Two of a Kind

Chapter 2

I was heading toward the park down the street from my house.  Yesterday, I met a boy who found me in the forest.  I didn't think anyone would be way out there.  He said his name was Jamie.  At first, I wasn't sure about him.  After my incident with the guys at my school, I wasn't too sure if I could trust him.  But from what I could tell, he seemed like a nice guy.  I really had fun at his house.

I walked through the entrance of the gate at the park.  I didn't see Jamie anywhere, so I opted to go sit on the swings.

"Hey, Sebastian!"

I looked up and there he was.

"Hey," I muttered.

"How's it going?  How was church?" he asked.

"It was okay," I responded.  Earlier this morning I went to church like I do every week.  My family was Christian and my mother and father took me to church faithfully.  I didn't really mind it.

We stayed there quiet for a few seconds, neither one of us speaking.  Jamie just sat there and looked at me.

"So what do you want to do?" he asked.

"I don't know."

"Well...we could always go and get some ice cream?  I'll pay."

"Umm...okay, sure."  We got up and walked over to this old guy selling ice cream and gave him our orders.  Well, he wasn't really old.  He couldn't have been more than twenty something.  But that's old to me.  I mean I'm only thirteen.  That got me thinking.

"Hey, Jamie.  How old are you?"

Jamie seemed shocked by my question.  "Oh my gosh!  I can't believe I never told you how old I am.  Sorry about that.  I'm fourteen.  How about you?"

"Thirteen."

"Oh, so we're only one year apart.  What grade are you in?"  Jamie grabbed his sundae from the man.

"I'm in the 7th grade."  I grabbed my double scoop chocolate ice cream cone.

"Oh, well I'm in the 8th grade.  I go to Sunny Junior High."

"Yeah, and I guess you already know where I go."  I chuckled.

"How is Middlebrook by the way?  I've heard a lot about it, but I've never been there."

"Well, not much I guess.  Just we got to wear uniforms and all and go six days a week instead of five.  We do get shorter days though so I guess it evens out."  We sat underneath a tree so we could eat our ice cream.

"Doesn't that get old?  Wearing uniforms and all?"

"Not really.  I mean when everyone wears the same thing it just means there's one less thing to bully people about."  I hadn't realized what I said until I finished.  I turned and looked at Jamie.  He had this frown on his face.

"Sebastian...do people bully you about other things?"

"Well..."  I was starting to get uncomfortable.  But it isn't usual that I get to speak to people about my issues.  My parents work so much that they never have time to listen to my problems.  "Ya...they do," I mumbled as I looked at the ground.

"Hey!" I jumped a little bit from his sudden outburst.  I looked at him and he had this serious expression on his face.  "That's not okay, Sebastian!  What else do these guys bully you about?!" He grabbed onto my shoulders and faced me towards him.

I looked away.  For some reason I couldn't look him in the eyes.  "They say I'm an oreo..."

"Oreo?  They say you're a cookie??"

"No...it means I'm mixed.  They make fun of me cause my dad is white and my mom is black."

"Why would they make fun of you for that?"  He gave me this perplexed look.

"I don't know...why do you even care," I said getting a little angry.

"Hey, I care!  Sebastian, you're my friend.  Why wouldn't I care!?"  I froze at him mentioning the word friend.  I had just met Jamie yesterday.  I never thought he actually wanted be my friend.  I thought he was just saying that to cheer me up.

"W-well...uh...I'm sorry."  I looked at the ground, ashamed of what I had said.

"It's okay...I know you didn't mean it.  I know we just met, but I really do consider you my friend Sebastian.  And I don't like it when my friends get hurt."

I looked into his eyes and could see he really did mean it.

Jamie looked at me and said, "I'm sorry if I'm being pushy.  I won't ask you anymore about it if you don't want me to."

"N-no, you're not being pushy.  It's okay.  I don't get bullied as much anymore about that stuff anyways.  The people at my school started leaving me alone after I ignored them for awhile.  I think they got bored."

"Gosh...I really hate people who are like that!  They just pick on other people cause they think they are better than everyone else."  Jamie seemed really heated, so I decided to change the topic.

"Hey, why don't we talk about something else?  Like what about you?  What's your family like?"

"My family?  Well, my family is alright I guess.  My parents argue a lot though..."

"Oh...I'm sorry."

"No, its okay.  I'm used to it."

We sat there not saying anything for awhile.  We tried to talk about other things, but neither of us were really all that into it anymore.  We walked around the park for another hour or so.  Eventually it started to get late, so we decided it best to head home.  Before we left we exchanged phone numbers.  We agreed that it was better to contact each other in the future that way.