Chapter 3, Epilogue
Rosie POV
The following day, I took the picture off of my bedside table, and hid it at the bottom of my sock drawer, never to see it again. As I returned to preschool and the weeks carried on, I was sad for a short time, and whenever one of my friends would ask me what was bothering me, I'd simply tell them it was boys. As preschool graduation grew closer, I started to grow excited about that, more or less, putting him, completely out of my mind.
Sadly, I never heard from, him, at all that summer, which told me that regardless if he was still going through his, I don't wanna play with girls stage, or if he did, start playing with people like Lil and Kimi again, he didn't care to talk to girls across the country from him, only girls across the street. I went on to summer camp, took swimming lessons, and got prepared for kindergarten, which I was really excited about, especially when I found out that Hazel and I would be in the same class together.
Finally, our first day of kindergarten began, and we had a lovely teacher named Miss Doozy. We also had an aray of new students who didn't go to preschool with us. Aaron and Z were in our class, and they were still arm and arm with one another, as if they were somehow joined together over the summer, never to split up, but during circle time that morning, another boy caught my eye. He had dark brown hair and he wore a bright green short sleeve t-shirt and a pair of long purple overall pants. Then, it hit me. Did I want to get close to this boy? I decided to play the hard to get approach, and pretend to hate boys, just to see if he fell for it.
"Uh, hi." Said the dark haired boy who sat across from me in the circle.
"I'm not talking to you, cuz you're a boy. Boys are gross!" I said, sticking my tongue out at him.
"Rosie! What's gotten into you?" Hazel asked me, as I turned to my buttery blond haired friend, who was wearing a shocked expression on her face.
"I don't play with boys, that's what." I said, sticking out my tongue.
"Oh, I see. And why not?" Hazel asked.
"Cuz if we play with boys we'll get coodies and we'll never get out of kindergarten." I replied.
"I guess that makes me have coodies, cuz I personally like playing with girls." Said the dark haired boy who sat across from me.
I put my tongue away and just stared at him.
"Now that a girl. Let's put are tongues away and put on our happy faces." Said Miss Doozy, as she sat down in her rocking chair and saw to beginning class.
"Now, since it is our first day of school, I thought we could go around the circle and introduce ourselves. I'd like you all to say your name, how old you are, and something you like to do. We'll start with the girl immediately to my left with the beautiful buttery blond hair." Said Mixx Doozy, who pointed to Hazel.
"Hi, my name's Hazel. I'm five-years-old and, I like to eat worms." Said Hazel.
"Eeewww!" Said several of the kids in the circle.
While she was my best friend since we were babies, I'm sorry, but I had to give her a dirty look. We were five-years-old now, it was about time she see to growing out of such gross and disgusting habits. Hmmm, made me wonder if Phil, somebody who I recalled Hazel liking when we were all in Washington D.C. a while back, if he too, still ate worms, seeing that I believe he too would be starting kindergarten right about now.
"Hey! It's your turn!" Hissed Hazel in my ear, tapping on my shoulder to get my attention.
"Oh, sorry. Uh, everybody, my name is Rosie and I'm five-years-old. And, I like to watch the Dummi Bears." I said.
"Does anybody else here like the Dummi Bears?" Asked Miss Doozy.
Several of the kids in the circle nodded, including the dark haired boy sitting across from me. Everybody went around the circle and introduced themselves, then, it got to his turn. I could tell he seemed a little bit shy, but once he stared over at me, he seemed to relax a bit.
"Hi, uh, my name's Bassum, and I'm five-years-old. I like to play on the slide at the park." He said.
"Bassum, what a nice name." I thought to myself.
"Well Bassum, you're in luck, we have a slide right here on our playground, which you can play on at recess every day." Said Miss Doozy.
Bassum looked up at our teacher and smiled.
