The Jovial Writer

  Gifted “Kyle, take the new girl in your team.” said Julien bossily. “Why should I? You take her.” retorted Kyle. For a couple of ten year olds they were very opinionated. “I already have Snot Face and Computer Geek on my team.” said Julien firmly. “We all want a fair match and it’s only right if New Girl is in your team.” Kyle looked at Julien’s team of nine kids with varying degrees of athletism and sighed. “Fine.” he said turning to look directly at me. He walked up to me and said commandingly. “You are on my team. Now listen to the rules.” I didn’t like Kyle. He was mean, but then again, he took me on his team. It’s not like the new kid ever has a choice. I mean if they did, why would a new kid ever choose to be a new kid in the first place? “Can you kick?” Kyle asked, rudely dragging me to stand with his team, far away from Julien. I shook my head in response to his question. He sighed and I could tell he was disappointed. “Can you catch?” he asked hopefully. He looked differ...

Sancastles and Football “Will you play in the sandbox with me?” she requests, offering me an extra tiny pink pail. Her eyes are chocolate brown and her smile is infectious. I am about to say yes. But she’s a girl . She obviously has cooties . Of course I don ’ t like her. “No.” I say instead and run off to play football with my older brothers. But when I reach, my brothers say I’m too young to play and only use me to bring back balls that fly out of the playground. It’s boring, and not as fun as building sandcastles. But at least, I am playing with boys . We don’t have cooties. My oldest brother is the meanest and he kicks the hardest. I hate it when he kicks because I have to run all the way to the end of the park to retrieve the football. Sure enough, he sends the ball soaring across the playground. My middle brother looks at me expectantly and gestures towards the ball. “I’ll get it.” I say and rush off to look for the ball. My brother may have sent the ball to another galaxy, be...