Vow of Friendship

By Sheryl Fletcher

VOW OF FRIENDSHIP is the story of an 11 year-old girl, Christina (“Tissy”) Matthews and her group of five friends, Rachel, Tracy, Anna, Karen, and Cameron. The story follows the group of friends through their grade six school year and how each deals with peer-pressure, an awakening interest in boys, their families and each other. Tissy learns some important life lessons after being mean to a “nerdy” boy in school, egging a neighbour’s house and being pressured to steal some candy. The group of friends manages to work through their many disagreements and although each member of the group is very different from the others, at the end of the school year they all take a Vow of Friendship to remain friends forever.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Books for Pleasure
• Release date: Sep 15, 2014
• ISBN: 9781553491149

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

Don’t ask me why I get nervous the first day of school, I just do. It’s silly because, after all, I’ve been going to the same school since kindergarten. This year I’m going into grade six. My name is Christina Matthews and I’m eleven years old. Most people call me Tissy, which is what I’ve been called since I was only six hours old.

My mother loves to tell the story of how I got my nickname. It goes like this: my brother Mark, who was almost two when I was born, couldn’t say my name. So when my mother introduced us for the first time, she said to him, Say Chrissy. He said, Tissy.

Since that day, I’ve had my nickname. My mother said when I get older I’ll probably want people to call me Christina but I doubt it. The name, Tissy, suits me better.

I don’t think Mark, who is now 13 years old, ever calls me Christina. Even when he’s really mad. Believe me, it’s not hard to tell when I’m in trouble with my parents because it’s the only time they call me by my real name.

One of the reasons I like going back to school after summer break is because I get to see all my friends. I see most of them over the summer but it’s not the same. I guess I get nervous the first day because I’m beginning all over again: another new classroom, desk, seat and teacher. This year I have a male teacher who is new to our school. His name is Mr. Thompkins. I’ve never had a male teacher before and it bothers me. For some reason I’m just not as comfortable around men. My mother says I’m being silly. She says you don’t have to be a woman to be a good teacher. When I was your age my favourite teacher was a man, she told me.

Mark still goes to the same school as me. This year he’s in grade eight. Like most brothers, he gets on my nerves, but we still walk to the bus stop together everyday. Next year, when he goes to high school, he’ll take a different bus. Usually we walk with a girl who lives two doors down. Her name is Lena. She’s the same age as Mark and this year they’re in the same class.

The second we leave our doorstep, they begin talking about their friends. Not once have they noticed me listening in on their conversation. They talk about who likes who and other interesting stuff. When I get to school I tell my friends what I’ve overhead. Even though the kids in grade eight don’t pay attention to the kids in grade six, we still like knowing what’s going on.

There are six of us in my group of friends. We’ve been hanging around since kindergarten. First, there’s my best friend Rachel. She’s the smallest in our group. She’s actually the same size as the kids in grade four. Believe me, it really bothers her. She keeps waiting to grow and catch up to rest of us. Rachel’s the person I trust most. If I had to choose one person to hang around with every day, I’d choose her.

Another friend in the group is Tracy. We get along most of the time but when we fight, it usually lasts a couple of days. Most times I find her too bossy. She likes to have it her way or no way.

Then there’s Karen. She’s my least favourite. She hardly ever smiles and always has an angry look on her face. Don’t get me wrong I like her. But to be honest, she gets on my nerves. Plus, she worships Tracy and follows her around like a lost puppy. Rachel thinks Tracy treats Karen like her slave. What bothers me most is how they pair up sometimes and ignore the rest of us. I hate it!

Cameron’s the tomboy. I like her a lot and we never argue. She gets along with everyone, boys and girls. She’s tough and doesn’t take any lip from anyone. Once, when we were in grade three, she got into a fight with a boy in grade six and made his nose bleed. He ran into the school crying and told the principal. The next day the boy’s parents arrived at school and Cameron got called down to the office. She later told us that the boy’s parents were so shocked that she was a girl, they practically ran out of the office. I guess because her name is Cameron they expected a boy. She never did get into trouble.

Finally, there’s Anna. Out of all my friends she’s the prettiest. She has long blond hair, which always looks as though it’s just been washed. She has the biggest blue eyes and when she talks they get even bigger. My favourite thing about her is the fact that she’s so funny. She doesn’t even try, she just is. But sometimes she can be a bit ditzy.

The thing I hate about my bus is that there aren’t any kids on it from my grade. There used to be a girl named Janet but she moved away last year. She used to always sit with me but I really would have preferred she didn’t. The reason I say that is because she had bad body odour. I mean she stunk! My mother said it might have been her lunch. Believe me, it was definitely not her lunch. I just figured she didn’t bathe enough. Her hair would be neat and clean on Monday morning but by Friday it was in knots. Finally, I couldn’t stand the smell of her anymore. My mother said, Whatever you say, Tissy, be sure you don’t hurt her feelings.

I decided to tell her I got motion sickness from the bus. I told her that I had to leave the window open and hang my head outside in case I threw up.

