It’s a beautiful sunny day considering the shape I’m in. I walk home hurting, my eyes watery. I’m scared because I don’t know how my parents are going to react. Maybe I can hide behind P’Kwanjai. She always cheers me up when I’m lonely or sad. My arm hurts but I know it’s not something serious. The thing that’s more serious is the note in my hand. Approaching my house’s porch, I see large cardboard boxes outside the neighbor’s gate. Maybe I can take one and hide in it for today. Before I can react, our housekeeper comes to greet me.

“Hello, Pete. How was-OH MY GOD WHAT HAPPEN?!” A young stout woman yells in shock.

“I didn’t have such a good day.” I sniffle as I sit down on the bench on our porch, wiping a few tears from my eyes. My cheek stings a little.

“Come in! Oh my goodness. I’ll get your parents right away. You get changed okay?” She helps me take off my shoes and takes in my school bag.

I really don’t want to see them. They’ll read the note and I’ll get scolded. It’s only the first few weeks of school as a 3rd grader and I’m already in trouble. I quickly walk in my room and change into looser clothes. My left arm hurts when I put it through the sleeves of my shirt. I sit on my bed contemplating what to do. It wasn’t my fault but I got blamed anyways. I can hear steps approach my room. My heart jumps to 100 miles per hour as the door opens up.

“Pete, here’s some ice.” P’Kwanjai hands me an ice packet and holds one to my right cheek. “You father is here. He’ll talk to you in a second okay? He’s on the phone talking about something important.” She caresses my head. It’s comforting but I wish my mom was here to read the note instead of dad.

After a few minutes of our housekeeper my hair, I hear my dad’s heavier footsteps come nearer to the door. I’ve never had a problem like this before. School was always a place where I get to learn and have fun. Why has it turned out like this? He sits on my gigantic bed to the left of me holding my back.

“Son, what happened at school?” He asks. My dad is so tall and his features are so sharp when looking down on me. It’s so intimidating too since he’s still wearing his long sleeved polo and tie. It’s obvious he just got home from work maybe a few minutes before I did. I can see the bags under his eyes. He’s been talking on the phone a lot even after dinner time.

“Well, I got in a fight in the cafeteria.” I said as I fiddle with the note in my hand. “A teacher yelled at us and told me to give you this.” I hand it to him.

“Okay, let me read it.” He opens up the note and his eyes grow large after his sight reaches the bottom of the letter. “You started the fight?!” He asks with his voice rising. I wince before I explain.

“That’s not true. You see there was this boy in 4th grade and I bumped into him, but at the time.” I blurt out as fast as I can before he cuts me off.

“But you started it?” He asks again in a stiff voice while rubbing the temples of his head with his thumb and middle finger.

“Yes but no. I saw him doing something bad and-” I try to start but my dad interrupts me again.

“Ugh. Son I told you not to get into trouble. Your mother and I don’t have time to go any parent teacher meetings. It says one of us has to attend so Kwanjai can’t even go.” He explains in an irritated voice as he points at Kwanjai with note in hand.

“But dad he was a bad boy. He was doing bad things.” I try to explain but he carries on.

“That may be true but you did a bad thing as well and now look what’s happen. One of us is probably going to have to miss a business meeting because of this. Ugh, such a nuisance.” My dad says as he looks at the note.

He looks already as stressed as it is. If I’m so much of a nuisance then I’ll leave and never come back. I stand up and run out of my house. I don’t want to be a burden. I keep running down the street and around corners away from my dad’s and housekeeper’s yells. My body already hurts, you don’t have to hurt my feelings too.

I find myself at the playground several blocks away from my house. It’s our neighborhood’s public park but surprisingly there are only two kids here. One of them is in a lower year than me. He has crooked teeth like me but he smiles a lot. He’s usually talkative and he seems happy. The other is a younger kid that I’ve seen around the neighborhood. His dad is part of the military so when his family has a party I usually see him by himself. He looks kind of lonely like me too. They’re playing on the swings so I guess I can’t sit there now.