It took a little bit to break the ice, but we continued to stare at one another throughout that first week of school. I couldn't help but notice that Bassum always seemed to have a smile when he stared at me. Did he like me or something? I finally had a chance to get to really know him during art class later on in the week. I had finished my painting, when I looked over to see that poor Bassum was struggling just a little bit.
"Something wrong Bassum?" I asked, noticing the look of frustration on his face.
"I just can't get this picture to look the way I want it to." Bassum snapped in frustration.
"Here, let me help you." I said, as I picked up the paint brush and put some yellow paint on the brush.
"I take it you're trying to make the sun? To go with this picture of a tree?" I asked.
"Uh huh." Bassum replied.
"Here, just, do a simple yellow circle, and color it in, like this." I said, as I took the paint brush and made the sun at the top of his picture.
When I was finished, I turned to look at Bassum, who was smiling.
"Thanks Rosie." He said.
"You're welcome." I said.
As we got to know one another, we shared our lunches when we brought them from home, and then, one Friday afternoon after we had been in school for two weeks, I got up the courage to ask him a very big question.
"Hey, I was wondering, would you like to come play at my house after school?" I asked.
"Really? But I thought you didn't play with boys." Said Bassum.
"I use to not play with them, but, you and I have gotten to know one another quite well, and, I wanna get to know you better." I said.
"Sure! I'd love to come play with you. Gosh, nobody has ever asked me to play at their house before, this is gonna be so much fun!" Said Bassum excitedly, as we ran off to our cubbies to get our things.
Wow, nobody had ever had him over for a playdate? I wonder why. I could tell based on how much further behind he was in some simple things like letter recognition and knowing his numbers and colors, that this had to be his first time at school, so maybe he never went to preschool. Maybe I was his real first friend. However, I didn't want to bring up that subject, in case it was too embarrassing to talk about. He came home with me after school, and we had milk and cookies for a snack.
"Your mommy makes delicious chocolate-chip cookies, they're my favorite!" Said Bassum.
"Thank you." I replied, as we got up from the table and ran up to my room.
That's when I opened the closet door, looking for a game to play with. Bassum was standing to my right, also looking into the closet.
"What's that?" Bassum asked, as I saw him pointing at something.
Then, I saw the direction in which he was pointing in. He was pointing up to the top shelf of my closet, where my Dummi Bears throw blanket sat.
"Oh, it's just, a blanket from an old friend of mine. He gave it to me for my birthday a couple of years ago." I explained.
"Really? Who's the lucky boy?" Bassum asked.
I just stared at him for a minute. Was I ready to tell anybody other than my close girlfriends about Tommy? Well, Bassum seemed curious to know, so I took a deep breath and began.
"Tommy." I replied.
"Cool! Does this, Tommy, live around here? Maybe we can play together." Said Bassum with eager excitement in his voice.
I just stared at him and frowned.
"Nope, sorry. Besides, me and Tommy aren't friends no more." I said.
"Really? How come?" Bassum asked.
"Because Tommy doesn't like to play with girls no more. Rumor has it, if you play with girls, you don't finish preschool, or at least that's what we all thought back then." I said.
"Wow, you got to go to preschool? You're so lucky! I couldn't go to preschool, mommy and daddy didn't have enough money to send me there." Said Bassum.
"Oh, I'm very sorry." I said.
"That's ok. So, what does this Tommy person look like? Does he live around here? I'm a boy, surely he'd play with me." Said Bassum.
I knew it was going to be a long afternoon, but it looked like Bassum wasn't going to give up all that easily, so I reached down into the bottom of my sock drawer and pulled out the picture of us sleeping together.
"That's Tommy." I said, pointing to the boy with the dark purple hair on his head who was asleep in my lap.
"Wow, he sure does look friendly." Said Bassum.
"He is." I said.
