The purpose of this ethnographic study was to examine friendships of early adolescents in a culturally diverse fifth grade class in an urban elementary school in the southeastern United States. The study described and interpreted the experiences of being a friend and having a friend in a culturally diverse classroom. The approach was grounded in symbolic interactionist theory; executed with ethnographic procedures; and guided by constant comparison analysis. Findings indicated that children's friendships were established through frequently rehearsed low verbal protocols. Children negotiated their friendships through strategic adaptation to the parameters of togetherness, being nice, not fighting, and circumvention. Friends were described inclusively rather than exclusively. Friends were described primarily by gender, and across race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status features. Emergent cultural dissonance related to drugs, transiency, and being a runaway acutely affected children's friendships. A list of 61 references is included. (Author)