Chapter 1

LYRON

✦

My babysitter Xander was taking me to the park today. I love the park, pretending to be different things , putting on a dramatic voice as I lost myself in my own world. I was pretending to be an explorer, approaching the monkey bars to swing, but as I hung onto the first rod, I realized my short body meant short, very weak arms. How did the other kids do it? I was about to pretend to just fall and die on my adventure when a voice broke me out of my thoughts.

“Hey! If you’re gonna take this long just to get to the first bar and hold everyone up, you should have just asked for help, dummy.” A girl with long ginger hair stomped up to me, jabbing at my sides. I was going to say something, but then she spoke up again. “Get down. I’ll take you on my back, I’ll make sure no one gets on before us because it’s still your turn.” I wasn’t going to complain when my weak, sweaty arms were already starting to give out, so I got down and onto her back, arms around her shoulders, legs around her waist.

I giggled as the mystery girl swung on the bars with me holding on tight. She was very good at it, much better than me (likely due to the height difference). Once we got to the end, she jumped off, only setting me down once we were away from the other kids. She sat next to me with a huff, studying me with her grey eyes.

“How old are you? I’m ten.” ‘Wow,’ I thought. Two whole digits? She must be smart!

“I’m nine! My birthday was a month ago, I had a cat cake, and then I got a real cat! I named her Banana because she’s yellow-y, and I like bananas.” The girl looked at me as if I were a puzzle that needed to be solved, though I’m not sure why – all I did was ramble offtopic, I did that all the time.

“Then I gotta teach you so you’ll be extra prepared! You have to be smart to be a real ten-year-old.” That made sense. Turning ten was a big deal, of course I had to prepare! I nodded enthusiastically.

She shook me suddenly by my cat print t-shirt; eyes wide.

“I forgot to tell you why we moved away from the playground!”

“I just thought it was because there’s a lot of kids everywhere?”

“That- and this playground’s old. My dad said it could fall apart because, uh, something about people planning on taking it down, and to be careful…” She looked over at the playground with a frown -- it made me sad. How could people want to take it down? I tried to reassure her.

“Hey…I’m sure there’s another playground somewhere! Don’t be sad, please…” I hugged her again, tearing up, which led to her comforting me.

“Oi! Don’t cry! It’s not that serious. Mom says not to cry, I have to make sure you don’t cry, either!” It took a couple seconds, but we calmed down from that.

I saw my babysitter Xander looking at me from the bench he sat at, smiling. He’s never seen me make a friend before; he must be proud of me! Just the thought of this filled me with joy. I waved at him with a big grin on my face. I saw him wave back, so I went back to talking to the girl, satisfied.

Wait…I didn’t know her name! This must be solved immediately.

“Hey, what’s your name? My name’s Lyron! Lyron Jupiter. My last name’s a planet!” My question got her attention, and I could tell from her small gasp that she realized the oversight, too.

“Elizabeth Smith, but I prefer Eliza. Your last name’s cool.” She spoke as if she had rehearsed that first part a hundred times.

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“I think your last name’s cool, too!” I wasn’t sure how to continue the conversation yet, until my sister crossed my mind.

“Eliza, do you have a sister? I have an older sister. Her name is Cadence because our mom likes music. My name is music related, too!” She puffed her cheeks out.

“I have an older brother, not sister. His name is Phoebus, because my mom wanted to give him a fancy name, not like I don’t like my name, but- um…uh, what’s having a sister like? My brother is nice to me.” My sister didn’t like having me around. Honestly I wanted Eliza’s brother to be my sibling instead, it wasn’t fair he was nice to Eliza, but Cadence wasn’t nice to me.

Eliza noticed my distress and was quick to act.

“Uhm, you don’t have to talk about her, if you don’t want to. I haven’t met her, but with a little brother like you, I’m sure she cares about you.” I got emotional again, but it wasn’t tear-inducing, even if my sister was a more important topic than a playground. I didn’t want to make Eliza sad from my crying.

“Thanks…” I said. I thought for a moment. She was my friend, right?

“You’re my friend, now!” She snorted. Her smile was nice…she didn’t seem to smile too often.

“Yeah. I don’t talk this long with someone unless they’re my friend. You’re my friend, Lyron.” I beamed, bouncing in my spot.

“I thought so! I’m happy I was right.”

We continued to talk for a while; about school, about teachers, hobbies. She told me about how she pretended to make scenes and a whole show with just her toys, even how she was allowed to learn to sew recently. In conclusion, Elizabeth Smith was a pretty cool person.

At some point, our fun together had to end as Xander called out to me. I walked with Eliza, hand-in-hand until we reached him.

“Hey, buddy! How was your day at the park? I see you’ve brought someone with you-“ Xander gasped. “You’re Aaron’s daughter, aren’t you? I knew I recognized those grey eyes!” Eliza was surprised at first, until she remembered something, too.

“You’re dad’s friend?” Xander looked bashful, for a reason I couldn’t pinpoint.

“Y-Yeah! Friend…well, uh- Lyron! Tell me about what you did today, buddy.” Me and Eliza could tell something else was going on, but I was lost as soon as I was asked a question.

I put on a dramatic tone as I started to – in a rush – act out what happened that day, along with exaggerated gestures.

“So, I was going to play on the monkey bars, right? However, I failed to think about how my shortness affected my ability to move well! That was, until Elizabeth Smith had pointed it out to me!” I continued with the same tone, as my two-person audience were both equally entertained by my performance (I could tell, and Eliza giggled every time I quoted her!). Xander was laughing by the end of it, moving to ruffle my blonde hair affectionately, handing me a surprise chocolate bar which I had grown used to getting from him the more he looked after me.

“You’re going to be one hell of an actor some day, Lyron!” He picked me up and rested me gently on his right leg as I started chewing on the chocolate.

I wasn’t paying much attention as I ate, vaguely noticing Eliza talking to Xander, swinging my legs back and forth. I was giddy from making a new friend, thinking all about my achievement before I was broken out of my focus with a hug from her. Of course, I hugged back.

“See you tomorrow, Lyron.”

“Tomorrow? Really?” I was beyond excited at the news, bouncing on Xander’s leg. He had to make sure I didn’t fall off with his hands hovering around my hyperactive body. Eliza nodded.

“Mhm. My dad knows your babysitter so they will organize that.” She was very certain, I felt no reason not to believe her. I hopped off the leg I was perched on to hug her one more time.

“Well, I’ll also see you tomorrow!” I smiled at her. I wanted to hang out just a little longer, but we had been hanging out all day. She needed her alone time, and so did I.

“Come on, buddy! You need your dinner. If you wanna grow to be tall enough for people to see you on stage, you have to eat enough!” I was convinced even before the extra reason to – I was starving. I said one last goodbye to Eliza, waving to her as she ran off.

“Wanna be carried for the rest of our journey? It was a warm day, today, you must be tired.” I nodded and enjoyed my piggyback ride home, thinking about everything that happened so I could recount it later.

I took out my diary – I wanted to get one after finding out about my sister’s – then started to write down the events of today. Once I felt I included enough star stickers and drawn-on sparkles on the pages, I closed it before fetching paper. After becoming my friend, I had to draw something for Eliza.

Creating the drawing didn’t take long, just a game of coloured pencil switcheroo, but I had to add more stickers and sparkles on it, too!

I looked down at my drawing proudly; I’d be sure to give it to Eliza tomorrow.