As we went on playing all that afternoon, I kept having flashbacks to all of the times me and Tommy spent time together. When we first met that day I saw him in the gap of the fence that went into my grandmother's backyard. Then later, when I saw his picture on the wall at some coffee shop, and Chuckie and Kimi told me his name. Then that day when he had thrown up all over his wagon that looked like Reptar, and I had to get our mommy's attention to go clean up the mess. And then that day when we played together and we discovered that we had so much in common. I also recalled how he saved me when two bigger kids got me stuck in a tree at the park. All of our conversations on Facetime, like the time last year when I told him about my big trip to New York City, to cheer him up when he was having the most horrible day known to man, only to learn that while I was in New York City, he was doing what I had to consider to be one of the most heroic things for a one-year-old baby to do at the time, freeing some tigers in Slots Vegas. I recalled how we participated on Baby Races together, and afterwards, we told one another about our first slumber parties, even though technically, Tommy's was a sleepover, not a slumber party like his mommy made it out to be. And then when we took that trip to Washington D.C. when Tommy turned three-years-old and we were all about to start preschool. I was so worried about him when he had gone missing, and thanks to me, we rescued him and got him reunited with all of us. I recall how we napped together on the train home as he had to fly home out of Boston because his family missed their flight out of Washington, but poor Tommy was having a hard time dealing with strangers, after nearly getting killed by the guys who kidnapped him. I helped him to realize that he should never give up, making him feel like his old self by the end of that trip.
While the memories continued to flood my mind, it then hit me. Maybe Tommy wasn't meant to be my friend forever, but Bassum seemed ok, and unlike Tommy, we could play together in person everyday, both at school and at home. Then, Bassum told me something that was really special, and made me feel like a winner.
"Hey Rosie?" Bassum asked me.
"What?" I asked.
"Are we friends?" Bassum asked.
I stood there for a minute and thought about it. I did have a lot of fun with him that afternoon. We played Chinese Checkers, played on my scooter outside, and ate milk and cookies, surely, this had to be the start of a beautiful friendship.
"Yes, I'll be your friend." I said with a smile.
"Let's pinky promise to be friends forever." Said Bassum, as he hooked his right pinky around my left one.
"Uh, ok." I said, as I relaxed and wrapped my pinky around his.
"Do you Rosie Hall, pinky promise to be friends forever?" Bassum asked me.
I smiled longingly into his eyes.
"Yes, I pinky promise, to be friends forever." I said, as we shook on it.
Before he left for home, we gave one another a hug, and as I waved goodbye, watching him ride away in his mommy and daddy's car, a feeling of happiness fell over me that hadn't been there in quite a while. Maybe Tommy was gone, but this Bassum guy was ok, and it looked like we were beginning the start of a beautiful friendship, that would hopefully, last forever. And there was another thing that I realized too. I'd always have the memories of me and Tommy's time together, and just as I found a new little boy to play with, should Tommy get over his girl hatred stage, hopefully, he'd find a new little girl to make him happy too. And if he became like Aaron and Z, who were definitely the kind of boys who didn't play with girls, as I never saw them playing with the girls, even when we were in kindergarten, as long as Tommy was happy, that's all that mattered to me.
That night, I put the photo of me and Tommy back on my nightstand, and asked my mommy a question.
"Mommy?" I said.
"Yes?" Mommy asked.
"Could you please get down my Dummi Bears blanket from the top shelf of the closet? I'd like to sleep with it tonight." I said.
"But I thought you didn't like sleeping with this blanket anymore." Said my mommy.
"I didn't, but I've changed my mind." I said.
"Ok sweetie, here you go." Said my mommy, as she got the blanket down and handed it to me.
I unfolded it, wrapped up in the blanket, and went to sleep with a smile on my face and a song in my heart.
"Goodnight Rosie." Said my mommy, as she blew me a kiss from the door and turned out the lights.
"Night night mommy." I said, as I curled up with the blanket, turned to the pictures on my nightstand, as next to the one of me and Tommy, were the recent class photos taken of us, there was one of me and one of Bassum.
"Night night Tommy and Bassum." I said to the photos, as I blew them a kiss, turned over, and went to sleep, where I had sweet dreams.
End of Rosie POV
End of Epilogue
