The Golden Child by Jessica Leopoldo (ebook reader browser TXT) 📖

He started off as the boy I met at the playground: dirty brown hair, golden eyes, and an awkward smile.
“Look at that weird boy following us,” Jillian said as she swung back and forth on the hot, sticky swing set. I looked down at the young boy and felt my body squirm with uneasiness.
“Yeah,” I said, “He’s weird. What should we do?” Jillian’s bright blue eyes sparkled under the September golden sun. I looked at her freckles. Once I had tried to count them all, but stopped after getting to about fifty. We had just gotten out of her pool, and placed our Disney Princess towels next to each other on the pavement. As we talked, I watched as her brown freckles reflected the light of the sun. Slowly counting them in my head, she quickly questioned why I kept staring at her face. I stopped immediately. I didn’t want her to think I was weird, but I did yearn for those freckles. I always wanted them; they were so pretty.
“Let’s play a trick on him.” Jillian jumped off of the swing as it hit its highest peak in the air. I waited till mine slowed down a bit, managing to get off with a slight hop.
“Alright,” I finally said apprehensively, watching Jillian crawl into the playground made of old car tires. She slowly plopped herself on one and waved me over. I walked over slowly, obeying the slight hand motion. The tires were hot to the touch and I suddenly felt my legs on fire. “Ouch!”
“Shh…he is coming Jess,” Jillian whispered. By the time I looked up, the boy had crawled underneath us. I gazed down at him. He didn’t seem like the other boys at school. No, they didn’t care about us. They played their rough boy games and left us alone. This boy was different.
“Hi,” he finally said. I watched his chest rapidly contort. Although I could not hear it, I could feel his heart beating a million times a minute. Or maybe that was my heart? I silently put my hand on my chest and felt it beating furiously.
Jillian furrowed her eyebrows and looked down at him. “Hey, what’s your name?”
“Um, Michael.” I could not look at him. He seemed so scared. Well, Jillian could easily make you scared. But that was I why she was my best friend. We met each other on the bus. I was her bus buddy, and she was mine. She said that it was a rule. She said I was supposed to sit with her.
Again, I watched the boy shuffle his feet. He stood there very uncomfortably. And I noticed that I felt just as uncomfortable. Finally, Jillian decided that it was enough. She had power over this kid. He was no match for her.
“My name is Jillian, and this is my friend, Jessica. We are fourteen years old.” I rapidly looked at her. Fourteen? Wow. I don’t think he is going to believe that one. We don’t look fourteen. I don’t even have all my grown-up teeth in yet. I wiggled my baby tooth feeling the sting and soreness, remembering how my father offered to pull it out the night before. I, being stubborn, ran away and pretended to go asleep. Now, I wish I had let him pull it out. It was stinging as if I had swallowed an angry bee that decided to take revenge on my gums. My uncle had swallowed a bee once, and his lips swelled like a balloon for a couple days afterward. This was not a fun feeling, and the boy made it all worse.
“Oh,” he said with a slight jerk. “I’m nine.” He kicked a few of the wood chips with his sneaker. Then he slowly looked up and made eye contact with me. Jillian whirled around and did the same. All of the sudden, I felt my beating heart stumble to a halt.
“We’re playing a game. Want to play?” I didn’t like the small grin that suddenly arose on Jillian’s face. Her blue eyes tempted the boy.
“Sure,” he said with a shrug. With that, Jillian slid off of the tire and climbed a nearby ladder. She jumped onto a high wooden platform and spun the big red toy wheel three times.
“If you keep spinning,” she screamed down towards us, “candy will pop out!” I looked at her with caution. I never knew what Jillian was going to come up with. She was smart, a fast-thinker.
The boy inched closer towards me and stood up. As his mouth began to open, I heard my mom calling me from the nearby field. Jillian climbed down the ladder and grabbed me by the wrist. “Let’s go,” she said.
I took one more look at the boy. He had started climbing up the ladder, making his way to the wheel. Thinking that it would be the last time I would ever see his face again, I took Jillian’s hand and headed up to the baseball field, hearing the wheel spin faintly in the background.

Publication Date: 06-13-2012

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