Hmm… uh… did your elementary school’s playground have… roads that ran in the middle of it? You know, like, big roads, that could have… actual cars drive through them? Well, not during the day, like, of course not during school, but like, still, there’s a road just cutting through your schoolyard? Just me?
I’m making it out like a car drove through our playground and hit a k- no. NO. A child did NOT get run over by a car. Not while I was there, at least. I was trying to say that us kids used the roads as a Four Square arena. What’s Four Square? I- you probably know what four square is. I probably don’t need to explain it. You know, the game with the ball and four… the four squares? And there’s the positions 1, 2, queen, and kin- I don’t feel like explaining it.
I don’t need to explain everything to you. You’re probably not that dumb. Something I could explain, however, is our playground. More on that road thing.
So I talked about the field a lot back in the first book. Uh, how do I explain the layout of a school without sounding boring? Uh…
So, there’s these two playgrounds. One for the young kids, one for the olders. There’s a big field next to the older playground, which I’ve talked about a ton, and then right next to that field is the road. The other side of the road is the school. Got it?
Okay, you didn’t care about the layout, and the layout doesn’t matter, so I didn’t really need to talk about any of it. I just wasted your time. Uh, uh, hahah! That was my plan all along, to waste your time! And… mine… dammit…
Okay okay okay, so, Four Square arena, yeah, you need a big road for that, right? Yeah, it was a two-way road, so the road’s pretty big… pretty much fits the criteria. Second criteria, you need, like, paint? Yeah, they painted the road. They… installed the arena. Or, yeah, they painted the arena. The four boxes.
Hey, you’re sure you don’t need a refresher of how to play Four Square? If you’re sure you’re sure, I won’t say anything. Nah, I lied, I’m gonna re-explain it.
You try to keep the king position as long as possible, and to get someone out of a position, you hit the ball into their square without them hitting it into another person’s. And then you cycle positions based off of who got out, from 1 to 2 to queen to king.
Okay, that’s a good enough refresher, right? Just ask me if you need another.
So, I like the game. It’s kinda fun, and if you know what you’re doing, it’s even more fun. But that’s besides the point. Er, well, you probably need to like the game. I mean, I don’t know what’s exactly required in a game. You’d need to read like, an article, or something to know what’s required for the game.
According to Wikipedia’s Four Square Article, you need ‘Manual Dexterity’ and ‘Social Skills’ to play the game.
Glad I got that cleared up.
Uh so we had two Four Square arenas in the middle of the road (they were in the road cause like, the ball bounces better on the asphalt, I think? Right?) and they were both used ALL THE TIME. Four Square was a really popular game at our school. Like, EVERYONE played. The popular kids, the nerdy kids, the ‘other’ kids- even I played it, and I’m even worse than all 3 of those genres of people! WEll,,
I- ugh. I never played the game with random people. I wouldn’t just… walk up and ask if I could join a game. I’d never need to, some of my friends (Mmhmm my FRIENDS) would ask me to play whatever game with them. I’m just cool like that. But… that means I’d only ever play Four Square if someone asked me to. That… makes me sound lonely. Uh. No.
So. Why am I talking about Four Square (besides just to let you know it’s one of the popular things we did at our elementary school- another popular thing we played was soccer- Oh! And Infection! We love Infection! But, I already talked about Infection a long time ago. There’s no need for me to talk about it again… back to soccer… uh, yeah, it’s soccer, why wouldn’t it be popular? I even talk about it again in a future chapter! Wait- don’t skip ahead for soccer- Four Square is cooler than soccer. And soccer isn’t even the highlight of the chapter it’s in! Why am I spoiling the rest of this book to you? Am I dumb?)? Because, duh, I have another story about it!
So… maybe a couple weeks have passed since the first day of fifth grade. Not, like, 4, or 5, like… 2. Maybe not even that much. Doesn’t matter- it’s been at least 3 days since the first day of school, I know that.
Guess what I was thinking about? No, tamales was incorrect. It was girls. Yup. And not just any ‘girls’. One girl. One… dammit.
So, Caitlyn was on my mind. I was kinda sorta maybe thinking about our conversation we had a couple… weeks? Days? I never figured it out. Uh, a couple… time ago, and- yeah, yeah, I know. ‘What, you haven’t talked to her since then?’ Uh, no, of course I haven’t!
