One evening, as my mom was driving me home from my friend’s house on a cold school night, she announced that she had made a new friend at a meeting at my school. I was happy becausee this Allison lady sounded like a very nice person.

She went on to ask me if I knew this new kid at my school named John and which I thought was a strange question but I told her that I indeed knew him. She explained that Rohn was Allison’s son and that Rohn was walking a half hour to and from school every day because Allison was in a wheelchair, and therefore did not have a car to drop him off and pick him up in. I tried to imagine the adorable Rohn trudging to school in the snow everyday and felt bad for him.

I should have seen it coming but instead it was a total shock to the system when my mom told me that we would be taking Rohn to school and picking him up every day, starting immediately. (Insert mild heart attack here.)

I would actually have to talk to him? I became sick to my stomach with nerves.