Austin and I were playing football with some other 2nd graders. I never really liked playing football with them. There was always the small group of friends who would play as if no one else was around. Which meant I would spend multiple recesses wondering if I would actually touch the ball. The only reason I kept playing was because my best friend Austin loved playing. I did whatever he did. That day, Caleb was quarterback and Austin and I were wide receivers. We all lined up at the ball. He yelled “hike” and I started running. I heard the defenders begin to count.
“One apple, two apple…”
Caleb looked at me and he threw the ball. It caught me off guard. I didn’t know why he decided to throw it to me today, all I knew is that I had to catch the ball. I needed to show them that I was good enough to play with them.
And of course, I dropped it.
My spirits were low, but they took a bigger blow when Austin yelled, “Tyler.” the look of anger on his face made me feel horrible. I immediately left the game, and I walked toward the playground tower. I sat on the bridge and began to cry.
I was still crying when I noticed a boy sitting across from me. He was a dark skinned boy. His mom was from Peru, and his dad was a white American. His name was Chris, a boy in my 2nd classroom. We never talked, and I barely remembered his name. He asked what was wrong, and I told him. He said he had a bad day too. We a reading catalogue of books that the teacher gave us. We would ask our parents for any item on it, and if they agreed, we would get it shipped to the school. That day, all the kids got their books, except for Chris.
From that day forward, Chris and I were inseparable. We even had a teacher call us “salt and pepper.” Chris and I thought it was fitting. I stopped playing football at the field with Austin, and started playing tag with Chris on the playground. We also started a Star Wars epic imaginary story, where Chris and I were members of the Jedi council on a mission to stop the malicious Darth Marl. That story continued throughout the rest of my elementary career.
Chris and I also became the leaders of the club known as the KUWT, or the Kluckhohn United War Team. We recruited new members, went on “missions”, and even created a base. The isolated tree by the edge of the basketball courts. Some of the members of the KUWT in elementary are my best friends to this day. There became a decent number of kids in our club, but the core group was me, Chris, Ben, Cody, and Peter.
Everything began to change when I started 5th grade. I believe what triggered the events to come was when Chris and I didn’t have the same home room. We had the same home room every single year except for this year. Then Ben, Cody, Peter, and myself joined the band. What that meant of Fridays, instead of going outside and playing lunch recess, which was the longest recess we had, we practiced in the band. That left Chris by himself with no one to play with.
I went outside for recess the Monday after we started band practice. I was looking for Chris, but I couldn’t find him anywhere. This continued for a few more days, until I ran into him in the hall.
“Hey, Chris! Where were you yesterday? Were you sick?” I asked.
“No, I’ve been playing football.” He said.
I just looked at him, baffled. Chris always said he didn’t like the “football kids” and that he didn’t like football. “No wonder I couldn’t find him.” I thought. “I would have never even thought about looking in the field.
From that day on, he continued to play football, and the KUWT slowly began to disassemble. Everyone except me, Ben, and Cody stopped playing with us. Chris was very much the glue that held us together. I noticed Chris got a lot more worried about being cool and was more focused on how people thought of him. We grew apart and stopped hanging out with each other completely in middle school.
I’m not upset at Chris. He found new interests, and so did I. Instead I thank him for sitting next to me on the bridge the day I lost a friend. If Chris hadn’t of sat next to me that day on the bridge, my life would be very different. I know one thing. Without Chris, elementary school would have been a lot less fun. Ben and Cody are currently my best friends, and I only met them because I was with Chris. Chris taught me that people grow apart, and it’s okay. Most importantly, Chris taught me to always be kind to someone, even if they are complete strangers. Who knows, maybe they’ll become your best friend.
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