Shout outs to Candice!

Who requested that I put up this story I wrote for English. Enjoy! True Story, as always.

Loser

“Let’s take it” My friend Jake Lewis said.

“Yeah” Larry Howard agreed.

“Umm …I don’t know” I said hesitantly while staring at the huge green bookbag that all our eyes were on.

It was a Saturday afternoon in Brooklyn Technical High School. Although we were all Junior High School Students, we were in a program that would help us get accepted into the school. The teacher had given us free time to work on a group activity, but of course, my friends had something else in mind.

“Why not?” Jake questioned me.

“I don’t know.. why do we have to this?” I replied trying not to sound like a loser.

“’Because it’s Arnold” my friend replied back.

Who is Arnold? Arnold is.. Arnold is that kid that gets picked last in gym class. Arnold is the kid that you shoot spitballs at then pretend to do work while he searches for the culprit. Arnold is that kid that makes you sympathize with your friend if he’s forced to do a project with him. Arnold is, in simple terms, a loser, and nobody liked him. Well his parents probably did and teachers too, but that only made his status worse. Still, I did not want to go through with what my friends were planning.

“Whatever, I’m going” Larry said as he began to fulfill his part of the plan. He made his way towards the huge green bookbag our eyes were fixated on. If you haven’t figured it out by now, that huge green bookbag belonged to Arnold. And was probably an adding factor to his “loserness”. Larry looked around. The teacher was busy helping another student and Arnold was no where to be found. He reached his hand into the bag and pulled out the prize, the rare object we sought, the item my friends had set our eyes upon.. a Yu-gi-oh! Card.

Yes, a Yu-Gi-Oh! Card. They were actually quite the rarity back in the day, especially to Arnold. Why? He had a great selection of cards, he was fairly good at the game, and it was probably his only opportunity for positive social interaction at school. If you could gain respect on the Duel table, then you can gain respect amongst your peers.. for about five minutes, then it’s back to being the loser that you were.

Larry returned with the card in hand and slapped a high five to Jake.

“Alright my turn” Jake said. And went on to follow the same pattern as my friend. The special thing about the cards we were taking was that they came in three, a rare combo that Arnold had. So there were three cards, and three of us. It made sense that each of us would take one. But not me, I didn’t want to do it. I had been brought up on Christian values and principles. I could hear the deep booming voice in my head shouting “Thou Shall Not Steal!” as Jake completed his task. And besides, I felt bad for the guy, he was a loser, his life was bad enough as it is.

“Done” Jake said as he returned holding the card in his hand.

“Alright, now it’s you turn Sam” Larry said turning to me.

“Time to take a stand” I said to myself.

“I don’t know guys.. I don’t really want to”

“Aw come on but we all did it, you have to” Jake said.

“Yeah what’s the big deal?” Larry asked.

“..Well stealing is wrong” I said.

“…But it’s Arnold” My friend replied.

“But it’s Arnold.” That was supposed to be the reason, but what did Arnold ever to do us. Sure, he was a loser, quite annoying and passed gas all the time, but still he had never wronged any of us in any way. Even though we all treated him bad, he still wanted to be accepted by us as a friend. Why should I continue to add to his pain? Stealing wouldn’t only be wrong, it would be despicable, heck, it would probably make me the devil himself.

“All right I’ll go” I said giving into peer pressure.

And there I went, taking each step with regret. Trying to tell myself it’s not me doing this, that my friends are making me. But I had a choice. I could’ve said no. I could have refused to do it. But I was too afraid. Too afraid to become seen as un-cool, too afraid to be an outcast, and too weak to stand up for what I believed. When it came down to it, Arnold wasn’t the loser, I was.

As easy as my hand went into the back, that’s as easy it came back out with the card in my hand. And the deed was done. I came back and handed it to my friends. I didn’t even want to look at it. My friends were satisfied with the completed task. Jake said he’d take care of the cards and hide them somewhere. And that was the last I saw of those cards. But not the last I saw of Arnold. In fact, we ended up going to the same high School. For the next four years I’d see him walking through the halls, or hear him getting talked about behind his back by other kids and I’d get reminded about what I did. I’d wonder if he even knew those cards were missing, if he knew who did it, or how he felt when he discovered that a prank had been played on him and that it wouldn’t be the last. I always wanted to apologize, but I don’t know. I guess I felt it would be awkward just bringing it up out of the blue. And that’s how it would go on. Always seeing him, always apologizing in my heart, always feeling guilty and always feeling, like a total loser.

