Real Friendship
“Oh No” I thought, sitting on the grass with my friends. “Get off the ground! Come on!” the “coach” yelled. Me and my three friends, Cecelia, Nora, and Kate hated soccer and were not very enthusiastic about playing it against our will. It was one thing we all had in common. After- school is never very fun especially with the older kids always bossing us first graders around. But they have never forced us to play sports. They only do group activities (where they force us to participate) like once a month. But it’s always a game of capture the flag or something not too bad. That’s why me and my friends, (more my friends then me) decided that the coach/after-school teacher wouldn’t notice if instead of playing soccer we all lay in the grass at the back of the field. I mean we were having a great time. Hanging out, making daisy chains, and talking. But now we had no choice. We had to play.
“Ugh now my dress will get dirty.” whined Nora. “And it’s a new one too.”
She had on her poutiest face. I don’t so much care about getting dirty. The reason I don’t like soccer is because one, I’m not good at it. Two, I don’t understand how people find it fun. I mean the whole point is to kick a ball into a net and that’s it. Basically I just find it plain boring. But I guess most people feel differently. Anyway, we walked through the grass, as slowly as we could. I was kicking my feet at the dirt. Everyone was waiting for us. I almost shouted “what are you staring at?” but I didn’t. Cecelia just rolled her eyes and said “Come on let’s just stay away from the ball. It’ll be fine.” Except she said it kind of sarcastically like it was our fault she had to play even though the grass was her idea. I just sighed and let it go. The game had started anyway. Every step I took I was thinking, “Stay away from the ball, stay away from the ball, stay away from th-” oh no the ball was headed right towards me. “Ahhhhhhh!” I thought panicking. Suddenly I realized the ball was at my feet and everyone was waiting for me to kick it. It was a penalty kick and somehow they picked me to do it. “You can do It Maya” I thought. I took some steps backward getting ready for a running start. “Come on Maya” Cecelia said rolling her eyes. “Right” I thought and charged towards the ball. I gave it a hard kick. Before I knew it the ball was flying away and everyone was back in the game. But I felt myself lurch backwards. I landed right on my ankle.
“Owwwwwwww” was the first thing I thought when I landed. I looked ahead. no one had noticed, they were all too hooked in the game. My ankle was twisted behind my back. “Ow ow ow ow owww” I said to myself trying to lift it. “Hey are you okay?” Nora asked. The rest of my friends came over. “Yeah you kicked the ball but then I saw you trip, stumble, and fly backward.” Joined in Kate.”I would of come over but I was kicking a good shot.” She continued. I tried to stand up. “Owww” I said “My ankle really hurts.” “ I think I’ll go tell the after-school teacher.” “Yeah good idea!” said Cecelia. And we all went over to the after-school teacher. I was hopping on one leg. “Yes?” asked the after-school teacher half looking at us half at the game. “I twisted my ankle and it really hurts.” I said trying to balance. “Yeah” said Kate picking up one of her legs and hopping. Then my other friends picked up one of their legs and started hopping too. “What are they doing?” I thought. “Did they hurt their ankles too?” “Yeah right” said the after-school teacher. “Go play soccer”. I felt tears popping into the corners of my eyes. “Why didn’t he believe us?” I thought. “And why would my friends pretend to have hurt their ankles when they knew I was actually hurt? Or did they really hurt themselves too?” I went over and plopped down on the grass. Luckily my friends didn’t follow and the after-school teacher didn’t notice either. The tingaling blades of wet grass felt uncomfortable against my skin. My shorts bunched up under my thighs. But I didn’t get up.  “Do they really care about me? Are they real friends or not?” I sat with my thoughts until my mom came to get me. “Aren’t you going to say goodbye to your friends honey?” My mom asked lifting my backpack and slinging it around her shoulder. “I’m okay.”  I said sulking. I didn’t want to worry my mom. I also just didn’t feel like talking. “And why are you limping? Maya is everything okay?” My mom asked a worried look starting to form. “I hurt my ankle. But it doesn’t hurt that bad.” I said hiding the truth. Because really my ankle hurt bad and I could barely walk. I was glad when we got home because I felt better snuggling up in my covers and listening to my dad read Harry Potter. Just then I realized It was friday. I closed my eyes and smiled. I couldn’t wait for the weekend.
It was saturday. My favorite day. It started out pretty normal. Me and my dad ate cereal, and watched a little TV. But I couldn’t help realizing my ankle still hurt. It was looking a little puffy too. “Papa?” I asked. “Yeah honey” he said still looking at the TV. “ Yesterday at after-school I twisted my ankle and it still hurts.” “What?” he asked looking away from the TV a frown on his face. “Let me see.” I showed him my ankle and he examined it. “ Yeah this is swelled up.” He said with a perplexed look. “Let me ask your mom”. “APRIL!” He called not bothering to get up. My mom came in looking tired and sat down on the couch. “What’s going on?” She asked rubbing her eyes and yawning. “ Maya said she hurt her ankle yesterday and it’s swelling a lot. Should we take her to the doctor or...” said my dad. “ Let me have a look,” my mom said. She took my ankle and examined it. “Yeah this is swelling. Does this hurt?” she said putting pressure on a spot on my ankle. “Owww!” I yelled. “Maya how bad does your ankle hurt when you walk?” asked my mom calmly. “A lot,” I said looking down at my feet. My mom sighed. “Well I’ll call the doctor, Jon you put some ice on her ankle and keep it elevated. My mom got up and my dad grabbed some ice (frozen peas)  for my ankle. After icing it and putting my ankle on top of some pillows it felt a little better but it still hurt. “Well” my mom said popping her head into the room. “Looks like we’re going to the doctor’s.”
It turned out I sprained my ankle. A lot worse then I was expecting but my mom just nodded after the x-ray when the doctor told us. Another thing is since I’ve been walking on it, it got worse and now It hurts to much to walk. On monday morning I woke up at my usual 7:30 and my mom helped me get ready for school. The whole time pushing me around in an office chair. I was pretty surprised when my mom told me I had to go to school in the chair. But I guess we didn’t have much choice. My mom loaded the chair in the trunk and Drove me to school.  When we got there It was a little embarrassing having my mom pushing me through the halls but I got used to it. When I got to class everyone felt genuine sympathy for me and when recess came the whole class was really excited about pushing me around. “My turn!” “Let me!” There was a whole crowd of people waiting to push me in my office chair, and it was kind of fun. But after the first 5 minutes of recess people left to do there own thing. But a few people kept pushing. I was starting to feel sad though staring at the other first graders playing tag and running around. A girl from my class pushing me saw me staring at them and asked “hey why don’t we play a game?” I smiled and we made up this really intricate game and soon it was just us. Everyone else was playing tag. But we were having our own fun. Laughing, playing, and talking. Soon the bell rang. But I couldn’t help feel that I had made a new friend and I thought “ Maybe spraining my ankle wasn’t such a bad thing after all.”