I perch myself at the bottom of the slide of the playground fortress. What am I going to do now? Since I left my family am I considered an orphan? Will I be adopted into another family? I hope they aren’t always busy at work like my mom and dad. I’ll miss those weekends where we’d eat ice cream by the beach or just watch movies at Paragon Cineplex. Before my dad got a call by his boss saying he’s considered for a thing called a ‘promotion’. Before my mom got an advertising job and stopped staying at home to home school me. I’m scared and I don’t know what to do. Someone please help me. My tears begin to flow down my face.
 

BANG!!!
 

“Ouch!” I lift my head from the ground as I find myself on my stomach in the sand.

“Oi! I’m sorry. You shouldn’t be sitting there.” A dark skinned chubby kid looks at me while bending over. Our faces are a few inches away from each other.

“Maybe you should check the bottom of the slide before going down it.” I sit down in the sand patting the granules off my stomach.

“I was excited there was a playground around here.” He chuckles as he pats my shoulders to remove the sand. “We didn’t have one in our old neighborhood.” He juts out his hand to help me up.

“What happen to your face?” He asks as he notices the swelling in my cheek.

“I got in a fight at school.” I tell him as we sit on the steps of the castle-like play fort.

“Oh you get into fights too?” He inquires. I look more closely at this chubby boy. His arms and legs are covered in bruises. How can he still be so jolly with all those marks?

“No. This was my first one. I’m a good kid. I didn’t start anything.” I explain myself. He looks at me slightly insulted.

“So you’re calling me a bad kid?” He raises an eyebrow. This kid is weird.

“I don’t know. You’re the one who gets into fights.” I say to him a little irritated.

“That’s because those older kids are big bullies, taking my friends’ snacks just because they’re bigger than them. I’m big too.” He says proudly while displaying his dimples on his chubby cheeks.

“Yeah, but aren’t you worried your parents will think you’re just trouble?” I ask. I don’t think fighting people is something to be proud of but for some reason his genuine answers and expressions make me kind of like him.

“Hmm. I guess it’s a drag having them get calls and notes from school.” He says while staring at the slide. “But once I tell them why I come home like how you look, they tell me not to back down from those kinds of kids.”

“Wow. I wish my parents were like that.” I look at him in awe. He smiles at me but also has a confused look on his face.

“Your parents don’t tell you that?” He asks. They must be a close family because the last time I really get to talk to them was last week during dinner time.

“No. They call me a nuisance.” My frown returns. My dad did just act like I was another problem on a stack of other problems.

“Wah?! Really? What were his exact words?” Skeptical, places his hands on his knees.

“He said something about missing a meeting at work and called me a nuisance.” I try to remember. It was a bit of a blur.

“Are you sure he wasn’t saying missing the meeting would be a nuisance?” He says nonchalantly. It took me a few seconds. Dad’s statement could have been made about missing his meeting.

“I don’t know. To him, a fight is a fight.” I shrug off. I’m an orphan now so I have to face the facts. It’s a hard knock life, for me now.

“Well did you tell them why you started a fight in the first place?” He asks me. This guy’s a curious one.

“It doesn’t matter, they won’t listen.” I tell him, remembering my dad’s look of exhaustion and disappointment.

“Well I’ll listen. Why did you get in a fight? You don’t exactly look like the strongest tool in the cabinet.” He chuckles as he rests his back on one of the pillars connected to the fort. Are we trading war stories or something?

“It’s sharpest tool in the shed and I think you’re using that saying wrong.” I point out, as I face him.

“Whatever, so what happened?” He brushes off my little toss of knowledge.

