backlogged dreams & day old teas

I - cats cradle

1997
September 1st
Amidst the lunch chatter and the gleeful giggles from food swapping, Taylor and her best friend Abigail were sitting together in the cafeteria during lunchtime. They were only in their first year of elementary school, yet they felt like such mature girls. They gossiped about boys  and saw the kindergarteners as babies now.

"My goodness Abi did you see that?" Taylor angrily babbled.

"What what what?" Abigail was more concerned about her melting yogurt than her best friend's rants which she had to grow accustomed to.

"This boy just stuck his tongue out at me and mouthed such a bad word! My mom told me to never say that!"

Abigail's attention suddenly diverted to Taylor. "You know, he's just being mean because he likes you. Maybe you guys will fall in love someday and," Abigail changed her volume to a whisper "kiss."

Taylor's eyes widened and her face immediately reddened like a ripe tomato. "NO we will not kiss! Boys have cooties anyways."

Abigail shrugged her shoulders and rolled her eyes. "Who is that anyways? He wasn't in kindergarten with us."

Taylor was using a piece of string to set up a cat's
cradle game with Abigail. "He's in our class you know. Joseph Alwyn. But he makes everyone call him Joe."

Just then, the lunch bell rang and the duo was forced to pack up their lunch. They ran back to the classroom hurriedly, with Taylor being so excited she left her water bottle at the table.

"Girls and boys," their teacher said. "It seems to me someone careless has left their water bottle in the cafeteria just now. Whom does this belong to?"
Taylor immediately recognized her cat decorated water bottle and raised her hand to take it back. As she was walking to her cubby to put it away, the rude boy Joe laughed and Taylor's cheeks turned pink in embarrassment.

When Joe arrived home, his mother was in the kitchen helping his brother Tom with his homework. Their entire family had just recently moved to Nashville due to a job switch.

"Hello Joseph, how was your first day of school? Did you find your classroom? Did you make any friends? What's your teacher's name?" Elizabeth worriedly bombarded Joe with many questions, anxious about her children settling in. Joe mumbled that it was okay and told his mum about laughing at Taylor. Elizabeth tutted and said, "Joseph, that is very rude of you. Poor girl, she was just a bit careless. I expect you to apologize to her tomorrow." Joe annoyedly mumbled a half hearted okay again and went upstairs to his bedroom.

September 2nd
The following day, the cycle repeated itself and Taylor and Abigail found themselves in the cafeteria for lunch again. They were so engrossed in their conversation and didn't notice Joe walking over with his head low. Joe tried tapping Taylor on her shoulder but she didn't feel his touch and he started getting frustrated and his face was getting flushed.

"Taylor...Taylor... TAYLOR!" Taylor finally turned around looking agitated, still sour over the incident that happened yesterday. "I'm sorry" Joe muttered, embarrassed to find himself apologizing to Taylor.

"What?" Taylor couldn't hear him over all the ruckus made in the cafeteria.

"I SAID, I'M SORRY TAYLOR" Joe practically screamed. The whole room got silent for a second and the awkwardness was seeping through the room.
Thankfully, after a few moments, the chatter began to pick up again.

Taylor was frowning, "What are you sorry for? I don't understand."

"I'm sorry I laughed at you and stuck out my tongue at you yesterday. My mum made me apologize so here I am" Joe was looking at his shoes the whole time, just wanting a hole to swallow him up. Taylor giggled and shooed him away, gracefully accepting his apology.

However, after the apology, the teasing and picking on each other did not stop there. Whenever one of them got in trouble, Taylor or Joe would be laughing at each other from across the room and sticking out their tongue when the teacher wasn't looking. They would often run past and lightly shove each other on the playground or draw random scribbles on each other's classwork when they were forced to sit together. Of course, this was all childish bickering and light hearted mischief with no hard feelings between the two. Nevertheless, the pair still weren't actual friends and they would never hang out with each other.