He Doesn't Run

Pre-school wasn’t fun. Even though it was Craft Day, and yesterday was Cookie Day, and the day before that Miss Lyn-Z let them watch a movie (The Land Before Time, everyone’s favorite) nobody liked school. Maybe all the kids were a new breed of human, with special capabilities to not conform to society, or maybe it was just that none of them liked getting up early when they wanted to sleep, and then have a nap when they wanted to play. But, for whatever reason, no one liked school (even though Miss Lyn-Z was really fun, and had drawings on her arms, in NON WASHABLE INK!).

But that all changed when recess time rolled around. Yes, everyday when Miss Lyn-Z clapped her hands twice, and told everyone to put on their outside shoes (and jackets if it was cold) any hatred for school washed away, geting replaced by excitement and energy.

There were three main games to play during recess. There was Castle, lead by Gabe who always made William his Princess (even though Willam always told him, “A Princess is a girl, Gabe!”), then there was that sub-group of games, such as Hide-and-Seek, or Explorers, or the last option: Field Games.

Field Games changed depending on the day, weather, and what the older kids were using in Gym. Most days, it was baseball. Most kids loved Baseball, including Frank. Frank was a sorta-new kid. He moved two months into school, so he came into the class a little bit late, but after a few days Pete decided that he was pretty cool and asked,

“Do you like puppies?”

And Frank was all like, “Yeah, duh.”

And Pete was like, “Patrick! He likes puppies!” And thus was the start of a beautiful friendship (but everyone knew that Patrick would always come first, even though he normally played Explorer with Ryan instead of baseball with Pete). What helped a lot in the building in the friendship (“Best friendship!” Pete would always insist) was that Frank loved to play Field Games with Pete.

So that’s why today, on Craft Day, after Miss Lyn-Z clapped her hands twice and chimed,“Okay, guys! Put your glue and sparkles down, get your outside shoes on! It’s time for recess!”

And Pete had a wrestling match with his sneaker (he stopped wearing velcro shoes, even though he didn’t know how to tie laces) him and Frank ran to the field, while Gabe, William, Travis, Sisky and Ryland went to the Jungle Gym to play Castle, and Patrick, Ryan, Spencer and some other kids went to play Explorer or Hide-And-Seek. What was left was Frank, Pete, Brendon (who was normally conflicted, because on one hand: Baseball, on the other hand: Ryan), Jon, Andy, Joe and the Way Brothers.

And oh, The Way Brothers. They were normally quiet kids, choosing to stay by themselves rather than join the others. They’re names were Mikey and Gerard. Gerard was a little bit older, and Mikey was a little bit younger, and there were rumors around the sandbox that Gerard was kept back a year and Mikey was moved forward. However, Pete always insisted, “Guys! They’re aliens! Have you seen Gee-rard? He pulls his sandwich apart, then eats it!”

To which, Patrick would reply, wide eyes, and confused, “But I pull my sandwich apart too. Am I an alien?”

“No, ‘Trick. You’re Trick.”

But for some reason as soon as games were concerned, Pete looked past the possible alienism and decided that, yeah okay, that was fine for now. Probably because they were awesome at baseball. Frank and Pete were the team captains, and each choose their team (Frank’s was Brendon, Jon, and Joe. Pete’s team was Andy, Mikey and Gerard.) After an intense two minute battle of Rock, Paper, Scissors, Pete’s team was the first to bat. Frank pouted, as held the baseball, ready to pitch it as hard as his little arms could when the other team was ready. Gerard came up to home plate -it was actually a piece of cardboard that someone nailed into the dry, almost cement-like dirt, but they weren’t picky- and he very cautiously picked up the bat, as if it would hit him if he wasn’t careful.Then, to Frank’s surprise, Mikey came up and stood beside him. Frank tilted his head, and his eyebrows came together.

“You can’t do that.” He says, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world, which it totally is.

“Yeah they can!” Pete shoots back. “That’s the deal. They go together, and we trade places early.”

“When did we agree that?” Frank asks, and he’s really confused because he doesn’t ever remembering agree to that.

“Like in the beginning of school.”

And Frank just says, “Oh.” because he wasn’t here at the beginning of school and he doesn’t really like talking about it, so he just huffs and says, “Whatever.” and asks,

“But why do they go together?”

