[Summer Contest Entry 2012] The Best of Friends Chapter 1
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I never thought that this day would end with me hiding in a dark room from someone searching for me with a shotgun.
It was a hot summer day in Salt Lake City, Utah with only a few clouds in the sky. It wasn’t so hot that you would want to stay inside for the air conditioning, but just hot enough so that the sun’s rays tickled your face and an occasional breeze made you wish that days like this would come more often. The last few minutes before the final school bell rang seemed to take up an entire day of their own to the mind of a sixth grader. I had made plans with my friends. We were all going to Ian and Patrick’s apartments, which were in buildings right next to each other on B Street. We had formed a close knit group of eight which consisted of, in order of leadership for the boys: Ian, me, Patrick, Adrian, and Joshua. For the girls the order was most likely: Julie, Jessica, and Meridan.
Ian is an average weight, average height, athletic boy with short, light brown hair and green eyes. He is the honest, charismatic, outgoing type. Patrick is the only other black kid in our group. He has very short nappy hair and a strong sense of pride with a loud mouth to match. Adrian is the shortest boy in our group and has short, dark brown hair with a few freckles on his cheeks. He is a calm, friendly boy from France whose parents make more money than all of the rest of the group’s combined. Joshua is the only one in the group that was weirder than me. He has short blonde hair and blue eyes; the geekiest of us all. Julie was the coolest of the three girls in our group. She was just as poor as I was and even lived just right down the street from me, but you could not tell she was poor by looking at her. She was an average height Chinese girl with short black hair and no accent. Jessica is the nicest and most energetic of the girls. She’s a very short Chicano girl with very long dark hair and innocent eyes. She is a sweet girl who could get you to do anything if she begged you to and we would tease her a lot. The last of the girls is Meridan. She is the tallest girl with short brown hair. She was a great manga artist and was very shy and quiet most of the time, but every now and then she would surprise us by saying something bold. All three of them were pretty attractive.
The last bell mercifully sounds. I get outside and wait for everyone. After a few minutes they all come out with their respective mates and everyone starts talking about what we will do today. Julie started dating Ian, Jessica is with Patrick, and Meridan with Adrian. I would get a girlfriend every now and then, but they never really fit in with the group. Probably because we were all friends long before we started pairing up. Josh wasn’t too popular with the ladies. But he was the one that showed me my first hentai videos and introduced me to other things I still enjoy today. (This led me to fakku eventually!) “What?” Ian yells, waking me from my daydreaming.
“I forgot about a dinner party I have to go to this evening. It’s for my father’s job, you see...” Adrian says apologetically.
“I’m still grounded, Ian,” declares Joshua.
“Oh yeah!” Ian laughs. “Your dad heard about us running up and down Third Avenue mooning people, didn’t he?”
“Yeah.” Josh smiles.
“My mom told me to come home after school. We haven’t finished moving in yet,” Julie whines.
“What about you, Jess?” Patrick asks.
Jessica smiles and says, “I can still go. Can you come too, Meridan?”
“Um, no. I have… chores to do. Sorry.” Just then some boys run past Meridan and one of them bumps into her and makes her books fall, sending books and artwork sliding across the floor. “Ow…”
Adrian looks at the book that stopped sliding in front of him. He picks it up for her and then notices two words on the cover: Conversational French. “Meridan… is this…
“Ahh!” Meridan yells, snatching the book from him and holding it to her chest, her face now a bright red. Julie and Jessica saw it too and put their arms around her.
“Aww, She’s learning how to speak French for you Adrian,” Julie teases.
“That’s so cute.” Jessica adds. Adrian is starting to blush as well.
“All right you two,” I say. “Give them a break.”
“You’re no fun, Matt,” Jessica pouts. (My name is not Matt. We are all such Digimon fans that we all use a character’s name from the first season of the show. I am Matt, Ian is Tai, his girlfriend Julie is Sora, etc. The personalities don’t all match up, but the couples are paired up the same.)
“We’ll leave you two alone for now,” I tell Adrian. “All right everyone, let’s go.” As we walk away, I hear their conversation.
“You don’t have to learn French, Meridan.”
“But, I want to! I love you, Adrian! And… I feel like I don’t know you enough when I’m at your house and your whole family is speaking french. So… so I want to know how to speak it too!” I looked back when I heard Meridan confess her love as loud as her little voice would let her. She was leaning her head on his chest and crying.
Adrian looked surprised at first, but then I saw a calm look come over his face and a small smile. He lifted up her head and kissed her and then I said, “I love you too, Meridan.” She looked into his eyes and smiled and then wrapped her arms around him. Never in my entire life have I seen any people or any actors in any movie create a scene so pure and loving as the one I saw that afternoon.
