Westley has always known Claire. She's always been a constant in his life, whether it be as his babysitter, his secret Santa, as his pretend-girlfriend, his confident, as the person he could always rely on.
But she's also always been the girl he lov...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
I'm nine years old and I start playing sports. It's my mom's idea. She says I don't have enough friends and that it will help me make more. She wanted to have me try out for everything but I put my foot down. Just football and swimming.
Football, because I know my dad loves it and that might make him happy, that his son is playing his favourite sport. Maybe he'll start smiling more around the house. And swimming because I actually enjoy swimming. Claire's parents have a pool so summertime at their house is always nice. Claire actually taught me how to swim.
I get in the football team. Everyone basically does. Everyone is also always angry at me when I play football because I never know where to stand and what to do and when to run and who to stop or not stop.
I prefer swimming. It's fun and no one is screaming at me. When I swim it's just me out there. And swimming makes sense. I just have to get from one point to the other.
When I tell that to my mom, she says that feeling that way sort of defeats the purpose of making me do sports to make new friends. She tells me I should try harder.
So I do. I try harder, I try to talk with the other boys on the team, but they're usually all annoyed with me.
I tell Mom I'm making new friends though. I tell Mom everything is good now. Sometimes I tell her I have to go meet up my friends, to keep with the pretence and I just wander around alone for a while. I go sit at a park and feed the birds. I try to catch squirrels.
I don't like lying to my mom, but it's the only solution I have. I'm not going to make any friends. I'm too small and too stupid and annoying. No one cares about me.
But that's okay. I don't need anyone. I'm fine alone. And when she'll come back, I'll have Claire again.