“Because Gee-rard doesn’t run.” And Frank is really confused, and he looks at Gerard to explain because he’s the one they’re talking about, but Gerard is just looking at a beetle that’s walking across his foot, and at first Frank was going to ask but then realizes that recess is getting closer and closer to ending, so he acts like he understands and nods.

“Ready?” He asks, and Gerard and Mikey look up and nod. Gerard brings the bat up, and Mikey takes a few steps to the side, so that he doesn’t get hit, and Frank throws the ball (which isn’t actually a real baseball, it’s made of plastic so that no one gets hurt) and it’s a really good throw. It’s straight, and pretty fast and for a second Frank’s really excited, but then Gerard swings the bat, and Mikey dashes off, and Frank’s just left staring at Gerard, who’s now standing at the home plate awkwardly, while Brendon, Jon, and Joe are running around looking for the ball that already hit the field. Gerard takes a few steps back, and Mikey runs past home, then slows to a walk, then stops, and Pete’s cheering and laughing. Frank is still staring at Gerard, wondering if the skinny, pale boy is really an alien because there’s no way that he can hit a ball so well, because he has trouble killing bugs sometimes. After he switches places with Brendon, and stays standing at second base, contemplating the chances of Gerard being an alien versus the chances of him being a super hero. Then they hear a whistle and Miss Lyn-Z’s voice yelling,

“Okay, kids! Back inside! We got cupcakes!” And suddenly Frank doesn’t care that much.

--x--x--

The next day (which is Show-and-Tell Day) after naptime, Frank asks Pete,

“Why doesn’t Gee-rard run?”

And at first Pete’s like, “Huh?” because he just woke up from his nap, he still has the blankey wrapped around him. He rubbed his eyes with his tiny fists then says,

“I don’t know. He jus’ doesn’t.” As if it explains everything, which in Pete’s mind it does. Frank was going to keep asking, but then Miss Lyn-Z came over, and told them that it was time to start learning a new thing (Math, it was called, Frank didn’t like it. It made his brain hurt, and confused him) and she slowly unwrapped the blanket from Pete’s shoulders, then walked off to set up the number board.

During recess that day, Gerard and Mikey didn’t play Field Games, instead Mikey played Castle with Gabe and William and Gerard played Explorers with Ryan. According to Ryan, during snack time, Gerard helped him explore Alaska.

“There was snow, and penguins, and polar bears, and Santa!” He said, then sucked on his juice box. Frank wished he could reply with something witty and funny (like, “No way there was Santa!”) but he felt a little jealous, and kind of confused. How come Gerard couldn’t run, but he could explore Alaska? Was there something wrong with his legs? Frank just didn’t get it. He looked over at Gerard, who was sitting with Mikey and William and eating fishy crackers. He looked sorta happy. He didn’t look upset, but not smiling, like William.

Just then, Gabe threw part of his cheese string snack at Pete, who threw some of his food back, but he forgot it was a yogurt tube, and got it all over Ashlee -who was wearing her pretty new dress, that had a nice blue bow and everything- so she started throwing a hissy fit, not before she chucked an apple slice over in Pete’s general direction. It hit Brendon. Soon everyone was throwing food, and Miss Lyn-Z was screaming to stop it, but no one would listen. In between picking up fallen food and chucking it, Frank looked over and saw Gerard and Mikey crouching under a table, still eating fishy crackers and watching the battle go on. Then, Gerard picked up a fruit roll-up which had fell under the table, and threw it all the way across the room. It arched high up, until it landed with a plop right on top of Ryan’s head.

It was that moment when Frankie decided that he wanted to be Gerard’s best friend.

--x--x--

“Hey, Gee-rard.” Frank grinned, showing off the gap in his mouth from where he lost a tooth that weekend. Gerard looked up from his drawing, a zombie it appeared to be, a bit shocked that someone was talking to him.

“Hi.” He squeaked, then ducked back down, coloring the zombie’s shirt with a dark green crayon. Frank frowned at Gerard’s lack of interest, and because he didn’t really know what to say now.

“Are you an alien?” He asked, actually genuinely concerned now. He didn’t want to become his best friend, only to one day wake up, and instead of his favorite stuffed dog and a warm bed to find himself on a metal table with tubes and machines and a third arm or something.

Gerard looked up, wide eyed. He shook his head, dark locks going in front of his eyes, but he made no move to push they away.

“No,” He said, then looked deep in thought. "At least I don’t think so.” His face now looked slightly worried, because what if he was an alien? His mom and dad did always speak in a strange language at home with words like political and vaccine and sometimes they pushed their mouths together, completely ignoring the fact that they did not have cooties shots, and if that didn’t sound like aliens that Gerard didn’t know what did.

