The school bell rang out on the elementary school grounds and kids came running out of the classroom. School was out and every boy and girl was excited, running through the halls and out the exit. There was only one kid that was left behind in the classroom.
Ned Ferdanaud, who is ten years old, leaves the classroom with his backpack on his shoulders. He had long black hair with navy blue eyes, and glasses on his face. He turned around and waved into the classroom.
“That was an awesome lesson Ms. P!” He shouted into the classroom and left.
“Can’t believe summer is coming right around the corner.” He said to himself, clutching the backpack around his shoulders. “It’s kinda crazy the school year moved so fast.” Ned came to a backgate in the school’s playground and opened the gate. The gate lead to a staircase that went down into a cul de sac. Ned carefully walks down the steps, making sure he hits every single one so that he doesn’t slip and fall.
He gets all the way down and looks around confused.
“I know that I’m supposed to walk home today.” Ned said to himself. “But I have no idea where to go. Didn’t really plan this out.” Ned scratches his head as he notices another kid passing him. The kid had black hair and a big backpack.
“Hey!” Ned called out the kid. He turned around to look at Ned. The kid had brown eyes, and had a mole above his left eye. He was the same age as Ned. “Do you know where that trial leads to!” Ned pointed at a horse trail that veered off behind the school.
“Oh, that will take you down to the street in front of the school.” He answered.
“Well that’s where I wanna go.”
“Are you walking home?”
“Um, yeah.”
“Do you know how to get home?”
“Not really.”
“Then why are you walking home?”
Ned looked down and held his arm. “My mom wouldn’t give me a ride today, so I have to walk home.”
“She didn’t tell you a specific route to go down on?”
“Nope, nothing.”
“Really?”
“Yup.”
“Then how the hell do they suppose you’d get home?”
“I don’t know? They never tell me anything.”
The kid gives out a big sigh and looks up at Ned’s blue eyes. “You can walk home with me if you want?”
“Really?” Ned responded with a tone of excitement.
“Yeah, I need someone to talk to on my way home.”
“Great!” Ned was giddy up and ran over to the kid. “So are we just gonna go down the street?”
“Yeah, that’s exactly where I live.”
Ned came up close to the kid and they started walking down the street.
“So?” Ned began talking. “What’s your name?” The kid turned to Ned.
“Chris.” He responded.
“Nice to meet you Chris.” Ned reached his hand out for a handshake. “My name's Ned.” Chris looks confused, as he stares at Ned’s extended arm.
“What are you doing?” He questioned.
“I’m offering to shake your hand.”
“Why?”
“To signal our friendship.”
Chris looks up at Ned’s smiling face. “Alright then.” He reached out and shook Ned’s hand. “To our friendship, I guess.” Ned smiled wide.
“Yep! To our friendship!”
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Six Years Later
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The school bell rings and everyone walks out of class.
“Remember to do the homework tonight!” The teacher yelled from inside the classroom as the crowd of students left the room. One more set of feet walks out of the classroom.
Ned.
“Will do!” Ned shouted back.
“I always know you will.” The teacher responded with a bit of smirking.
Ned left the classroom with a smile on his face as he walked through the halls and exited the building. The sun was shining down on a bright November day. Ned walks down the stairs of the building he just exited. It leads down to the lunch area of the school where the sea of students were all heading to the exit. Ned goes through the crowd, passing people over and sometimes shoving people out of the way. He finally makes it out of the flood and ends up at the front gate of the school.
Ned looks around, putting his hand above his eyelids to block out the sun as he squinted his eyes. Looking over groups of friends talking and couples holding hands. Cars lining up the street, consisting of parents coming to pick up their kids. Ned looks enthusiastically as he finally found what he was looking for.
Chris.
Chris was waiting at the edge of the front entrance off to the side near some bushes. Chris notices Ned walking over to him and he walks away from the bush.
“Sup!” Chris said, walking up to Ned.
“Nothing, what about you?” Ned responded as they began walking away from the school.
“Just another boring day at school.”
“Really? Was it math again?”
