My name is Patrick Eik. I go by the name Pat, so a lot of people think my name is Patty, what with me being female, but it’s not. I like my name, though, it suits me. A relatively unattractive tomboy? Yeah, Patrick’s fine. I also have two middle names, a fact of which I make fun of myself for a lot, because I think it’s funny. People will ask, ‘what’s you middle name?’ and I’ll say, ‘I don’t have one,’ which is true. Since there are four of them, none are in the middle. So before they can drop the subject I usually leave a little pause and tell them that.

So, in conclusion to that useless fact, my full name is Patrick Olivia Summer Eik. Got it?

Right. I have a few people I call friends. Some people who aren’t even related to me I’m close enough to that I call them family. A family bond is something I take seriously. It pretty much means, ‘we’re friends who can blow up at each other, but we’ll never separate, even if we have a big fight.’ It’s a good feeling to have people that close to you. One of them is name George. He’s like my brother, but really one of my friends. Our relationship is like this, we don’t talk to each other on a deep level, and we don’t get all mushy to each other either, but we’ll stand by each other when in need, and we hang out and have a good time, even in sometimes the little bugger annoys me to the point of violence…

Then there’s his little sister, Lilly, who’s cool too, and we’re like family. I share video games as a major interest with G, but Lill is cool too. Sure, she’s not a big fragger or anything, but she like cooking, she’s really sweet sometimes, and it’s cool to watch the little tyke grow up.

I met them when I was eleven, and G and Lill were nine and seven. And though they’re a bit younger than I am, we get on well. I’m sixteen now, G is fourteen and Lill is twelve, so we’re all getting older. Even though I’m sixteen, I sometime pass for being in my mid-twenties, even without meaning to. Lill and G are in stark relief to me, though, since they’re built so slightly, and are both short for their age. Lill looks seven, and G looks eight… So when we wander around downtown I’m often asked, ‘so where are your children going to school?’ to which I often answer, ‘I don’t believe in that sort of thing,’ because I’m a home schooler, as are G and Lill. What, you don’t know what that is? Well, pretty much we learn at home. But G and Lill are actually unschoolers, which really means they learn from everything around them, no curriculum

Anyway, enough about them. I have other friends too, you know. There’s Megan, who actually spells her name Maygen, but everyone has one flaw or another. I just call her May anyway. She and I have been friends in a strange way for a while now… I don’t even remember how long. But when we first met we instantly clicked, and started this sort of fairytale RP, but we pretended so much that it was real. She had red, seriously curly hair that’s almost always frizzy, but I love it and I think she looks cute. She’s shorter than I am, but then, everyone is, practically, and she’s built in a similar way, but slightly better. Her green blue eyes look brilliant with her tan skin and red hair, though. She’s cute, and I said. We were silly kids when we met, and got sillier with our RP thing, but it helped me be who I am now, so whatever. Back then, of course, she was just Megan… She and I share an obsession with the band, ‘The Decemberists’, who are totally awesome. We liked ‘em before, but after going to two if their concerts, which were absolutely magical, we’re total fanatics.

Then I have another friend who’ll show up soon enough. She’s a little less socially awkward that May, but I don’t thing she realizes just how awkward she is. Her name is Lindsay, and I think she’s one of the only friends of mine that I can’t shorten the name of comfortably. I mean, I could call her Lyn, but, blech, or even Say, but that’s stupid sounding too. So, instead, I call her Props, due to her playing an underpaid prop man in a skit that May and I wrote. Or I call her Coupon, because of a prank that was played on her. Great one, too. Some guy comes up to her and hands her a package. So opens is, and gosh was her face priceless. The contents of the package were ‘glow in the dark sex coupons’… Oh man, I’m brilliant sometimes…

Anyway, more about Props. She’s a writer, but only as a hobby. She and May are friends of mine, and they’re both my age. In fact, she may and I all write, draw, enjoy the outdoors and sing together. We share a lot of the same interests, and yet somehow… Well, I get this impression that I’m not her friend. May and I are certainly friends, and I know that Props is May’s friend and mine, but I don’t think that she considers us friends. Maybe I’m just over analyzing, though. I’ve been told I do that.

