Friendship
At school, I suddenly knew what it was like to be popular. Everyone wanted to talk to me and I didn't for a minute kid myself into thinking they had taken a genuine interest in me. They didn't care about my running or my thoughts on music anymore than they ever had. They always started out with some lame personal questions, but it was all just a lead-up to the inevitable inquisition. Do you know where he is? Did you ever see his dad beat him? What does squirrel meat taste like?
"This is terrible!" said Fred. "We're lost, everyone's yelling at us and I'm hungry. We'll never get to the beach. I want to go home."
"Don't fret, Fred. We'll find the beach. I just know it's nearby." Pete sniffed the air. "Hey! I can smell it! It IS close!"
"Well, it can't be that close. I can't smell anything," said Fred. He sat down on the sidewalk. "This is impossible."
"Nothing is impossible, Fred!"
I never sounded as confident as Kia did because I never felt as confident as she did. She was always that way - completely sure of success until she failed. Me, I was sort of the opposite. Completely positive it wasn't going to work out until the final moment of success. I knew that Kia was already convinced we should try out for the team, and that I was probably fighting a losing battle at this point. I just didn't know. This wasn't just the big kids at our school, but the big kids at other schools.