As we were walking, I kept thinking of Adrian. Since he was rich and smarter than most kids at the school he had a hard time making real friends that wouldn’t try to use him or get jealous of him. We were different, though. But for just an instant while we were walking away, for the first time ever, I was jealous of Adrian.
“What’s wrong, Matt?” Jessica asks.
“Nothing.”
“Hmm…You’re always quiet, but it’s different this time.”
“I really am fine Kari, but thanks for asking.” I smile to satisfy her.
“If you say so.” It was around this time that I started to fall for Jessica. I need to think of something else.
“Hey, I know a guy I could bring here,” I say to everyone. “He lives next to me.”
“But Matt,” Patrick interrupts. “All the people you try to get to hang out with us… well, they kinda suck.”
“This guy’s fine, T.K.” I say. “He’s quiet but he’s cool. I’ll go get him.”
“Whatever,” Patrick replies as I walk to Julie. Straight ahead is where Julie and I live, but Patrick, Ian, and Josh have to turn right here.
“See you tomorrow, Ian!” she yells.
After we have been walking for a while, Julie breaks the silence. “Arthur?”
“Yeah?” I reply.
“Are you still going out with that girl?”
“Michelle?”
“Yeah.”
“No. She was kind of a bitch.”
“Ah ha! So you finally noticed,” she says, relieved. “Oh, I mean, uh, what happened?”
“She was bullying my little nephew.”
“That bitch.”
“Exactly.”
“Well did you tell her to stop?”
I laugh. “I didn’t have to.”
“Why not?”
“My little sister told her to before I even knew.”
“What happened then?”
“She fought my little sister.”
“What!? Isn’t your little sister like four years old?”
“Yeah. And get this, she lost.”
“Are you serious?”
“My little sister broke her pinky.”
“That’s what she gets, picking on little kids.” I nod in agreement. “So, you’re single then?”
“Yes, I am. Why are you asking? You aren’t.”
“Hey I’m not asking for me. A friend asked me to ask you.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, she lives in the same building as you. I think she really likes you. Her name is Gabby. Don’t forget it, Okay?”
“…I’ll try.” We arrive at her apartment building.
“See you later, Arthur.” I put up my left hand and wave back at her. Across the street, I see my target outside walking home.
“Hi Arthur.”
“Hey Jesus.” Jesus was a big chubby guy with spiky hair. He was about the size of a large adult male at the age of twelve. He was really nice though; a gentle giant kind of guy. A pushover like I used to be. “I’m about to go meet up with some friends. You want to come?”
To be continued?
It was a hot summer day in Salt Lake City, Utah with only a few clouds in the sky. It wasn’t so hot that you would want to stay inside for the air conditioning, but just hot enough so that the sun’s rays tickled your face and an occasional breeze made you wish that days like this would come more often. The last few minutes before the final school bell rang seemed to take up an entire day of their own to the mind of a sixth grader. I had made plans with my friends. We were all going to Ian and Patrick’s apartments, which were in buildings right next to each other on B Street. We had formed a close knit group of eight which consisted of, in order of leadership for the boys: Ian, me, Patrick, Adrian, and Joshua. For the girls the order was most likely: Julie, Jessica, and Meridan.
Ian is an average weight, average height, athletic boy with short, light brown hair and green eyes. He is the honest, charismatic, outgoing type. Patrick is the only other black kid in our group. He has very short nappy hair and a strong sense of pride with a loud mouth to match. Adrian is the shortest boy in our group and has short, dark brown hair with a few freckles on his cheeks. He is a calm, friendly boy from France whose parents make more money than all of the rest of the group’s combined. Joshua is the only one in the group that was weirder than me. He has short blonde hair and blue eyes; the geekiest of us all. Julie was the coolest of the three girls in our group. She was just as poor as I was and even lived just right down the street from me, but you could not tell she was poor by looking at her. She was an average height Chinese girl with short black hair and no accent. Jessica is the nicest and most energetic of the girls. She’s a very short Chicano girl with very long dark hair and innocent eyes. She is a sweet girl who could get you to do anything if she begged you to and we would tease her a lot. The last of the girls is Meridan. She is the tallest girl with short brown hair. She was a great manga artist and was very shy and quiet most of the time, but every now and then she would surprise us by saying something bold. All three of them were pretty attractive.
The last bell mercifully sounds. I get outside and wait for everyone. After a few minutes they all come out with their respective mates and everyone starts talking about what we will do today. Julie started dating Ian, Jessica is with Patrick, and Meridan with Adrian. I would get a girlfriend every now and then, but they never really fit in with the group. Probably because we were all friends long before we started pairing up. Josh wasn’t too popular with the ladies. But he was the one that showed me my first hentai videos and introduced me to other things I still enjoy today. (This led me to fakku eventually!) “What?” Ian yells, waking me from my daydreaming.
