At the beginning of 5th grade, a bee stung  Julia Sotos on her head after two boys in her grade tried to stab it with a pencil. Classmate Alex McCann saw her crying and took her to the nurse. 

Now, as they both look back, they don’t remember a painful sting but instead the moment they became best friends, across the world, in London.

The fateful bee incident wasn’t the only thing that brought them together, though. As the pair got to talking, they realized they were both from Lake Forest, and had both moved to England for their dads’ jobs, eventually ending up at a school called The American School in Switzerland (TASIS). 

Every girl in their school was practically required to be a Girl Scout, and that’s how they began to bond. At first, there were about 40 girls enrolled, which eventually dropped down to only a few girls over the years — Sotos and McCann were a part of the four who were left. They grew much closer because they spent so much valuable time together in a tight-knit Girl Scouts group. 

McCann came back to Lake Forest first, right after completing 7th grade. She only had one year until she started high school and two years before Sotos was at the high school with her.

Sotos didn’t expect to return to Lake Forest right after 9th grade; she thought she was going to be back much sooner. The unexpected time apart caused them to lose contact, but even so, their moms brought them back together when Sotos returned to Lake Forest.  

Going to school together at TASIS helped them bond because of how different their experiences were in London in comparison to LFHS.  

“TASIS was a much smaller private school; there was a uniform, and each grade was around 50 or 60 people with many new people every year since it was an international school,” said Sotos.  

Both bonding over their experiences at TASIS, they had different takeaways from the school: from new customs to cultural differences. 

“At TASIS, some of the main focuses were being a citizen of the world and learning about new cultures,” said McCann.

Neither was super excited about moving back to Lake Forest, but they had to at different times and for various reasons.  

“You get attached to the people you’re with every day for almost five years,” said McCann. 

While in London, some of their favorite activities were watching shows such as Brooklyn 99 and making mac and cheese. Sotos and McCann even spent days at a pool where they didn’t meet the age requirement. 

When Sotos came back, they went out for ice cream the week before starting their sophomore year. They weren’t automatically best friends again. However, over time they formed a newfound appreciation for their unique friendship.

“It took a little bit of sophomore year to get close again, we shared a locker because Sotos couldn’t ever get into her locker, so we hung out every day by the locker,” said McCann.  

Now reconnected in Lake Forest they spend most of their time at the beach in the summer and their school nights in the library studying together. 

“Even though we didn’t really stay connected during the time we were apart, we are now even closer friends than we were before,” said Sotos. 

Sotos and McCann have a lifelong friendship carried from the UK to the U.S. They have their memories together and share similar feelings about London, but they continue to grow together here in Lake Forest.