High/Low
When Adam had time to think, in those brief moments before he really woke up in he morning on a really busy day, sometimes he played a quick game of High/Low before he faced the day. This helped in a couple ways. First, if it was a bad day, Adam took comfort in the fact that he had experienced worse and come out of them okay. Or, he could concentrate on memories of good days to make him sure that more of them would be just around the corner.
--
As far as Adam could recall, his worst memory was when some little jerk in soccer nailed him in the thigh with his cleat. He had never felt pain like that before, and promised himself he would never play again. He didn't care that it was an accident.
It wasn't the memory of the injury that was painful, but the fact that Adam hadn't been able to keep his word to himself. His parents had made him finish out the season, as the most uncoordinated, weirdest kid on the team. He heard the parents talking about him on the sidelines, and hoped that just once he could score a goal so they would stop. But that never happened either.
It made sense. He was kind of weird, as the kid who preferred to use the goal as a cage for elaborate games of make-believe, or a jungle-gym, depending on his mood. He wanted a soccer ball with cool colors and designs on it, not for any athletic reason, but because if he kicked it, the colors mixed together and looked awesome.
But he hated that he stuck out. He thought he looked just the same as the other kids on the team. But because he liked to play more with the girls than the boys, he got teased. And that wasn't nice, or fair. Just because what the girls played was more interesting than what the boys played was no reason for all the boys to call him names so he could hear but the coach couldn't.
Soccer, as a whole, had been his worst memory, and he flat-out refused to play after the first year when he was seven. It wasn't even the kids, as much as the grown-ups that really hurt him. Kids were expected to tease other kids, and Adam could take that. But he didn't know what to do when adults did the teasing. All he knew was that it made him feel like he wasn't good enough, and that feeling stayed with him for a long time.
--
If Adam thought of his worst memory too much, it depressed him, so he counteracted it with thinking about his favorite memory. Like his worst, it didn't center around anything earth-shattering. Just a hot summer day with his parents and his brother, before his family went their separate ways.
Sometimes, they had great parties and invited all the neighbors for drinks and music and conversation. And sometimes, it was just the four of them. He and Neil with Cokes and his parents with whatever they wanted. Neil would whip Adam's ass at California Speed and then Adam would return the favor, and just whip Neil's ass. His parents didn't care. His dad used to encourage them to wrestle as kids.
It wasn't anything said or done that was special, really. Just the time spent. It made Adam sure that he belonged somewhere, even if everywhere else he felt like he stuck out like a sore thumb. It made his high school years bearable that he could have moments like this. Where he wasn't liked or appreciated because of what he did, but who he was.