Nate The Middle Child

• Jaime-lee Fox, Grade 10
• Short Story
• 2008

Once upon a time in the town of Cuppertea, there was a little boy named Nate. Nate lived with his mother and father, his brother and his three sisters. He was often left out of things because he was a middle child, and would have to find things to do by himself. He went for walks around Cuppertea, making up adventures as he went along. On rainy days he was a pirate battling the seven seas (puddles) and on sunny days he was climbing Mt Everest (trees). Nate enjoyed his adventures, but sometimes they were lonesome because he had no one to tell about them, or to accompany him on his journeys.
One overcast day, Nate wandered out and as he walked he realised that on an overcast day like this, with no rain or wind yet, there wouldn’t be much of an adventure. Nate looked around. Over the street, a group of girls were playing hopscotch. A group of boys were playing soccer, and a mixed group were sitting on the fence, talking. They were all different ages, some really big, others as small as him. Nate decided to try joining in.
So he approached the group of girls playing hopscotch first. As he walked over the road (he looked both ways first), Nate saw that two of his sisters were playing as well. As he neared them, the older of the two, Debbie, glared at him.
“What do you want?” She asked coldly. Nate ignored this.
“Can I play?” He asked shyly. His younger sister, Maria, threw her stone and hopped. She looked at him as the rest of the girls giggled at him.
“No, Nate. This is a girl’s game. You can’t play,” she replied matter-of-factly. Nate said OK and he walked away.
Nate walked over to the boys kicking the soccer ball. They were all teenagers, and one of them was his brother Colin. Colin noticed Nate standing there.
“You all right, Nate?” He asked, passing the ball with his foot to his friend.
“Can I play, Colin?” Nate asked. One of Colin’s friends looked at Nate.
“No little kids mate. Off you go.”
“Oh, oh ok,” Nate said, walking away. Colin called out, “Bye!”
Nate was starting to feel sad. He had no-one to play with and no adventures to embark on. He looked at the group of kids on the fence. They were even older than Colin, and Nate could see his eldest sister Jacinta in the middle. He didn’t bother asking to join.
He wandered glumly down to the park, where there was a lonely girl on a see-saw. Nate wandered over to her.
“Hi, I’m Nate,” he said. She looked at him.
“Hi!” She replied. “I’m Sally. Do you want to play?”
Nate’s face lit up. “Yes, please.”
He sat on the other end of the see-saw and rocked back and forth all afternoon, until it rained. Then together him and his new friend Sally became pirates and travelled the seven seas.