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Sarah and Emilia came up with a plan that gave Joe and Nicky the first of many great summers together. When the summer was over, it was decided that Nicky should change school so he could be together with Joe every day. That decision only made the friendship between Joe and Nicky grow even stronger.
Every morning, Joe would show up and help Nicky walk Odie before school and again after school. They did homework together while eating cakes and drinking mint tea.
When Joe trained football or played a match, Nicky and Odie would cheer the loudest, and whenever Joe lost a football match, Nicky knew what it would take to make his best friend smile again. He simply gave Odie Joe's football shoes on and said that not even Odie could have done it better. Nicky also made football shirts for him and Odie to show Joe more support. Joe loved Nicky for it.
When Nicky entered a debate competition, Joe smuggled Odie into the venue so they could cheer Nicky on. Joe whistled and shouted that it was his best friend who just won a round over another kid. Joe kept on doing it throughout the debate competition, and when Nicky won, Joe ran up on stage to hug his best friend with Odie after him. During the rest of the school year, Joe kept telling everyone that his best friend was the cleverest in the world. Nicky loved Joe for it.
One summer, Joe and Sarah invited Nicky and Emilia to Tunis, while Nicky and Emilia invited Joe and Sarah to Italy the following year. Odie was left with Joe's grandparents, who were going to their summer house. Every day, Joe and Nicky would call and check on Odie and tell stories about what they had seen that day, while Joe's grandparents would show Joe and Nicky photos of what Odie had done of fun things that day. When Joe and Nicky returned home the first thing they did was take Odie skateboarding.
Nicky also tried out skateboarding once but said it wasn't for him. Joe respected it. Instead, whenever Joe skateboarded, Nicky would ride his bike. Sometimes, they would make a small competition to see who could get to the ice cream shop first, and the loser would buy the first ice cream. Most of the time, they didn't leave each other's side because they had so much to talk about.
Before they knew it, they had spent eight summers together. Nicky had been gone for a week with Emilia to attend a funeral while Joe looked after Odie. Odie couldn't walk as fast anymore, but he still loved belly scratching and being pushed around on the skateboard. When Joe and Nicky met again, they both knew something had changed in their friendship, but they knew they had the summer to figure it out. And Odie would be the first one to witness when they did a couple of weeks later. But that is a story for another time.