Swallowing past the lump in her throat, she stepped outside.
Everyone had a spot. They were all already friends. She had no one here.
“You can sit with me,” Sean said. He stood beside her, a briefcase in his hand.
“Really?”
“Drake hates me. He doesn’t come near me. He thinks I’ve got cooties. If you’re okay with my cooties, we can eat together.”
She smiled. “I don’t mind cooties.” She didn’t want to sit on her own and she really didn’t want to be anywhere near that bully.
Sean held out his hand and she took it, thankful for him even willing to be her friend. Making new friends was never going to be easy. Her mother said she didn’t need to be someone different for others to like her. That she had to learn to be herself.
Again, she didn’t have a clue what she was talking about, but her mother knew stuff.
They sat down at the table, and she saw others were laughing and pointing as Sean opened up his briefcase and took out his sandwich. So his briefcase was in fact his lunchbox, very strange. She didn’t question it, and no one else said anything, so it must be something he did regularly.
“Fishy face!”
“Look, they got cooties.”
“Gross.”
Sean opened his sandwich and Prudence wrinkled her nose. “What you got?”
“Sardines. Mom always puts them on because my dad loves them but I hate them. Yuck.”
“They call you fishy face.”
“They’re morons.”
“You said a bad word.”
“They always say worse.” Sean shrugged.
Prudence opened her lunchbox. She had a cheese spread sandwich. After she offered him half of her sandwich, he took it with a smile.
“Where do you live?” Sean asked.
Her first lunchbreak, she told him everything. Where she used to live, the house they had moved into. Everything. She didn’t leave a single thing out, and in return, Sean told her all about himself and life at Mountain Peak Valley.
That was the town she moved to. The town where her parents hoped to start a new life, and one she didn’t want a part of. At least she had one friend, even if he did have a weird briefcase.
****
Prudence was late to come out of class again. She got caught passing a note to Sean, asking if he wanted to come to her house tonight. They’d been best friends since she moved to town and he always played with her. Their parents got along as well. They didn’t live too far apart either, a couple of streets away, and her mother let her walk there, so long as she saw her cross the road. She was six now, not a baby. She didn’t need constant babysitting.
Finally skipping out of class, she came to a stop when she saw all the kids gathered in a circle. She looked toward the swings where she and Sean usually stood during break.
He wasn’t there.
She didn’t like the way the other kids were yelling, laughing, and cheering. What was going on? Where was Sean? What had she missed?
Sean was always waiting for her. Nothing ever kept them apart, not even sickness.
She moved away from the swings and made her way toward the group who was watching whatever was in the middle of the circle. The moment she caught sight of Drake hitting Sean, she pushed her way through, determined to get to him.
“Move!”
“Get out of the way!” she cried out as someone shoved an elbow into her side, but that didn’t stop her. Clearing the wall of people, she saw Drake straddling Sean, hitting him while Sean tried to ward him off.
No one was stopping the fight.
Her heart raced. She had to stop Drake from smacking Sean. She didn’t know what had started the fight and she didn’t care either. “Get off him,” she screamed.
“Fuck you, fatso.” Drake hit Sean even harder.
Not caring about her own safety, she charged toward Drake. The force of her impact knocked him on the ground. She was faster than him and where he’d been straddling Sean, she now was astride him.
“Get off,” he said.
She thought about her first day of school. Of all the name-calling and crap he’d thrown her way. She was done with him, with it all.
There had been many nights when she hit her pillow, wishing it was Drake and getting no satisfaction out of it. He had hurt her friend for the last time.
Drawing her fist back, she punched him hard. She landed a blow to his face. Once, twice, and then he pushed her. The circle of friends had gotten bigger and she let out a cry as Drake moved over her. He sat on top of her. He brought his fist back and hit her again, not caring about the strength he used.
She looked back to see Sean was on the ground. He’d pulled his knees up against his chest. But she was strong, so before Drake could make another move, she hit him right between the legs. It did the trick, jerking him off her.