Tadpoles

It was mid-summer when Wilbert suggested we go down to the creek to catch frogs or tadpoles. I loved the idea so I grabbed my mini boom box and we rode our bikes down to the creek. I loved the feeling of the wind gushing, through my hair; kissing my neck. Wilbert always teased me for being obsessed with the outdoors saying I was a weird girl. He just didn’t understand how free it made me feel. We arrived at the creek and we started our hunt for tadpoles when I tripped, face plant straight onto the dirt. I quickly turned back to see what I had tripped on and it was a boy lying down with a book covering his face. Wilbert burst out laughing at the dirt stains on my face and I felt as if at that moment I had turned bright tomato red in the face. I was so furious I marched up to the boy laying down and I demanded him to wake up. When I saw his face I felt embarrassed as it was bruised with a bandaid over one of his eyebrows. He had long eyelashes, narrow cheekbones, plump pink lips, dark eyebrows, and brown hair slick back. He looked at me closely with a curious and furious stare and said “ Yes my queen?” He was one cheeky boy. To which I responded, “What weirdo lays on a pathway where people walk?” To which he said, “ not many people come here so I assumed no one would pass”. While he spoke my eyes kept wandering to his lips, he had such lovely teeth. I realized I had not given him a response and with a smirk, he said “see anything you like?” I turned away so quickly and said that he’d be too full of himself to think that I had any sort of interest in him. He then introduced himself as Oliver. Wilbert and I introduced ourselves and he had asked why we were here, to begin with, and Wilbert had said that we were on a hunt for tadpoles. Oliver ended up joining us on our hunt but I decided to ignore his presence and I was still embarrassed by the entire incident. We had caught nine and placed them in a bucket we found laying around. It probably belonged to some kid collecting water or rocks for some odd reason. Its handle was broken but we didn’t care we just used it. We started to grab a tadpole each and placed it in the water to race them to see whose tadpoles were the fastest. I of course won all three rounds.

We laughed as we exchanged jokes and laughter that I had completely forgotten about my frustration and embarrassment. It was turning sundown so we decided to call it a day. As we were getting on our bikes we noticed that Oliver didn’t have anything to ride. I asked him how he was going to get home and he said the same way he arrived, by walking. I felt pity for him and asked if he wanted to ride on the back of my bike. He didn’t disagree with the idea and Wilbert asked where he lived, it was closer to my house than Wilbert's as Wilbert's house is a couple of minutes away from me. We rode together listening to music on my mini boom box and chatted about school and if we’d stick together. Wilbert left us as his house is through another path. We were alone. It was just me, Oliver, and that wind. Oliver was quieter than I expected him to be but we didn’t need to exchange words as the wind and music were already speaking for us. We all three had decided to go down to the lake for a swim since it had still been crazy hot weather. We rode our bikes down to the lake and Oliver paired with Wilbert and they zoomed off leaving me to chase after them. We arrived at the lake and climbed up to the cliff to jump off. When we reached the top we saw a girl crying and sitting alone. We were all confused about what to do so I step up and taped her shoulders. She jumped as she turned and saw the three of us and had gotten up so quickly. She had on a one-piece bathing suit with her blonde hair tied to the side in a braid. She had fair skin with rosy pink chubby cheeks and light green eyes. I asked her if everything was alright and she said that she had come with her friends but that they had set her up to steal her Clothes and leave off without her. I was so furious at the thought and told her that those weren’t true friends. I asked her if she was interested in hanging out with us. She had a big smile and wiped away her tears and asked if I was being serious. Just as I was about to answer Wilbert burst out yelling “of course we mean it!” I’ve never seen Wilbert too enthusiastic before. We laughed and started jumping into the water playing chicken fight and racing each other. I felt such liveliness and joy that I’d never thought I’d ever feel. I guess this summer I just got lucky.

I went home with Oliver again and I couldn’t get that Kool-Aid smile off of my face. “You seem happy,” Oliver said. “I am” I replied. Once again we didn’t exchange many words but I felt that I’d understood Oliver in a weird sense. The silence was broken when Oliver asked if I liked Wilbert. I didn’t know what to say. I think I do. No how could I? He’s my friend?Yeah but don’t tell him? All those thoughts were rushing through my head and I just said “yeah”. What in the world was I thinking?! How could I just admit to feelings I wasn’t even sure I had? He then asked if I liked him.

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