Carlos looks out his bedroom window at the slowly rising sun. He had gotten up early in preparation for the first day back at school, but he had already dressed, packed his backpack, and combed his hair. Now, he sat in his desk chair that he had pulled over to sit by the window and just watched the sun paint the sky with beautiful hues of red and yellow.
Suddenly, the alarm clock sitting on his bedside table rang out and Carlos jumped up from his chair, quickly turned it off, and all but sprinted to his parents' room.
"Mama!" Carlos called. "Come on, it's the first day back and I don't wanna be late!"
Carlos's mother peeked out from the bathroom connected to the master bedroom and called back, "Alright, Carlos, dear. I'm coming! Why don't you start breakfast?"
Happily, the little boy ran down the hallway to kitchen and opened the fridge, grabbing the bread and milk. He went about putting two slices of bread into the toaster and retrieving the cereal from the cabinet, as well as a bowl and spoon. Pouring the sugary food into the bowl, along with some milk, Carlos practically inhaled it. His mother placed a plate of toast with butter on it in front of him and he thanked her and gobbled that up, too.
After Carlos had brought his dishes to the sink and rinsed them off, he ran to his bedroom and grabbed his backpack, looking through it one last time. He slung it over his shoulder and ran back to the kitchen where he found his mother searching through her purse for her car keys.
"Ready?" Carlos asked excitedly as she pulled her keys out with a smile.
"Yup! Are you? Do you have everything?" When he nodded his head, she mimicked him and ushered him out the door. "Let's go then!"
The school was a little more than five minutes away, but Carlos had wanted to get there early anyways to play on the playground before class.
There were a lot of kids already at the school's playground when Carlos arrived. He kissed his mother goodbye and jumped out of the car.
"Are you going to the park after school?" she called to him before he could run off.
"Yeah, probably," Carlos said as he leaned back into the car. She nodded.
"Okay, make sure that you, Dave, and Rachelle leave together."
"Alright, Mom. I gotta go."
"Okay. Have a good day! I love you!"
"Love you, too. 'Bye!"
And with that, Carlos ran off in the direction of the playground. As he stepped onto the paved sidewalk circling the jungle gym, looking for his friends, Carlos heard the first school bell ring, signaling that the principal had opened the front doors for any students that wanted to come inside for any reason. Not many people ever did; the playground was much more fun before school. But during the year, Carlos had found himself going to talk to teachers about homework or other things.
"Carlos!" Looking around for the source of the call, Carlos saw Rachelle and Dave running towards him. He grinned and gave each a hug after dropping his schoolbag to the ground.
"Come on," Dave told him as they finished greeting each other after a long summer. "Let's go to the field."
Carlos picked up his bag and followed his friends out back to the baseball fields. He felt his foot make a small squishing sound and looked down where he saw that he had stepped into a muddy puddle from yesterday's rainfall, turning his brand new blue sneaker into a muddy canvas. Carlos sighed and kept on walking.
They came to the large fence that separated the sports fields from the playground. Carlos never knew why they had put a giant fence between the school and its fields, but they would need a key to get through the gate, which they didn't have. Luckily, the fence wasn't too high up, so the three friends scaled the chain link and dropped down on the other side. They began walking again.
Once they reached the baseball field, Carlos spotted someone sitting on one of the dugout benches. The boy was looking through his backpack for something. Looking at his friends, Carlos shrugged and stepped towards the other boy.
"Hello!" he greeted and the boy looked up at him. Even though the boy looked shocked at the arrival of others, the was a small smile on his face.
"Hi," he said as Carlos, Rachelle, and Dave walked closer to the bench. When they stopped right in front of it, the boy's eyes grew wide and he jumped up. "I'm sorry—do you want to sit here? I can move," he rambled off as he picked up his backpack.
"No!" Carlos said quickly. "You can stay."
"Yeah," Rachelle added as she took a step forward and put her hand on the boy's hand that was holding his backpack.
As the boy smiled at Rachelle and sat back down, Carlos moved to sit next to him. He smiled as the boy smiled at Rachelle and Carlos knew instantly that they were gonna be friends.
"Walk with me, Cecil," Carlos offered as he and his new friend walked out of the classroom at the end of the day. "Dave, Rachelle, and I were gonna go to the park! Do you wanna come, too?"
Cecil looked at Carlos shyly for a second before nodding his head with a small grin adorning his features.
"Great!" Carlos almost shouted as he grabbed Cecil's arm and pulled him out the front doors. They found Rachelle and Dave sitting on the small wall in front of their school, playing with the bushes on the opposite side.
"Guys! Cecil's gonna come with us to the park," Carlos said with a smile in Cecil's direction, to which Cecil returned, again shyly.
"That's awesome!" Rachelle answered as she pulled Dave up and grabbed her backpack, slinging it over her shoulder.
Together, they all ventured off towards the park. On the way, Carlos was chatting with Cecil about his and his friends' favourite things to do after school, hoping that Cecil would think that some of it was fun and agree to come with them more often.
Once they reached the park, Carlos led the group over to the big oak tree, larger than any of the others, filling a portion of the park with shade. He and Dave flopped down, casting their school supplies off to the side, as Rachelle and Cecil carefully placed their bags onto the ground, leaning against the tree, and sat down as well.
