Make a Wish || Rhett and Link

Chapter 46 - Friends

Luckily for us, Cooper's cold had cleared up by Wednesday, so we were able to resume our normal timetable at mythical entertainment.

It was good to have her back, she was missed when she wasn't here. We went into our office and sat down. It was good for the first 2 hours, but then boredom began to creep in.

"Is there anything else I can do?" Cooper asked.

I shrugged. "You can go and ask the crew if they need any help."

"Already did that. They're doing fine." Cooper sighed.

"I can take you next door for an hour or so if you want." Link suggested.

"Huh? What's next door?" She asked.

"Haven't you looked out the window?" I asked, a little surprised that she hadn't noticed what was next door.

Cooper raced to the window and gasped. "The awesomest skate park I've ever seen in my life is next door and I didn't even know it?!"

I laughed. "I was wondering why you hadn't mentioned anything about it yet."

"Can we go?" She pleaded with puppy dog eyes.

I caved. I couldn't say no to that. "Course. Your board is downstairs, I brought it about a week ago, knowing you'd want to go sooner or later."

She smiled. "You guys are the awesomest."

*****Cooper's Point of View*****

I raced down the stairs, my hands shaking with excitement as I found my board exactly where Rhett said it would be. I couldn't believe this was happening! Energy was pumping through my veins as I raced outside.

"Wait for me Super-Cooper!" Link laughed, chasing after me.

We went outside and walked next door, and the place was even awesome from the ground. And better for me, because most kids were at school, the place was mostly empty.

"I'll sit over here" Link said, gesturing to a park bench. "Now go have fun!"

I couldn't contain my excitement as I rushed forward to the concrete ramps. Link gave me a thumbs up, and I took off.

I went up and down, got the hang of a few jumps, and even tried some shredding. It was unbelievably awesome.

There was another kid there, a boy about my age. He had wild blonde curls poking out from underneath his red helmet, and was wearing street wear, similar to me. We were using what I like to call 'unspoken skate code' when taking turns when using the ramps and other stuff like that. I skated up the side of the bowl, where he was having a turn. I decided to introduce myself.

"Hi." I said.

The boy landed up next to me. "Hi. Reuben." He said with a smile. "Nice to see someone else here in the middle of the day. Homeschooled too?"

I shrugged. "Something like that. Name's Cooper."

He looked at me for a moment, before letting out an awkward chuckle. "Sorry dude, thought you were a girl for a moment."

I gave him a stern look. "I am a girl."

The look on his face was hilarious, and I burst out laughing. "Don't worry about it. Boy's name, short hair, I get it all the time."

Reuben chuckled awkwardly. "Good to hear, I guess."

"How did you do that cool trick you were doing before?" I asked.

Reuben smiled. "I'll show you."

We spent the next hour together, teaching each other our favourite tricks and just skating around on the park. It was awesome. I kept sending thumbs up to Link, who smiled back. I felt sorta bad for him, he was just sitting in the shade doing nothing, but he seemed pretty happy, so I didn't say anything.

"So why aren't you at school?" I asked him.

"Homeschooled." He shrugged. "I'm dyslexic. After middle school, the high school refused to take me, wanted to send me to a special school. And my Mom's all crazy and was up in their face about how I deserved to go to a normal school, but they still said no, so now I'm homeschooled. It's pretty good in the effort that I can come and skate during my lunch break."

I nodded. "Sounds pretty cool."

Reuben smiled. "So what about you? Why are you homeschooled?"

I pushed out the best lie I could come up with on the spot. "Uh, parents travel a lot, and I stay with my aunt and uncle who homeschool their kids, so I just hang with them."

Reuben nodded. "Cool, cool. Is that your uncle?" He asked, gesturing to Link.

"Oh, no, that's his best friend, but we're really close, so I guess we're like family." I explained.

"Oh, cool." Reuben said. "It's just me and my Mom and my little sister and my Grandad, I wish I had a cool extended family."

I nodded. "Yeah, it's good in some ways, not so good in others."

Reuben nodded. "Any siblings?"

"I have my aunt's kids, they're pretty awesome, but other than that, no."

I could feel myself getting more nervous, I was just spitting out lies as soon as they came to mind. I didn't want to tell him the truth, after all, who wants to be friends with the dying kid? Not unless you felt sorry for them. I wanted to seem normal, I guess.

"Yeah, I have a little sister, and she's pretty cool."

I nodded. "Awesome. You come here every day?"

Reuben smiled. "Yep! How about you?"

I nodded. "Possibly. Will have to ask Link. But should be able to do that."

Reuben smiled, and his watch beeped. "Uh oh, gotta get home. Nice talking to you Cooper. See you tomorrow?"

I smiled. "See you tomorrow."

We each went our seperate ways, and I walked back to Link. He smiled. "Who was that?"

"That was Reuben. I think I've made a new friend."

Link smiled. "Good job you! So he skates too?"

"He comes down every lunchtime! Can I come down tomorrow?"

Link fiddled with his lips. "Hmm...I dunno, we do work."

"I know." I said. "But you can watch me from the window! Plus I have a phone now too!"

Link gave in. "Alright Super-Cooper. Sounds good."

"Yes! You're awesome!" I exclaimed. Link chuckled.

"Oh, and just out of interest, did you tell him your circumstances?"

I shook my head. "Oh no. Definetly not. No way."

Link nodded. "Okay. But I can't promise that won't backfire."