Date: February 1979.

There was an African-American boy, about 9 years old, sitting on a bench in front of his house. It had a roof on the outside, and a railing. There was also a bench in it.

This boy was sitting there, with nothing to do. At that moment, one of his cats appeared, and he started playing with it. The cat was black with white spots.

"Oh, what a cute kitten." a little girl's voice could be heard. It was Erin's. She approached the house. "Can I see it?"

"Ah, yes, you can." said the boy.

"And us too?" said another boy. It was Mat. He was accompanied by Andrew.

"Of course." said the boy.

And so, they proceeded to play with the cat. Erin made him chase a thing attached to a string for a long time. Other of her cats also joined in, and they played with each other as well. This was all fun for them. It was already getting dark.

Finally, as they were about to leave, Erin asked the boy.

"Ah, what was your name? Sorry, I didn't ask. I'm Erin, by the way."

"Oh, right... My name is Mathias, and yours?"

"I’m James." said the boy. "And you are?"

"I’m Andrew." he said. It was a bit curt, though.

"I see..."

"Well, do you want to play with us again tomorrow? We're going out riding bikes." said Erin. "Do you have one?"

"If you don't have one, you can ask Andrew to lend you one." Mat said.

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"Uh, what?" Andrew.

"Come on, don't be like that. You've got three." Erin.

"But they belong to my siblings..." Andrew.

"But they're not here, so..." Erin.

"No, no, I do have one." said James.

"Ah, that’s good." Erin said, smiling. "Then we'll go out tomorrow, okay?"

"Yeah," James replied. He seemed cheerful. He made friends out of nothing.

They said goodbye, and James was left thinking... Thinking about how he accepted even though he didn't know how to drive. Despite that, he was still glad he had made friends. He didn't go out much, and he didn't talk to anyone at school either, and so he didn't know anyone. But in the end, he still made friends with those three.

And so, hours later, he went to sleep, but not before practicing how to ride a bicycle with his father, failing.

The next day, on a Sunday, he tried to practice too, but now on his own, but it went badly. He had no balance.

He was practicing for two hours, until 12 o'clock. It was at that time that Mat and his friends arrived and Erin, seeing that he was having trouble, also tried to teach him. Ah, yeah, she was the one who taught the others too.

In the end, James was able to drive without falling off, and... The four of them went for a bike ride. Although...

"Whoever gets to the last one is a rotten egg!!!" Erin exclaimed. They were going to the park now.

"Oh, yeah? Then first to get there is a fresh egg!!!" Mat replied...

"?" Andrew.

"?" James. His body shuddered a little with embarrassment.

Erin didn't ignore it, and took it seriously, for some reason, and the two of them pedaled as fast as they could, leaving Andrew and James far behind.

"Uh..." James.

"Eh... Just ignore them, they're kind of weird sometimes..." Andrew told him. "Let's keep going."

And so James had made new friends, at last.