Hello my name is Elliot, and I like the creek near my house, the color purple, and the sound the rain makes in the trees.

I am a little bit strange in comparison to the rest of my friends but they do not seem to notice.

Andy hangs his coat on my horns sometimes but I don’t mind that and Charley brings me roses so she can laugh when I eat them.

That’s okay though because my mom assured me she’s not laughing at me.

They bring me ribbons and my friend Lucy’s parents always save me and my mom some food in the evenings and at night I sit with my mom and watch the stars in the sky.

My baby sister likes my friends but they’re my friends and she’s too much of a baby to play with us no matter what mom says.

I’m a really fast runner and in the mornings I race Andy and Lucas to school but they never catch me.

Sometimes they climb onto my back and since I’m really strong I can carry them both at once and we run through the forest to that place full of blackberry bushes.

I’m not a very good swimmer but Lucas’s dad bought me a pair of floaties for my birthday and I love them.

They’re yellow with blue ducks on them and Charley helps me get them on over my hooves because I’m really bad at doing it myself.

In the summer when my friends don’t have school, we can splash in the water for hours and sometimes they’ll take turns riding on my back to dry off. One time I caught a minnow with my mouth!

My mom made me spit it out though because it didn’t want to be eaten.
But that’s okay because minnows taste gross.

Don’t tell him I said that though.

The summer is the best time of year because then my friends can hang out all day and the days are longer.

My least favorite season is fall though, because then my friends are stuck in school, and the people who don’t like us try to hunt me and my mom. They say that we’re unnatural, and that we’re rabid, and that they need to take us out so we can’t harm anyone.

But my mom says that those people are stupid, and so I ignore them.

This week is the final few weeks before my friends go back to school, so Lucas and Andy’s parents organized a barbeque.

My mom and I cleaned up my little sister because she was filthy, and then my mother caught and cleaned up me too, because I was apparently also filthy.

I walked into the backyard with my mom and waved at my friends, who ran over. Andy put a party hat on one of my horns, and Lucas held out a lemonade.

Charley even got me some roses, which I happily ate.

My mom went over to Lucas’ parents, and they chatted with her about the weather.

I was sitting with Charley when I overheard it.

Andy's parents were chuckling, not in a mean way, just in a way to laugh.

Andy’s dad was still laughing when he asked his wife, “But have you ever seen a baby deer wearing floaties before, Angie?”