The odd one out

Today I've been kind of down and a little bit grumpy. This is unusual considering it is the weekend, it is warmer than it has been in months, and it is a beautiful sunny day.

The tone of my day was initially set by the novel I've been reading. It was a sad chapter for the protagonist of the book, one of lost love for somebody who had hardly known friendship and  love at all. But the real downer for me came after breakfast, as I was going around putting the laundry away, and doing other household chores.

I was in Bella's room, which faces our backyard, when I heard kids laughs coming from the outside. I looked through the window and saw some of the neighbors, as usual, running around. Of course, I thought. There they are again, playing around while my Sofia is by herself inside the house. It does not help that they like to run around in the cold and the mud, while my Sofia is more of a girly girl. But the main thing I'm afraid of is that one of them has "black listed" her, and asked the others not to play with her. Every time I see them out there it reminds me of the birthday incident, when not only she was the only one NOT invited, but one of them actually told her that right to her face. And to think that when she sees them, she says they are her "friends".