A Ball Can Have A Story Of Many

• Joy Wong, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2013

I chucked the soccer ball back over the fence. This may seem like a weird thing to do but it had been going on for endlessly for months. We had never seen each other or talked to each other... ever. The backyard of our house always made me feel free, wild if you like. The wind had a mind of its own and did what it liked. Whenever I had some homework to do after coming home from another tiring day of school, I lay underneath a giant maple tree that was planted good knows how many years ago. In autumn the light shone through the orange leaves amazingly beautifully and I occasionally took pictures. Suddenly one day, a dirty soccer ball came hurtling over the fence and smashed into our dog kennel where our dog had used to live in before he died. Come to think of it, my dog had been my only real friend before he had... passed away from old age.
I flicked my head over where the soccer ball had landed, sat up and looked at it. The soccer ball was worn and beaten up with many dirt marks all around its solid body that you would think that it had been used for decades. I kicked it back over and the ball came back the next day when I went to lay under the tree, it was there again. No matter how many times it went over, it always came back.
Since I was a `nerd’ all I did at school was study. I’m pretty sure all the guys had called me ugly and boring at least once. I was always alone and had no friends. My parents worked all day, every day.
I was alone.
At school while it was one of those scarce days that I wasn’t in the warm library, the soccer field was where I was. It made me think of the mystery guy. Shockingly on that day, the most popular guy in our whole grade brought... the soccer ball.
I was stunned and started eavesdropping on their conversation.
His friends started asking about the soccer ball and he said, “This soccer ball is the link to the girl I love.” Probably for the first time in my life, my heart skipped a beat.
His friends started teasing him and asking who this girl was.
I sighed as I thought, “You would never love me.”
The day when I got home the soccer ball was in the yard and I went to go kick it back but something caught my eye. On the soccer ball there was something written.
It said, “I LOVE YOU,” in permanent marker.
I instantly wrote back, “YOU WOULD NEVER LOVE ME.”
The next day the ball said, “HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?”
I wrote “IF YOU REALLY WANT TO KNOW, MEET ME AT THE PARK AFTER SCHOOL TOMORROW.” I kicked it back and waited for the next day. After school I went to the park with my hooded jumper and jeans because of the freezing cold. The trees were shedding their leaves and they crunched under my feet. Someone grabbed me from behind and hugged me.
I heard a voice say, “I LOVE YOU.”