A Wish (Part 1)

The sky is blue. It is the perfect day to hike. Or, that’s what I hope… I’m hoping for a little challenge. Last night I stood outside watching the stars. One fell, and I wished for it. I wished for adventure. I mean, I don’t believe in this stuff, but well, it suited the time.
My name is Robin and I’m sixteen. I close my jacket and want to start hiking, when I realize I forgot my companion. It’s a guy from my school. I don’t really talk to him much, but our fathers know each other well. I wait a while and when he finally appears, he smiles. I smile back, but don’t really say anything. He’s popular at school and, to be honest, about everybody knows him well accept for me. My friends all like him. I have lots of friends. But half of the girls are in love with him. Of course I think that’s crazy, but I guess they think he’s kind of handsome when he smiles. The rest of the girls, like him as a friend. I’m the only one who needs to get to know him. And I see this as the opportunity.
We climb the huge mountain, it takes a while, but eventually we are halfway. All this time I didn’t say a word to him. At halfway we eat our lunch, so I decide to ask him some questions like: “You’re a good climber… Do you do this a lot?” I ask this because he’s good at climbing. We’re climbing and camping on this mountain for a few days so, knowing your companion is obviously a good thing. Anyways, the guy is called Sydney. That’s the one thing I do know about him. And he’s athletic. I saw him at P.E.
Sydney shrugs at the compliment and says, “Well, I’m okay at climbing… It’s my sixth time. You?” I answer that it’s my fourth time climbing. Sydney answers all my questions and asks me some. At the end I know that Sydney loves music, sports and reading. Also he hates bullies and Nutella.
Well, I guess it’s not a lot, but now I do know why all these girls feel so attracted to him. Although, I really couldn’t figure how he could like reading… In my sixteen years I haven’t found a popular that felt for that stuff, but you know, it actually really made me respect him more. I really like reading and decide to talk about books while we’re hiking. And the Nutella thing… Well, I’ll just try to avoid that in the best way I can.
Talking while hiking is difficult, but Sydney talks most of the way and seems to be enjoying it. Anyways, it does make the hiking go a little faster. We talk about books and fantasy, dreams and wishes, and that, of course reminds me of the star yesterday night. It’s weird to tell somebody you don’t even know well about your dreams, but what if he watches stars too? It’s quite unlikely I’d admit considering my tragic reason, but who knows?
“Sydney, do you often or… eh, sometimes watch stars?” I ask knowing it would be a huge coincidence if he did.
“Why, no. I don’t,” he says. I can tell he is confused, “Do you?”
‘Last night there was a falling star. Or I thought it was… You know how there is this tradition of wishing when a star falls?” Sydney wants to reply but I don’t wait for answer, “I decided I’d try this out. All I could think to wish for was adventure. Like in books. Wouldn’t that be cool?” I ask.
Sydney nods. “Yeah, I might wish for that too.” He says smiling kindly.
I challenge Sydney into a race to the top, but of course he is much faster.
“Come on Robin! You’re so slow!” He says, “You better hurry if you still would like to make it!”
Well, he is teasing me, but he is right. The sun will be going down soon, so I should hurry up. Sydney helps me up shooting me a look saying: You really didn’t think you could stand a chance of beating me, right?
“So it is clear who won,” he says smiling.
“You dare!” I say throwing him the two packages for the tents to set up.
“Alright,” he says, “You can dare me into anything you want. I’ll do it if you let me dare you afterward.”
“Challenge accepted,” I say, “I dare you to show me any stunt you never tried.”
“Sure, if that’s all you can think of…” He says challenging.
“Well, let’s see. Uhm… What have you NOT done? Maybe-” But I can’t think of something he has not done.
After a while he just says: “Just think about it tonight. If you don’t have something tomorrow, I might have an idea.”
All I can do is agree. We find a nice spot to set up a fire and set up the tents, because the sun just set. By the fire we eat dinner and after that- of course- smores. Yum.
“You know,” says Sydney, “smores were my mom’s favorite snack. And she was so right!”
“What’s up with the past time? Doesn’t she like smores anymore? That’d be a shame.” I say stuffing my mouth full again.
“No it’s… uh… something else. I don’t really feel like talking about it.” He says.
“Alright.” I agree. “Wow, it’s cold!”
“Really?” He asks.
Of course he is smart enough to bring a thick jacket with him unlike me… Sydney grabs a blue wool blanket from his backpack.
“How about this?” He says handing the blanket.
“Nice. Thanks!” I say happily.
He just nods. I look at the stars.
“Those stars, they mean a lot to you, don’t they?” He says looking up.
“Oh yeah,” I pause a while afterward, but I suppose Sydney is waiting for an explaination. But I don’t know for sure because I’m looking up. So I just decide to end with a simple: “Yeah…”