“You’re not coming!”
“But I wanna!”
“You’re too little.”
"I'm this." She held up six fingers.
"You're eight."
"That's what I said."
"You held up six fingers.”
"No I didn't. I know how to count."
"No. Obviously you don't. You’re too little to come.”
“I’m eight. I’ll be nine in a month.” Brenda not only wanted to be like Sally, she wanted to be Sally, and she was willing to go to great lengths to do it. She cut her hair like Sally’s, she ate the same foods, she even talked like her.
“Go home!”
“Aww, come on!”
“Go!”
“Oh… all right.” Brenda whined. She stood there with a blank look on her face.
Sally got on her bike and drove off. She was nearly twelve, and she decided long ago that her age as compared to Brenda’s meant that she was better than her. Everyone knew that eleven was better than eight, she thought to herself. Brenda needed to grow up to hang out with the eleven year olds, and that was where Sally was going next, with her older friends. She couldn’t just drag along a tyke in tow. Everyone would think she was weird.
Brenda stood there for a second, got on her bike, and followed Sally. “Hey! Wait up!”
When they got to the clubhouse, they parked their bikes. It was early, nearly 9:30 am, and Sally still wanted breakfast. She always had it at the clubhouse. They would have a sharing pile, and she would always pick the goodies. “Brenda, I said go home!”
“But I wanna come, too! I wanna, I wanna!” She stomped her feet, and a bag of chocolate candy fell to the ground. “Oops!”
“You have candy?”
“Well, I thought I would eat it when we got there.”
“Is that Chocolate Chunks?”
“Yup.”
“They’re my fav.”
“Yeah, I know. Me too.”
“OK. You can come in, but you have to add to the sharing pile.”
Brenda smiled and pocketed the candy. There was something strange about the child, decided Sally. Brenda wasn’t the smartest and Brenda knew it, but she did smart things. It was like she was playing dumb, but on the inside something else was going on.