Since Preschool (CURRENTLY EDITING)

Ryan's old friend

note to self: they're in first grade now (6-7 years old)

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Luke wasn't having the best Saturday. Jon was spending the weekend at Tyler's house along with Evan, Anthony, Craig, and Smitty, but Luke had turned down Tyler's invitation because Ryan was supposed to come over today. Ryan wasn't here and he wasn't going to be over at all because his parents called last minute to say that Ryan was going to have a sleepover with some boy named Bryce. Luke never heard Ryan talk about anyone named Bryce before and planned to ask him about the stranger on Monday.

Now Luke had nothing to do, and he was trying to ignore his jealousy and disappointment about Ryan cancelling plans to hang out with someone else and watched Saturday morning cartoons with his mom. After the fourth SpongeBob episode, Luke heard a car engine rumbling outside and stopping. He didn't think much of it until there was a knock on the door.

"Oh, Mark!" Lucille greeted cheerfully. Luke sat up on the couch and waved to his friend. "Hey, welcome back." he said. Mark's family had left to Washington for a week to visit cousins and apparently they were back now. Lucille stepped aside and gestured for the dark-skinned boy to enter.

Mark walked in, pausing to kick off his shoes, then walked over and flopped onto the couch beside the unusually quiet southern boy. Commercials played on the tv and Luke was staring boredly ahead, his cheek against his palm on the armrest.

"What are you watching?" Mark asked curiously. Luke glanced at him and their brown eyes met for a brief second.
"SpongeBob marathon. Lots of re-runs." Luke mumbled. Mark hummed and nodded, noticing that Luke was a bit upset.
"Do you want to go somewhere?" Mark offered. Luke looked at him and didn't look away this time.
"Like where?" the southern boy asked, raising a eyebrow. His words were a bit muffled due to his palm pressing against his cheek.
"I dunno, the park?" Luke paused for a moment and Mark quickly added, "The new one with the super big slides and the really high swings?" Luke hummed and then got up, stretching.
"Alright, let's go!" Mark chuckled and stood up as well. "My dad can take us, let's go ask." Luke nodded and followed Mark to the door, both of them slipping on their shoes.

"Ma, I'm headin' to the park with Mark!" "Have fun, honey! Be safe!" "I will, bye Ma!" "Bye!"

Mark's dad agreed to take them and after a fifteen minute car ride, both boys hopped out of the car and raced ahead to the large shiny playground. Nobody else was there so the boys ran to the big yellow slides. One was twisted and another was slanted, curving to the left at the end. Luke dived down the twisty slide, flying off at the end and landing in the brown bark chips while giggling. Mark quickly came down and flew off, landing on top of Luke, making the other grunt.

"Get off of me, you gorilla!" Luke barked. Mark laughed while standing up, pulling Luke up as well, "I'm the Gorilla." Mark corrected, thumping his chest with his fists and howling like a monkey. Luke laughed harder.

"Okay, Gorilla. Can you do the monkey bars?" Gorilla(I'm calling him Gorilla from now on because 'Mark' is confusing me) scoffed.

"Duh! Look at my arm muscles!" Gorilla flexed an arm and Luke rolled his eyes, "Prove it!" the southern boy dared, pushing his older friend jokingly. Gorilla huffed and walked over to the monkey bars with Luke in tow.

"I'll show you, man, watch!"

~tiiime skiiip~

The boys were seeing who could climb up the slides faster when they heard giggles and saw two boys running over to the almost empty playground. Luke gasped and slid back down his slide, darting over to one of the boys.

"Ohm!" the southern boy grinned. The brunette boy gasped and ran over, squealing happily. "Toonzy!" the pair hugged and Gorilla slowly walked over, watching the blonde boy who was with Ryan walking over slowly.

"What is an Ohm? And a Toonzy?" the blonde boy asked. He wore a short sleeved purple shirt and blue shorts, his blue eyes were light and his hair was shiny and swept to the side neatly. Once Ryan and Luke let go of each other, Ryan smiled at the boy and slung an arm over his shoulder, having to bend down a bit because of how short the blonde was.

"That's my nickname, and Toonzy is Luke's nickname." "Actually it's Cartoonz but Ohm shortened it." The blonde nodded, still seeming a bit confused. Ryan removed his arm from the boy's shoulder and pointed to Luke and Gorilla.

"These are my friends, Luke and Mark. You can call them Cartoonz and Gorilla though." he then motioned to the blonde. "This is my friend since diapers, Bryce McQuaid. He's a grade below us and goes to a private school." Ryan introduced. Bryce waved timidly but eased up when Luke smiled and stepped forward to high-five him, Gorilla doing the same.

"Nice to meet ya, Bryce! Do you like swings?" Luke asked. Bryce nodded and soon he was being pulled over to the swings. All four boys pushed each other to see who would go the highest, then they played tag, then saw who could hang the longest on the monkey bars, and lots of other games and challenges after that. They laughed and smiled and played until the sun was starting to set and Gorilla's dad called for Gorilla and Luke so they could go home.

"Aww! Bye guys!" Ryan frowned, waving to his friends. Luke and Gorilla waved back. "Bye Ohm! Bye Bryce!" they said, walking out of the park. Bryce smiled and waved, bouncing up and down.

"Goodbye Cartoonz and Gorilla!! Hope we play again soon!!" the blonde shouted. Ryan giggled and ruffled Bryce's neat hair, messing it up a bit.

"Maybe you could come with me to Toonzy's house next week, you can meet his brother, Jonathan. Jon is adorable." Ohm smiled while he spoke, thinking of all his great friends. Bryce would definitely get along with them, the blonde was so sweet to everyone he meets. 

Bryce gasped excitedly and shook Ryan's arm. "You think I could? That'd be awesome!" Ryan giggled more and nodded, making Bryce clap his hands like a child told he could get candy in the store.

That was the day Bryce became apart of Luke's list of friends.