We didn't say anything, we just stood there - in pairs - and we were all a bit exhausted by what we had just done. I felt proud. And happy. A round plate with jagged edges hung around my neck. Trunks was scratched into it. Now I belong to him.




On the last evening in April - on Wadlpurgis Night - we met again; the four of us who got engaged. Up on the slope, not far from the ice hockey rink, mothers and fathers had dragged sticks, branches and bulky waste and made a big fire. All around, members of the local association distributed bratwurst and orange juice to the children. We also got something. I felt a bit like a traitor because I was here with tuba. She is pretty and confident, came here from Stockholm almost three years ago. She was even fancier then. She already put on make-up in fourth grade. Back then, Tobias called them "spatulas". I've never been with her much, and to be honest I would have preferred to be there with Jessi and Natha that evening, but now it happened that Tuba and I belonged together because we went with Songoten and Trunks.Jessi had gone to her summer house with her parents and Sarah had stayed in her village, but Natha ...


I let her down that evening. I saw her on the hockey rink. She stood there with her little sister. But I was only on the road with trunks, tubas and songotes. Trunks had cycled all the way here. I hoped it was just to meet me. As always, Dad had bought me a pack of firecrackers, a mixture of crackers, so to speak: rattersnakes, crackers, other crackers and so on. Most of them were those minipuffs that are barely louder than a fart. We stood on the ice hockey rink while Trunks and Songoten shot off their 10-cent smack. When theirs were over, they got ours too. The May fire is something short and very intense, I think. The fire rages and hisses, the firecrackers shoot, and the little children run around with pears that are just as red as the fire. People stand in groups and talk, they eat sausage and drink juice.Some also drink spicy things. You can tell by the fact that they wave their arms and don't care if they're loud. This is how you welcome spring: with chaos and din. It takes an hour. Then the fire burns down and people move back home. Only the kids remained to poke around in the fire or get rid of their last few bangs. And the four of us. I was getting cold when the fire went out. the soot flakes danced down the slope. Three of us would stay up here in the housing estate, but Trunks had to cycle home. We accompanied him for a while on the way. And as it happened now, Tuba jumped on the back of Songoten's bike and they dashed down the slope, while Trunks and I were all alone. For the first time. Fortunately it was dark because I felt my face go all red. We went very quietly. He held his bike in one hand and my hand in the other.The slope is quite long, but soon we would be in the settlement with its many lights. I had to do something. It was exactly the moment for which I had longingly waited. Soon it would all be over. We took a shortcut and turned onto a path with no street lamps or any other light. Something had to be done here ...


Two hundred meters to go ...


One hundred and seventy-five ...


One hundred and fifty ...


Hundred ...


Soon the moment would be gone like a soap bubble. I stopped there. I stopped, my heart pounding, and he dropped his bike. It sounded louder, like breaking a dozen glasses, but there we were now facing each other, it was very dark, and he was hugging me. There was only the two of us here, no one else, and we really kissed. Worse than the one on TV, and I felt like a ray of heat going through my body.





May




Now a new month begins


he holds me under his spell.


In May, spring comes here


but it ends very difficult for me.




The first of May was a Monday. And on Tuesday morning I should go to the dentist. I didn't like that at all. We were supposed to get a new guy into the class, and I wanted to be there from the start. We'd been talking about it all last week: Jessi, Natha, Sarah and I when we didn't think about my engagement. I think Natha was jealous of me about the necklace. The only thing she said was, "necklace?" But in a way like it was something dirty and smelly. She was more talkative when it came to the new class mate. All she knew about him was that he was from Stockholm. But we had imagined what it should look like. Natha most of all. It wasn't that important to me, I had my trunks. "Maybe he's a foreigner and his name is Nafets," laughed Jessi.No, we don't have immigrants or refugees with us if you don't count Sirkka or Jakko, who are twins and are going into fourth. They come from Finland, or at least their parents. But fifty kilometers north of us there is actually a home for asylum seekers. There must have been a hundred Eritrean people living up there last summer. Sometimes they came to the village. They went shopping or to the dentist. Back then they brought some color to this bland town. But they always only live up there for a few months before they are moved elsewhere, and so it never happens that anyone goes to school here. But it could be that the new one came from another country. Maybe from Chile or Lebanon. We didn't know. We just fantasized about how it should be. Whether he would be the nice or the brutal kind, whether he would be a rascal, what hair color he could have and whatever. And even if it wasn't as important to me as it was to the others, it was a shame not to be there from the start.

On Monday evening, Jessi and Natha called and asked what I would wear. That's what I call taking certain things seriously. But it was totally annoying to have to go to the dentist. And it was going to get worse because the dentist said I needed braces. How would Trunks think that?


Braces! Sarah has one, and it looks like Frankenstein's monster in the mouth. Now I should get one too. The dentist didn't want to tell me what it would look like. Whether it should be fixed or removable. Whether it should be made of plastic or steel and concrete. I would learn that in orthodontics. It would definitely be a two-row iron structure above and below. Why? Why!!! For my part, the kissing was over and done with before it really got going. Trunks would definitely call it a day. I wanted to go home and let Papa comfort me, but on the other hand, I was just as curious about the newcomer as it would be to have your whole mouth full of screws and iron wires.I didn't want to tell anyone. I would live for a few more weeks without braces and no one should find out what was in store for me. I thought about that all the way to school. When I got into class, I almost got a shock. The only thing I saw was the REGROUP! Trunks was sitting next to Alina, that stupid cow. So the worst had happened. They were sitting in the very front, and as I passed Alina leaned over to him as if to devour him. In the middle row, two tables further back, I was given my seat next to Beni Jung, this half-serving, who thinks I am too big. I didn't look at him at all, I only had eyes for Trunks' neck and Alina's blond hair. Perhaps they weren't sitting very close together after all? Now she will probably ask him every lesson, work on him so that he finally says yes. Say no, Trunks! You belong to Me. "Hello, I'm the Rick with the sharp eyes", Beni Jung welcomed me.After the copyist, Tobias, I ended up next to the number one lecher in class. And in front of me sat Trunks and Alina. You can hardly call that a good start to May. Only then did I think of the new one. He was sitting next to Natha. In terms of size, they were a good match. He was short with short blond hair and round bangs on his forehead. His name was Matthias, I found out later. He was wearing a yellow sweater with small black checks.




That is part4 maybe a little short, but part4.


I would really be happy about commis