I explain to him that the reason why I ended up getting beat up is because the child I accidentally bumped into was actually stealing some food from the cafeteria. I tried to tell him it was a bad thing to do but he hit me while I was carrying my lunch. My lunch flew from my hands and I fell on my arm. I kicked the kid hard but it only made him angry. He turned around and punched me in the face in retaliation. I guess everyone only saw when I kicked the older kid because they kept saying I started it. It doesn’t help that I’m not used to these kinds of things.

“I see now.” He looks at me while engulfed in my story. “So, you were actually trying to stop him.”

“Not really stop him, but at least tell him what he was doing was wrong.” I explain.

“Same thing.” He replies. Ugh, you're ignoring the details. “I think your parents will understand.”

“I don’t know. I’m not sure if they will.” I sigh, I do have my heart set on running away. I love my parents but if I keep running into problems like this and getting them in trouble, I just don’t want to be a bearer of problems.

“I think they’ll understand too, Pete.” I hear a familiar voice. Kwanjai is standing behind me with her arms crossed with a look of relief on her face.

“Oh! P'Kwanjai!” I stand up in surprise. My new friend just looks confused.

“You know I’ve been looking all over for you. It’s almost been an hour. Your parents were about to call the police.” She whines at me as she pulls me by the ear.

“Ouch!” I yell as I somehow get out of her grip. I stop and I bow my head. “I’m sorry. I’ve added more problems for mom and dad, and now you.”

“Oi. Let’s just go home okay? I heard what you told your friend. Is that what really happened?” She asks with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah.” I reply. That’s a weird thing to ask. Would there be a reason for me to lie?

“That’s good. Now I can explain to your parents what happened at school.” She grins as she comes up to hug me. “Let’s get you home. Your stomach has been growling through the whole story.” She giggles. I’m beat up, all cried out, and I’m starving as well.

“I guess I’ll see you around then.” My new friend smirks as he jumps up from the stairs we sat on. Kwanjai looks back and a sudden realization displays on her face.

“Hey, aren’t you the child of the family that moved in the neighborhood recently?” Kwanjai asks as the kid looks a tad surprised before answering.

“Yeah. We moved in only a week ago.” He replies happily to the question.

“Well you live next door. You might as well walk home with us. It’s starting to get dark.” She states as she gestures the round kid to come with. He runs ups to me as we start walking back home.

We stroll by the lamps illuminating the now empty streets. The silent roads are filled with us talking, laughing, and getting to know more about each other. I find out that he’s in the same grade as me and we go to the same school. He’s a few sections lower than me but our classrooms are only two rooms away. I think I’ll be hanging out more at his classroom. I have a few friends in my class but most of them are quiet like me so we just do our school work. I’m used to just playing video games after finishing my assignments when mom was teaching me.

“Pete, why didn’t you tell me you befriended the boy next door already?” My housekeeper grins as we near our houses.

“I actually just met Pete today.” The boy next to me chuckles as he kicks an eraser sized rock in front of him.

“Yeah.” I laugh with him while watching him play with the rocks. “What’s your name anyways?” I ask as I try to kick the rock in front of us away from him. He pushes me a little and kicks the rock as hard as he can.

“It’s Earn.” He smiles as we hear the rock hit the car parked across the street from our house. The alarm goes off and we panic a little. “Well, I got to go. Bye!” He blurts out in a jumbled sentence before running quickly ahead of us into his house’s gate. "Good luck with telling your parents.” He sticks his smiling face out from the gate as he waves at us.

We can’t help but wave back and laugh at this peculiar kid that now lives next to us. We get inside and my parents hug me. My dad reassures me that he wasn’t saying I was a burden and explains to me why they have less and less time to spend with me. They make it a point to that they’ll try to have a family day once a week. I tell them the whole story and they’re glad that I wasn’t becoming a bad boy. I eat dinner and with them as a family like we used to. I know things are different but I now know that my family truly understands me. I stare at the window of our dining room and see Earn’s family eating and laughing in their dining room too. He sees that I see him and waves back at me while showing off his dopey smile and dimples. Who knew that this kid would become my closest, most trusted friend?