47 Reminiscing (2)

When William left Mia was still standing in front of the door, she started to reminisce about what her mother said to her years ago.

"Look Mia, a way to a man's heart is through his stomach." My mom then pointed at my father who was at the table while we were eating. Father was stuffing his face with the food, as he heard this he gave a hearty laugh.

"That's right." He said not denying mother's words. I who was only 7 at that time did not understand what mother meant at the time. However, I always keep it to heart since mother and father have always been happy together.

1 month has passed and I still don't have any friends in any groups in the classroom. I can consider my classmates as acquaintances but not as friends. I'm rather awkward and shy, I tried to approach the other girls in class but it was already too late as they have formed their own cliques.

Like any normal lunch break, I took out my lunch box and started preparing the utensil and water container that I was going to use. However, there was a sudden grumble from behind me. My other classmates seem to have been looking at the person who made the sound. They were all looking behind me and behind me was the new student. He started this week and he doesn't have any friends too. When I thought of that, I suddenly remembered my mother and her saying, so I took up all the courage I had and face the new student.

I said, "Did you forget your lunch?"

It seems it was the case since most of the students without packed lunch would run as fast as they could and head for the canteen. Without asking him, I prepared my lunch in front of his table. I divided everything in two, I thought, sharing would be fine since it was what mother told me. Maybe this will be my chance to get close to a friend.

The next day, he forgot his lunch again. So I did the same thing and shared my food with William. That was his name, he was a quiet child too, we couldn't converse and all we did was eat. But I thought, it was better to have someone to eat with rather than be alone. It was a comforting thought that I was making a friend just by sharing food with them.

I told my mother about William, she said she'll pack more food in my lunch box since we were still growing. Every day we would eat together and he started to open up bit by bit. I think he was embarrassed with sharing as he would blush or look down most of the time.

My birthday was about to come and my mother told me that I should invite my friends. I wanted to tell mother that we should celebrate it with just my family when I remembered, I do have a friend. So I told my mother that there is someone I would like to invite, but I was not sure if he was going to come. Mother said that I should let my friend invite others so they would feel better in coming.

So that what I did I talked to William and when I invited him, I was so scared that I was going to be rejected and I gripped my hand tightly. However, mother did not disappoint me as William answered with a yes without delay when I said he could invite a friend.

Though I was not sure who he will invite since he only interacts with me.

On my birthday, William came with a cute boy with him. Mother could not stop pinching the boy's cheeks and telling him how cute he was. I on the other hand was just happy that William came to my house. I excitedly invited him to my room to play. I do not know what boys like to play but I took out all of the board games in the house and we played one game after another.

It was time to open the gifts and I opened William's gift for me first. I was delighted and surprised because I've never told him that I like stuff toys. It was a cute bunny rabbit with a pink dress and white doll shoes. She has a light pink bow on one of her ears. I'll make sure to treasure this gift that I've received from my friend.

I was really glad that I courageously spoke to him that time. My days became happier when I was with him. He would always accompany me going home and we would play at home or visit the nearby shops. I noticed that he likes to look at anime figurines when we pass by the shops, especially those robot ones. I've decided to buy him one for his birthday.

We would eat ice cream during hot days or play when we pass by the arcades. I found out that William was really good at the claw machines. He would get a lot of the stuffed animals and give them to me whenever he gets a prize. It was amazing how he only needed a couple of tries to get one. I could never do that, I would usually spend a lot of tokens and I don't even get a prize most of the time.

He also brought me to a shop where they sell a lot of cute stuff animals and dolls. The grandma in the shop was very nice. She told me how a little boy was wandering about the shopping district finding a gift for a friend. When I looked at him, he was blushing to the side while fidgeting his feet, he must have been embarrassed when I found. The grandma was looking at us with a kind smile, she said she was very happy that I like and treasured the gift that William bought from her shop.