A Collection Of Short Stories

Memories

A story about a 12-year-old, geometry homework, and a very special tree.

"Meg!" I hear my best friend Tony screaming my name, so naturally, I ignore him, smirking at myself. He hates it when someone doesn't give him the attention he wants. "Meg! You better stop right there, right now!" I roll my eyes, even though I know he can't see, and stop for just a couple seconds. "And stay there while I catch up!" he adds just as I'm about to start walking again. Darn it!

He approaches me and I glance at him as we both start walking to our apartments. We live right next door to each other and often walk to and from school together. Today, I left without him since he got caught messing up the boys' bathroom with toilet paper because he was bored. He had to stay a few minutes after school, since it's around the fourth, or maybe fifth time he'd done something principal's office worthy.

Most of the time, Tony would go around getting in trouble, and I would be there to lecture and scold him afterwards, but today I happened to be a bit busy, what with the new geometry topic I couldn't get into my head, and also that weird assignment our English teacher, Ms. Brown gave us about finding a special place in Boston, and writing about why it's special. Middle school in my school district really is tough, but sometimes the homework is just plain useless.

Speaking of useless assignments, that is apparently what Tony wanted to so desperately talk to me about. "Do you have any ideas about the 'Special Place' thing? I heard Angelica Stone was going to the Boston Public Library, so I'll be heading over there later," he says excitedly. Oh yes, the famous Angelica Stone. She's this really 'popular' girl in my grade, and Tony reeeally likes her. It's quite amusing, actually.

"I don't know, Tony. Have fun with Angelica Stone, though. Hey, could you tell my mom that I'll be home before dinner, and that I'm at the park?"

Tony has a mischievous smile on his face when I finish my first sentence that I can recognize instantly. "No, Tony, we are not making this a competition," I say slowly.

"Pleeease, Meg? It'll be fun!" he responds, making a puppy face. I roll my eyes, while he continues, "I'm not gonna stop making this face until you say yes!" He says the last word in a sing-song voice.

"Fine! Whoever gets the higher grade wins. Loser gives ten bucks to the winner, and gets called Egg-head for a week!" I only agree because honestly, Tony's terrible at making puppy faces. Besides, a little challenge won't hurt.

We part ways as I head over to the park. Something about the park just helps me concentrate when I've had a hard day at school, or if the homework the teachers gave us is really difficult. The latter is true today, and I sit on a bench as I try to brainstorm 'special places' in Boston while simultaneously reading about Ancient Egyptian Civilizations. I wouldn't really care much about the English assignment if I didn't want those ten dollars to help me buy the latest Trials of Apollo book.

When my head starts to hurt, I take a small five minute break, placing my books next to me to just sit there and people-watch a bit. To my right, there's an elderly couple strolling around, laughing and holding hands. It looks sweet, but there are other things to look at.

A little far off, there's a huge oak tree and under it is a middle-aged lady with two younger than 6-year-olds that seem to be twins, and a baby. I laugh, quietly, because the mother is chasing around the baby, who keeps crawling away from the tree, and the twins are wrestling because one of them picked her nose and was now trying to make the other smell it. The mother looks extremely stressed, and while I feel bad for her, I sure am enjoying the scene.

After a while, I head home, which isn't too far from the park, just in time for my mom's amazing grilled salmon dinner, all thoughts about useless English assignments escaping my mind.