Anyway, Lindsay is cute. She has short, fine brown hair, but it’s still longer than mine, and cut better. She’s got grayish eyes, and very slightly tanned skin, and she’s built pretty well. She’s a boy magnet, pulling on more boyfriends that either May or myself. Then again, I’ve only had one, and was never invested, and May has one right now, which is her first, because she’s never been interested. Nor have I. However, here’s the sad part, apparently May and I really do share everything. Props has had three boyfriend, and her second boyfriend was Robert. Guess who my boyfriend was? Then May’s? Yeah, there’s the sad part…

Anyway, I never really liked Robert, but he had a crush on me. And, me, wanting all the information I can on things, decided, ‘what the hell, I’ll go for it.’ Well, I ended it quite quickly as soon as I really realized I wasn’t interested, and was just leading the poor guy on. Plus, on top of everything else, May’s the one who had a crush on him…

However, all of Lindsay’s boyfriends have been, well, not to my taste. I just don’t think I like them. I mean, Robert is the best of them, and I don’t even like him all that much. She just feels like a bunch of hot air, and no substance. There’s nothing unique about him, sometimes, so I almost never hang out with him out side of our group.

There was Jared, Prop’s first boyfriend, and he was okay(now, understand here, at this point Props and I weren’t really friends yet, we just kinda knew each other, since we’re both the sort of charismatic leader types, so we’re well known in our home school community), but he seemed a little… How do I say this while being polite? Sigh, I don’t think I can. He seemed a little dumb, and hickish. And you know, that’s okay, because he was nice, and a sweetheart, and he was kind to her and all, so just because I don’t like him much doesn’t mean there’s nothing to like. I wasn’t all that close to him, so I didn’t really know him well, and I think if I had he would have been cooler(or, to be fair, he would have seemed as cool as he probably was.) Then there was her most recent boyfriend, Trevor. I really didn’t like him…

Now, when I’m saying this, don’t look too badly on poor Lindsay. I talk about her boyfriends sometimes, but you know, I’m sure there was some magical thing about them that she saw, and I just never did. But right now, I’ll tell you what I thought of him.

He was homophobic to the point of me not having all that much fun at all when the group played spin the bottle. I mean, even Robert and Hector kissed each other, and they’re brothers! But then again, Hector’s just cool, and I thing he’s a lot like me in many ways, so he probably wanted to upstage Trevor, and the only male around who was willing to do so was his bother. But still, I think that’s amiable.

Anyway, back to Trevor. In closing, I think he was chivalrous in such an archaic way that it annoyed me, (You know, open the door for the lady, treat her like porcelain because she has no penis, that sort of thing. Grr!) and so awkward and un relatable that I just couldn’t like him.

Anyway, there’s enough ranting about relationships for now. How about we talk about me? That’s a good subject, to a point.

I’m tall, taller than all my female friends, and nearly all my male ones. I’ve been told on many occasions I’m charismatic, and a good leader, and I guess I believe it to a certain degree… I have brown hair that’s about two inches off my head on top, and less on the back and sides. I have eyes that are sometimes blue, sometimes green and sometimes gray, but never all that amazing looking, especially compared to my friends. I’m pale skinned, and I can’t tan, so I’ll always look a little unimpressively ‘city slicker’… I’m built stoutly, with thick arms, legs and body. I have a little extra flab, but who doesn’t? I’ll tell you who, May and Lindsay. Sigh…

I’m also naturally pretty physically strong, though I almost never do anything to improve that, so people who actually do upstage me, but whatever. I’m not as graceful as May, but I’m okay. Then again, I don’t have May’s trapeze and martial arts training, so I probably wouldn’t be, would I?

Now, onto the worse stuff. For how I act, I think I have pretty low self esteem. I don’t really believe I can finish anything until I actually do finish it, and even then I have doubts that I can do it again. I act mighty, and I always act charmingly immodest, but it’s just how I like to act. It’s funny to me because it’s so untrue. I have a nickname or two, and the group often reminds me that I’m god, or something, because I told them I was a few times, then it became a running joke.

I’ve failed at having a job already in my life, stressing out over something I can’t even really define. I’ve had similar kinds of mental breakdowns, too… I stopped taking singing lessons because I practically had a panic attack when I was taking them. I stopped taking Japanese for similar reasons. I stopped showing up for work, because I was too scared to go into the building… I started bawling every time I tried. What the hell does that mean?

But, May had held two jobs down, and even did it while going to college part time. I’m only just starting to do the college thing, and the possibility of me breaking down with that is there, and is scaring me so I’m going too slowly. Sigh…

Anyway, let’s move onto some kind of current event, now that I’m done introducing you prime time players, shall we?

Let’s see, we could start in a setting that happened a while ago, okay? That was I can catch you up. How about the snow cabin, just before Lindsay got her nickname? Okay, that’s a good place to set the scene.