Chile's thoughts part 1: Venezuela

Venezuela.

Yeah, I know him. You could say that I know him better than anyone but himself, and I guess it would be true. There is only one thing that remains a mystery to me about him: Does he still like me or does he hate me? I’m not even close to being sure.

I’ve known him all of my... no. I guess you’d want the shorter version. Not the Chile version, but the Christina one. Well, here goes. She’s known him since the 2nd week or so of 2nd grade. So, about five and a half years. She moved from Plano in 2nd grade and was in Mrs. Clifton’s class in her new town. In that class I don’t really remember too many people, but I do remember Erin and Emily, who greeted me at the door, Boston, my first crush in this new place, Brittany, the first one I told, Elaina, the first to sit alone waiting with me, Josh, the first person who I could relate to, Ethan, the first one to play with me during recess, and Daniel. He wasn’t the first for anything. He wasn’t my first friend, nor my second or third for that matter, wasn’t my first crush, my first playmate, or my first new face. So why do I remember him so clearly?

He would talk to me, that’d be my first answer. But a lot of people had talked to me, so that wouldn’t be right. The fact that his mom was also from South America or that he also spoke Spanish? No, that couldn’t be it either. I myself am not really sure. I guess it was because he was such a good friend to me. Whenever I was feeling bad, ‘Dandaman’ would always be there for me. He would always tell a joke, and i’d see the playful light in his eyes and he’d make everything feel better. He was the best, onliest friend that I had in school for a long time.

Stina, he’d always call me. I’d call him Danny, though he’d call himself Dandaman. We’d always do everything together. At recess, we started the tradition of playing soccer that lasted for our entire time through school. It started out with Danny, Ethan, Boston, and I, two on two, in a gigantic field. That first game, we’d lost 4-3, but it had been one of the most fun things that I’d ever done.

Then third grade came around. Everything changed in the end of that year. We stayed friends through most of it, though I didn’t notice that he was starting to have a crush on me. But, Emmalee, Josh, and Cami were in that class, changing a lot. For one, I was still friends with Daniel, but I tended to spend more time with Emmalee, so he’d spend more time with Josh. But in fact, I was even better friends with Daniel at that time than Emmalee. And, I tended to get incredibly angry whenever I got anywhere around Cami. I still remember, though, how he’d spend every lunch time playing food fight or food mystery with his food until I couldn’t breathe, I was laughing so hard. Then, on the last day of third grade, reality struck. We were having recess in the front, I was leaning on a tree, thinking about things that I can no longer remember, when Kyle the leprechaun went up to me with a message from Daniel: that he liked me. The message was repeated by Daniel himself several times until I could finally believe him.