A couple hours passed as the sun continued to drift down in the sky. Eventually, Rachelle and Dave told the others that they had to leave to get home before dark. Since they lived farther away than Carlos did, Carlos elected to stay a little longer with Cecil, as long as Cecil wanted to as well. Cecil nodded.
"Hey, look at this, Ceec," Carlos called as he scrambled over to a worm peeking out of the dirt surrounding the tree. It was a very plump, pink worm, wiggling its way to who-knows-where.
"Cool!" Cecil answered. "Look at this bug!" He pointed to a stick-bug slowly making its way up the side of the tree. For a few more minutes, the pair started searching around the area for other bugs before Cecil stopped in his tracks.
"Oh no," he said.
"What's wrong, Cecil?"
"I left my math homework in my locker."
Carlos tilted his head to the side as he saw Cecil begin to get upset. "Well, let's walk back and grab it before the school closes," he offered.
Cecil looked up quickly. "We can do that?"
Carlos laughed. "Of course! The school is still open for kids that have to wait for their parents to get out of work and pick them up."
Cecil paused for a second before nodding. The duo grabbed their backpacks before trudging back towards the school. Neither said a word on the way there.
As they began walking down the hallway towards their lockers, Carlos looked sideways at his new friend and tried to find a good way to ask him a question.
"Cecil," he began before pausing as they reached their lockers. Cecil opened his a grabbed his notebook before putting it in his backpack and turning to Carlos.
"Yeah?"
Carlos swallowed. "Would you like to walk home with me?"
Cecil nodded. "Sure, yeah. That would be fun. Where do you live?"
Carlos hadn't even thought about how far he and his new friend might live, but he spouted off his address and Cecil gasped lightly.
"I live on the street next to yours!"
"Really?!" Carlos asked excitedly as Cecil nodded. "Great! Let's get to walking then," he suggested with a smile. And that's exactly what they did.
Once the pair reached Carlos's house first, Cecil stopped Carlos before he could go inside.
"Carlos," Cecil said looking down at the ground. "Would you—could we . . . um . . ." Cecil took a deep breath before asking quickly, "Do you wanna walk to school tomorrow morning?"
Carlos smiled grandly. "Of course! But doesn't your mom or dad drive you?"
Cecil shook his head side to side, but offered no explanation, so Carlos left it at that. They bid adieu and Carlos went inside, leaving Cecil to walk down the road to his own home.
The next morning, after Carlos had gotten his mom's approval, he left his house bright and early and began walking down the street in the direction of Cecil's street, hoping that he would meet him along the way since Carlos didn't know Cecil's address.
Luckily, he did see Cecil walking down the pavement.
"Hi!" Carlos greeted as the two came together. "Ready to go?"
Cecil nodded and they turned back around towards the school. On the way there, Carlos again spotted a bright pink worm making it way across the pavement and kneeled down to watch it wiggle its way around. Cecil followed, dropping to his knees. They spotted more worms along the side of the walkway and picked up the transient worm, placing him back with his friends before getting up and trying to wipe the dirt off of their uniforms.
"Hmm," Carlos mused at the dark patches in their knees. "We might need some water to wash this out. Let's get to the bathroom at school."
And the two headed off again. Once they reached the school, they ran into Dave and Rachelle and dragged them off to the bathrooms, telling them about the colony of worms that they had met earlier that morning. Dave and Rachelle bid them goodbye as they left to grab their other books for class, leaving Carlos to wash off his knees in the sink. Cecil did the same and the pair left the restroom to get to class as the bell rang, signaling the beginning of the school day.
The day went on with the usual classes. Carlos and Cecil's day began with arithmetic, then onto English class, learning to spell new words, introducing the topic of nouns, and choosing a book to read for the semester. The class ended with the daily show and tell before the kids left for lunch and then recess on the playground. Carlos and Cecil stuck together the entire day.
After playing catch on the playground for the few minutes they had for recess, the pair made their way back into the halls, walking back to their classroom. The teacher gathered them around the back wall, saying that they were going to mark their heights against the wall to compare them now to them at the end of the year.
All throughout the day, Carlos and Cecil kept to themselves, talking about each other, talking about classes and teachers and friends and those not-so-much. The day went by quickly until they made their way to the last class of the day: music class.
Music class, Carlos found out, was easily Cecil's favourite. He was even planning on joining the school chorus when he was older. Carlos, on the other hand, was not such a great singer.
"Teacher thinks that I sound funny," Carlos pouted as the pair left the class and made their ways to the front exit. "But she likes the way you sing!" he told Cecil and watched the smile spread across his face, making Carlos smile himself.
That night, while Carlos was in bed, he kept replaying the day through his head. From the beginning of the morning, walking down the pavement with Cecil and playing with the bugs on the sides, to the alphabet they recited at the start of English class when Cecil had confided in him that he loved to sing.
Carlos rolled over and looked out the window at the stars littering the sky far above and thought about his new friend.
"When I wake tomorrow I'll bet," Carlos whispered to himself as he yawned, ready for a good night's sleep before school again tomorrow. "That you and I will walk together again."
Yes, I can tell that we are gonna be friends, he thought right before drifting off into a blissful sleep, thinking about his best friend.