Spence Bay (Dec 06/04) - Cecile Naomi Navanna Lyall, a 12-year-old Grade 7 student in Taloyoak, is just like Kelly Osbourne, says her best friend, Kendall Greenley, 17, last week.

"She is like her because she says what is on her mind," says Greenley who doesn't think the age gap between her and Lyall makes any difference to their five-year long friendship.

Greenley moved to Taloyoak from Cambridge Bay eight years ago. The two girls met on one of the numerous char fishing trips that their parents took together.

Their fathers are best friends, too, so it wasn't that long before the two girls were hanging out more and more.

They soon discovered their musical tastes were similar.

Record execs would cringe at this, but every single one of their CDs is burned from a computer. Between the two of them they cover a lot of musical ground, including Kelly Osbourne, Johnny Cash, R&B artists, rap artists like Eminem and 50 Cent, and bands like Guns and Roses and CCR.

There isn't a heck of a lot to do in Taloyoak, a community of 800 people, says the pair. So when they are not figuring out what new songs to burn off the Internet, they walk around town, go to dances and watch movies at home.

The two also get a cool trip somewhere every now and then because they play on a badminton team together. They just played in a tournament in Baker Lake.

But sometimes the true value of a friendship boils down to how honest you can be about clothing choices.

And in this regard, Lyall said she really appreciates Greenley's feedback.

"You need a friend to tell you 'that's ugly, don't wear that,'" says Lyall. "Or 'you're really good at that.'"

Other times the friend is there to support the stranger choices.

Lyall, for example, made her own costume for Halloween this year. She was some sort of odd bug that Lyall's brother kept teasing her about.

Lyall got so frustrated with her brother she wanted to just take her costume off and forget the whole thing. But Greenley intervened.

"I told her that when people tease her they are just jealous," says Greenley.

And Lyall remained a bug for Halloween after all.