A Soulmate Story A Day

8 ~ Not Quite Right

[Published 08/10/15]

I was the last kid in my year to receive a bonding bracelet. Heck, even some of the kids in the two years below had already got there's.

It normally meant if you received your bracelet quite late that your soulmate was quite a bit younger. They estimated mine was 5 years younger than me and at the age of 11 that seemed a lot younger than me.

Now if I wanted to I could split the people in my year into three groups when it came to the bracelet. The first group were the loud, bubbly ones which exuded confidence. Upon getting their bracelet they pranced around with it on, telling anyone and everyone exactly what it said on it. The second group were the majority really. They were the middle of the road kids, like me really. They'd show a few people if they were asked nicely as well as their close friends but they didn't go around dangling it in front of people's faces like the first group.

The final group were the mysteries really and I didn't like mysteries that I couldn't solve. I didn't seem to be able to solve any of them. That was until I received my bracelet. Then I got a few of them to open up to me. Not all of them but two or three. The category three kids wouldn't tell anyone what their bracelet said. Not even their parents. At the age of 11 I thought it was preposterous to have secrets from your parents. Well I would have thought that if I'd known what 'preposterous' meant. Yet when I did receive my bracelet I found I was also keeping secrets from my parents.

My mother and father, being respectable, wealthy members of the community, obviously had to hold a 'bonding bracelet bash'. As they liked to call it. It entailed me having a party receiving a few small gifts and then announcing to everyone what the name said.

When I read my bracelet I figured that telling everyone what it said really wasn't an option.

Fondly I remembered Charlie Greggs. A girl who had lived on my street. Well, that was until her parents disowned her at 17 when she found her soulmate. Her soulmate was a girl born into a boy's body but who had changed her body so she felt comfortable. Charlie's parents were outraged that, what was it that they said? Oh yes, outraged that 'their daughter was soulmates with another families daughters!' Mrs Greggs seemed very upset. I didn't really understand why. I still don't.

On my silver bracelet was carved the name 'Webster.' Initially I had just wondered on who the heck calls their kid 'Webster'. Then came the afterthought of how 'Webster' however a stupid name it was, was a boy's name. Distantly, at the back of my mind I heard my mother's fuming voice shout 'my son, soulmates with another families son!' Paraphrasing angry Mrs Greggs.

The real dilemma was when I came to stand on our balcony overlooking the garden where everyone stood on that bright summer's eve, just waiting for the name. The name they all expected to belong to a girl.

My hands were fidgety and my palms sweaty. Nervously my eyes flicked to Mrs Greggs and her husband who were looking at me proudly. If they couldn't even be proud of their own daughter, how could they possibly be proud of me?

I felt my mother nudge me, silently prompting me to get on with it.

'Come on kid, what's she called?' A slightly tipsy man from my dad's work yelled, earning glares from everyone else.

Can I really do this?

My dad wrapped his arm around me, 'Anytime this year, Tom?' He joked, but with a little too much harshness in his voice for it to really be considered a joke.

'We-' I started then coughed into the microphone as everyone gazed up at me, expectantly.

'W-' I can't do this. 'Wendy.'

From 'Webster' to 'Wendy'. I almost screamed as the crowd burst into applause.

This is not right.

So not right...