Then at lunch time things took a turn. Nolan wouldn’t understand God’s guiding hand in this for many years, but the good Lord was moving his young heart like a rudder to steer his life. Nolan was sitting alone at lunch, like usual, when his friend from kindergarten came over to sit with him out of the blue. This was truly a strange occurrence. Jake was one of the kids who had completely turned against Nolan. He used to be nice but now he ran around with the mean kids. He taunted and threw things at Nolan with the rest of them on the playground. Was he wanting to talk about Jesus and the stadium? Did he want to make peace and become friends again?
Jake walked over and sat across from Nolan and talked to him like an old friend. He acted like nothing had ever happened and he started to talk to Nolan about other kids at school. It was strange but it was a welcome change, finally the fifth grade might start looking up. Jake was talking about how all the other boys had a crush on one girl from school. Not just any girl either, this was the most popular girl in school! It only made sense that all the boys had a crush on her.
Then came the big question, ‘Do you have a crush on Stephanie too?’ Nolan was faintly suspicious but there was no way this could be used against him, after all Nolan already knew the other boys felt the same way. Even Jake felt the same way, he admitted his own crush. Before lunch was over, Nolan opened up and told Jake that he too liked Stephanie. Nolan felt like he and Jake were on the way to becoming friends again.
When they got back to class, everyone sat down and the bell rang to start. Out of nowhere Jake stood up to make an announcement to the class. Jake stood right up and told the entire class that Nolan had a crush on Stephanie! Nolan sank into his seat, the betrayal was overwhelming, the laughter of the class and look on Stephanie’s face all felt like cruel rejection. Nolan knew rejection well, he felt it on a daily basis. But this, this?! Why would Jake do this?
Nolan made a few decisions that day. He knew he shouldn’t open up to people about how he felt. He knew he was going be rejected if he told people what he really thought. He knew he couldn’t trust people. He didn’t remember his dream though. Nolan never thought about the connection. His father hadn’t embarrassed him, it wasn’t even the same girl, it was Stephanie, not Tory. How could he understand that the dream and the betrayal were related? He did know not to talk to his father or his friends or anyone about how he felt. Nolan was good at keeping secrets, and he just got a lot better.
Practice Outlaw 