Too Late - Charles Leclerc

Eight

"Hey Florence?" Charles called out, as he looked up from the hole he had dug in his mammas flower bed with a cheeky grin.

"Yeah?" I cocked my head as I watched him dust his hands off.

"Do you wanna play a game?" He grinned.

I frowned as I thought it through, a bad habit that my mother often told me off for and my father teases me for, saying my face will stick like that if I carried on doing it. "Yeah, but what game?"

"Hide and seek silly!"

"Okay Charlie but only if you're counting first!" I laughed loudly, jumping to my feet with glee.

He jumped up grinning, as he wiped his muddy hands down his shorts and walked over to the tree covering his eyes, "1, 2,3..."

Running toward the garage it didn't take me long to find the perfect hiding spot between the wall and a tree that grew behind it. I crouched down so I could wriggle into the small spot, tucking my knees up toward my chest and waited.

"48, 49, 50! Ready or not Flo, here I come!"

It took Charles over fifteen minutes to find me and then complained that he couldn't fit in my hidng place after trying five times.

"Charlie you're just too tall!" I giggled.

"That's not fair," he grumbled pulling the leaves out of his hair and throwing them back at the tree. "Why can't I be small?"

"Because you're Charles and you're supposed to be tall and you were small when you was the same age as me but you got older so you got bigger,"

"I wish I could be peter pan, he's gonna be young forever and ever," he sulked.

"And he can fly, that must be super cool!"

"What shall we play now?" Charles sighed, clearly fed up with hide and seek.

"You don't want to hide no more?" I frowned again before jumping up and down as I remembered, "Oh my parents put my swings up today! Let's ask my mamma if we can do that!"

*

"I can swing higher than you, I betcha Florence!" The hyper boy yelled as he pushed his legs out in front of him in an attempt to swing higher.

"No I can!" I laughed

"No I can and I'll show you!" He argued pulling his legs back in, "I'm bigger and older so I'll beat you,"

The game carried on like this for a while and I watched as Charles swung higher and higher each time he pushed his long legs back and forth. I could see quite easily that I wasn't going to win, he was right. He was older which made him bigger and a lot taller than me, his legs helped him swing higher.

"That's so so so unfair, you have longer legs!" I pouted slowing down.

"I told you so!" He grinned.

"I want long legs Charlie! They helped you win" I scowled jumping off the swing as it came to a stop. He clearly not as patient enough to wait for it to stop, just jumped off.

"Maybe you will someday when your bigger," he shrugged.

"Maybe," I paused thinking, remembering something I had been meaning to ask him, turning to face him I sighed, "Charlie, what's your school like?"

"Well I guess its ok, my teachers real nice and recess is always fun because we have bikes,"

"Oh," I looked down realising how much better his school sounded than mine. "It sounds nice. Nicer than mine anyway, I hate mine, it stinks and people are mean,"

"Don't be sad about it! My mamma was saying just this morning that things always get better,"

*