Everyone knows the ‘parts’ to the playground. There’s the monkey bar area, the slides, the random tic-tac-toe boards, the walls you can climb on, maybe there’s a zipline or a bridge or something, but none of those have nearly as much importance or hold as many childhood memories as this area of the playground. My all-time favorite part of the playground is none other than the swings.
Basic? No, not at all. I decide what’s basic and what isn’t, not you. So in my opinion, not only are swings not basic at all, they’re also the best area of the playground. No argument there. Er, just in case someone does try to argue, I guess I could make a backup plan.
My plan? Uh, I’ll just say that… swings are fun. There. Boom. All of my problems are solved.
So this story is all about swings this time. Pretty crazy, I start the chapter talking about swings, and the rest of the chapter is about swings? Who would’ve thought?
So, yeah, I was just minding my own business during recess one day, not able to find any of my friends. Of course, that means that there’s only one logical solution. Go to the playground, sit down in one of the swings, and start rocking back and forth on it. And I did that.
There were two swings in my school’s upper playground (remember my school has two playgrounds), and I didn’t see anyone else on the other swing, so I basically had the entire thing to myself. I could do literally anything on my favorite- again, swings are the best- piece of playground equipment. No one was around to bother me like usual. I could just keep swinging back and forth, back and forth, just a simple swing. I could just swing, and no one could care, and I didn’t have to care about what other people thought. This is the best. This is great. This is fine.
IT IS NOT FINE AT ALL WHY IS SHE HERE
“Why the hell are you here?”
Bad word. You know it’s serious time. So Caitlyn decided to start riding the swing next to mine.
You: ‘No way, when you said ‘she’, you meant Caitlyn? No way!’ Shut up, you know it’s always going to be Caitlyn or Anna- well, usually it’s Anna who tells Caitlyn to do something dumb, so I guess it’s Anna anyway… uh, but this time it’s Caitlyn. NO WAY CAITLYN WHO WOULD’VE THOUGHT
“Rude, Becky, all I wanted to do was swing.”
I looked forward, expecting a second girl to be watching from a distance with a mischievous grin on her face, but couldn’t see one. Maybe she actually tried to hide this time.
“Uh, I don’t care, this is my swing?”
“No, you’re not riding this one?”
“Shut up. Get off.”
“You’re not riding my swing though.”
“Yeah, I am. See?”
I hopped off of my swing and walked over to her swing. I then used my hands to push her off of her swing.
“Stop touching me!”
“Get off the swing!”
You see how stupid children are now? Yeah, you haven’t seen anything yet. Anyway, so there’s the chance that a teacher could possibly walk up to the swings and see two short children vigorously punching each other on a swing set for literally no reason, and then they would probably have tried to stop us. Good thing no teacher saw us, right?
‘YOU TWO! STOP!”
Uh oh. We had teachers who monitored the students every day during recess outside, and one had somehow saw us.
“Sorry…”
‘Just get on the swing next to her, young man.’
“Okay.”
I stopped pushing her- hold on, analyze- I was pushing- touching her. I was touching Caitlyn. Vigorously- that’s weird. I shouldn’t say I was vigorously touching- I shouldn’t say that. Now I feel weird. Let’s go back to the, uh, the thing.
“You wanna get back on the swings, young man?”
Oh, she’s funny.
“Shut up, you aren’t funny.”
I got on the swing anyway, completely ignoring her ‘young man’ joke. I looked over at the other swing, and saw that Caitlyn was swinging on the swing at the same time as me.
When I say that, that means that she was swinging at the same speed, height, and… time… as me. We were perfectly in sync. For riding a swing. Not like we’re a thing or anything, duh. Ahem.
“Becky…”
Like, I said, we aren’t a couple or anything.
“I- what?”
“You’re swinging at the same time as me?”
“I’m not! I just started swinging- see?”
“Becky, you know that if you swing at the same time as someone, that means you like them.”
“Wh-what?”
Eh? Oh. Right. I guess you could call this thing our ‘School tradition’. It’s not a school tradition. I
Our ‘not school tradition’ is this: if you swing with someone, that means you have a crush on them. Yeah. Pretty good tradition, right? I don’t completely get it, to be honest.
So, yeah, Caitlyn and I can both see that we’re swinging together. That’s not good. Escape plan!
I jumped off of the swing and landed safely on my feet. I turned around after landing that, uh, magnificent jump(?), and saw Caitlyn smiling at me. God, why does she do that? Why do people smile?
“I bet I can jump higher than you!”
No. No, she can’t.
Yeah. Yeah, she did. She jumped off of her swing higher than I. But she just challenged me. There’s no way I’m letting her beat me in something like a jumping contest.
“Okay, fine, watch this.”
I hopped back onto my swing and rode it even higher than she did, and jumped off again. I fell (not fell, like… floated) gracefully (there, see? Floated gracefully.) down and onto my feet. I looked back at Caitlyn.
“Uh, good job, Becky, but…”
She was already swinging again, and proceeded to swing at what looked like the max height for a swing- you know what I mean, right? Yeah, you know what I mean. Anyway, it seemed like she was gonna jump off at this ‘max height’.
“Hey, you sure you wanna jump off at that height? You could, I dunno, get hurt?”
“Aw, Becky, you’re worried about me?”
“No, shut up! Jump off and, uh, die!”
She leaped off the seat of her swing and, get this, time froze. Yeah, this actually isn’t a romance genre book, it’s a superhero book, cause I can freeze time!
