evolved into a 11 person friend group — some aspects of their friendship will always stay the same. A year later, both of them still sit together in marketing class just like the day they met, and they FaceTime each other regularly. Shrivastava believes that no matter how much things change, Gonchar and her will always share a unique bond. 

“I think our personalities [are similar] because both of us can be weird around each other and we can do lots of funny things,” Shrivastava said. “At the end of the day, I feel comfortable doing whatever I want around her.”