…oh i see the problem
Okay, okay, so… sure, she was- I mean I was thinking about- okay, I was standing in the middle of the field. Just standing there. Y- yeah, that’s it. Uh, all of a sudden, a big rubber ball appeared out of nowhere and attacked me. Well, no, it just flew towards my body and… I caught it! (I’m… lying)
Anyway, yeah, it just came out of nowhere, and after looking around for about five sixths of a second, I decided to take it with me as I was… standing around in the field. Okay, I started walking around. Maybe the ball didn’t just appear out of nowhere, maybe I imagined it. I don’t know what I’m talking about- well, the balls do just kinda sit around in the field cause the school doesn’t store the balls anywhere- I still don’t know what I’m talking about.
Okay, okay, I was walking and bouncing the ball on the sidewalk, not… talking to anyone. Uh, I was bored, cause, cause, cause, only cause of the fact that no one set up the Infection game today! They were sick (get it?) or something- so, now I’m not playing any cool… games, so, like, I’m bored.
I’m bored. Don’t worry, I won’t bore you. I was looking down a the ball while bouncing it, and it suddenly was swiped away from me. I looked up, and it was the demon bo- cool kid himself- Jaidon Debral.
“Do you mind?”
“Can we have the ball back?”
“Back? Wait, who?”
He pointed towards the road- yup, the road again- and there was a group of people who were playing Four Square without a ball. Or, not playing Four Square.
“Uh, sure, I guess.”
So, I let Jaidon take the ball, and I continued walking (without the ball.). I didn’t know if he wanted to keep talking to me, or if god forbid he wanted me to play Four Square with him, so I just kept walking. Remember, I never join a game unless I’m asked to join?
“Wait, wait, aren’t you going to play, too?”
I didn’t see who, but I heard a girl mutter those words. But, well, that was enough. I was just asked to play the game. You know what that means.
“Uh, sure, whoever said-”
Oh. When I flipped around, I saw who asked. It was Caitlyn. Yeah.
“Whoever said that being you. Uh, whatever, sure.”
I got in line. There were too many people for everyone to have a position, so some people had to form a line. Anna was in the King position-
Ironic, huh? Jaidon was in the Queen position, some guy I didn’t know was in 2, and Caitlyn was in 1. And there were at least 5 people in the line. Most of which I didn’t recognize, but I knew they were all in the Friend Group of last year.
I’ll introduce them later. Maybe. Probably not. I’ll just say who’s going to be important to the story (which is… pretty much everyone at some point eventually), and I’ll avoid talking about anyone who isn’t important.
Here, I’ll talk about one person now. So you know that guy who’s in the 2 position that I don’t know? You don’t? Fine, here’s a description. Uh, so, for some reason, he looked almost identical to Caitlyn. His face had freckles, and they were covering his pale skin. He had blue and wide eyes (I think… being in the line, he was too far for me to see clearly- just, just imagine him with eyes. Wait-), and upright, fluffy light brown hair. He wasn’t the most… slender person, but wasn’t completely pudgy, of course. He was also tall. Hey, is he taller than me? No, I’m one of the tallest kids in the grade now. So, ha! I win, like always.
Yeah, they looked similar. A lot. Hold on- it’s my turn for Four Square, so give me a second before I continue explaining this guy and Caitlyn’s similarities. Time to show you how godly I am at Four Square.
Anna sent me the ball, and I, of course, using my high level of skill, hit the ball back and got Anna out, and after I got the others out and made it to the King position, and
No, I’ve already done this joke. You know. Yeah, I didn’t hit the ball back. Anna hit it in a way so that it had backspin, so when I touched it, it slipped off of my hand and flew out of bounds, and I got out. You hate to see it. I walked to the end of the line, and saw Caitlyn standing in the line right in front of me.
“Nice job, Becky.”
“Shut up, I wasn’t even trying- listen, I know what I’m dong. I’m just… not warmed up yet.”
“Sure, Becky.”
“It’s true. Anyway, who’s that guy in the Queen position?”
Jaidon was knocked out and was walking towards the line, and the guy I didn’t recognize earlier was… in Queen position, like I said.
“Him? That’s Shane.”
Jay, huh? Hmm. I don’t know his last name, so…
“Is he your twin?”
I’ve never had a class with this ‘Jay’ kid. For all I know, he could be anyone. I have no idea.