“Yeah, like I get it. But it’s just that the teacher is boring.”
“Who do you have?”
“Mr. Eggmound.”
“Yeah, I have him too. He is pretty boring.”
“So do you not like him as well?”
“It’s not really hatred, but just like.” Ned sighs. “I don’t know what the word is for it. But it’s not like I’m that bored in his class that I want to sleep.”
“Well knowing you, school is just fun for you in general.”
“You know it.”
They reach a stoplight and Chris presses the button so they can cross. They wait until they can cross, and once they reach the other side, they go through a walkway that connects to a neighborhood.
Ned and Chris are walking in silence as the natural sounds of car engines pass by and people who are outside their homes watering their lawns.
“Do you think you’ll ever get a girlfriend?” Chris strangely asked.
“What?” Ned recoils back a little. “What made you say that?” Ned was kinda flustered.
“Nothing, just something that popped up in my mind.”
“Well that was a weird question to ask.” Ned nervously said, looking away from Chris and scratching his head. Chris looks at him suspiciously.
“Why are you so flustered?” Chris curiously asked.
“No reason!” Ned quickly replied. “Let’s just get over it!” Ned quickly tried to shut down the conversation but Chris was now catching on.
“Do you have a crush or something?”
“No!” Ned shouted back.
“Yep, he’s definitely hiding something.” Chris told himself. “You do have a crush, don’t you?”
“I told you I don’t!”
“Let me guess. She’s in your math class?”
“How did you know!?”
“Heh, I just know you that well.” Chris turned away. “Whew, that was a lucky guess.”
“Fine, since you know now. I'll tell you about her. Her name is Michelle, she has nice long black hair, she’s african american, and she has the sweetest green eyes.” Ned started to go on a tangent, describing everything about Michelle.
“Ok buddy, calm down. I’m starting to think you like her too much.”
“Well I do!”
“Have you ever tried talking to her?”
Ned looked down at the ground, clutching the backpack and sulks in his shoulders.
“No.”
“Come on, you haven’t even said a word to her at all!?”
“I’m just, j-just. I’m just nervous.”
Ned and Chris stop at Chris’s house. A two-story house that is painted blue with a tarped van in the driveway. “We can talk about this later on the phone. But I can say this right now, just try to talk to her.”
“It’s not that easy.”
“Sure it is.”
“You don’t know that! What if I say something wrong or stupid. Maybe I tell a joke and it doesn’t land. I’ll make a fool of myself.”
“Just practice, I don’t know what else to tell you.”
“But I-”
Chris began walking up the driveway. “See ya tomorrow dude!”
Ned looked down, all dejected. “See ya.” Chris walks into his house and closes the front door behind him, giving one last look at Ned as he begins walking up the street.
“God, what am I gonna do?” Ned said to himself, putting his hands on his face and dragging them down. “I wish it was easy but it’s fucking not.” Ned looks up at the sky, the sun glaring down on his body. Before he knew it, he was already at his house. It’s very surprising he got there that fast, since he lives five minutes away from Chris’s house.
Ned’s house was two-stories tall and was painted white and brown. The only car parked in the driveway was a run-down mustang with the dark green paint that was starting to fade away. The front lawn was overgrown and had weeds growing everywhere, along with some mushrooms.
Ned takes a deep breath and walks up to the porch of the house, turning the gold colored door knob and opened the door. A stench came from the living room as Ned covers his nose and looks at his mom, Sandra, on the couch passed out. Besides her on a small coffee table was two needles and a white line that was all powdery. It looked like his mom was on a small drug binge.
“I’m home mom!” Ned announced, hoping his mom would hear him. Only silence greeted him as his mother snored on the couch. She wasn’t gonna get up to greet her son. Ned looked over at his mom and sighed. “Again?” He said quietly to himself.
He put his backpack down near the door and took his shoes off. He quickly walked over to the kitchen near the living room and grabbed a trash bag from a cupboard underneath the sink. He started taking the needles and empty beer cans around Sandra and put them in. Picking each one up, one by one. Ned had done this too many times before; it’s almost like a daily routine.
