Kyle and Kodi - 9. Chapter 9

The week flew past for everyone, and before we knew it the day of BBQ was upon us. My doorbell rang at what was thankfully a more civilised hour.

“Hey, Kodi.”

“Hi Kyle, you ready for the BBQ?”

“Only we Brits must be crazy enough to have a BBQ in winter, but I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Well, you know Sally. Any excuse to show off her fancy sheltered patio.” We both laughed; although Sally is far from snobbish, she loves BBQs too much to only have them in the summer.

“I’m still not sure how it’s going to go today. I know the parents were cool when we told them, but they’ve now had over a week to think about it. What if they’ve changed their minds about how they feel?”

“I can’t see them doing that, Kyle. I know I’ve really only ever known them as our friends’ parents, but I really don’t think you can fake that level of emotion on the spot. You saw how Mika reacted to her dad; when was the last time you ever saw her hug her dad like that, or anyone come to think of it?”

“True. Mika’s always been a tomboy, and has never been one to show emotion. She laughs and jokes around sure, but I can’t recall the last time she displayed any of the more primal emotions.”

“Exactly Kyle. That was the first time I’ve ever seen her lose emotional control. I seriously doubt her dad would be able to fake it good enough to get a reaction like that.”

“Well we’ve got a couple of hours to kill, what do you wanna do?”

“You.” Kodi grabbed my hand and we ran up the stairs into my bedroom, giggling like schoolgirls all the way.

Around noon we left and made our way to Jon and Jenny’s. I was more than a little nervous as I rang the doorbell; thinking perhaps my friend’s parents might now not like the idea of me and Kodi being together, since they’ve had a week to think on it.

There was no answer, so I rang the doorbell again. I then heard Jenny yell out, “Back here, guys.”

We walked around to the back garden and there hung a huge banner with red and green streamers saying “LLONGYFARCHIADAU KYLE A KODI!” (“Llongyfarchiadau” is Welsh for congratulations and is pronounced “long-gu-varkh-yad-eye)

“You guys didn’t need to go to all this trouble,” I said, surprised to find I was on the verge of tears.

“Sally, since when do you know Welsh?” Kodi asked, grinning.

“Since your mum translated it for me.”

“Kodi Tobias Waughrin! This is Mrs Rabbins to you.”

“Janet, it’s fine. I told him he could call me Sally.”

Peter started adding the food to the BBQ and soon the garden was filled with the sounds and smells of meat cooking. The only small letdown was the absence of the corn on the cob – Sally hates it as it always gets stuck in her teeth, and the rest of us have to suffer because of it.

As the food started coming out we all sat down and talked and ate at the same time.

“So Kyle, your parents were telling me that you don’t have to have to go to school to do PE. You must be relieved. How did they manage that?” asked Sally.

“We said I’d join a sports club; that seemed to make the board happy enough. So I’ve registered at the local centre, and have signed up to join the cricket and swimming programs - at least I can’t suck at swimming.” I frowned slightly as I actually thought the complete opposite.

“That’s good news Kyle. I never understood what the problem was in the first place. Peter is actually on the local amateur cricket team, and I’m sure he’d work with you if you asked him.”

“Thanks Sally. I’ll do that as I need all the help I can get. I doubt I’ll ever be good enough to join the team, but as long as I turn up for the training and practices and stuff that should keep the education lot happy.”

“Who knows Kyle? If you give it the time and effort you might actually find you are good enough to join one of the teams. Peter was a lot like you in school; he was never one for sports either. But later in life he got involved with one of the local school’s cricket teams and then decided to try the game for himself. It took him six months or so, but found he became a really good bowler. He still can’t bat very well, but his bowling skill more than makes up for that.”

“That sounds like it might actually suit me. I’ve noticed with a lot of the professional teams that the players are either batsmen or bowlers; so I could just focus my effort on one of those. I think that’s where a lot of my problems in school came from; we’d only play a certain sport for about three months and then switch to another sport, so I never had a chance to learn one sport properly. If they had spent six months or a year on one sport then I might have learnt enough to be good at one of them. I know I’d never be good at basketball or football I’m not really athletic enough, but cricket does look more my kind of pace.”

“That was the same problem when I was in school, Kyle. We’d play netball for a few months, then switch to hockey, then switch to lacrosse. It’s just not enough time to get good at a particular sport, unless you played it outside of school with either friends or in a sports club. I’d have thought things would be at the point now in schools where they push kids into joining a sports team outside of school?”

“They do Sally; but they only focus on the kids who are already good at sports and push them and kids like me get overlooked. Though it’s no different on the academic side; kids like me who are really smart get pushed really hard, while kids like Kodi who struggle get left by the wayside - the teachers see it as just too much work given the class sizes and knowledge mix. If someone had spent time with Kodi academically a few years ago, I doubt he’d struggle as much as he does.”

