Games of the Children

by Brandi Nicole

 

"Brad! Heads up!"

Brad Weaver looked up just in time to see the pop fly dropping lazily toward him. He lifted his left hand and snared it easily in his glove. Three outs. Game over. He wasn't too impressed with the kids from the North side of town. He and his friends from Maple Street took this one 8 – 2, even with his incessant daydreaming. Even with their team sprinkled with seventh graders. His team was, with one exception, loaded with kids from the sixth grade, the one exception being Craig Miller, a seventh grader with a constant grin who was also held back a year. Despite his sunny disposition, Craig was considered to be the slightest bit dim. Not stupid, mind you, just a bit slower than the others.

"Though you were gonna eat that one, Weaver!" This was from Daniel Porter, probably Brad's best friend and their class clown.

"In your dreams, Porter! Those guys can't touch us! Even with you on our side!" Brad shot back. Craig snorted. Daniel looked abashed, then seemed to determine a course of action, one that any kid would understand after receiving a zinger he had no answer to. He tackled Brad and began to rub his head with his knuckles. Brad delivered a poke to the ribs that always caused Daniel to jump back like he had just been zapped with electricity. "Yeouch!!!" Daniel cried, scrambling back. "Asswipe!"

Brad grinned at his friend's discomfort and swung an imaginary bat. "Two victories in one day for the Bradster!"

"Brad!"

Daniel's retort was cut short by a high-pitched yell and the sight of the petite girl bounding across the field toward them. Brad cringed. It was Angela Peters, the girl who had moved in next door to him this summer. Not that Angela, who was just in the fourth grade this year, was an unpleasant person, but definitely an embarrassing presence right now.

This summer, all of Brad's friends had gone to camp. Brad had stayed home to work on his batting practice with a high school boy named Jimmy whose mother was a friend of his mother. Jimmy was becoming a young star for the high school team and his time would soon be very limited. So Brad jumped at the chance to work out with Jimmy over the summer. Unfortunately, it did not take all of his time and he spent many summer days wandering around bored. Until Angela moved in, that is. She had showed up on his steps the first day with a bowl of brownies, so of course he could not be mean to her. They chatted over brownies and milk and despite himself, Brad began to like the girl. She was actually very interesting for a girl, even if her incredibly dark eyes sometimes disturbed him for some reason that he could not understand. So the two ended up spending time together during the summer playing video games and generally wandering around. Angela had even gotten Brad to have a picnic / tea party once. Despite this, Brad had basically not seen Angela since his friends had come home from camp. He never mentioned Angela to them either. He supposed that he would be embarrassed to admit that he had hung around with a girl all summer. Besides, once school had started, he had been too busy, especially with these weekend sandlot games.

"Brad, where have you been? I haven't seen you in two weeks." Angela was panting from her short trot across the field. Daniel gave his friend a sidelong glance and grinned.

Brad was hopelessly struck. "Angela! Oh, I have been pretty busy with school and all, how are you doing?"

Angela pouted slightly "Well, you seem to have made time for your little games. You should come over tomorrow, we can watch some movies or play video games."

Daniel snickered "Yeah, Brad, you guys can play Barbie!" This earned him a withering glance from Angela and a sharp reply. "For your information, we play playstation!" Brad began to blush. "I don't think I can Angela, I have plans already."

Angela looked disappointed. "Well, okay. How about Sunday then?"

"Yeah, I have stuff to do on Sunday too."

Angela looked hurt. "Brad is something the matter? You're acting weird."

"It's okay, Brad go play Barbie. We can let you go for one game," Daniel chimed in, snickering.

Angela shot him an evil look "You're awful stuck on Barbie. Do you have a collection?"

Daniel, for the second time that day, was stuck without a reply. This time, however, there was no tackle as Brad pulled Angela aside.

"Angela, look, I had fun this summer, but I've been friends with them for three or fours years. I can't just turn my back on them."

"Why can't you be friends with me too?"

"We can be, but I can't hang out anymore, they wouldn't understand"

"You mean I embarrass you."

"No! It's just that guys and girls don't hang out together and I've been friends with them longer."

"So since they're your friends you can't hang out with girls? Fine, Brad, I wish I had known this before." Angela trotted towards the edge of the field, tears welling up in her eyes.

Brad watched her go, suddenly feeling like a complete jerk. He turned back to his friends.

Daniel grinned at his friend "Aren't you two going to play dress up?"

"Shut up, Daniel."

Angela walked home sobbing. As she turned up her walk, a spark appeared in her eye and appeared to smolder. "We'll see about that, Brad. We'll see."

 

Brad woke up the next day to the sun in his face. He had left the shades open again. He rolled out of bed and onto his feet, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Well, at least he wouldn't be late for today's practice at the sandlot. He began to get dressed when he had a strange feeling. He couldn't put his finger on it, but he suddenly had a feeling of dread. Shrugging it off, he got dressed and went downstairs where he poured himself a bowl of rice krispies and a glass of orange juice. After breakfast he walked outside and started to run down to the lot. Then he noticed.

Angela was watching him from her front door. He felt guilty all over again and considered walking over to apologize when she simply smiled, waved and walked back inside giggling. Brad was unnerved. He couldn't put his finger on why, but it was like she knew something he didn't. He shrugged it off and ran to the sandlot.