Frank suddenly looked very excited though.

“If I make sure you're not an alien can I be your friend?” He asked, with hopeful eyes.

“Okay.” Frank clapped his hands together, then poked Gerard’s nose. He leaned back, trying to avoid Frank’s finger, but then accepted his fate of being poked, and settled with a confused, slightly aggravated, look.

“There! An alien would have eated me, or something! You’re not an alien! Now we can be the bestest friends ever!” He gave Gerard a little hug from the side. Not knowing what to do, Gerard just kept still, until Frank let go, and pulled a chair up next to him, and said,

“Can you finish drawing the zombie? Can you add a hat to it?” By the end of Free-Time, the zombie had a hat, a house, a sun with sunglasses, and a rainbow, all on request of Frank.

--x--x--

Field Games switched from baseball to kickball, because the big kids were learning something called soft-ball in gym class.

“It’s like Baseball, except they play with Jell-o and pillows and feathers.” Ryan told everyone who asked, because he knew everything.

Frank begged, pretty please, with sprinkles and a cherry on top that Gerard play at least one, just one, itty bitty game of kickball. After being kept awake for all of Nap-Time, making him very cranky, he agreed, but only one game. No more, and Mikey had to run. Frank decided to ask the very important question of why Gee (that was his new nickname) didn’t run on another day, when Gerard wasn’t drawing pictures of a stick figure, with an arrow pointing to it that said Frank, in various scenes where it appeared to be dead or eaten by wild animals. So when it was recess, after Gerard helped Frank tie his shoes, they made it to the field. Teams were picked, Mikey and Gerard on the same one, of course, and positions were picked. Miss Lyn-Z was watching them though, because the last time they played kickball William ended up with a nosebleed, and Gabe ended up with teeth marks on his hand (not from the ball, but because he kept trying to see if Will was okay, which he didn’t really like in his pained state). So up went Pete, Brendon, and Ryan -who, much like Gerard, got dragged into the game, as per Brendon’s request- until finally Gerard came up. Frank started bouncing on the heels of his feet excitedly, as Mikey followed up behind him. Gabe whined and said, “Hurry up!”

And Gerard stuck his tongue out, but put it back before he could get in trouble from Miss Lyn-Z. Gabe brought his arm back, and rolled the Kickball, which mind you was pretty much as big as his head, towards Gerard. Almost all eyes were trained on him, because everyone knew that just because Gerard didn’t run didn’t mean that he couldn’t play. Gerard brought his leg back, and then forward, hitting the rubber ball with enough force making it arche way into the sky, and land in the field way behind Spencer. Mikey ran off, long legs carrying him far with each stride. He passed first base, while everyone was still scurrying to get to the ball, and then second, as Spencer picked it up, and third, and everyone thought he would stay on third because no one, in the history of Pre-school, not even Billie Joe who was now in grade three but still visited Miss Lyn-Z, had ever gotten a homerun. But Mikey ran right over the base, and got to home plate just as Spencer threw it to try and get it there. Everyone, even on the opposing team cheered, for Gerard who kicked the ball super far, and for Mikey who ran faster than the speed of light (Miss Lyn-Z didn’t have the heart to correct them, so she clapped, and said that when they got back inside everyone could have a snicker-doodle, that she was supposed to save for tomorrow). Afterwards Frank abandoned his post at first base, and trailed behind Gerard, who was going to explore India now.

The next day, when Gerard wasn’t cranky, Frank finally asked the question.

“How come you don’t run?” He asked, passing Gerard the blue crayon that he asked for. Gerard looked up and shrugged.

“I dunno. I jus don’t.” He continued drawing a robot with laser eyes and sunglasses.

“That’s what Pete said!” Frank whined. “But how come you don’t? Is there something wrong with your legs?”

“No. I just don’t run. Like how Ashlee doesn’t play in mud.”

“But Ashlee has cooties.”

“So does Jamia and she plays in the mud.”

“Yeah, but-” Frank tried to think of something to say, but he couldn’t.

“Can you pass me the red?” Frank handed over the red crayon.

Maybe he is an alien, Frank thought. He would have to run it by Pete later. An indepth investigation was needed. Over a long period of time. And studies had to be conducted on his living quarters.

“Hey, Gee, can I come over this weekend?”