Level Three. Avoidance.

Level Three. Avoidance.

By Michelle Lloyd.

Avoidance. That was what New One’s mum and dad called it, when he asked them about the problem. They advised that he should find out why Little Herbert was avoiding them and if they could do anything to fix their friendship.

New One had not thought of their friendship as having been in trouble before but when he did give it a ponder, it provoked a lot of worry. What did it mean for them if they lost Little Herbert from their group of three?

With his parents counsel fresh in his mind, back at school straight away he met up with the other member of their trio. Together they got to work. RV and New One tackled their friend about their recent concerns and wanted to know why he had been avoiding them.  Far from listening to them, Little Herbert rushed off as soon as he could, having told them that he needed to get to the library before the end of lunch.

It was getting both friends down and whenever they saw Little Herbert in class, he did not seem happy about the situation either. The only clue to what was going on that New One and RV had was that every time Little Herbert’s eyes would meet with that of a newer pupil in their class, he would look away and become very uncomfortable in his stance indeed.

It took a while to get Little Herbert on his own to talk to, because each time they would think they had managed it, off he would say he needed to go to do this or that… This time New One ensured that his friend stayed in front of them by telling him that they had been asked to talk to him. Who had asked them to do that? The inquisitive trait of their friend well known to them, had given them an advantage.

Little Herbert had been known for reacting to problems like this before but on this occasion what was keeping him away from them was not what either of them had expected it to be and far from what they could have ever thought.

Finally their friend explained that he had been feeling quite left out of late. Ever since getting back to their school routine, things had felt slightly odd to him and that was mostly because New One and RV had been chosen to introduce the newer student in their class to the school. Having taken him under their wing, both New One and RV looked at each other and they realised that tending to a new friendship had seemed to only push an older and firmer one away.

Little Herbert’s quiet avoidance of letting them know what had been wrong had far from helped matters and when he saw how sad his two friends were, he quickly told them that he was sorry too. They all wanted to get back into the former way of their friendship and as such not leave out the newer addition to their class either, but how was the questi0n.

As it happened the answer came about in the form of Lana, the lovely and much loved dog was at the end of the school day, brought to the gates by New One’s mum. New One, RV and Little Herbert all fussed her and she returned the favour with lots of licks of contentment. Instead of feeling odd, the familiar routine of focusing on Lana brought the trio of friends together and when the newer member of the class came over to pat Lana, she acknowledged him with an abundance of love. The inclusion of Lana’s happiness to greet everybody totally overrode any feelings of awkwardness between the friends and before they knew it, they were all getting on fantastically.