By: Ada Xin

“What do you people want to do?” asked Clara, slowly picking at her nails. She turned her eyes down toward the group of friends as she dangled her feet over the edge of the play structure.

I sat on the monkey bars, a little higher than Clara, while looking at the sunset over the school buildings. The blazing colors of red, orange, and yellow cast long shadows.

There was only 30 minutes of playtime left.

“I don’t know. Play on the play structure?” I suggested. “We can jump off the monkey bars now, since no one cares about the school rules in the summer.”

Scarlett laid down, stretching onto a platform across another set of monkey bars.

“I guess we should satisfy ourselves by breaking some rules before the start of the school year when teachers drone on about following rules and instructions,” she said.

“No! Why do we always have to do dangerous stuff?” Angela exclaimed.”Well, I want to play on the grass.” She threw a piece of tanbark down into the pit, one by one.

Clara tipped her chin up confidently. “I vote to jump off the monkey bars,” she argued. “And if you want to play on the grass, you can go. Nobody cares about what happens to you.”

With a streak of anger, Clara jumped off the soft platform and plopped on a lower one. She turned to look at me.

“Clara’s right. I don’t want to play on the grass. It’s all full of goose poop and gopher holes,” I said. I leaped off the monkey bars and onto a flat area of tanbark, making a perfect landing. “Ready to go to the third-grade play structure, people?” In my boiling anger, I dashed across the soft tanbark that filled the structure grounds hoping Angelina wouldn’t follow us.

Angelina jumped off the platform and yelled, “That’s not fair!” The slight breeze turned to a gust of wind and whipped away her words like dandelion seeds in the wind. The wind pushed her backed, keeping her car from me.

Scarlett easily ran past her, shouting, “That’s not fair yourself, Angelina. We’re going.”

Sprinting at full speed, Scarlett arrived at the third-grade play structure quickly. Climbing the red ladder, she accidentally stripped off a piece of the old paint. Letting it fall in disgust, Scarlett swung onto the monkey bars and tried to enjoy the sunset in peace.

“Oh, and you know what? I don’t care if you’re going to tattle on us,” Clara scoffed. “Because we are busy having real fun on the play structure.”

Running at top speed, she ducked into the lower level of the formation. Shestuck her tongue out at the small figure of Angelina back at the other side of the grass.

“Ugh, I hate her,” Scarlett exclaimed from the top of the monkey bars. “Why does she always get in the way?” She slid around until she could see both Clara and me, and she made a tsking noise. Scarlett glared as hard as she could at Angelina, who was getting closer by the minute.

“Yeah, but it would be half as bad if she tattles on us,” I reminded Clara and Scarlett. Angelina tattling on us would end up with our parents not believing us and keeping it to ourselves. It was very infuriating that our parents believed a spoiled girl over us. I wanted to spill all the tanbark in the world over that girl. I tried to calm down. No help.

Before any of us noticed it, Angelina yelled, “You never listen to me! I said I wanted to play on the grass!” She grabbed onto the red ladder and began swinging recklessly on it. Her eyes were narrowed on us, like she was going to attack. Those eyes said, I HATE YOU I HATE YOU I HATE YOU.

“The question is, why do you have to ruin every day for us? We don’t want to play with you!” I shouted. My fury could not be contained now. “Face it, we don’t like you!” I whipped around and swung onto the monkey bars with Scarlett. I felt like the whole world was going to explode.

“Well, I’m telling your parents that you said that! I HATE you!” yelled Angelina. She jumped off the ladder and faced us with those hateful eyes. They were now small slits and she looked like a rather angry cobra.

“I DON’T CARE!” I roared.”I detest every bit of you! I don’t care what you say! Tell them I don’t care!” I was overflowing with rage that I thought I would fall off the bars. Instead, I looked away, took a deep breath, and pushed those thoughts to the back of my head.

Clara yelled, “I could use every hateful word on you and that wouldn’t even be enough!” She was boiling with anger, and more softly, she said, “I’ll get you one day, Angelina.”

Picking up a dusty stick, she stomped on it until it turned to tiny grains. Then she sighed and also climbed up to the bars Scarlett and I were on. She scooted closer to us and closed her eyes.

Scarlett was swinging her legs so furiously that I was afraid she would fall off.

“I don’t like her at ALL,” Scarlett fumed. Her eyes were pierced with anger. She then took a deep breath and asked with a sly smile, “Who wants to jump off the monkey bars?”

I learned I could not trust Angelina. She was a person I would ignore. I knew I didn’t like her from the beginning, and I still don’t. The experience taught me to consider each friend carefully, including avoiding untrustworthy friends. Also, I learned that my parents should not interfere with who I play with, for they were the ones who forced me to play with Angelina. I think I have much better friends since having this experience.