About halfway there, he realized that he had forgotten his bat and glove, but it didn't matter. For some reason he didn't really want to practice anymore. When he arrived, Daniel and Craig were already there.

Daniel looked at him strangely. "Hey, man, what's with your face?"

Brad shot him a look. "What about my face?" Craig considered Brad for a moment and chimed in "You're as white as a sheet. Something freak you out?"

Brad pictured Angela waving at him. Why did that unnerve him like this? "No," he said. "I just don't think it would be a good idea to practice today."

Daniel shrugged. "Sounds good to me. Actually we were gonna tell you that we wanted to take a day off from practice. Both of us took our gear home a few minutes ago."

Brad breathed in relief. "So what do you guys want to do today then?" Craig replied "I dunno, wanna go to the mall?" "Sure," Daniel said. "I was gonna suggest that too."

Brad frowned at them. "What are we gonna do at the mall?" Daniel furrowed his brow slightly. "I dunno, we can go play some video games or something" "Dude, you have a Playstation 2 at your house." "So I wanna see if there's any new games in the arcade, ok?" Daniel snapped. "Okay, man," Brad held up his hands. "We can go to the mall."

The trio arrived at the mall with Daniel and Craig chattering away up front and Brad lagging a bit behind, still feeling uneasy and a little strange. He soon fell into the conversation and was starting to feel a little more at ease. And almost fell on his butt when he bumped into Craig. Craig had stopped and was looking into a store to the right. "Watch it, jackoff," he snarled. Then he saw what Craig was looking at. In the Victoria's Secret store Sarah Little, a high school freshman, was looking intently at a rack of thongs. To say the least, Sarah was beautiful. She easily looked two years older than she was. Even to Brad, who was not really looking at girls like that yet, she was gorgeous. And to Brad, Craig's enraptured stare signaled a moment he had been dreading. Craig was two years older than he and Daniel. It seemed like when guys got to be about thirteen, they were more and more susceptible to girls, especially ones like Sarah. It had finally happened to Craig, it seemed. And right on time. Brad nudged his in the side. "Snap out of it, Romeo. Video games, remember?" Craig blushed guiltily and stomped ahead to the arcade.

They spent two hours and more allowance than they should have in the arcade. They decided to get a bite to eat at the food court and wander around a bit. As they walked by a toy store, Brad looked in and suddenly felt the need to go in. "Hey guys, let's go in Kaybee for a second." Daniel looked over. "Okay I've been meaning to go in there anyway." As they entered the store, they all split up. Brad wandered until he came across the display rack of action figures from the recent Star Wars movie. He had been collecting them and began looking for a Yoda, which was hard to find these days. His eyes landed on the rack containing the twelve-inch tall figures and specifically on a Senator Amidala doll. Funny, he thought, I didn't realize how much she looks like Angela, just older. He was pondering this thought when his blood froze.

One of its eyes sparkled at him, just like a real eye, one cutting below the tissue and seeking the soul itself.

Brad backpedaled into a rack of key-chains, knocking some to the floor. Customers and staff looked around and swathe frightened boy scoop them up and toss them in a tray on the rack, then scurry toward the door. Daniel came trotting up behind him, bag in hand. "Hey, man, wait up! You could have let me finish checking out. What's gotten into you anyway? I thought you were gonna knock that stand down!"

Brad looked around. "Nothing, I just slipped. Where's Craig?" Looking around, they finally spotted Craig in front of the Express talking to Sarah. They were getting on very well, and Brad felt a pang of jealousy. He supposed that it was because he knew what would happen next. Craig would start dating and forget his friends. The way he and Sarah were chatting, you would think they had known each other for years. Brad and Daniel walked over and stood next to Craig. Sarah looked at Brad strangely and excused herself. They watched her saunter off. Brad looked at Craig. "What was that all about? You two were chatting like you grew up together." Craig frowned at Brad. "We've known each other for a while. I can't believe I haven't mentioned her to you before." Brad again felt a little sad, knowing his friend seemed to be moving on. Then he got the third shock of the day.

Craig was wearing earrings.

"What are those?" he practically shouted. He could see what they were. Small silver hoops in each ear. "What these? Sarah talked me into them. I couldn't resist her." Brad was extremely confused now. Daniel cocked an eyebrow. "Are you okay, Brad? You really look pale. Maybe it's time to leave the mall." Brad suppressed a shudder. For some reason, he felt his world was not making sense at the moment. "Yeah," he said. "I think I wanna get home."

The three friends walked toward home and surprisingly, conversation was sparse. They neared Craig's house and said their goodbyes, planning to meet up the next day at the lot. Craig turned and walked up his walkway. Brad did a double take. He could swear that Craig was wearing hip-hugger jeans with flared legs. He turned to Daniel to ask for confirmation, but Daniel was already walking towards his house three doors down. Brad suppressed a shiver and ran toward his house across the street. When he looked over at Angela's house, he quickened his pace. She was sitting on her front steps. He was at the door when she looked up, her eyes locking onto his. Brad yelped and ran inside his house, slamming the door behind him and sinking to the floor. If only she had opened her mouth to speak to him. Instead it was those dark, depthless eyes.

"Did you have fun with your friends, Brad?"

   

  

  

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