Time passed by quickly thanks to all the sports and all the games the boys played. They were a mischievous bunch, and John was normally the leader of the mayhem. He once convinced his brothers it would be fun to write curse words with gasoline on the driveway and light it up. After three successful attempts and having not been caught, they decided to take their game into the street, where their mother finally caught them and grounded them all for two days. Once that punishment was over, they were back to mischief and sports. Everyday Aubrey would watch and everyday all but John would ignore her. The two were close, and Aubrey considered him her best friend, even though he was ten and she was only seven.
As the children grew, they all became more tolerant of the girls, especially the older boys. Soon Aubrey was finally allowed to play football with the boys, and she proved she was a better short stop than her brother during baseball time. She even went head to head with John in soccer, and was the only one to ever steal the ball away from him. She was twelve by this time and he was fifteen. They were still as close as ever, so it killed her when John decided to apply to boarding school.
One summer afternoon between his sophomore and junior year of high school, sixteen-year-old John sat on his back porch with twelve-year-old Aubrey. In his left hand was the application he'd sent away for and in his right was a pen that would soon make or break his future. Aubrey was watching him fill in all the lines in complete dismay. Her now perfected pout was planted firmly on her face as she sat next to John, contemplating what life would be like without him.
"John, if you get into this school you won't even be here for my birthday. I'm going to be a teenager this year and you won't be with me! I won't have a best friend anymore! And who's going to show me around the high school and watch out for me in the halls between classes?" She was near hysterical.
"Aubrey calm down. I'm just filling out the application, we don't even know if I'll get into the school yet," John put his social security number down on the paper and moved on to the next question, "Besides, I'll still be around. And you can always call me."
Aubrey sighed, "It's not the same John. If you leave I'm not going to have anyone. None of the girls around here like me, and let's face it. The guys aren't too crazy about me either."
John rolled his eyes, "What are you talking about? They finally let you play with us and you still think they don't like you?"
"Um, John? Two of those boys are my brothers. I have a pretty good idea of what they think of me around here. I'm the annoying little sister who squirmed her way into the sports because John Cena has a soft spot for charity cases," she finger quoted the last part, mocking her older brothers.
John's head snapped up and he stared at her in disbelief, "I do NOT think you're a fucking charity case!"
"Well you may not think that but the rest of them do. C'mon, even you know your brothers aren't too fond of me. They never were. They used to watch us from the windows and try to think of ways to get me away from the house."
"Aubrey...just trust me, ok? Everything will work out. You'll never lose me."
But she did lose him. John got accepted into the boarding school and he moved out in the beginning of September, right before Aubrey's thirteenth birthday. She cried her eyes out for days, and when she returned to school everyone looked at her differently. Aubrey no longer had the comfort of having her best friend looking out for her and waiting for her after classes. She suddenly felt completely alone and lost, especially since she was now in high school. Some of the neighborhood boys would talk to her from time to time, but most of the girls hated her. She was friends with the guys they wanted to date, so they saw her as a threat.