Special Place

Last year I was dreaming of somewhere I could go when I was sad, somewhere I could go when I had done something wrong or feeling self-conscious. I wanted to find this place and live there, I wanted it to be real and I wanted it to live up to my expectations. After a while I realised that I had put no effort what so ever into trying to find this place, so I decided that from now on I would have to hope that it would find me. That this place of comfort and this place of my dreams was going to have to find me, as I had no idea of how it was going to be possible for me to find.

I was walking home from school with my friends and I had-had an awful day, I had failed a test and completely humiliated myself in PE. So, I wasn't talking to my friends as they strolled on in front of me, all I was doing was letting my eyes wander up and down the stone path. There were weeds peeking up through cracks in the ground and small faded circles from where kids had spat out gum. I was about to turn around a corner and then sprint to finally catch up with my friends although, then something caught my eye: it was a squirrel happily bouncing around. When it saw me hovering it bounded through a gate and out of sight.  I crained my neck to try and see where it had gone but I couldn't see a thing.  The squirrel then scuffled back out from behind the gate and scurried up the wall, i swear it then looked me right in the eye before leaping back behind the wall.  I felt a strong temptation to follow it so I did, crossing the road and over the pavement, entranced by the fact that it seemed as if I was being pulled towards the gate.  That's when I knew that my special place had found me.

I crossed the road and reached out for the gate's lock before pulling myself through, entering the place I had always dreamed of. My hopes had been high although, all my thoughts about this place had been wrong. It was a small garden with earth dug up around the edges, causing me to hop over it to arrive at the centre of the garden. The grass was dead and had turned a queer brown colour and I wrinkled my nose at it, this was not my special place, it couldn't be. The place I had imagined for so long turned out to be this. Although, when I drew my eyes away from the ground and I saw a tree was standing right in front of me. Although, this part of the garden was alive. It looked dead but when I snapped off a branch, I could see a pale green inside. When I looked up, I could see the squirrel at the top of the tree and decided to climb up to join it.  When I reached the top, I felt like I had been transported into another world.

There was a breath-taking view from the top and the branches were perfectly shaped like a throne and when I sat down, I felt like a queen. The squirrel then sprung down from the top branch and looked at me, or at least it looked like it was, before leaping down to the ground and scurrying off. I then looked back up and I knew that I had found my special place.

I went there every day after school and as the year progressed, so did the garden. When winter came the ditch was filled with snow and the tree looked like white sheets had been draped over it. In the spring flowers grew around the border and the tree grew leaves. In the summer everything blossomed, and sun rays graced the garden with their presence. Finally, in the Autumn the garden turned dull again but after the leaves fell off the tree branches, I had enjoyed playing in them.
A couple of years after I had found the garden, I had the worst day of my entire life. I failed my final exam , bashed my head on the rim of the basketball hoop when I was trying to shoot, my friends had posted an embarrassing picture of me from when I was three and I was the laughing stock of the entire school and I had been dumped by my boyfriend who immediately after went on a date with my sister! I had skipped my dance club after school and run straight back to the garden, I'd scrambled up the tree and sat in my throne whilst silently crying into my shoulder. Suddenly, once again, I spotted the squirrel staring back at me from an opposite branch. I released a breath I didn't know I had been holding when I saw him and quietly lowered my head, I wasn't in the mood to play games. Although instead of leaving the squirrel leaped into my lap and lay down for a few seconds before stiffening and hopping over to the branch next to me and continued staring. I didn't know what to make of that. I considered trying to talk to it but that would just make me seem like a freak, so I settled with staring back. Finally, I pulled my bag up to my chest and lay my head down on it. My parents are out so they won't know I'm gone and my sister's probably too busy flirting with her new boyfriend. So, I just curled up on my throne of branches and started to hum quietly until I felt something tug at my hair. I cryed out in pain and sat up straight.  I watch as the squirrel jumped off my shoulder and onto another branch. It was the same squirrel again, why today would it decide to start being so friendly? Then I felt something else on my back and I leaped to my feet, almost falling out of the tree. Another squirrel had hoped on and off my shoulder. Then a few tiny squirrels climbed up the other side of the tree to join the two larger squirrels. I looked at the squirrels for a moment, confused by what was happening, but then I realised, that squirrel's must have a family. My shoulders drop with sadness, the squirrel must be having a great day. Then I feel something on my lap, I look down to see the tiniest squirrel curled up on me and I start to smile, then giggle, then laugh. I'm happy again. Its not as if the stuff that made me sad before doesn't bother me anymore, it just doesn't seem worthy enough. Something so awful shouldn't have the power to spoil this wonderful moment. I sigh and lean back in my throne.

Suddenly my phone buzzes, it's a boy from chemistry, John. I look at the text. It asks if I'm free and I reply with a nervous yes. A few seconds later the phone rings and I pick up, my hand shaking.
"Hi?" says John questionably.
"Hey", I reply, "what's up?"
"Good news" whispers John, "I noticed that you didn't seem very upbeat after school and I knew why so...I wanted to tell you the good news."
"OK?" I say uncertainly.
"So firstly, you didn't fail the exam, you got the wrong paper back and the hoop in PE was too low, twenty other people have done the same thing today. The picture of you has been deleted and replaced by one of a boy from a couple of years up so that's now forgotten about and, well, your boyfriend hasn't insulted you on instagram yet so that's good, right?"
I start to laugh at the end of John's speech and when I replyed I almost forget that I'm talking to a complete stranger.
"God you have literally just fixed my day! Thanks! How'd you find out about all that stuff anyway?"
"Social media holds all the answers and so do desperate teachers trying to contact you."
I giggled at this comment. It was funny, and in a casual way, not intended or forced.
"Thanks for telling me John, I have to admit that I wasn't planning to go on social media or talk to anyone for the rest of the week! So, you just saved me from a whole week of being a loner. Thanks again."
"No problem."
"Bye."
"Wait!"
The rushed comment makes me jump and I realise that I was actually about to hang up before he said this, in fact I had already started pulling the phone away from my ear.
"What?" I say in a questionable tone.
"Would you want to hang out sometime maybe?"
"For sure", I say without thinking. What the hell, I just agreed to seeing John and he asked me!
"Great!", he sounds as if he was expecting rejection and just got a nice surprise. "See you Friday?"
"Perfect, sounds good!" I realise I have barely talked to him before this point and I'm already trying not to blush.
"See you tomorrow then, bye."
"Bye."
I put down the phone, but the squirrels are gone. Maybe I imagined it, but it seems as if the squirrels were only there to make me happy again. All it took was one happy moment to start the 'chain reaction' of good news. I get down from the tree and wonder over to the path. Before I turn around the corner though I glance back at the garden to see the squirrel perched on the wall. I wave to the squirrel before continuing. A grin breaks across my face as I walk down the street and am almost skipping when I reach my front door. I wonder if that squirrel hadn't made me feel better, would I have picked up the phone or scared John off with my bad mood? Both of those are a possibility. I decide to call the squirrel "Hope" from now on. Because no matter how messed up my life gets Hope always has a chance of putting it right. Hope is the only thing that means...things can get better. And it only exists in my special place.