Chapter Text
Kendall came in from playing outside to find his mother crying in the kitchen. He knew it wasn't the first time, even though she always pretended everything was fine. But she wasn't fine, not since his dad left. It was going to be okay, though. Kendall had a plan.
He sat down at the kitchen table, rubbing her back with his small, grubby hand, and explained it: "You should marry Wayne Gretzky."
He knew it worked because she wiped her eyes, laughing. "What?"
"Mom, he's in the Hall of Fame," Kendall explained. "He's awesome and he's rich and he's the greatest hockey player of all time."
"Oh, honey." She kissed his forehead. "I don't need to get married again. You and," she rubbed her tummy, "this baby are all I need."
Kendall frowned a little. He was pretty sure his plan was great, and it would work if his mom just listened to him. She didn't, though, just told him to wash his hands before he had a snack.
In retrospect, Wayne Gretzky was probably Kendall's first crush.
--
Kendall did not want to go to first grade. His little sister was coming any day now and he didn't want his mom to be alone when it happened. It was stupid that he had to go to school at all. He'd barely learned anything in kindergarten, anyway.
So he was in a bad mood all morning. Lunchtime made it worse. At lunch, some kid named James Diamond wouldn't stop showing off his Digimon lunchbox. It had a matching thermos inside, too. He was sitting next to Kendall and all Kendall had was his stupid brown bag, even though he'd really really wanted a Digimon lunchbox but his mom said things were just too tight right now.
So he didn't feel too bad about it as he pushed James off the cafeteria bench. Especially not because James pushed him back and the next thing he knew their teacher was standing between the two of them and Kendall had to go sit in the office. He wouldn't say he was sorry, though, because he wasn't sorry, because James Diamond was a jerk and a show off and Kendall didn't want to be in school anyway.
He felt bad when he saw his mom that night, though. She looked really sad and told him that she knew he was angry right now, but she didn't want him to fight anymore. She made him promise, so he did, because he hated it when his mom looked sad.
But just because he promised not to fight didn't mean he stopped hating James Diamond.
--
Everyone seemed to think Kendall should be really excited about having a new little sister, but mostly she was boring. She couldn't actually do anything but cry. But still, everyone said she was lucky to have a big brother like Kendall and that it was his job to watch out for her, so he decided he would.
When she was a couple of weeks old, his mom explained to him that she didn't want to go back to work at the restaurant. But it was cool, because instead, she was going to stay home and babysit a lot of other people's kids, so she also wouldn't have to worry about sending him to an after school program or finding daycare for Katie.
Kendall liked his mom's new plan. He liked that his mom was going to pick him up from school every day, and he'd get to play in the yard with other kids all afternoon. Plus Carlos from down the street was one of the kids, which was great. Kendall had known Carlos since they were babies. There was also a kid named Logan, who was in Kendall's class. All Kendall knew about him was that he could already read chapter books and the teacher really liked him.
The last kid was stupid James. Kendall didn't want James near any of his stuff or his baby sister, but he'd promised his mom he wasn't going to fight anymore, so he just crossed his arms and decided he'd only play with Logan and Carlos.
Except that stupid James followed them out into the yard anyway. Kendall ignored him but he just sat on the grass and watched as Kendall made Logan and Carlos play tag with him, but Carlos tagged James by accident and then James started playing, too, and that wasn't fair. Especially not because Kendall had touched the swing set, which was safe, and James said he didn't, but he did, James just didn't see.
Kendall didn't shove James, though, because his mom was giving him that sad look from where she was hanging laundry up on the clothesline. Even though he really, really wanted to.
--
When James turned seven in October, he had a big, stupid birthday party at his big, stupid house all the way across town. Kendall didn't want to go but his mom made him, and besides, Logan and Carlos were both going and Kendall didn't want them hanging out with James without him.
Then Kendall saw James' birthday cake. It was big and chocolate and it had a hockey player drawn in fancy frosting on it. A hockey player.
Carlos asked James if he liked hockey. James said hockey was the absolute coolest sport. He was going to start taking skating lessons soon, even.
Before Kendall could remember that he hated James, he said, "I'm gonna be a hockey player for Halloween."
James stared at him, with his stupid, girly hair hanging into his eyes. Then he turned to his mom and said, "Mom, Mom, I changed my mind, I wanna be a hockey player too, like Kendall."
For just a second, Kendall wanted to shove James again for taking his idea because it was his first. But Carlos grinned at him and said, "Yeah! I'll be one, too. We should be a hockey team. Logan, you want to be on our team and go trick or treating with us?"
Logan nodded so hard it looked like his head might fall off, and as Kendall ate a piece of James' awesome hockey cake, he decided it was okay for James to have the same costume as him. Actually, it was kinda cool that James liked his idea and wanted to do it too. And Kendall definitely liked the idea of having his own team.
--
Things were a little too tight for Kendall to take skating lessons like James. It was okay, though. Carlos' dad said he'd teach Carlos and him both to skate.
--
All four of them were hockey players for Halloween. Kendall's mom took them all trick-or-treating together. Mrs. Magicowski next door said they were an adorable little hockey team.
When they got back to Kendall's house, his mom let them each pick out three pieces of candy to eat. James leaned over and looked into Kendall's bag, and offered to trade Kendall his Smarties for a Tootsie Roll. Kendall didn't care about Tootsie Rolls but hated Smarties anyway, so he let James have them.
As the four of them sat down to watch Charlie Brown and drink apple cider, Kendall decided that he liked having James on his team.