Tags
anxiety, books, bullying, children, films, He Was Weird, relationships
Ponder is what Sean did, not just for the evening but for the rest of that week. He also tried to read signals form Chloe when she and Estelle sat with them for lunch.and on the school playground after they ate. She always seemed to be looking at him and always smiling. After a few more days of pondering and another conversation with Mom, he decided to simply talk to her.
From then on, Sean made it a point to invite Chloe and Estelle to sit with them at lunchtimes, none of the boys objected. He also made sure he sat next to Chloe. Estelle seemed to sense this and was happy to assist. When not disttracted by the other guys talking about subjects of their interest, Sean would start up a conversation with Chloe.
There was a sweet innocence about her which Sean found quite appealing. In some ways, she was like a little girl. She loved watching “Spongebob Squarepants” and told about her big doll house. This gave Sean the confidence to divulge that he liked building spacecrafts with Lego. Chloe finding that cool lessened his worries that ever since Jeremy’s betrayal, his former friend would spill the secret to his bullies. With Chloe, he began to feel he could tell her most anything.
Sean enjoyed spending his lunchtimes with Chloe and was glad that the rest of the group were so accommodating. It led Sam to comment, “We need to have more girls in our group.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Estelle responded. “But girls either don’t realise or like to admit that they are being bullied. As Mrs. Hinton pointed out last year, girl bullies are more coniving.”
“I know a girl who’s being bullied,” Stewart identified. “Her name is Nancy Flowers and some of the girls in sixth grade really give her a hard time.”
“Invite her to come to our next meeting,” Sean suggested rather authoritively.
While things seemed to be going well with Chloe, Sean started thinking about his next move. He wasn’t sure how to take things further and he sorely wanted to do that. His answer came on the Saturday, when he went with Scott, Sam and Arnie to see the latest “Transformers” movie. During the ads for upcoming films, there was one for an upcoming movie from the creators of “Minions.” He remembered that Chloe really like the Minions so this presented him with a golden opportunity. He would ask Chloe to the movie.
On the Monday, it took every ounce of determined discipline for Sean to coneal his excitement over asking Chloe out. While nothing was going to stop that determination, Sean feared what grief he and Chloe might get from the other kids, especially Eddie and the rest of those bullies. None of them needed to know what went on in his personal life.
Sean sat with his four friends at the normal spot for lunch. He made sure that there was a place for Chloe to sit when she arrived. His anticipation grew as he scanned the children coming into the gym for lunch. Seeing Estelle got his hopes up but those hopes were dashed when she came over to them minus Chloe.
Estellle must have sensed Sean’s disappointment because as soon as she sat down, she volunteered, “Chloe’s not in school today, she’s home sick.”
“Oh,” was all Sean could say, doing his best to hide his disappointment.
Sean managed to keep a lid on his feelings for the rest of the Monday and he had to dig really deep to do the same when Chloe was still home sick on Tuesday. If she had been home on the Wednesday, he might have lost it but to his delight, Chloe was back in school. He couldn’t hide his feelings of joy when she sat down next to him at lunch.
“I’m glad you’re feeling better,” he offered.
After a taking a bite from her sandwich and a few chews Chloe responded, “Yeah, I had a bad tummy but I’m all better now.”
“Good,” Sean returned. He went back to eating lunch but a few minutes later, he stated, “There’s a new Minions movie coming out.”
“I want to see it,” Chloe responded.
Siezing his chance, Sean struck. “The movie’s coming to Ramsgate this weekend, would you like to go see it with me?”
“Yes,” came Chloe’s excited reply.
Seeing the excited look on both of their faces, Estelle chimed in, “You two are going to have a good time.” Her success at having played matchmaker pleased her deeply.
Mom was really pleased when Sean told her of his stepping up and asking Chloe out. She even assisted with the logisitcs for their big evening. Tara spoke with Chloe’s mom and said that she would take care of transport. Apparently, the two mothers had a nice long friendly chat and afterwards, Tara informed Sean, “It appears that Chloe thinks you’re some kind of hero because you stood up the the girl who had been bullying her.”
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