A Boy, a Club, and how I read Warriors

My first introduction to Warriors was through my friends Warrior Club. They would act out part of the stories in the park and me and my sister would watch it from the swings or something. This group of eight plus kids running around. One day, we looked at each other and decided that we wanted to play as well, even though we had no idea what they were doing. So we both walked over and asked if we could play. You could tell they had no idea what to do with us, because they made a choice between themselves that we'd be given the position of Queen. We thought that sounded pretty good. Anyone tell us that Queen meant a female expecting kits? Nooope. Not that I can remember. We thought it was a interesting idea to be Queens though! One of the eight people sort of got to watch us and after a couple of minutes of sitting around, we finally asked what it was we were supposed to be doing. No being supplied with an entertaining enough answer, we wandered off. I walked over to a boy who was tearing up the grass at the edge of the group. He wasn't playing with them, but I knew that they hadn't minded letting me and my sister in. I asked him if he wanted to play with us as well. He looked up and said 'Nope'. And went back to tearing up grass. Later, five minutes later or so, he was still there and I asked him again. Once again, he said 'No'. He didn't want to play. (Fun fact: His grass pile was AMAZING. He had a moat around it and it was really large. Clearly, he was entertained enough by that. xD)

Well, me and my sister were pretty bored at this point, but still were 'in the game'. But we started wandering further and further from our designated den. At one point or another, we looked back and noticed the park had gotten really empty. Like, everyone was gone. It wasn't a small part either, a lot of people had been there. We started walking back and came around a couple of trees to see a crowd of people. If you want a rough estimate of how large a group, think enough to fill a small-ish pubic pool. Give or take, thirty people. EVERYONE in that park was huddled in around my two friends and there group. Another lady and my friend's mom were arguing with my friends and as we got closer we started to understand why.

They, the friend's mom and the other lady, were chastising my friends for not including that boy in their club. And the whole park had come to watch and throw in their two cents. My friends were arguing that they had asked the boy, several times, if he wanted to play. He had said 'no' to everyone who asked. I can't remember if I said something, or if they finally believed my friends, but the big crowd finally broke up. All I know, is that it was resolved in favor of my friends.

After that, years later, I asked my friends if they ever had the Warrior Club in the park. I'd stopped seeing it. They shook their heads at me and said that after that time with the boy, they hadn't wanted to continue it. I don't blame them, considering the uproar it had caused.

How did I get to actually read the books, however? I found them at the library and asked my father if I could read them. He said 'No', that I couldn't. I was really mystified and a little hurt. I'd read larger books than that series before. A month later, I found out why he'd said no. I got the whole first series for my birthday. He hadn't wanted me to read my birthday present before I actually got it. cx

Clearly, since I'm here, I liked it.

I started my own Warrior Club the same year I read the first book and it ran on the same system as the old one. It lasted through several moves and over five years. Each year, it adapted and changed, becoming more of a bookclub and discussion or I got my school (almost) to do one of the Warrior plays. Either way, it lasted a long time, and I still have many memories from it. One is my SN. The girl that would become the club's (version 1 of the club) first medicine cat gave me my screenname/warrior name, and it's never left my memories.