Please Stay

A friendship is formed

“I don wan to go Momma. No one like me”

The little boy wept into his Mother’s arms as she knelt before him in the wet school playground. Another night of rainfall left everything wet, but the day promised some sunshine.

“It’s only been a few weeks Sammie” The slim women cooed to her youngest son, pulling him back and wiping away the tears from his little face. She hates sending him to school where he’s so unhappy, but he’ll fit in soon enough. He’s a lovely child, so friendly and usually happy.

He was a beautiful child, everyone said it. Taking after his Mother with the slim frame, large, light shinning blue eyes and little features, the only difference was the hair; his was almost white while the woman’s was a light blond and currently sat around her slim shoulders.

“Give it time and I am sure the kids will want to play with you” she continued, wiping his nose and planting a kiss onto his forehead, before standing up at her full 5” 4 height. With a little nudge on his head she sent him on his way and watched him walk deeper into the small playground.

With a heavy heart Sammy waved goodbye to his Mother, told her ‘I love you’ and with hands deep in his old worn jean pockets, he walked past the taunting kids who repeated ‘Momma’s boy’ continuously. With head held down, he done his best to ignore them and fight back the tears that threatened to spill again. No wonder they called him a cry baby, he fought most days not to cry but the tears still somehow fell.

‘Leave me alone’ he mumbled to himself. He wished his Momma could understand what he went through every day at school, the taunting, being excluded from games and pushed because he didn’t have the courage to do anything about it. He couldn’t understand why no one liked him, why no one wanted to be his friend. At least they noticed him and paid him some attention, but he wanted a friend; someone to talk about toys to and play with. His older brother Justin sometimes played with him, but there was a huge age gap between them and his brother was very often going out with his own friends and didn’t want to play the games Sam wanted to.

He didn’t mind lessons so much; he was happy to sit and add the numbers or draw his momma a picture. He was good at those things, and reading. He was also happy to stand in front of the children at show and tell to talk about what he brought in. They had to listen to him then and he hoped that if he made it interesting enough, they would like him. It was breaks he hated because he was turned away from games, mocked and pushed, no matter how hard he tried to join in.

Today seemed to follow the same pattern it has done since Sam started his first grade at school. While the other kids played with each other at break, he stood on his own and watched them, wishing he could just join in. Sometimes he’d ask, but was always turned away.

A couple of boys approached him, the biggest of them asked if he wanted to play ball with them. Sam beamed happily and said he would, but the boy held the ball up high and told him to get it. Sam jumped up, trying to reach the ball that was thrown over his head to the boy behind him, who told Sam the same thing. Again, he tried to reach the ball and failed, then failed again as the ball went well over his head to the next waiting boy.

Then the taunting started, the boys started to mock him, calling him a baby and a weakling before the bigger boy pushed him into a big puddle, soaking his clothes with the muddy water.