Growing up it seemed we moved about every three years. That made making life long friends an impossible task. Which I was ok with at first. When I was in kindergarten. There was a girl that followed me everywhere. Her name was Rose. If I was playing with a truck on the floor she would wrap her arms around me and follow wherever I went. At lunch she would sit next to me and lean on me as she ate. She was crazy about me. It drove me nuts. Her mom would talk to my mom about how all she talks about is me and that they should try to keep us in the same classes. I was 5 and had been for all of a month. I honestly don't know what she liked. She didn't talk to me. She would stare at me or try to hug me or hold my hand. The teacher thought it was cute so she would let Rose go at it. If I ever pushed her away or ran from her and made her cry I would get in trouble. At first it was a time out in the corner. Then it turned into spankings. One day it was pretty bad. I told my mom while we were riding the city bus home that I wanted to stand on the bus because it hurt.-
(Fun side note: The last time I got a time out was in the 8th grade and is the longest time out I ever had. It was for the duration of the movie The Land before Time. We had been doing work earlier in the day and The Teacher was standing at the desk of the female student in front of me. He was helping her with something and was leaning over her desk. I would guess with where he was standing and what she was wearing he had direct line of sight down her shirt. He had been standing there for a few minutes when I noticed he was blatantly aroused. I then asked him in a loud voice "Why do you have a boner?" He turned red, turned on a movie and I stood in the corner for an hour and a half.)
- My mom went in and talked to the principal. He argued that I was not well behaved and shouldn't push girls. My mom came in on a regular basis after that and kept her off me when she was there. I ended up getting held back because I was having some issues with a few letters which later turned out to be dyslexia. I think they may have taken into account my age. My birthday is the 7th of August and the cut off is August 31st. I don't know if I would say Rose was a friend but she was a person who was in my life if I wanted it or not.
Robbie was in the second grade with me. He also lived in the same apartments. We would ride bikes around the apartments together, build jumps, throw the football or baseball, climb trees, build forts, run to the corner store and so on. He had a younger sister that had to tag along sometimes. She was nice enough but she was a girl and about 2 years younger. He was my first best friend and it stayed that way until about 4th grade. He started trying to distance himself at school and didn't like other kids knowing he was my friend. One day we were playing at his house. It was raining so we couldn't be outside. Robbie asked if I wanted to play doctor and I told him no but he insisted and we went up to his sisters room and asked her if she wanted to play. She said yes and got up on her bed under the sheet and took her pants off. Robbie said he would go first and got under the sheet. I was not cool with this and I went to his mom and told her what was going on. Robbie got super pissed at me and said he didn't want to be my friend anymore. I headed home. The next day I was out climbing on the playground at the complex when Robbie came out with a baseball bat. He told me he wanted to play baseball. I said I would go get my glove and he said no we are just pretending. He asked if I would play catcher and I said ok. He took the bat and hit me in the head with it. It was kind of half hearted. (Thankfully) He was probably worried about really hurting me. I on the other hand just got hit in the head with a bat so I stood up, grabbed is head and stuck it between my knees, and picked him up. I dropped to my knees slamming his head into the ground, also known as a pile driver.
He knew I was bigger than him and in a fair fight I would win. He found out in an unfair fight, I still win. We had classes together until the 5th grade. In sports I always made a point to play against him and be better than him. I think this is where my intense competitive side comes from. If I play a game I can remember it is a game but when it comes to contests of skill or sport the best person wins and I have to do my best. We will get into sports another day though.
In school I always talked with everyone. I didn't think about popularity until middle school. I just kind of figured you were nice to everyone. After Robbie I didn't have another friend I trusted for a few years. There were some family friends and cousins we would see on occasion but for the most part at home I was running around on my own. We moved out to Lacey and we lived by a golf course there. The middle school had 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. In the 6th grade I was one of the tallest kids in the school. There was this girl Sam that lived in the neighborhood behind where the apartments were. Sam was a self proclaimed tomboy. She liked to play with the boys. During lunch she could often be found in the gym playing basketball. That was where we got to know each other. I thought it was cool that she wanted to be that good. When we got to talking I found out she lived two blocks from me and for the next two years we were inseparable. She had me go to her grandma's with her for the weekend. Sam didn't want to hang out with her brother alone all weekend. Her cousin surprised her and I was worried I was going to end up the third wheel. She took me aside and told me how cool her cousin was and how out of my league she was. "She dates high school boys." I turned on the charm because I could see a challenge when one was presented to me. Sam's cousin snuck into the room I was in that night and we made out for a few hours. The next day when I told Sam, I thought she would be impressed...that was not the case. She didn't talk to me all of Sunday or on the way home. Monday at school she wrote me a note saying she was sorry and she did not want to lose me as a friend. I told her girls that pretty never paid attention to me before. I apologized for not knowing better.
Things with my stepdad were not good in the home and at the end of the school year I headed out to Utah to try and live with my dad and his new girlfriend. I called Sam every now and then. We wrote back and forth about twice a month the whole 2 months I was out in Utah...
I will explain why I was only out in Utah for 2 months next time in Friends part 2.
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