Standing Up to Life

Chapter 11:

THE NEXT DAY I was really tired from the day before, but I was still really excited that we had done so well at contest. In the morning announcements the principal congratulated us on our fine performance at the contest. For the most part that day ended up absolutely flying by, and before I knew it I was riding the bus home with Amy. When we got to her stop she told me, "First person to the door chooses what we do!" and she took off.

To my credit I made it only a half second after her, even if it wasn't fair, I still lost. I grumbled a little bit to myself. As she opened the door and we went inside I asked, "So what are we doing today?"

"Come upstairs with me." She led me upstairs to her playroom. When we got up there she started getting a whole bunch of Barbies out and putting them in the center of the room. She pushed a gigantic doll house to the center of the room too.

"We're going to play Barbie's today! I haven't been able to play with them much in the past couple months – so that's what we're doing. Unless..." She paused, "you've got a really big problem with it?"

"Umm... I guess not, but I don't exactly know what you're supposed to do with them. It's not like I've ever played with dolls before." I replied timidly. I was absolutely trembling. I had wanted to play Barbies with her for so long now, and I was finally going to get a chance!

"That's okay, I'll teach you!" She said. "First things first, names..." She proceeded to tell me the names of several dozen dolls before saying. "Okay, now why don't we play with these ones today... and we need to change their clothes so help me out here..."

She continued to explain the intricacies of how to play with them for a while, and by the end of about two hours I'd had a blast. It was everything I had hoped it would be. I had a ton of fun that day! At the end Amy said, "You know Brandon you're more fun to play with than most of my friends."

"Thanks Amy, I had a lot of fun too." We were cleaning up her Barbies and putting them back in their places. She had promised me we would keep this from her parents for now. We had put a movie in the TV in the room where we were playing.

"So do you want to do it again sometime?" Amy asked me.

"Sure, why not?" I replied with a smile. When we were done putting everything up, we set up some bean bag chairs and continued watching the movie. A few minutes later we heard her mom coming upstairs.

"Hey Amy, Brandon, how did your day go?"

"Good Mrs. Hancock," I replied.

"It was good Mom," Amy said.

"Amy said that congratulations are in order for yesterday?" Mrs. Hancock inquired.

"Yeah, it went really well. We got the highest rating you could get. I guess we're the first sixth grade band at our school to ever do that!"

"Well congratulations. Listen, Brandon, I talked to your parents and they're going to meet us for dinner. Why don't both of you go put your shoes on, and wash up, so we can go."

"Cool," Amy said.

"Okay, that sounds like fun." I replied. We both put our shoes on and got ready. A few minutes later we piled into their SUV.

"Where's Dad?" Amy asked.

"He had to work a little late so he's just going to meet us there."

"Okay." Amy answered.

We drove to the better of the two local Mexican restaurants, meeting my parents at the door. A few minutes later Mr. Hancock joined us too.

"Brandon how was your day?" My mom asked.