The Adventures of Rank
True Friends
All of the neighbor kids were at the schoolyard playing. Rank finished his chores, jumped on his new bike and raced off to join them.
It was a hot day and Rank had brought a surprise. Water balloons. Yep, it was going to be fun. He and Terry spent hours the day before filling them up and carefully placing them in their backpacks.
Just as he guessed, the kids were all playing football. Rank joined on Terry’s team. No one else knew that Rank and Terry were hiding water balloons in their hoods of their shirts. When Terry had the ball, Rank, quietly and quickly, tucked the football under his shirt and handed Terry a water balloon.
Terry stepped backed, raised his arm high and to the back. With all of his might, he threw the water balloon to a teammate way down the field. The other team saw who was going to catch the football and ran over. Just as the teammate reached up to grab the ball, S P L A T T !!!
Water splattered everyone. It was such a surprise that no one really knew what happened. At least for a few minutes. Rank and Terry immediately started throwing the rest of the balloons at anyone and everyone. All of the kids were having a great time. The water felt good and occasionally the balloons didn’t break on the first throw. When that happened, the boys scrambled to grab the balloons. By the time the water fight was done, all of the boys were wet and laughing. Except for one.
Jonathon never really liked Rank. The real issue was Jonathon was jealous but he didn’t understand that. He just knew that he didn’t like him.
After the water fight, Jonathon walked over to Rank’s new bike, kicked the spokes and knocked it over.
As Rank saw what was happening, he started running, screaming, “Jonathon, stop it! Leave my bike alone!” Jonathon kept kicking at the spokes and laughing.
As Rank reached Jonathon, he pushed him off the bike. It was actually more like a perfect tackle; Rank went low and wrapped his arms around Jonathon’s legs.
Jonathon went down hard and Rank fell on top of him. Rank was a big boy but Jonathon was bigger. He was also known as the school bully. Jonathon came up swinging.
Rank jumped up and back and got his fists in a fighting position. Just as Rank was ready to either give a beating or take one, the other kids all lined up in front of Rank. Much to the surprise of Rank, the kids told Jonathon he would have to go through them to get to Rank.
Jonathon looked at the line of boys. It was only a few seconds of tension and Jonathon walked off.
All of the boys gathered around Rank’s bike and decided it wasn’t that damaged. They would all help fix it.
Off they went to Mr. Jenkins’ garage. It didn’t take long and the bike was back to new.
As Rank got ready for bed, he thought over the day. It sure didn’t go as he had expected. All in all, it actually went much better. He was starting to feel welcome in his new life.