Little Differences

I’m lying in the bed under the covers watching my favorite episode of Spongebob Squarepants. I’m laughing at Patrick and Spongebob’s conversation so hard that I don’t even hear Jessie walk into the room. “How are you feeling, bestie?”, she asks me. “Still in a lot of pain”, I say. “Hank should feel really bad for what he did”, she says. “Yes, he should but I bet he doesn’t”, I say. Spongebob begins to yell and run around in circles. Jessie and I laugh so loud that we can probably be heard downstairs and out the door. “I love this show”, Jessie says. “Me too”, I say in agreement.

There is another knock at the door and Alani comes in. “Are you okay”, she asks. “I’ve been better but yes, I’m doing fine”, I say. “Can we sign your cast”, Alani asks. “Sure”, I say. There is yet another knock on my door and Cali peeks her head in around the door. “Hey, you. How’d you get here”, I ask. “Hope you didn’t walk all the way over here by yourself”, I say. “No, my mom brought us”, she says. “Us”, I say confused by the fact that I don’t see anyone else with her.

“Yes, Jaxson and Advik came with me. They both wanted to see how you were doing”, Cali says. “I’ll go down and speak to them”, I slip on my purple puppy dog slippers. “You got sick earlier, I hear you barfed all on Hank”, I say. “Just his shoes”, she says. “Well, are you feeling better”, I ask. “Much better”, she says with a pleasant smile on her face.

We all head downstairs to speak to Jaxson and Advik. Jaxson and Advik meet us at the bottom of the stairs. “Hey, guys”, I say. “You have company”, Advik says with a concerned look on his face. “Who is it?”, I ask, walking down into the family room. “Wait, before you go into the kitchen. I need you to promise me something”, Jaxson says. “What’s that?”, I ask. “That you will remain calm always”, he says. “That’s a weird promise. Why wouldn’t I be calm?” “Promise!”, he says. “Okay, I promise to be calm at all time”, I say.

Just as I’m finishing my promise to Jaxson, my mom comes around the corner, “There you are sweetie”, I was on my way up to get you. “We have company”, she says. “Come on, let’s not be rude and keep them waiting.” Mom grabs my hands and pulls me into the kitchen. As we around the corner, I see, of all people, Hank, just standing there looking at the floor.

Once I enter the kitchen, the lady with the long hair standing next to him begins to speak. “Hi, Katie. I’m Hank’s mom. I heard about the accident at school”, she begins to say. “You heard wrong. It was no accident it was a purposedent”, I want to shout but I know better than to shout at an adult.

In case any of you are wondering what a purposedent is. A purposedent is my own little word that I made up and it means that something is done on purpose. It is the opposite of an accident.

I can’t believe Hank is at my house. Some nerve he must have to show his face over here after what he did to me and my friends. After a few moments of quiet and a nudge from his mother, Hank begins to speak. “I’m sorry for hurting you Katie and for making you sick Cali. I owe all of you an apology”, Hank says. “I really didn’t mean for anyone to get hurt. I just wanted to have some fun”, he goes on.

At first, I have the mind to tell him exactly what I think of him. But as he continues to talk, and I see the sincere look on his face that shows me he’s truly sorry, I begin to calm down and think rationally. “We understand that you made a mistake and we are willing to forgive you”, I say, and everyone agrees with me.

We all stand around and talk in a huddle while our parents are at the table drinking tea and chit chatting about us I’m sure. “Before you came, everyone was about to sign my cast. Would you like to join us?”, I ask Hank. Jessie grabs the markers and hands everyone the color of their choice. “You can go first”, Jessie says to Hank.

He signs his name, “Hank Palsey” and underneath his name he writes sorry in capital letters. “That’s so that you can remember how sorry I truly am”, he says. Everyone else signs their name and writes nice things to make me smile. “I have a lot of healing to do but at least I’ll have these comforting words to look at the entire time”, I say.