STOIC

FOUR

EMMERSON

Emmerson 8

Stoic 14

THE DRESS THING WASN'T that bad, but I wore it with pants. It was like having a very long shirt, and I liked it. I could still run and jump in it. The other three birthdays after that one, he got me dresses too. I guessed that from now on, he would be giving me dresses.

I remembered that during the summer, Stoic gave me a metal hoop as big as my head. He said that from that moment on, he would get me a hoop every summer, but that each one would be smaller than the last.

He was so stupid. Why would I want a collection of ugly hoops of different sizes? He was an idiot.

So far, I had four of them. They fit, one inside of the other perfectly. Some were thicker, some were thinner. Who knew why, though?

The wooden gifts for the harvest festival during the fall were always the best ones. Once, he brought me a small rocking chair. It was super simple, but it was just my size. He told me not to worry if I outgrew it, as he said we'd give it another use later.

Time passed, and I still had zero friends. Girls thought I was strange, boys were scared as chicken shit of Stoic, and wild animals were not the best company. I learned that the hard way. I must have got bitten twice before I realized that squirrels hated me.

Stoic would make me go to the river once a week to fish. Sometimes we caught big ones, and Mom would cook them for us. Stoic said that the fish I caught were his favorite meal, but then he made me fish for him as if I was his slave. Fishing took an excruciatingly long time. Boring, Stoic just sat on a rock as if he was among his family members and looked at the water. I got bored and talked non-stop. Each time I asked him about something, he would answer accurately. It didn't matter how specific and detailed the question was. I didn't know how he did it. Not even I could remember all the things I asked. Kenzo and Ethan would join us fishing, too, but they sucked at it and just swam in the river instead.

Stoic and Kenzo were changing fast, and they started to look very different. Stoic had been doing a lot of exercising with Kenzo. His shoulders were broader. He got taller, way taller, and his face was growing hair. Hair! Yuck! His face was changing, too, getting sharper. His jaw was super square now, and he looked hideous. The scariest thing was his voice—it had gotten so much deeper. At least I would have a laugh when it cracked and made him sound really ridiculous.

I didn't spend much of my time around girls, but I could hear them talking about him all the time. They were all idiots. I hated what they all said about Stoic. "Stoic is handsome," "Stoic is smart," "Stoic is so tall," "Stoic is so strong," "Stoic this," and "Stoic that." If they knew Stoic like I did, they would stay away from him. Some even pretended to be friends with me when he was around. I didn't care. I called them out right in front of Stoic's face, and they would all lose their shit. I liked how Stoic smirked when that happened.

Stoic didn't seem to be interested in girls, though. He ignored all of them. It seemed it was not just me; it looked like he hated all girls. Scratch that—I knew he hated girls. He looked at them like they were disgusting cockroaches. I knew many would try to talk to him, but he completely, absolutely, and painfully ignored them. I had even seen some of them cry over him.

My brother and other guys his age were utterly different. I didn't know why guys liked those fake-looking girls so much. I bet none of them would make it more than two hours in the wild without melting. Guys seemed to always be chasing them, but not Stoic. That rock only liked fishing. Maybe the only girl he could stomach being near was me, and because I was like his sister, he didn't have any other option.