The Player, The Cynic, The Cliché, and Her Spongebob Panties

Prologue

   “Honey, let’s go say goodbye to the Richards,” I hear my Mom say to me as she grabs my hand.

   My little sister is being carried by Dad. She’s little. She’s only five.

    I don’t really know what’s happening but I just follow my Mom anyways. That’s what you do when you’re a third grader. You follow your Mom.

    I see that the Richards are outside their house and that there are many people there. They’re my neighbors. We live a few houses down.

   I don’t know what’s happening over there. I can’t tell what’s going on. Mom says we have to say “goodbye” to the Richards. I’m not stupid. I just don’t know what’s actually going on.

   The Richards are Mom’s friends. They have two daughters. They’re both really pretty and nice. They like to play with me, sometimes.

   They also have one son, Logan. I hate him. I hate him so much.

   He pulls my skirt up and tells everybody what kind of underwear I like to use. I can’t help it if I like wearing Spongebob undies. I mean, who doesn’t want to live in a pineapple under the sea.

   As the parents talk to each other, Logan sees me and walks up to me.

   He looks at me with a scowl and says, “Why are you here?”

   Oh, I hate him so much. “My mom brought me along. I don’t know.”

   He softens his expression a bit. “So, you know?”

   I’m confused. “Know what?”

   He looks really sad now. “I’m moving.”

   Not getting what he means, I ask, “To a new house?”

   Still sad, he looks at me like I’m stupid, “No, I’m moving somewhere far.”

   Suddenly happy at what I hear, I smile and say, “Really?”

   I don’t know what I see but I see something flicker through the features of his face. Whatever that was is now masked by a look of partial anger.

   He scoffs at me. Like, seriously? What third grader scoffs? I don’t even scoff. I don’t know how to. “Yeah. Enjoy your life when I’m gone.”

   I smile and start jumping around a bit. “Of course. Now that you’re going, I’ll be free. No more bad stuff happening to me. Yay!”

   Now, he looks downright angry. “Don’t worry. I’ll come back. I’m going to ruin your fun.”

   I just laugh at him. “Ha! I don’t care. I’ll probably be too big when you come back.”

   He just looks at me with all his anger-ness. “I’ll be bigger.”

   Not getting phased by all this negative energy, I just start laughing and laughing like a crazy girl.

   He looks about ready to hit me. “I’m coming back. Don’t forget that. I’m coming back.”

   Still laughing, I say, “Hope your Mom and Dad decide to stay there forever! I don’t need you in my life to ruin it.”

   I see another look pass through his features. I don’t know what look that is but I just bypass it. “Trust me. I promise I’ll come back. When I do, you’ll be sorry you said that.”

   Seeing how serious he looks right now, I just cross my arms over my chest and say, “Oh, really now? You promise to come back? I don’t believe you.”

   He smirks. “Trust me. I promise.”