"No Longer Alone": Part 8

I decide not to open my envelope. I trust Brynn despite all the signs pointing to the opposite. I know we’re friends, and I know deep down that she knows we’re friends. I trust she has my best interests at heart. So, when I receive my results, I don’t open them. Even though I really, really want to, I know that Brynn is most likely right.

However, in second period the temptation was so large I had to stuff the envelope in my locker in the passing period. “The answer will just make me upset,” I tell myself. “I’ll rip it up when I get home.” Home. It’s starting to feel more like it. Sure, I’m still getting used to Robert and Kareema’s various traditions, but I think things are getting better.

Despite this, as I look around at all the other kids, I can’t help but feel inferior. They have parents. They have families. They don’t have to worry about people finding out about their less-than-perfect childhood. I tell myself this misconnection is the reason I don’t have many friends, and that Brynn not liking people gives us something in common. It’s not like I don’t like people, it’s just hard to like people who don’t understand. People who will never understand the struggles that I’ve gone through.

Once the bell rings marking the end of school, I go outside to wait at my usual spot at the curb. I’ve started noticing things I wouldn’t have noticed if I wasn’t sitting in the same spot every day for five to ten minutes. For example, there’s this bird, a robin, who lives in the tree to the right of where I sit. The robin’s home is the third branch on the left side, and it likes to fly around the other trees. I named it Robin (not very creative, but I’m working on it). Then, there’s Robin’s neighbor, the squirrel that lives in the same tree. They don’t seem to get along well. Robin and the squirrel, (I named it Pistachio, since the first day we met it stole my pistachio), often get into fights. Right now, they’re battling over an acorn.

“Robin! Pistachio! Calm down!” I yell playfully. 

“Wow, you talk to birds and squirrels now? You keep getting weirder by the second.”

“Brynn!?”