Once he was all done, he took the bag outback and around the house and threw it directly into the trash bin. It stacked up upon the countless stacks of Chinese takeout boxes, and other plastic trash bags that were filled with the usual needles and empty beer cans.
Ned goes back inside and grabs a blanket from nearby and puts it on top of his mom to warm her. The soft blanket plops onto her and she rolls over to her other side, her face buried in the couch cushion. Ned took his backpack and walked up the stairs and into his room.
He plops the backpack on the ground of his messy room and jumps on the bed and lays down, looking at the ceiling.
“I just wish it was so easy.” Ned started mumbling to himself. “I wish it was like buying something at the store. Just a simple transaction and boom! Girlfriend.” Ned rolled over on his side where his phone is. “Maybe…No that’s stupid.” He laughed to himself, and turned over to not face his phone. He laid there in silence for a bit.
“I’ll at least give it a look.” He immediately turned over and picked up his phone and started typing on it.
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Chris is sitting around the dinner table with his mom, Pamela, and his dad, Bob, they are all eating some grilled chicken. Bob is chewing on his food while he’s looking at his phone scrolling the news.
“Come on Bob! Get off your phone, it’s bad when Chris does it.” Pamela scolded.
“Sorry, I was just reading about a huge explosion in a small town in Kansas.” Bob said, putting his phone face down on the table.
“Don’t bring up the news at the dinner table. Kinda ruins the mood.” Pamela takes another bite out of the chicken. “How was school today hun?”
“Good.” Chris answered with a piece of chicken in his mouth.
“Don’t talk with food in your mouth! It’s disgusting.”
Chris swallowed. “Sorry.”
“Well, that’s good to hear.”
The table went a little quiet, with the only noise coming from Bob chewing and Pamela’s fork and knife cutting into the chicken.
“You ok bud?” Bob questioned Chris. “You look a bit down.”
“I’m fine.” Chris responded. “Just a little tired.”
“It’s probably because of all that phone use.” Pamela butted in.
“No it’s not that.”
“What is it then?” Bob asked.
“I just couldn’t really sleep last night.”
“Because you were on that phone of yours.”
“NO I WASN’T” Chris stood up and slammed down on the table, shifting the silverware and dishes around.
“Chris! Don’t you dare talk back to your mother like that!” Bob scolded, as he stood up as well.
“No! I need to say this because it pisses me off so much!”
“That doesn’t matter, you don’t yell at your parents!”
“You always say some crap and assume, mom! It’s so fucking infuriating because you are wrong everytime!”
“Go up to your room right now!”
“Yeah cause that’ll solve the problem here! Just ignoring it and letting it foster up until it’s out of control. Couldn’t expect less!” Chris storms up the stairs and slams the door to his room.
“You think we were too harsh on him?” Pamela asked, getting up from the table.
“Maybe, but he should know not to talk to us like that.” Bob responded, grabbing his plate from the table and walking to the kitchen.
Chris is slamming down on the bed in frustration.
“Fucking stupid! They never listen to me!” Chris’s slamming gets interrupted by a beep on his phone. “Who’s texting me at this hour?” Chris walks over to his desk and picks up his phone.
It’s a text from Ned.
“What the hell does he want?” Chris opened up his phone and looked at the message.
‘Come by the school by nine tonight, we need to go check something out. See ya then, hopefully.’
“That’s weird.” Chris whispered to himself. He looked out the window into the pitch black night, and over at his hoodie hung up on the chair to his desk. “It’s a little weird, but it’s better than being here when mom is in a bad mood.”
He grabbed the hoodie off the chair and quickly puts it on. He runs over to the window and opens it to the deck. He hops out of the window and onto the deck of the house and walks down the stairs. Down the stairs there is a sliding glass door that overlooks the backyard. Chris sneakily walks past it without getting caught.
Chris makes it to a fence in the back and climbs over it. He was now heading off to the school to meet up with Ned.
But what he didn’t know was that this night would change his life.
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