Peter came over and joined us as he had finally finished cooking for everyone and could at last enjoy the food.

“You two seem deep in conversation,” said Peter.

“I was telling Sally that I’ve joined the local sports club and have signed up for their cricket and swimming programs. Sally told me that you play on the local cricket team and I was wondering if you would be able to spend some time with me to help with working on the game so I don’t embarrass myself.”

“Of course I’ll help. I’m not much of a batsman, but I’m a really good bowler. Have you thought which you’d rather learn more of?”

“I was telling Sally that I think I’d make a better bowler than batsman. We’ve had a bit of a play around in the park and it’s taken me three months just to get to the point where I can actually hit the ball.”

“I want you to know though, that there is a lot more to bowling than just throwing a ball. There are a lot of different skills to learn, particularly if you want to learn to be a spin bowler like I am.”

“I’ve never really learnt any game well enough to get to the point where I needed to worry about the finer points like the skills involved. I was telling Sally that the main problem I had in school was the constant changing of sports every three months.”

“That was the thing I found annoying as well. Tell you what we can do. Every Tuesday and Thursday my team has its training sessions, if you’re free you can come along and then you can learn things from different people. You see, different types of bowling require different skill sets. I’m not saying you need to learn every different bowling style perfectly, but you can learn a few of the basics in a few weeks and then you’ll get an idea as to which style you’d like to concentrate on.”

“Thanks a lot Peter.”

We all took the dishes into the kitchen, and Kodi and I helped with the washing up. Peter and my dad took care of cleaning out the BBQ.

We all sat down to play a game a Trivial Pursuit; with me, Kodi and our parents on one team and everyone else on the other team. Naturally my team won. Jenny said we won only because I was on their team. So to even things out I said I’d sit out the next game, and Mika switched teams. The next game actually ended up being much closer without me playing, and Jenny’s team won.

Us kids ran upstairs to Jon’s room as Kodi and I had reached a big decision.

“Guys, there’s something Kodi and I have been discussing and we want to tell you about something important we’ve decided upon.”

“That sounds serious Kyle. What’s up?” Jennie asked.

“We’ve discussed this a lot over the past few weeks. We’ve looked at it from several angles, we’ve looked at the potential ramifications, our discussions have even become heated -”

“Kyle! Just tell us what’s going on,” Mika said.

“I want to let you know that we haven’t reached this decision lightly. We wanted you to be the first to be told. Kodi and I have decided that we’re not prepared to hide our relationship.”

“You’re not saying what I think you’re saying?” asked Jon.

“If you think that Kyle and I are going to be coming out of the closet, then you are correct. It’s not like we’re planning on making a public announcement or anything, but if someone asks then we’re not going to deny it. If we want to hold hands in public in will and if we want to kiss each other in public then we will.”

“You’re both nuts you know that. I love the hell out of both of you, but you are totally insane,” said Mika. “Though I’ve got your backs if any shit happens.”

“That’s goes for me as well,” added Jenny.

“Me too . . . er, three,” said Jon.

“In all seriousness, I know it’s not an easy decision you two have come to. I know things are a lot better now than they were ten or twenty years ago, but I still want you to be careful.”

“We will Jenny, I promise,” Kodi said.

We left the Rabbins’ home just after ten o’clock, and since Kodi was sleeping over at mine tonight he came with us.

When we got home Kodi and I rushed upstairs to my room just as mum shouted, “I want you two asleep straight away; Kodi has school in the morning.”

“See Kyle, I told you that you had nothing to worry about today.”

“I know. I just had this feeling . . .”

“Yeah well I hate to tell you this but your intuition sucks.” Kodi smiled at me and kissed me on the lips. “But I still love you.”

“I love you too. By the way, I’ve finished looking over your essay Kodi, and it’s really good.” I secretly thought it was brilliant, but didn’t want to ruin the surprise for him when he gets to see what grade he’s awarded.

“You think so?”

“I do. I can’t believe you’ve done this well, and I’m impressed that you followed my advice and avoided using Wikipedia as a source for your evidence.”

“I used it as a starting point like you showed me. I can’t believe all the extra info I got, especially on the Ramesside Period.”

“Well that’s the kind of thing that separates an average essay from a really good essay. I use Wiki a lot for starting points, but it’s not really good as a primary source of information; particularly since anyone can edit it and without having to say where they got their info from.”

“So, is there anything I need to change or write differently?”

“There’s probably a few too many slang terms in there; but that’s your writing style. Without them, your teacher might think someone else wrote it for you. I wouldn’t change anything.”

“You think there’s too much slang in it?”

“If you were writing an essay for college or university then you’d have to drop the slang, but it doesn’t really matter for secondary school.”

We both got ready for bed, crawled under the covers and were asleep before our heads even hit the pillows.