Bob.

Bob was my best friend. Sometimes he said some weird stuff, but I’d say,

“SHUT UP BOB!”

Then he’d either shut up or go away. But, other than that, Bob was the best and we did everything together. I wished he were my brother most days.

He stayed over some nights and my Mum would say,

“Is Bob staying tonight?”

If he wasn’t he would go away, but if he was Mum would say,

“Aww, you two are so cute!”

Then when she thought I wasn’t looking she’d pull a face which was weird because it made her look sad, but I don’t think she was. She’d think I wasn’t looking but sometimes I was.

We rode the bus to school together, but Bob went to a different school, so I got off the bus before him. Everyone on the bus stared at us. We were very loud and silly and even though they stared they never got mad because we weren’t being bad, just silly.

Bob went to a different school but sometimes he would sneak out on dinner. We’d meet in the forest near my school and climb the trees and sit by this old well that was open and dare each other to jump in but we never did. The teachers couldn’t work out how I got so dirty on dinner because they didn’t know I was climbing the trees with Bob.

I liked school but I missed Bob when I wasn’t on dinner and also there was this one kid I didn’t like. He was older than me and sometimes when it was dinner, he’d grab me and pull me into the boy’s toilets and into the little room with the lock. He’d lock the door and tell me I was pretty and try to make me kiss him. When I didn’t want to, he’d grab me by the neck and then he’d put his hands down my pants. I didn’t like it because it didn’t feel nice and it meant I couldn’t climb trees with Bob. If anyone came in the toilet, he’d put his hand on my mouth and say he’d punch me if I screamed. So I kept quiet because I didn’t want to get punched.

Bob stayed over again, and I told him about the boy and why I didn’t always climb the trees with him. He knew I didn’t like it because he hugged me. He’d never done that before and then he told me not to worry because he had a plan. Bob always made me feel better and when he hugged me that time, I felt like everything was going to be alright. I didn’t know how he did it, but he took all the bad feeling I had, and it made me happy. I wish Bob had hugged me before because it felt nice.

I didn’t see the boy on dinner, but he saw me after school and came over to me. He pushed me and tried pulling me into the bushes where no one could see so I ran away like Bob said. I ran to where Bob and me always sat and talked and the boy was a bit behind, so I found a big stick and picked it up.

When the boy caught up to me, he was smiling so I hit him with the stick and he fell down and started crying. It felt good so I kept hitting him on the head until the stick broke. Blood came out and I knew he wasn’t special because Bob said that special people have blue blood. Bob said he had blue blood, but I’d never seen it and didn’t believe him.

The boy had stopped crying while I was hitting him and was quiet, so I waited for Bob to get there. When he did, we took the boy and put him in the well like Bob had planned. It must have been pretty deep because we both counted four seconds before he splashed. I put the bit of the stick with blood on it and threw that down like Bob said. That took four seconds too, which I thought was weird because I was sure that the boy weighed more but Bob said it was okay, so we went back to my house.

Mum let Bob stay the night again but when she asked why I was late home from school I didn’t tell her. Bob had said not to tell anyone about the boy because it would be between us two and that if I told anyone we’d both get in trouble. We stayed up after Mum had turned the light off, pulling the quilt over our heads and using a little torch I had to look at each other. I told Bob that I was happy he came up with the plan and how good I thought it was. I told him I was nervous someone would find out even though it was a good plan. He told me it’d be okay and hugged me again and it made me feel special. I told him how it felt when he hugged me and asked if he thought that was stupid. He said no and leaned over and kissed me and I let him. I didn’t think boys kissed but it felt even better than the hug. I didn’t see my Dad anymore because he kissed a girl and it upset Mum. Maybe if he’d kissed a boy instead that would have been okay. I decided that kissing Bob was okay too because it wouldn’t upset Mum and it felt nice so it couldn’t have been bad.

The next day in school people were asking about the boy. His parents had come in and were asking if anyone had seen him and they had an assembly about it. It was fun because I knew where he was and nobody else in the school did, it felt good that I knew something no one else did. It made me feel real smart.

I told Bob about it and he asked me if I’d told anyone and I hadn’t so I said I hadn’t, and he was glad. He said that there were police looking around near the school, but he didn’t see any go near the well, so he thought we’d be okay. I found out the next day one of the girls in the boy’s year said that she saw him chasing someone into the forest near the school. The day after I heard about the girl saying she’d seen the boy, the police came to my house and asked a lot of questions. Bob wasn’t there and it was hard not to say anything. But I didn’t because I knew Bob was the only person I could trust and if he said I shouldn’t say anything then he was right.

They found out eventually and I don’t know how but they came again the next week and spoke to Mum and she was crying. I didn’t like to see her cry so I decided to tell them all about Bob’s plan. My Mum looked surprised and told me to go to my room while she talked to the police about Bob. I didn’t think she’d say anything bad though because she always liked it when Bob stayed. Even if she did pull weird faces sometimes.

I don’t think I should have told them about Bob’s plan. They made me move away and now I don’t get to see Mum. I have to live in this big building with a lot of other kids which would be good but none of them are any fun. There are a lot of doctors who ask me lots of things most days and only a few things on the other days. They keep telling me I’m sick and I tell them I’m fine and that my stomach isn’t hurting. They tell me it’s something called Skeezo-friend-ear. But it isn’t something wrong with my ears either, so I don’t know why it’s called that. They told me it’s like being sick but it’s in my head and not my belly. My head doesn’t hurt either but if go along with what they say they usually leave me alone. The only thing I like is at home Mum wouldn’t let me have sweets. Here they give me sweets when I wake up and before I go to bed too. I miss Bob all the time, I think he’s mad about me telling on him because he hasn’t come to visit me once.