Chris grew up believing he was wrong. He never had anyone to tell him he had a good heart. That he was smart. As I think back, the only flaw that Chris had was that he believed in what people thought of him. Vern, he never wanted to take a chance, and without us, he probably would have never really 'lived' as we liked to call it. That summer, he got a chance to explore himself, and although he hadn't quite come out of his shell, he was just about to. Teddy continued to be crazy, his thoughts controlling him more than ever. He always kept us entertained, and we never stopped caring about him, as much as we didn't understand exactly what he was going through.
But there was a new addition to the group the next summer. Something none of us expected. A girl. We had actually let a girl into our gang. Our group. Her name was Alexia, and she ... she was different. Now that I look back, she had a little of all of us in her. She had Teddy in her, by the way of her family. Her mother was gone and her dad raised her. She grew up a tomboy, told to be tough, and when she wasn't, her dad had a system to toughen her up. She'd show up at school, in the warm weather with long sleeves to hide bruises. She never complained or came crying to any of us, even though we could see it hurt her deeply.
She had a lot of Vern in her as well. She was scared of the world around her, but never scared to take a chance. She explained it as "I could die in the next hour, but I'd rather die doing something amazing and worth dying for than die walking down the street, kicking rocks while dragging my feet." The moment she said that, none of us knew what to say. I'm sure none of us fully understood it that day, but we all lived by it the rest of our lives.
As for being a part of Chris, she wanted something out of life. She was sick of being her because she never understood why she was put on this planet if she wasn't worth anything. We all tried to tell her she was worth something to us, but words meant nothing. She needed actions. We all gave her our best.
And like me, she had a talent. She had something, and all of us could see it, but figuring out what it was seemed impossible. She enchanted all of us. We all found ourselves caring for her, wanting to constantly protect her from everything even though we knew it was impossible...She became a part of us. A huge part that none of us will ever forget.
That summer, we learned even more than we thought we could, and we didn't even know it.
