Evan Grijalva
It was the April of 2015, the day of my birthday! I was looking forward to this day for a while. Every year on my birthday, my parents decided to throw a big birthday party for me. They would invite basically everyone on their contact list. Grown-ups, and children. I wasn’t complaining because the more people the better! Being the gleeful kid I was, I was super excited for the day. We had a jumping castle in the front yard, my grandma making food in the kitchen, my mom cleaning the house so it would look “presentable,” and my dad watering the plants, so they didn’t look dry. Everything was going great, maybe a little “too great.”
About an hour later, people start arriving. Mostly my dad’s friends and their kids. Because I’ve known them for basically my whole life, I said hello. But a lot of people from my school started to come! I was super excited because my mom never really let me have friend over during school days. But this day was different. My best friend was the first one to arrive, and I ran over to him, and we started talking like children, just some random conversation. A lot more of my friends were arriving, and my moms worry of our house not being able to fit all of us grew. We were all having fun, running around the house. But suddenly, the room froze. A girl, Lauren, I’ve known since 1st grade came through the door. She waved at me once she saw me, and I nervously waved back.
“Guys! She’s here! I can’t believe it!” I whispered to all my friends.
My best friend, Sal, then chimed in, “Wait, what’s so good about that? We’ve all known her since first grade.” Which was true, we were all in an honors class in elementary, which means that all of us were in the same class for the entirety of elementary school.
“Look, this is different,” I interrupted, trying my best to defend myself about her coming. “I’ve gotten to know her better, and I really want to talk to her!
About 30 minutes in, the only thing I said to Lauren was just the occasional “Hi”. I felt that my time was dwindling, so need to talk to her and rip it off like a bandage. I was talking to my mom when I noticed her outside playing baseball with foam bats my parents supplied.
“This is my chance!” I thought to myself. I ran outside, with the hot Arizona heat beating down on my skin. Some people I haven’t seen yet were telling me happy birthday, and I just replied with “thanks.” I didn’t care about anything right now. I wanted to talk to her! Thinking of what to say, I close my eyes, and approach her. Then, out of nowhere, WHAM! Lauren hits me in the face with a baseball bat. I fell to the floor, hearing many people gasp. Like what a good parent should do, my mom and dad ran outside and helped me up, asking questions right and left.
“Are you ok?!” “What happened?!” How many fingers am I holding up?!” I could barely process any of these because my cheek was hurting bad. It felt that I had a small heartbeat on my cheek. My dad took me in the bathroom and cleaned me up. I could tell he was trying to make small talk with me, but I was mad. Of course, right before I talk to Lauren, I get hit by her. Most people would say, “Suck it up and just talk to her! None of this matters!” but I was pissed. I go back outside, and literally no one talks to me. “What, did none of this even happen?!” I thought to myself. The only people who turn and run to me were my friends.
“WOAH, ARE YOU OK?!” literally everyone says to me.
“I’m ok,” I reply. “It just hurts.” But then Lauren approached me.
“I’m so sorry I hit you Evan, I didn’t see you when I was taking a swing,” she says.
“It’s ok,” I say in a small voice. I was still mad, but can you blame me? After all this happens, it went smoothly. A somewhat nice happy birthday sing, opening presents, all that jazz. And when it was all over, I didn’t even say bye to her. And to add insult to injury, I never talked to her again.
Evan Grijalva is currently a freshman at Rincon High School. On their off time they enjoy playing video-games and hanging out with their friends.