Love Rival! (Short Story Entry#2)

Isn’t young love grand? The first feelings of a quickened heart beat. The wanting to be in a girl’s presence even though you’re friends think they’re icky. The confidence that teasing the girl is the right way to show her that you like her. Oh how wonderful it is, how pure! But of course, in love there is none more important than the love rival! Yes, the love rival makes the path to winning the young lady’s affections overrun with obstacles. The love rival keeps your head in the game, knowing that if you make the wrong move  she could slip into his hands. Ah yes, the love rival makes winning the girl’s heart more dire, more challenging and oh the much more sweeter.

I remember my first love rival very well. It was back in fifth grade, I didn’t have crushes to frequently, in fact, I was so immature in the matters of the heart, that it took me about half a year to realize i had feelings for the girl for whom I would soon engage in an epic battle. It was when the teacher changed my seat and moved me away from her was when I started to notice something.  The constant staring back at my old seat. The wanting to be seated next to her again. Oh I how longed to once again share treats with her during snack time just once more! I couldn’t deny how I felt any longer, and my feelings became apparent to a few students in my class, and eventually to my soon to be love rival. Oh poor naive me, I only realized he had the same feelings for her far too late.

“Hey Sam” My love rival called over to me. I walked over to him to see what he had to say. I was surprised when he brought up my heartthrob. “So I hear you have a crush on her, is it true?” he asked curiously. “Yes” I said truthfully, I had no reason to deny my overflowing love. “Oh” He said calmly. “Come close I have something to tell you” He said. I leaned over and brought my ear close to his mouth, curious as to what he could have to say to me, was it something about my love? Before I knew it, my love rival had set me up in a perfect position and I was caught in the stone cold stunner! The shock of the infamous wrestling move made me fall back a few steps. “What the heck just happened?” I thought in my mind. “You better stay away from my woman” He warned me before he sped off into the distance.

From then it was on!

My love rival had declared war, and I purposed in my heart not to disappoint him. Our recesses were now spent trying to come up with ways to get eachother. Each one of us devising plans to catch the other when we least expected it. Neither of us backing down. It was stone cold stunner after stone cold stunner. With each stunner sending a message. That our love was more powerful than the other. That mere physical pain wasn’t enough to keep us from striving for the affections of the one we desired. That in order to get to the girl, we would have to go through eachother first. The bout eventually escalated past just one-on-one and our friends began to get dragged into the fray. Before we knew it, we were all stone cold stunnering eachother in the playground! It was a full-fledged gang war!

(If 6, 4 ft. tall children attacking eachother with particularly harmeless wrestling moves counts as gang warfare.)

Eventually an aide witnessed one of our battles and put all of us on timeout, making us sit at a lunch table to reflect upon what we did. My love rival approached me, I immediately got on guard, not knowing what to expect. “Hey, Sorry” he said. “Friends?” He asked.

“Ok” I said.

… The wonders of time out.

And with that the battle was over. So what happened after? I told the girl of my dreams how I felt about her and asked her to the prom. I ultamately got rejected and things got so bad between us that we didn’t talk to eachother for a whole year. She probably didn’t even know about the whole dispute between me and my love rival. If only she could’ve seen how strong my love was! My love rival on the other hand? He got bored and moved on, and being the hot shot that he was easily found another girl. We even met up in a summer program later that year and became the best of friends. I haven’t heard from him since though and i sometimes wonder how he’s doing. Maybe we can meet up again, and crush on the same girl just for old time’s sake. Oh where are you love rivals of the world! It’s been too long since I’ve had a glorious battle such as that! I’ve been honing my skills, my spirit aches for battle! I long for nervous sweat of rejection! I thirst for quenching waters of victory achieved by a hair’s breath! Oh how I need to be kept on my toes! Come my next love rival, make me want the next girl all the more! Don’t allow me to be lax with the feelings in my heart! Come love rival, I await you!

(Note: Though the events in this story ARE true, my passion in this writing is slightly exaggerated and are there for amusement purposes Please do not approach me and slap me across the face with a glove and challenge me to love duel.)