The Giant Forest - COMPLETED - True to life adventures of preteens.

Brute Friendship

Sycamore was larger than all his classmates several ways. He was both taller and wider than all the kids in his class, taller than Aimi, and taller than many of the older kids in the other classes ahead of his. Sycamore's size was the only advantage he had over his friends, if you could call being too large to fit through a hula hoop an advantage.

"Sycamore! You are supposed to let the hula hoop spin around your waste, not wear it like a belt!"

His classmates teased him tirelessly about his size.

"Hey! How's the weather up there?"

"Sycamore. Will you please turn around? We need someone to wipe off the whiteboards."

"Yo! Sycamore. I heard your birthday was August 10th, 11th AND 12th.

"Let's go down the tunnel slide, Sycamore!" his friends would call out to him knowing full well he'd get stuck on the way down.

"Nah. I'm alrighty awaitin' fer yous guys at the bottom. I, uh, wanna make sure you land safely. Er, I'll be 'ere when you 'uns come back down. You can 'pend on me."

Sycamore often blended some of his words together and at other times he left off parts of words. He wasn't partial to which part he left off - sometimes the front of the word and sometimes the end. He wasn't trying to be cute and certainly wasn't trying to be clever. Sycamore didn't know how to be clever. No one ever worried about getting the worst grades on a test in Sycamore's class. That, um, "honor" belonged to Sycamore.

His parents and his teachers had long given up on encouraging Sycamore to get better grades. Nobody knew why he was the way he was. Nobody seemed to care either.

Funny thing. Sycamore was proud to be the worst student in his class. Sycamore thought to himself, when he could think, which he was told was not one of his strengths, "If'n I gets the worst grades, then ain't nobody else in the class has to worries about being at the bottom of the list. It's my place. Everyone else can enjoy being better than at least good ol' me."

Sycamore always did his best. It just seemed that the bottom of the class was as high as he could reach. It didn't bother him that all his classmates got better grades. He knew in his heart of hearts, he was giving his all every day. That's what he told himself.

Sycamore had one quality that set him apart. He was absolutely the most dependable person friends, teammates could have. If Sycamore said he would do something, he'd do it, stay with it till it was done or have to be forcibly removed from his promised taske by someone older or with more authority. He never made excuses. Never ever made excuses.

Once some of his classmates played a trick on Sycamore during a game of Hide and Seek. They asked him to stand at the corner and watch to make sure the other team couldn't catch them.

"Sycamore! You signal to us if you see those guys coming. Okay?"

"I will. I will. You can't count to a hundred on me," he said with his biggest grin.

Sycamore stood at the corner looking back and forth so quickly it made his head hurt.

"I's the lookout. And Ima lookin left and right and right and left, too. Not just out," he chuckled to himself.

What he didn't know was that his 'friends' went back to class and left him there, knowing full well he wouldn't abandon the post.

"Where's that Sycamore?" the teacher asked.

All the kids giggled.

"What did you kids do to that poor fellow now?" She asked with visible frustration, and disappointment at how the kids acted in her Christian school.

The teacher went looking for Sycamore and found him standing at the corner steadfastly, looking left and right, his hands cupped to his mouth in the ready position to shout at a moment's notice.

"Come with me, Sycamore."

"But, Roci and Aimi, Mousi and Sybil asked me to guard this corner, Mrs. ..."

"Sycamore. Come with me."

Sycamore's face lost its joy. He knew his friends were depending on him, but the teacher was making him leave. His body turned left towards the classroom, but his feet didn't move.

"Sycamore. I am giving you a tally. (Tally is a punishment issued by the school where Sycamore and his friends attended. Once received, the student had to stand motionless on a designated spot during recess for 5-, 10-minutes. Sycamore had the record for his five years at the school.) Do you want another?"

"But, my friends asked me to guard this place."

"That's two tallies." The teacher took him by the hand and pulled him into the classroom.

For such a trivial matter it may seem ridiculous that Sycamore would have a tear in his eye when he came back to the classroom. However, nothing hurt him more, not one, two or even ten tallies, than to let his friends down.

On this day, his friends got a taste of just how dependable this big brute of a classmate could be.

Sycamore thought all his friends could be depended on as much as he was willing to allow himself to be relied on. He was unwaveringly faithful. Worst of all, however, Sycamore didn't know that he was wrong about his friends.