Trevor was a typical young boy. Adventurous, funny and perhaps even quite popular. With short black hair though fair in face, he wore jeans, a T-shirt and the occasional baseball cap to give him a distinctive look. He was physically fit, thin with not much fat. He climbed rocks, fences, hills and had a reputation for being the best rope climber in school. He was the kind of kid that would try anything once, and everything was like a game to him. His parents were naturally good at encouraging him not to worry about failure.
He had many friends, of which Mikey ‘was’ one of them… an entire dimensional warp ago, which might as well be an entire lifetime if not more so for a child. They had got on well with about four other boys, often playing football together. Richard, Mark, Justin, Zain… the six boys often played football every Friday evening. Of course, every group tended to have a ringleader, and that was Trevor with Richard a close second. He handled friendships a little different to most, seeing his friends genuinely as brothers; Irreplaceable to him. Perhaps this came from being an only child in his family. He picked his friends with little judgement and found ways to tie them all together, weaving their lives naturally. He always found a way to bring out their strengths and cover weakness.
People often said you could just get ‘new friends’ if things didn’t work out… but not Trevor. He genuinely cared and loved each of his friends. No matter what happened, he promised he would always remain true to them. He relished in making them laugh, telling jokes especially in class. They got into a little trouble but nothing too serious. He always hoped one day they would go on a great adventure. Maybe this was just idle childhood fantasy but Trevor was just a child. For him, the changes in reality…
left a piece missing.
It was imperceptible, just a vague feeling, and yes it could be dismissed as it had been so for the last few days. He wasn’t even aware that anything was strange or different, and accepted this reality without question… So why did he feel this... strange sadness?
It gnawed on him as if some insinct were trying to push a memory that no logner existed. Something… someone? No… nothing. Trevor was an ordinary human being and could not break through the Reality apparent to him. Maybe it was just stress from homework? There was a lot of that with his friends… his… friends… five of them.
It was that moment when they were getting ready to play a game of football in the park. The team was organised as always against their rival school. They brought six… and they had.. five? Confusion reigned again.
“We need someone to be goalkeeper!” Mark said quickly. “Where’s our goaly?”
“Uh…” Trevor was about to say something… to suggest the name of someone who no longer existed. That name, whoever it was evaporated from his tongue, and as if reality were somehow annoyed, doubly expunged it from his mind… “H-How did we do this game before?” He was confused. Hadn’t they always had five? He recalled the last game… didn’t he? One goal keeper, two defenders, three strikers… What…
“Trevor? You okay?” Mark asked.
“Uh- Yeah.“ Trevor sighed shaking his head. He felt like a fool for having made such a basic mistake. “Okay, I’ll be goalkeeper. We’ll have to have two attackers and two defenders. I’ll ask the captain if we can play against five and we’ll find another sixth player.”
…and so the children played.
A normal game of football. Trevor watched the ball, eager to make a save. He much rather be a striker but had somehow fallen into defense… and he didn’t mind being a goalkeeper.
Watching the ball made him think… made his mind wonder…
“Was it a dream?” He felt like he had forgotten something… something that made him a little sad the more he thought of it. It was like he half remembered a TV program where all he could recall were the adverts in between. A song? No… He looked around, trying to remember… maybe there was nothing to remember?
Something made him look around searchingly… he was distracted when he saw Michelle, who was sitting on the sidelines watching them. For some reason this cheered him up greatly. There was this sudden burst of energy and that sadness… that ‘pain’ he felt was gone…
… only for it to manifest as the ball hit him on the head. The impact made Michelle wince.
“OOOW!” he fell back on the grass… staring up at the cloudy sky. He felt a single tear going down the side of his head… probably from the impact of the ball…
“Great save!” Zain grinned widely as he helped him up. The Asian boy took a moment to pull up his socks and wait for the ball to be kicked back.
Trevor groaned and picked up the ball, throwing it back to the field. He rubbed his head slightly. “I should be paying more attention…” He glanced back to Michelle who was smiling wildly.
‘I made her laugh’… That made him happy. Trevor grinned a bit back in her direction and gave a wave. He didn’t know her that well… did he? Well, they often walked together from school since they lived near each other… ‘Could I be friends with her?’
It was silly. He had never really considered being friends with a girl. They were weird, played with dolls, and were just so ‘different’ that he had no starting frame of reference. If he suggested a game to play they would want to cook instead. A game of hide and seek would devolve into arguments of how ‘a girl can choose to be invisible so you can’t see me’… yeah girls seemed to live in their own world. Even with all that, Michelle was weirder then most girls given what her family did. (A fact he wasn’t sure how to process, except with exuberant curiosity.) When half time came, he quickly went to see Michelle. “Hey!” He smiled.
“Hi…” Michelle smiled back.
Trevor felt an awkward pause. “You um- “You uh- want to play? We’re short a person.” Trevor looked a her curiously. It never really occurred to invite a girl to play… and suddenly he was worried what the other guys might think. However a six vs six game would be better.
Michelle seemed just as surprised and stiffened a bit. “Um- I’m not sure,” She said quickly. Part of her did but… as she watched she saw them play quite rough. She put her hands on her abdomen-
“Oh… is it because you’ll break your eggs?” Trevor asked with a sly grin.
“W-what?” Michelle stammered again. “No!” Though yes… she was worried about that. She would have to ask Jen what would happen if… if a ball hit her. Would she even know? Would she have to go to the hospital? Was there medicine? She didn’t know. She certainly didn’t want to say she had already laid her eggs so there was nothing to worry about… at least for another month… even ‘that’ was too much!
“Ha ha- you could get them all scrambled!” He was trying to make a joke of it… try to get her to laugh again. Though this only made Michelle more annoyed more angry and upset.
“Hey is this the egg girl?!” Richard asked running over, wiping a brow of sweat from his long blonde hair.
“Whoa! Can we see your stomach?” Mark suddenly said. “Is it true you don’t have a belly button? Does that mean you don’t get any fluff down there?”
Zain, the quiet Asian boy was the only one who gave Michelle a respectful distance. He didn’t interact much with others outside the main group so was getting to know their opponents in conversation.
Michelle groaned as she tried to get away from the curious boys. “Oh you’re all just stupid!” She was so angry that Trevor had told them all! Why was everything just a joke? “Leave me alone!” she ran away in a huff.
Trevor was about to follow her… but they still had the second half of the game to play. He felt an odd pang of sadness but promised to make it up to Michelle later. “Okay, let’s win this game like always!”
“Uh, didn’t we lose the last three?” Mark asked.
“…did we?” Trevor found himself thinking again. Yes… they lost. That wasn’t unusual at all.
…they… always tended to lose their football matches.
