One Week Later

For the following week Darrien watched the kid from his upstairs window whenever he saw him playing in his backyard. Darrien's mother had of course forbidden him from leaving the house, claiming she knew he would go over and bother the new neighbors. She wasn't exactly wrong and he knew it, but he was still bored and saddened to be isolated once again. Every time he brought up going to visit them his mother would have a different excuse.

Darrien's yard and the new neighbor's yard, much like the rest of the homes, was separated by a five foot fence. While the fences weren't designed for privacy they might as well have been the great wall of china to Darrien. He had lucked up that his bedroom window overlooked their backyard. In the meantime, while he waited, he imagined all sorts of cool things his parents did. "I bet they fight ghosts and goblins!" He told his father one night over dinner. Jack simply told Darrien he shouldn't make assumptions about people. "Whats assumptioins?"

One afternoon while his mother had gone to the grocery store and his father was at work he heard a loud thud against the house followed by a small "Uh...little help?" a few moments later. If Darrien hadn't been paying attention he would never have heard the small cry. Looking out of his window he saw the orc child hanging from the fence by his shorts.

Seizing his opportunity Darrien raced outside and greeted the neighbor boy. "Hi! I'm Darrien. What's your name?" He asked cheerfully.

"Uh...Sarla...do you think you could get me down?" The boy was soft and skinny, his black hair was short and messy, and outside of green skin and red irises he looked like any twelve year old boy he had gone to school with.

"What are you doing up there?" Darrien asked without moving.

"My ball went over your fence and I thought I could get it but your fence is too high."

"How'd you get up there?"

"Uh...I jumped."

"No way! You can jump that high?! Are you like a superhero!?"

At this the Sarla laughed, "What superhero you know gets their underwear caught on a fence?!"

"I didn't say you were good at it." Darrien rolled the large rock next to his mother's flower garden until it was under Sarla's feet. Feet on solid surface again Sarla pushed up and with a little help from Darrien the underwear became unstuck and the two stepped down to the ground.

"Thanks."

"It's what I do." He smiled.

"You pull people off fences?"

"...well no. But my dad says it whenever he helps out my mom." the two shared a laugh before continuing.

"Wanna help me find my ball?"

"Okay!"