Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
THE NICKNAME
Gretchen
thirteen years ago, summer
I’m only a few chapters into Anne of Green Gables when my brother and his new friend rush onto the back porch in a mad dash. Mom’s stern voice telling them to close the door is cut off with the sound of the sliding door clicking shut.
The boy I don’t know runs past me with a football in his hand as Drew rushes past even faster on my other side. It happens so quickly, I pull my knees to my chest for a second, afraid they might crash into me.
“Vining! I’m open,” my brother yells as he hops over the corner of the pool with a hand in the air on his way to the yard beyond.
For the next several minutes, I read while they toss the ball around. My attention is mostly on my book but is occasionally pulled the boys’ direction when their voices are loud enough to distract me.
“Fisher! Go long!” I look up to see Drew’s friend jogging backward while my brother runs the other way to the far corner of our large backyard. The ball flies through the air, but when Drew reaches out to catch it, it bounces off his fingers, hits the top of the fence and flies into the greenbelt.
Drew curses—as he always does when Mom and Dad aren’t around to hear it. Ha! Now he has to venture into the brush behind our fence that hasn’t been mowed in months. Serves him right.
“What are you reading?” I turn toward the voice. Drew’s friend now stands at the edge of the patio.
“ Anne of Green Gables .” I hold up the book to show him the cover.
Drew yelps something about snakes and critters as he wades into the waist-high brush.
“I’m Connor.”
I hold a hand above my eyes to shield the sun when I look up at him. “My name’s Gretchen.”
“Do you read a lot?” he asks.
I shrug. “Yeah. I read about two books a week.” Mom tells me to say that proudly, but I’m usually nervous to tell people.
“Wow! That’s really cool.”
“Some of the kids at school think it’s weird.”
“Nah, those kids are weird. I think it’s awesome.” Connor winks at me and it makes me feel a little better.
We’re quiet for a few seconds as we watch Drew behind the fence, still on the hunt for the football.
“Your brother gonna be okay back there?”
I laugh. “If not, he deserves it.”
Connor laughs too and the sound makes me smile.
A thought comes to mind. I close the book and look back to Connor. “Why do you guys call each other by your last names?”
He squints for a moment. “I guess it’s because that’s what Coach calls us.”
“Why does your coach do it?”
“The last names on the back of our jerseys are the only way he can tell us apart when we’re on the field.”
I guess that makes sense.
“Found it!” Drew yells, football held high above his head .
“It was nice to meet you, Gretchen,” Connor says over his shoulder as he heads back to the yard to join Drew.
A little while later, I’m still reading.
Drew and Connor are still tossing the football, but they’re not running plays anymore.
Instead, they’re lobbing the wildest passes they can come up with.
Most of the time they end up laid out in the grass, either from diving to make a catch or laughing so hard they can’t stay on their feet.
I have my nose deep in chapter ten when the football bounces on to the porch beside me. I lean over the armrest of my chair to pick it up.
“Little fish, right here,” Connor says. He smiles at me, hands up ready for me to throw it back to him.
Little fish. The nickname makes me grin. Nobody outside of my family has ever given me one . I like it, except for one thing. “I’m not little.”
He twists his lips like he’s thinking. “Okay, how about just Fish then?”
Connor stayed for dinner tonight. Mom and Dad spent most of the time talking football with the boys and asking Connor about his family.
I didn’t say much but I listened a lot.
His family recently moved here from a nearby smaller school district to give him a better chance at a football scholarship.
He and my brother met at the first day of football camp earlier this week.
He has two older brothers: one who’s three years older and begins college this fall and the other who’s five years older and is about to start his senior year of college.
He said since it’s only him and his parents now, it was easier to make the move.
Something about downsizing, although I’m not sure what that means.
But my favorite part of dinner was Connor calling me Fish when he asked me to pass the parmesan cheese.