It was the perfect Saturday, sunny, warm and, for once, not too humid. The air was full of the sound of children playing and laughing as well as that faint scent of ozone blowing in from the ocean. Every other 9 year old was probably happy, Nick thought bitterly as he tried to suppress his tears. The sound of the other children playing only made him feel sadder and lonelier. He was on his way home from rehearsal and walked slowly, head down, perversely stepping on every crack. He couldn't look up, the sun seemed too bright today, but that had nothing to do with the cloudless sky. He wasn't supposed to be walking home on his own, he was supposed to wait for his mother to pick him up but after what had happened he couldn't stay in school a moment longer. In fact he was pretty sure he'd never be able to go back there again.
Nick raised his head at the sound of voices singing New Kids On The Block's Cover Girl and blinked into the bright sunlight shining through the blonde hair that hung in his eyes. Two girls were roller-skating hand in hand towards him at speed and Nick stepped onto the grass to avoid being hit then carried on at the same doleful pace.
"Nicky? What are you doing here?" It was Caitlin, his neighbour. Nick looked up and saw that Caitlin had stopped beside him.
"Are you OK sweetie?"
Nick nodded yes, the tear that spilled from his eye announcing his lie.
"Nomes, I'll call you later, OK, chick?" Caitlin's friend Naomi agreed, kissed her friend goodbye, and skated on. Caitlin put her arm around Nick and led him to a nearby wall where they both sat down. "So, what happened, does your mum know you're here?"
Nick shook his head and thought about what to say. He wasn't sure he wanted to tell Caitlin what had happened. He really liked her and looked up to her but, well, she was kind of bossy, and sometimes made fun of Nick and her brother, Josh. On the other hand she was being nice to him and it didn't look like she was going to make fun of him.
Ever since Caitlin and Josh had moved in they had all played together, despite the age difference. Right from the start Caitlin had been bossy, but she knew better games than anyone Nick had ever met and always thought of cool things to do, like the time they'd fed worms to his little sister BJ. Caitlin and Josh had joined Nick's drama group and the three of them went together for a couple of years until Josh had decided last year that he didn't like theatre anymore and that he only wanted to go to his sister's gymnastics and martial arts classes. Caitlin and Nick still went, as did BJ by that time and Nick often thought that Caitlin might be the only person who really understood what being on stage meant to him.
Nick loved to perform, he loved to become somebody else for a while, but mostly he just loved to be on the stage, he never felt happier than when he was acting or singing. Josh and Caitlin were good singers too and the three of them had often put on impromptu concerts for their parents, though Josh had lost interest in that around the same time he lost interest in drama. All Josh liked now was fighting. Caitlin had even written some songs and sometimes she let Nick help her make them up. Once she had even let Nick see the shoebox she kept under her bed that contained all the songs she had written. Nick knew that Caitlin had never shown them to anyone before. She might have thought of him as a pesky little kid most of the time, but they understood each other. Even Naomi would have teased Caitlin for writing those songs but she'd known that Nick never would.
It was this memory that decided Nick. She'd let him see her songs; if there was anybody he could tell it was Caitlin.
Though she was not yet quite 12 Caitlin had a strong maternal instinct. Not many people would have realised it, she usually seemed far too wrapped up in whatever her latest plan was to take any interest in being motherly. One of the people who did know it was Nick's mother, Jane. In fact she was the only person who knew just how often Caitlin had run across to their house to 'check if Josh was there' but really to look at the sleeping twins or help bath them. This was a side that Caitlin preferred to keep hidden, especially from her brother and Nick. If they knew how soft she could be they might lose all respect for her and then who would she have as her devoted slaves?
But now, as she looked into Nick's tearful blue eyes, she found herself wanting to hug him and make everything alright. OK, so he was an annoying little brat, but at least he didn't want to fight all the time like Josh did and it was nice to be looked up to, even if she did sometimes hear him making his sisters do the very things she'd just told Josh and Nick they had to do.
Caitlin also felt a little guilty. When she was younger she'd always spent time playing with Josh and Nick, making up games for them and it had been Nick's father who had taught all of them to play basketball. These days she was so busy with her dance, gymnastics and martial arts competitions that she didn't have the time (or, to be brutally honest, the inclination) to play with them. She did ride to drama group with them and sometimes kept Nick company at the auditions he went to, but that was only partly for his sake, it gave her an excuse to go along and occasionally try out herself. Even so, she knew that if she was ever bored or at a loose end her younger neighbour was always willing to drop what he was doing to play ball or sing with her. And he hadn't told a soul about her songs.
That decided it. Nick was a very nice little boy and Caitlin was going to do whatever it took to make him smile.
"Y'know Mary?" Caitlin just stopped herself from smiling. Mary was Nick's 'girlfriend' and she spent a lot of time at Nick's house. Caitlin and Naomi had always found it hilarious to see the two of them hand in hand but they hadn't said anything, Josh had said more than enough about his friend hanging around with 'a stupid girl' for everyone. Now, she just nodded.
"She broke up with me." Now Caitlin really wanted to laugh but instead she hugged him. "Right in front of everybody at rehearsal and they laughed."
"Do you know what's WAY better than girls?" Nick shook his head, unsure. "Ice cream." Nick looked at her doubtfully. "I'm a girl right? So I should know."
Nick was completely unconvinced.
"But everybody heard and they're all gonna laugh at me on Monday."
"Nicky, do you know what me and Naomi were saying the other day? We were talking about all the kids in your school and who we thought was cute and stuff? And Naomi said that you were totally the cutest kid in your school. I bet that if you were older she'd have fought Mary to be your girlfriend." Nick was now wide-eyed. "And anyway one day, you're gonna be a star! And millions of girls are gonna want to be your girlfriend and Mary and everybody in your play is gonna be SOOO jealous!" Caitlin was warming to her theme now and her enthusiasm was starting to have the desired effect on Nick. "And you know what else? You are gonna be the best-looking guy when you grow up Nicky. Trust me. And you can tell all the girls who are after you 'No thanks, I'd rather have ice cream!'"
By now Caitlin was on her feet and she almost yelled the last part of what she was saying whilst spinning around with her arms in the air. As she did so one of her skates caught on a discarded bottle top and she fell to the ground, where her look of shock really DID make Nick laugh.
She grinned up at him and held out her hand. Nick helped her to her feet; he was feeling happier but was still worried about going back to school. Caitlin squinted at him for a second, and then had an idea.
"You know what we can do Nicky? We can tell Josh and then we can have him say that if anyone laughs at you he'll get them! Nobody will say a thing!"
Nick really did grin then. Everybody in school knew that Caitlin was state judo champion in her age group and they all knew that Josh took after his sister in that respect. Caitlin was right. If Josh told them not to, nobody would say a thing. He'd still lost his girlfriend but maybe Naomi would be his girlfriend and...
"Were you gonna actually buy me an ice cream?"
Caitlin laughed, planted a huge kiss on Nick's cheek and took off skating down the street.
"Only if you can catch me..."
She let him catch her outside the store and gave him the money to buy whatever ice cream he wanted while she used the payphone to call Jane and let her know where her son was.
