Claire

Claire took one look at the noisy playground and stuck up her nose. She was not going to play with those hellish fiends, oh she was not. No power on earth could make her move from this very spot and she was sure of it. Until she was picked up by two very muscular arms and placed on the top of a very hot slide.

“Ow Daddy!”

She flailed and threw a fit until she was brought down and placed right in front of his face.

“What is it with you Claire? You do know I’m doing this for your own good, right? If you don’t socialize how will you make any friends?”

Claire only crossed her arms and huffed.

“I don’t need friends I have myself.”

“See thats the thing, darling, everybody needs a friend. Its a bad world out there and you can’t be alone. You gotta cling to something good to keep you from going bad. Good like friends, good like family, good like love,” his hazel eyes pooled with warmth as he said the last words.

“Please go play with the other kids and try to make friends honey, I promise, one friend for the day and we get ice cream on the way home.”

There was one thing Claire could not resist and that was chocolate ice cream but today was different. She was sick of being negotiated into briberous deals with her father. She just wanted to leave him alone. She was much happier when she was alone. It was quiet and peaceful and everything her whirlwind of a mind ever wanted. So she ran. She ran as fast as her little purple sneakers could carry her and climbed into the pipe that lay on the ground.

“Claire!”

She didnt answer. She watched her dad turn around and grab at his hair before walking away. Good. If he didn’t care about her feelings then why should she care about his?

With that she brought her legs up to her knees and placed her head on the plastic. It was nice and dark in this tunnel. Little did Claire know that this would become her permanent favorite spot for years to come: one in which she would read, write and even find love.