Evolving

Grade Four

"Shayle, did you hear? Did you?" Mara Lyn ran up to her close friend, Shayle, near the drinking fountain at free play towards the end of the day.

Shayle wiped the fountain water from her top lip with the back of her hand. "What, Mara, what did I miss?"

"Jeremy. Him and Katelyn are going out now."

Shayle's heart sunk. Katelyn? Why her? After all of Shayle's efforts to muster up the courage to talk to him, she finds this out.

"Dang..." Mara Lyn drawled. "I thought you two were going to get closer. You know... with your partner project and all..."

Shayle wanted to cry, but not here and not right now. She would move out of the country and change her entire name before she cried at school again. It was a pride thing; she hated feeling weak and little.

The bell rung before she had the chance to run to the girls restroom. It signaled the end of the day and children began to file out of their rooms.

Holding back her sobs, she raced over to her backpack that was hanging on a hook next to the door of her teacher's classroom and snatched it off.

She had purposely failed to stop at Mrs. Flores's room to wait for Jesse since they were not in the same class this year. Despite this fact, she already knew she would be unfortunately gifted by that taunting voice of his, sooner or later. He'd catch up.

And that he did, more sooner than later.

She groaned audibly at his upcoming presence.

"Hey!" Jesse greeted as he caught up to her.

Shayle didn't respond.

"Oh, guess what?"

"I already know Jeremy's dating Katelyn!" Shayle snapped and let the unshed tears fall free down her reddening cheeks.

This was news to him. "Whoa, what?"

"Oh don't act like you didn't know, you were with him at free play. "

"He didn't tell me that, though."

Shayle didn't answer, instead she wiped the tears from her face quickly, as she remembered where she was and who she was with.

"Don't worry, it won't last. Trust me," Jesse assured her.

"It's not like I care. I've got my own boy friends."

Jesse's eyes widened. "You've got what?"

"I've got my own boy friends," Shayle repeated passively.

"Well this is news to me, too, I outta tell your mother," Jesse scowled. He had always felt the need to tell Shayle's mother anything Shay did not do to perfection, which irritated Shayle more often than not.

"My mother is in Canada right now, so jokes on you. And besides, what's so wrong having friends that are boys?"

"Boys are jerks."

Shayle, confused, spoke. "But you're a boy, dumb dumb."

Jesse gave her a sly crooked smile. "I'm a man."

"You can't be a man when you're only nine," Shayle exclaimed. "You're a man when you turn thirty or something, like my dad did."

"No, age has nothing to do with manhood, young grasshopper. It has a lot to do with maturity and responsibility."

Shayle scoffed. "What would you know about maturity? You sleep with your thumb in your mouth and your mom cleans your room!"

Jesse only chuckled, shaking his head.

"I would expect for you to answer like that, Shay. I'll be the mature person and end the conversation on a good note here. "

"Good note my other word for a donkey," Shayle muttered.

Despite the conversation being mostly plagiarized on Jesse's account of knowing the true meaning of maturity and responsibility, Shayle was able to forget about her crush and the girl he betrayed her with for that time.

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