Oh, she said when I told her.

I’m just scared I may throw up on you, I lied.

I’ll never forget the look on her face. It was so obvious she didn’t believe me. Afterwards I felt terrible. She never tried to sit with me again. I later wished I’d just held my breath. Then, in the middle of the year, her family moved away and she had to change schools. She didn’t even say goodbye. I guess I really hurt her feelings.

CHAPTER 2

Lena arrived at our door at the usual time to walk with us to the bus stop. She looked very pretty. She has such pretty blond hair. I’ve always wished for my hair to be blonder. My mother’s friend dyes her hair so blond it’s practically yellow. I plan on dying my hair when I’m older.

As usual, the second we left our doorstep, Mark and Lena began talking about kids in grade eight. I found it hard to keep up with them because I was wearing new shoes. I hadn’t even left the doorstep and they were already killing me. But I had to wear them because they were the most popular shoes around. Everyone had a pair. They were black with an open toe and a heel of at least an inch. My mother warned me when we bought them. They may look nice, she said, But they’re probably going to be uncomfortable.

By the time we reached the bus stop, I wanted to sit down on Mr. Sullivan’s lawn and rest my feet. His house is directly in front of our bus stop. I don’t like Mr. Sullivan very much. He’s yelled at us in the past. Keep off my lawn! he yells. No one reimburses me for dead grass.

Lena looked down at my new shoes. Nice shoes...I have a pair exactly like that but I can’t stand wearing them because they’re so uncomfortable. Even though I agreed, I didn’t say anything. Mark smirked.

Our bus usually arrives at 8:35 a.m. Sometimes it’s later. This year we have a new driver so the bus was ten minutes late. As soon as we got on, Mark rushed to the back. He and his friends think that’s where the cool kids sit. Lena sat down with her friends and left me standing alone in the aisle. Then the bus began to pull away. Suddenly I lost my balance and began stumbling towards the back. The driver kept going. I guess he couldn’t hear Mark laughing hysterically at me. I almost landed on some boy’s lap before I grabbed the back of a seat and threw myself in. I was so embarrassed. I stared out the window the remainder of the way to school. My mother was right. These stupid shoes were uncomfortable!

As the bus pulled into the school parking lot, I saw my friends sitting at our favourite spot. Two years ago, we decided to give the spot a name. We voted and decided we would call it the c-spot, which stood for the cool spot.

Rachel saw me get off my bus so she stood up waved. Because I’m always the last to arrive, she knows how much I hate missing any part of my friends’ conversation. She always brings me up to speed on everything I’ve missed. Karen likes to pretend the conversation is top secret. I sometimes hear her whisper: Ssshhh, she’s coming. I guess she wants me to think they were talking about me. She’s so weird at times!

Hi, Tissy, everyone said as I sat down. Unlike a lot of people, I like school. I don’t get perfect marks but I usually end up doing well and my parents are always pleased with my report card.

Did I miss anything? I whispered to Rachel.

No, she said. We were just talking about the new teacher.

When the bell rang, we lined up exactly where we had last year. This is the first year we’re all in the same class. Usually a couple of us end up in the same class but never all six of us. It was going to be a great year!

CHAPTER 3

Our new teacher, Mr. Thompkins, was waiting in the doorway. He smiled and said good morning to everyone as they passed by. Because we didn’t have assigned seats yet, we sat together.

Mr. Thompkins waited until everyone was seated before he spoke. Good morning girls and boys. My name is Mr. Thompkins and I’m your new teacher. I’m happy to be joining your school. You all look comfortable where you’re sitting but I will be assigning seats tomorrow. Everybody moaned. But you can remain where you are for the day.

He continued, I have an easy day planned. Most of you haven’t seen one another for two months so we’ll begin class work tomorrow. Please take some time and introduce yourselves to the people you don’t know. I’ll be walking around the class speaking with each of you.

My friends and I ignored his suggestion. Besides, we only wanted to speak to each other. Plus, we already knew everyone.

If he comes over, pretend we’re introducing ourselves for the first time? I suggested. Everyone agreed. It looked as though the rest of the class was doing the same. The boys were fooling around throwing pencils and the nerds were huddled in a group.

Mr. Thompkins was very tall and slim. He had large hands, twice the size of my father’s. His skin and hair were dark. It looked as though he’d spent the summer getting a tan. There was a small amount of gray hair around both of his ears and he wore glasses but he kept taking them off to rub his eyes. He had a friendly face, which made me feel better.

Quick, he’s coming over, Tracy said, waving us closer. Look busy.

My name is Christina, I said loudly hoping he would hear me. But I would prefer you call me Tissy. Anna giggled.

I’m Tracy, she said speaking in a different voice.

I’m Mr. Thompkins, he said, sitting down. I’m glad to see you’re all getting acquainted with one another. He smiled, Do you know each other from last year?

Anna couldn’t stop giggling. A bit.

No doubt he knew exactly what we were doing. We kind of know each other, Tracy said still speaking in a different voice. "But we hope