Ch.1: She's Beautiful

My parents called my brother and I down stairs. I was the first one down. Since I didn't want to keep them waiting. My parents looked at me a bit annoyed. I looked down at my feet.

"Charles Bernard Barton," my mom yelled.

He came running downstairs. Mumbling something. Most likely a complaint.

"You two need to get out more," my dad says holding his head.

"Get some shoes on. We're taking you guys to the park," my mom says trying to keep my dad from falling over.

"Yes ma'am," Charles and I answer together.

I go to my room and put my shoes on. I could never tie them tight. That's why I always go to Barney. That's what I call my brother. Some other people we met does too, but I usually say it the most. The nickname originally came from my Uncle whose name is Bernard like my brother's middle name.

I just took the nickname and used it. Charles didn't have a problem with it at all. I walk to his room. He is just finishing tying his. He looks up and smiles at me. I walk over to him and sit on his bed. He bends down to tie my shoes.

Barney makes sure they're really tight since I seem to always get them untied. He sighs and laughs. I look at him confused.

"You put the buttons in the wrong holes again Clint," he says.

I look down at my shirt. They look right to me. I look back at him. He fixes the buttons and nods. I get off his bed. Together we walk back down. My mom looks us over. She smiles at us. Not a loving smile. A smile that we look presentable and won't be making them look like idiots.

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We get to the park. My parents sit down for a little. Acting like they're watching us. They'll just wait a little to leave. Leaving me and my brother alone. I'm use to it though. They did it plenty of times before. This first they did that I cried a lot. Barney tried getting me to be quiet. One mother of another child came to me asking what's wrong.

I told her my parents left me. She looked to Barney who would be able to talk clearer than what I was. He explain to her our parents only went to the car to get something. That mother didn't fully believed him. That's when my parents came pulling back up.

My mom came to us first; playing the innocent act. She asked what's wrong. That's when the other mother started complaining about her parenting skills and said next time she would call the police.

When we got home my dad beat me first. He was drunk at the time too. My mom only joined in with him. Barney got punished just for not getting me to be quiet at the time. He didn't get it as bad as me since our dad passed out in the middle of it all.

From that day on my parents lectured me to keep my mouth shut. Don't make a single complaint. At the park just play until they got back. They only brought us so people wouldn't question what was happening. None of them knew what goes on in that house of ours.

Sometimes I wished I was never born. Only six and I have these kinds of thoughts. Mostly because I would hear Barney talking to himself. I catched on to what he was saying quickly.

I went to the swingset. Barney followed close behind me. I got on and tried swinging myself. Barney knew I still struggled to accomplish that, so he helped. He pushed me gently. My back was still sore from days ago. I looked around as I got higher and higher. Not many kids were at the park today. I glanced over to our parents. They mouthed 'Be good' to us. I nodded. Sure that my brother did as well. They went to the car and drove off.

My eyes immediately stay glued to the slide. Rather who was at it. A little girl slid down laughing. I assume her sister was the one at the end catching her. The girl would go right back up and slide down. Her laugh made me smile. I slowed down on the swing. Barney came in front of me.

"Why'd you stop," he asked.

I didn't answer. Only pointed to the slide. He looked over there. He saw the older girl and the little one. My eyes followed the little girl. Barney looked back at me then the slide again. He smiled.

"You like that little girl, huh?"

I nod. Barney laughs. He picks me off the swing. He starts walking over to where the girl is. I shake my head. Telling him I don't want to go over there. He says it's only for a little fun. When we get there, the older girl smiles at us. Barney puts me down. It was obvious that Barney was younger and shorter than the girl.

"Hello," she says.

"Hi," Barney starts. "My names Charles and this is my little brother Clint."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Jane and the girl about to come down is Laura. My little sister."

Just as she finishes the girl comes down. Her laughs make me feel warm. Barney says something to Jane which I ignore. Laura looks at me. She's so small. Her hair looks soft. She smiles at me.

"Clint this is Laura," Jane says. "Laura this is Clint and Charles."

"Hi," she says in a squeaky voice. I say hello. Quietly though and look down. She bends to the side turning her head. Looking up at my face.

"Do you want to slide with me?" Laura asks. I nod.

Barney helps me up. I feel weak now. The girl climbs the ladder without any problems. I still need help. I sit behind Laura. My legs on each side of her. Together we slide down. I laugh with her. Jane scoops both of us up. Spinning a little as she does.

She sets us down. We go again and again. Barney talks to Jane as we do so. Laura is so fun. She's really funny too. When we get down again. She grabs my hand. My feel my face get warm. I don't know why though. Jane and Barney laugh.

Laura drags me over to the giant castle. We run across the bridge. She leads the way to one of the towers. She cups her hands in front of one of her eyes. I do the same. Together we look at the rest of the playground. She points to the little dragon that rocks back and forth.

"That dragon is attacking the castle. We'll need to stop it," Laura yells. Together we get down. We grab sticks and run to the dragon. Barney and Jane step in front of the dragon.

"We won't let you hurt are master," Jane said.

"You will have to fight us," Barney says.

I look at Laura. She whispers in my ear. I smile and whisper back. Our siblings look at us confused.

"We use fire that will tickle you!" Laura shots.

"Impossible," Barney said. "You're too small."

"Clint use your fire!"

I pretended to use fire. I tickled Barney. Laura tickled Jane. They laughed. Making Laura and I continue. They begged for us to stop.

"Only if you join our side," I tell them.

"We will. We will," Barney said through burst of laughter. Jane said she will too. We grabbed a stick for them too. Together we pretended to take down the dragon. I heard someone call Jane's and Laura's name as we were cheering.

Jane said they had to go. Laura gave me a hug. I felt my face heat up again. I still didn't understand what that meant. Jane picked her up and walked over to a man. I look down. Barney grabbed my hand. We walked to the bench and sat down.

"You really like her," Barney said.

"She's Beautiful," I reply.

"You sure blush a lot," he says.

"Blush?"

"That's when when you're face turns red and sometimes feels hot," Barney explains.

"Is that a bad thing?"

"No. Not all the time. Some girls find it cute when a guy blushes. Laura seemed to like it."

"She likes me?" I ask. Hoping that she does.

"I think so," Barney says. I smile at that. She likes me. We can be friends forever and ever.

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That was the first chapter. Yay! Hope you guys like it. The first few chapters will be about Clint when he's little. This is a story about him getting older and finding in true love.

~Iron Hawk 🎩