AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Three boys only a little bigger than me stand shoulder to shoulder with their backs to me, facing one of the swing sets. One of them—the biggest one—crouches, kicking at something, and a gap forms, revealing a kid kneeling in the mulch at their feet.
I shove my headphones off my ears, so that they’re hanging around my neck.
With the music gone, I can hear it loud and clear when one of the boys laughs and the other spits out, “little girl,” as if it’s something bad.
I don’t hear what else he says.
A loud whooshing fills my ears, and I find myself stomping toward them, hands clenched so tight at my sides I feel it up to my elbows.
I hate bullies. One tried to pick on me last year—told me I was a nerd because I like comic books. So I kicked him in the leg and called him a jerk-face.
I got in trouble for it. Had to stay inside during recess for a whole week. Momma was so mad, and took away my CD player for two whole weeks. But Dad just patted me on the back, and told me I did good.
He warned me after all…
Said they’d think I was a nerd.
Doesn’t mean I have to take it.
Just as I reach the swings, I get a flash of a silky-looking blond head that shimmers under the sun, bent over the ground. One of the bullies kicks a bright red backpack out from under her, spilling paper and pens all over. I can see her tiny fists clenched white in the red mulch from where they poke out of a jean jacket, but she doesn’t look up.
Fight back! I want to scream, but instead I just grit my teeth, and give the first bully I reach a shove before I can think better of it.
“Hey!” I say just as he stumbles back and whirls his mean eyes on me. “Leave her alone,” I say through my teeth.
The boys freeze, and then burst out laughing. One of them—not the one I shoved—says down to the girl, “Hear that? Even he thinks you’re a girl, so you must be.”
“Boys, what’s going on over here?” a woman’s voice calls over before I can make sense of what he just said.
The bullies instantly back away and turn toward the school. “Nothing, Mrs. Markle,” they say at the same time as they leave us.
“Uh huh. Come on before you’re late,” the teacher says, but it doesn’t sound like she’s coming over. Maybe she didn’t see anything?
I hope not.
I quickly drop down in front of the girl to help her pick up her books so we don’t get in trouble. My eyes catch on a drawing pad with a picture of a tree, but it’s the bright colorful cover of a comic book peeking out between her notebooks that has me grinning. “I love that one! Captain America is my favorite. I have posters alllll over my room.”
The girl tenses and hunches her shoulders, ducking her head even more.
Grabbing the backpack since it’s closer to me, I’m just about to shove what I picked up inside, when I see the name stitched across the front in white letters, and I freeze.
My gaze snaps up, darting over to where the girl?—
No, I think, shaking my head.
—the boy looks up at me through long, surprisingly dark lashes compared to his golden blond hair.
Oh.
Distantly, I’m aware of the music still playing, quiet and muffled against my neck, vibrating my skin. But it suddenly feels so much farther away. Because a new song has slipped into place, a familiar one, even if it’s only in my head.
My lips rise. “Jeremy,” I blurt, and with it, I hear guitar notes and drums and my heart’s a racin’.
Just like the song. Just like the song!
The boy’s brown eyes widen, and his mouth parts, puffing, like he’s gulping at air.
Swallowing, I try to say something else, but nothing wants to come out.