“I forgot about a dinner party I have to go to this evening. It’s for my father’s job, you see...” Adrian says apologetically.
“I’m still grounded, Ian,” declares Joshua.
“Oh yeah!” Ian laughs. “Your dad heard about us running up and down Third Avenue mooning people, didn’t he?”
“Yeah.” Josh smiles.
“My mom told me to come home after school. We haven’t finished moving in yet,” Julie whines.
“What about you, Jess?” Patrick asks.
Jessica smiles and says, “I can still go. Can you come too, Meridan?”
“Um, no. I have… chores to do. Sorry.” Just then some boys run past Meridan and one of them bumps into her and makes her books fall, sending books and artwork sliding across the floor. “Ow…”
Adrian looks at the book that stopped sliding in front of him. He picks it up for her and then notices two words on the cover: Conversational French. “Meridan… is this…
“Ahh!” Meridan yells, snatching the book from him and holding it to her chest, her face now a bright red. Julie and Jessica saw it too and put their arms around her.
“Aww, She’s learning how to speak French for you Adrian,” Julie teases.
“That’s so cute.” Jessica adds. Adrian is starting to blush as well.
“All right you two,” I say. “Give them a break.”
“You’re no fun, Matt,” Jessica pouts. (My name is not Matt. We are all such Digimon fans that we all use a character’s name from the first season of the show. I am Matt, Ian is Tai, his girlfriend Julie is Sora, etc. The personalities don’t all match up, but the couples are paired up the same.)
“We’ll leave you two alone for now,” I tell Adrian. “All right everyone, let’s go.” As we walk away, I hear their conversation.
“You don’t have to learn French, Meridan.”
“But, I want to! I love you, Adrian! And… I feel like I don’t know you enough when I’m at your house and your whole family is speaking french. So… so I want to know how to speak it too!” I looked back when I heard Meridan confess her love as loud as her little voice would let her. She was leaning her head on his chest and crying.
Adrian looked surprised at first, but then I saw a calm look come over his face and a small smile. He lifted up her head and kissed her and then I said, “I love you too, Meridan.” She looked into his eyes and smiled and then wrapped her arms around him. Never in my entire life have I seen any people or any actors in any movie create a scene so pure and loving as the one I saw that afternoon.
As we were walking, I kept thinking of Adrian. Since he was rich and smarter than most kids at the school he had a hard time making real friends that wouldn’t try to use him or get jealous of him. We were different, though. But for just an instant while we were walking away, for the first time ever, I was jealous of Adrian.
“What’s wrong, Matt?” Jessica asks.
“Nothing.”
“Hmm…You’re always quiet, but it’s different this time.”
“I really am fine Kari, but thanks for asking.” I smile to satisfy her.
“If you say so.” It was around this time that I started to fall for Jessica. I need to think of something else.
“Hey, I know a guy I could bring here,” I say to everyone. “He lives next to me.”
“But Matt,” Patrick interrupts. “All the people you try to get to hang out with us… well, they kinda suck.”
“This guy’s fine, T.K.” I say. “He’s quiet but he’s cool. I’ll go get him.”
“Whatever,” Patrick replies as I walk to Julie. Straight ahead is where Julie and I live, but Patrick, Ian, and Josh have to turn right here.
“See you tomorrow, Ian!” she yells.
After we have been walking for a while, Julie breaks the silence. “Arthur?”
“Yeah?” I reply.
“Are you still going out with that girl?”
“Michelle?”
“Yeah.”
“No. She was kind of a bitch.”
“Ah ha! So you finally noticed,” she says, relieved. “Oh, I mean, uh, what happened?”
“She was bullying my little nephew.”
“That bitch.”
“Exactly.”
“Well did you tell her to stop?”
I laugh. “I didn’t have to.”
“Why not?”
“My little sister told her to before I even knew.”
“What happened then?”
“She fought my little sister.”
“What!? Isn’t your little sister like four years old?”
“Yeah. And get this, she lost.”
“Are you serious?”
“My little sister broke her pinky.”
“That’s what she gets, picking on little kids.” I nod in agreement. “So, you’re single then?”
“Yes, I am. Why are you asking? You aren’t.”
“Hey I’m not asking for me. A friend asked me to ask you.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, she lives in the same building as you. I think she really likes you. Her name is Gabby. Don’t forget it, Okay?”
“…I’ll try.” We arrive at her apartment building.
“See you later, Arthur.” I put up my left hand and wave back at her. Across the street, I see my target outside walking home.
“Hi Arthur.”
“Hey Jesus.” Jesus was a big chubby guy with spiky hair. He was about the size of a large adult male at the age of twelve. He was really nice though; a gentle giant kind of guy. A pushover like I used to be. “I’m about to go meet up with some friends. You want to come?”
To be continued?