Chapter 1: A Morning of Board Games
On a cool and dreary Saturday morning in May 2017, my childhood friends Sarah, James, and Henri met me at my mom's apartment in Highland Park. "Hi, guys!" I greeted my friends. "Hi, Angel!" Sarah greeted back. "What games did you bring?" I asked. "I brought Star Wars Trivia Pursuit," James stated. "I brought Scrabble," Sarah stated. "Oh boy!" I exclaimed. "Would you guys like to have breakfast with me first?" "Sure," Henri replied. "I made us some omelets." We went into the kitchen to eat breakfast. "Mmm, these Western omelets are good!" James exclaimed. "Hi, guys!" my mom, Nadine greeted us. "Hi, Mom!" I exclaimed. "My friends are over to play some board games with me." "That's nice," Mom remarked. "Would you guys like something to eat or drink? I have chips, carrots, cookies, beer, water, etc..." "Sure, Mrs. Smith," Henri replied. "We're still hungry." Mom got out snacks for us to eat, while we were setting up our board games. Before Mom left for her Saturday morning meeting, she wanted to take a picture of me with Sarah, James, and Henri. "We actually have Scrabble here that we can play, Sarah," my mom told Sarah. "Anyway, you guys have fun! I will see you later, Angel." Mom left and Sarah and I began to play Scrabble, while James and Henri played Trivial Pursuit. "So, how was your trip to New England, Sarah?" I asked. "It was lots of fun, Angel," Sarah replied. "Thank you for asking!" We even looked at some pictures from their trip. "It was cold for a couple of days, so we needed to get out our sweatshirts." "I'm glad finals are done," I stated. "How did you do?" Sarah asked me. "I did well on some, some I did not do so well on," I replied. I thought of a word to make from Sarah's word "tardy". I ended up making the word "date". "I didn't know you already had Scrabble, Angel," Sarah told me. "Well, I do, Sarah," I replied. "I remember the day we first met and became friends, like it was only yesterday." "Uh-huh," Sarah replied. "At my mom and James's dad's wedding." "That was at Natrona Heights Presbyterian Church, where your banquet was also held," I told Sarah. I looked at my letters to see what words I could make. "I am having bad luck today," I told my friend. "Why don't you go get some snacks while you think about it?" Sarah asked. I got some carrot sticks, potato chips, tortilla chips, Girl Scout cookies, and brownie bites. Sarah got some carrot sticks and tortilla chips. "This is nothing like the food that James and I ate at our banquet- spaghetti and salad," Sarah stated. "I remember I didn't even like salad much," I told Sarah, "even though I love spaghetti." "I'm glad there is no wedding or banquet today," Sarah told me. "I don't like the pressure of getting dressed up and meeting new people so much." "I thought you did, Sarah," I remarked. "Well, since we are so exhausted from our trip, I thought we could just relax, play board games, and eat snacks," Sarah told me. "Boy, I am having a hard time making words today," I stated as I noticed I had only consonants. "Sarah, could you please help me?" Sarah helped me make 2-letter words, as she was very good at Scrabble. As a matter of fact, she was already winning! "At least it's just the two of us playing today," I continued. "It's not like we have Carly or Alex to play with us." We eventually used up all of our letters, and Sarah ended up winning. "Congratulations, Sarah!" I congratulated my friend. "Good game!" We gave each other a high five. Everybody was getting ready to clean up their games when my behavior specialist showed up. "Thanks for a great game morning, guys!" I thanked my friends. "You're welcome," Sarah replied. "Bye, guys!" "Bye!"