The One Good Thing by Kevin Alan Milne

Author:Kevin Alan Milne [Milne, Kevin Alan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: General Fiction, Fiction / Family Life, Fiction / Contemporary Women
ISBN: 9781455510085
Publisher: Center Street
Published: 2013-03-12T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-five

With the onset of another summer, I fully expected Nathan to forget about me for the next three months, but I severely underestimated his determination. He rode his bike over to my house nearly every day to check on me. Some days it was a quick visit to say hello, other times he’d bring a book that he thought I’d like to read, or sometimes we’d just sit on the grass in front of my house and talk while Eliza ran around picking dandelions. The best days, though, were when he brought Randy. The three of us would make cookies or drink lemonade or just shoot the breeze until they had to go.

Eighth grade turned out much better than seventh grade, and it was all because of Nathan. The guy just didn’t give up. What was really impressive, though, was that he started branching out. I saw, through very simple acts of kindness, that he was trying to be a friend to everyone. During that year he really established himself as the “nice kid.” Everyone seemed to think he was their best friend—the jocks, the cheerleaders, the band geeks, the drama club, the nerds, the shy kids, the fat kids, and of course the nerdy-shy-fat kids like me.

Interestingly—and thankfully—the more overt kindness that Nathan showed to me, the less other kids made fun of me. And if he or Randy happened to hear someone teasing me or joking about me, all they had to do was tell them to give it a rest, and they did!

My grades were still in the tank, and I still looked like a mess, and my life still really sucked, but it sucked a lot less knowing there were at least one or two people at school who cared about me.

On the last day of the school year, Nathan received awards for Citizen of the Year and Student of the Year, both of them well deserved. Afterward, the teachers handed out yearbooks, and all the kids were going around getting them signed. Nathan found me in the crowd and wrote something very sweet about how bright I was and that I needed to shine. The only other person who wrote anything was Randy, and I think his comment was “Stay cool.” Anyway, after signing my yearbook Nathan informed me that he had got a job at a youth camp, so he probably wouldn’t be able to see me as much during the summer.

“Oh,” I said. “Bummer.”

“Yeah, I need the money. Dad says it’s time to start saving for college.” Then came the best part of that year: he leaned forward and gave me a hug. A long one. I don’t think I’d ever been hugged by a boy before, except maybe by my cousin when I was little. And to have him do it with so many people watching? I was on cloud nine. That hug was all I needed to get through the summer, with or without his regular visits. It wasn’t even a romantic thing; I knew he didn’t like me that way.

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