“His last name is Doggers.”
PFFFFFFT HAHAHAHAHAHA DOGGERS?!?!?!?
“And?”
She stared at me.
“He’s… not my twin.”
“He looks a lot like you.”
“No he doesn’t!”
“Yes, he does!”
“I know, right?”
Jaidon chimed in with this note. He was knocked out, remember?
“But we’re not twins-”
“What’s going on?”
One of the girls in the line ahead of Caitlyn asked this, and we explained it to her. She then looked at Shane, and then looked at Caitlyn, and widened her eyes.
“You’re so right! They look exactly the same!”
This girl, by the way, is Leanna Miller. I said her name one time in the last book, so if you remember her, good job! If you don’t, you suck. She’ll become bigger later, so if you’re a Leanna Miller fan, don’t worry. Anyway…
“Exactly!”
“True!”
“Right?”
Everyone was talking now, joining in the conversation, and everyone knew what we were talking about. Even Shane heard about us talking about it, and… didn’t care, but Caitlyn obviously did.
“Stop! We’re not twins!”
So, here’s what all of us started thinking. If they aren’t twins… but look so similar… hmm…
You know that thing, like, how if you like your pet a lot, you start to look like it? Wait, that’s a Pokedex entry for Eevee, never mind.
Uh, we all thought the same thing.
“Do you like each other?”
“NO!”
Heh. Classic us. We strike again successfully. We are so funny sometimes wait Caitlyn why are you giving the ball away
She gave the ball away. We can’t play Four Square anymore. Noooooooooo *sad face emoji* *sad face emoji* wait i can just do this 😥😥
She’s kinda cute when she’s mad… I meant my dog, shut up
I never got to flex my Four Square ability thanks to Caitlyn’s ragequitting. I got in, failed, and made fun of Caitlyn until she stole our only ball. Also, Anna stayed in the King position for the entire game. Ironic, huh? Anyway, after the ball was removed from the proximity, we didn’t know what to do. We all just sat down in the middle of the field and played with the grass. Why’d you give the ball away, Caitlyn? Where even is it? Now we’re all bored. Thanks a lot.
“Hey, stop pulling the grass, Becky!”
The first thing that happens after you give the ball away, you yell at me, Caitlyn?
“I- what? Sorry?”
I threw the grass I was holding behind my head. It landed on the road. More people… also threw threw the grass. It made a pile, which grew larger. Eventually, some people stood up and spread the grass around on the road. It made a sort of trail, like a road of some sort- well, no duh.
“Why’d you do this?”
“Cause I thought it’d look cute!”
Anna was the lead in making the trail, well, a trail, and actually made it look appeasing. Not really. It didn’t look appeasing. It was a ton of destroyed flower stems and broken plant buds spread around on the road. Ew.
“Well, okay, so what about it?”
“I dunno. Hey, it kinds reminds me of the play we’re holding.”
“What play?”
“The Wizard of Oz?”
That’s completely out of nowhere. Uh, right, so our school holds a play every year. They just did a Moana play. Yikes. Who even cares about the play anyway? Definitely not me!
“Uh, okay, how does it at all?”
“Cause there’s a Yellow Brick Road in it?”
“...And?”
“I dunno, the green path thing on the road reminds me of it.”
“Okay…?”
“Yup!”
She’s out of her mind.
“So, what, are we calling this the, uh, Green Brick Road?”
Funny, me.
“No, something to do with plants, duh.”
Caitlyn re-entered the conversation. I rolled my eyes at her. I was just making a joke, duh.
“Green… Plant Road?”
“Wow, you’re so smart, Becky!”
Thank so much, Caitlyn!
“How about… Green Clover Road?”
Anna randomly said that after she stood there thinking for a while. Caitlyn looked at her, and immediately agreed with her.
“Sounds great!”
What? Just- just immediate agreement? I said clever stuff, and you just have to go ahead and say yes to anything Anna says? No, I get it, yeah, no. Green Clover- that doesn’t even make sense! There were no clovers- mine was better! Why does this always happen?
God- whatever, I don’t feel like talking about this stuff any more. Just completely done talking about all of this. The two of them would, as expected, constantly annoy me by saying ‘Green Clover Road’ over and over again. Thanks for that terrible name, Anna. Thanks so much.143Please respect copyright.PENANAWVJUNP5zoZ