Chapter three! Thanks for reading everyone! This chapter is written by The Starkiller, Send her some PMs!

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- The Paperback Writers

7/5/1945

Soon, all of my injuries healed, and my new friend came back around to play with me. My mother worried about me not having girl friends; Mum thought that I should have friends like Anna's friends. Dad told her not to worry and said that a boy friend is better than no friend. Mum settled down, but asked Winnie and I not to climb trees anymore. We laughed and agreed not to.

Usually, we would play in my backyard, but one day the two of us went to Winnie's house to play, and I met his mother, who was unlike any mother I had ever met. First of all, she was a lot younger than my mum. Second, I found out that she was just a really big version of a kid. When I called her Mrs. Lennon, she laughed and insisted that I called her Julia. Julia was even the one that started calling John Winnie, he told me. Sometimes Julia even played with us outside.

When we came inside for lunch, there was a knock at the door.

"I'll get that," Julia told us, getting up from the table to answer the door. There was still a smile on her face. Behind the door was a woman who was older than Julia was, but she sort of looked like her. The two women talked, and Julia's smile faded as the other woman showed her some papers. She let the woman inside.

"Hello, John," the woman said to Winnie. I didn't really like her calling Winnie by his real name; for some reason it just didn't seem right.

He put on a smile and replied, "Hi, Aunt Mimi." Then he motioned to me. "This is my friend, Maddie." She waved to me and smiled.

"John, can you come here for a minute?" Aunt Mimi asked him. Winnie nodded and joined his mother and her sister. They spoke very quietly, but I could still hear what they were saying from my chair at the table.

"Winnie, you're going to go live with your aunt for a while," Julia told her son calmly.

"I don't want to," Winnie instantly replied.

"I'm afraid that you don't have much of a choice in the matter, John," Aunt Mimi told him gently. For whatever reason, I was growing to like this Aunt Mimi character less and less with every word she spoke.

"Why?" he asked the women, looking from one to the other, then to me, then back to his mother.

"Some men don't think you're being taken care of here," Julia said, her voice still calm though it was hinted with sadness now. Her face looked quite upset as well.

"Well, they're wrong," Winnie said matter-of-factly.

"Maybe, but you still have to. If you don't we'll all get in a whole lot of trouble," Julia told him.

"No!" Winnie insisted. "I don't want to go! I want to stay here with Mum!"

Julia turned around and looked at me helplessly, "Maddie, I think you should go home. We'll see you another day." I nodded.

"Ok," I replied, then said to Winnie, "I'll see you tomorrow, right, Winnie?" He didn't acknowledge me, so I got my things together and went home.

The next day, I went back to Julia's house and asked to see Winnie. Her face turned sad, and she told me that he was at his aunt's house. She gave me his aunt's address, then shut the door. There was definitely something out-of-place. When she was talking about Winnie, she had called him John.

Now at Mimi's house, I knocked on the door and again asked to see Winnie.

Mimi let me in, and called up the stairs, "John, your little friend is here to see you!"

"I don't wanna talk to her!" he yelled back. His aunt smiled awkwardly at me, and told me to go up the stairs, and his room would be the one on the left. I did as I was told, and as I was halfway up the stairs I could hear Mimi grumbling about 'that ridiculous nickname Julia gave him'. Winnie was sitting dejectedly on his bed. There were lots of boxes around, all of them were packed up and labeled things like "clothes" or "books" or "toys".

I grinned at him, "Hi Winnie!"

Winnie scowled at me and said, "Don't call me that." I sat on his bed next to him.

"Ok then," I said. "What should I call you?"

"John," he said. John wasn't looking at me, and I felt out-of-place. There were drawings scattered all over the place.

"John, these are really cool drawings," I told him, trying to make conversation.

"You're really good." He said nothing, and I said nothing. We said nothing for a long time until John broke the silence.

"Could you please leave?" But it didn't sound like a question as much as it sounded like an order.

"If that's what you want," I replied, and left. I felt hurt about the way John was treating me. It was cold- it reminded me of the impression I had gotten of his aunt the day before. It was as if John and Winnie were two separate people. At home, I cried a little before coming to the conclusion that John didn't like me and didn't want to be my friend anymore. I fell asleep and didn't wake up until the next morning.

Mum was shaking me awake, "Maddie, Winnie's at the door, he's asking for you."

I got up and told her bitterly, "He said that he's John now." Mum shrugged and left the room so I could get dressed. Once I was properly dressed, I went to the door. John waved happily to me.

"Hello, John," I said dully. "What do you want?" John took a sudden interest in his untied shoes.

"Look, I'm sorry about how I treated you yesterday, Maddie," he apologized quietly. "It was very mean, but I was still upset about having to move from my mum's house."

"It was mean," I agreed. "I thought you didn't want to be my friend anymore."

"I said I was sorry!" John exclaimed. "Can we go play now?"

"Yeah," I replied, relieved. "Let's go." Then we went and played, everything as it was before.