No, as in time seemed to freeze. I looked at her, and she was smiling as she was descending. Her feet somewhat dangling in the air, her hair flying up, it was like she was dancing on the air as she was falling.
Fish.
Sorry, I said something completely random (the time freeze thing), and then another completely random thing (Fish.). That was weird.
“So, Becky, can you do better?”
“Of course I can! Just watch me!”
Haha, uh… no. If she’s already going max height, I can’t logically go any higher. I decided to get in my death chair and started ocking. I quickly got to the same height Caitlyn got to, and tried going higher. Of course, it didn’t work. I was obviously struggling to get higher, and because of that, I started squirming around in my seat. I wiggled, and adjusted, and moved around too much, and then…
I fell.
“BECKY!”
“Okay, that- that hurts like hell.”
“ANNA, this was NOT supposed to happen!”
I started to go dizzy. I closed my eyes, and don’t remember what happened after that.
I do remember that now, my arm is broken. I had to let it heal by keeping it in a castNO my dad thought the cast wasn’t going to be needed, so he just made me wear a sling. Yeah, a sling. I was given a very out of place and basic black sling to use. It wasn’t the fact anymore that I had just a broken arm that was embarrassing, it was the fact that I had to wear this STUPID SLING
Okay, it wasn’t that bad. It was sometimes more comfortable than if I were wearing a cast. But it looks uncomfortable. You can’t write with it. And worst of all, YOU CAN’T LET PEOPLE SIGN YOUR ARM
I walked into school. People looked at me with worried faces, mostly asking if I was okay. And, as per usual, someone didn’t ask if I was okay.
‘Hey, Becky, nice cast.”
“Shut up.”
“Sorry. Can I sign it.”
“Shut up, Caitlyn.”
“Come on, can’t I?”
“It’s a sling, you can’t- sure.”
She pulled out a little sticker and writer her name on it using a pen, and stuck the sticker on my sling. Wow, thanks.
“So… is it my fault?”
“Yes. Definitely. It’s entirely your fault my arm is broken.”
“Uh…”
“I- I’m joking. It’s my fault for jumping off the swing. Ugh, this is great.”
“What’s greaT?”
“Now I’m gonna be known as the guy who broke his arm jumping off of a swing. And it’s entirely your fault.”
“No it isn’t!”
“Whatever. How am I supposed to write now?”
“Ha, that’s funny, Becky. Not like your writing was any good anyways.”
Uh huh?
“Shut up. You suck.”
“You suck.”
I’m literally sitting here, originally minding my own business with my broken arm, and she has to sit next to me, right? It’s not like someone- oh, of course.
“What do you want?”
It’s unlike her to want to just sit next to me, even if she feels that it’s out of pity. I’m sure someone, someone specific to be specific, made her do this.
“Uh, nothing, Becky. Why?”
Suddenly, a horde of people approaches!
“Oh my god, see? They’re sitting together again!”
“They totally like each other!”
“Hehehe!”
The group of people were talking very loudly, and when I looked at them, they were pointed and looking directly at us. Caitlyn and I. They just said those things directly to us. Hmm, the things they said… sounds exactly like what someone else would say, huh? Maybe someone named Anna?
I stared at the group of people with a frustrated face. They all quickly turned around and walked away, still snickering. I looked over at Caitlyn, who was apparently she was also making a mad face at them. When she finished, she looked at me and I started snickering. She did too. I decided to ask a dumb question.
“Hmm, hey Caitlyn, what’re they talking about?”
I know what they’re doing. They’re shipping us.
“You know, that thing.”
That thing? Shipping, right?
“Uh, what’re you talking about?”
“Gossip.”
“Gossip? What’s that mean?”
Yeah… uh… I didn’t know what gossip meant. Not like it’s embarrassing. Gossip isn’t a word I learned in english class, so of course I’d never hear it before.
“It’s when something really interesting happens to someone.”
“Huh?”
“You know, the juicy stuff?”
Gross. I hate it when people still called it the ‘juicy stuff’.
“That… sounds gross.”
“Ugh, Becky, you’re so dumb.”
“Uh, no? You are.”
Of course, this all could have happened without the use of Anna. Maybe she actually didn’t do anything this time.
“Hi guys!”
ANNA? NO WAY WHO WOULD’VE GUESSED ITS NOT LIKE I WAS TALKING ABOUT HER SECRETLY BEING BEHIND THIS THE ENTIRE TIME
“Hi Anna!”
Wait, why did Anna say guys instead of saying hi to Caitlyn first? That’s what she always does. Why did she say guys? Unless she’s implying that we’re not separate but acting as a group… as in… a couple… NO SHE DID NOT IMPLY THAT THERE’S NO WAY AM I THINKING TOO MUCH THAT’S NOT POSSIBLE
“Hi! It’s not like I told those guys to walk over to you, that was weird, right?”
She’s terrible at hiding things. Like, actually freaking horrible at it.
“Uh, so you did?”
“No! You’re dumb, Becky!”
“Yeah, you’re dumb, Becky!”
“What?! Why am I being attacked by both of you?”
They both laughed. I groaned again. They both ran away, and I continued sitting, unable to get up because of… my one broken arm? Yeah, yeah, that means I’m crippled or something, so… yeah.
And to this day, I never got the sling off. 135Please respect copyright.PENANAO7zY61x9oY