Chapter Two

Elle

I was out the door before the bell finished ringing. Unfortunately, the universe had made sure my class was on the other side of the school from Jimmy’s. It took me a couple of minutes pushing and shoving my way through the crowd to get there.

As I got closer, my stomach began to knot up into a tight ball with that sick certainty of doom.

A scrum of kids had formed just outside his door and I just knew something was wrong. It had to be. Things were not allowed to go smoothly.

Squeezing through the crowd, I found Jimmy laying on the ground next to the lockers with blood dripping from his nose. Army jacket guy was standing over him, looking out at the crowd, his hands clenched in fists, like he wanted to destroy his next victim.

“What are you doing?” I yelled as I shoved him in the chest. The bastard didn’t budge. It was like pushing at a small mountain. “Get away from him.”

The guy looked down at me like I was a confused monkey.

“Elle,” Jimmy said from the ground. “It wasn’t him. You don’t understand.”

Not him? What was Jimmy talking about? Obviously, it was this jerk’s fault.

The big idiot continued to look at me with a bewildered expression that made me wonder if I might have made a mistake.

“It wasn’t him,” Jimmy said as he got up, wiping at his nose with his sleeve. “Nate stopped it from being worse.”

“Then who?” I demanded unwilling to look at the stranger. If I had been wrong I’d have to apologize. Never one of my favorite things.

“Joe McCain.”

“What?” I said as my voice rose an octave or two. One hour in school and Jimmy had already gotten on the wrong side of the most popular person in school. Not a good start.

“What did you do?” I asked, perfectly aware that the big guy was still standing there, looking at me strangely. Probably waiting for an apology.

“I didn’t do anything, I was just walking and…”

“Not then, in class, what did you do to upset Joe McCain. You do realize what you’ve done? You’re making everything worse. I told you to just be quiet.”

Jimmy shrugged his shoulders, “I just offered to help him if he needed it. It looked like he was having trouble getting some of the themes and finer points of the book we were supposed to have read over the summer. It was almost like he hadn’t even read it.”

I rolled my eyes and looked up to the heavens for help. A lamb among lions. That was my brother.

“Hey, give the kid a break,” Army jacket guy said. “He can’t help it if this Joe guy is a jerk.”

My mind reeled at the cluelessness in the man. Didn’t he understand how these things worked? If Joe McCain didn’t like you. Then three-thirds of the school didn’t like you. They would go out of their way to make life unpleasant for Jimmy and therefore me. And this big lug thinks it’s not important.

I turned on him to give him my best scowl. He smirked back down at me and I could have sworn he thought I was funny or something. Like my opinion didn’t really matter.

My frustration kicked up a couple of notches as I turned away and grabbed Jimmy’s arm to start him to his next class.

Jimmy pulled away from me and turned back to Army jacket guy.

“Thanks, Nate,” he said holding out his hand.

This Nate guy’s lips creased into a smirk as he shook Jimmy’s hand. “Sure kid, next time though, zig when they zag.”

Jimmy laughed and wiped at his dripping nose and nodded. “Come on Elle,” he said as he turned away. “I need to get to my next class.”

I watched for a moment as this new stranger gave me another smirk and a quick shake of his head before he turned and blended into the crowd.

“So, what happened?” I asked as I caught up to Jimmy.

He shrugged his shoulders. “Like I said, I was walking down the hall when that Joe guy suddenly pushed me into the lockers face first. He looked really upset. He held me there for a second, pinned against the locker. I think he was going to punch me but Nate stepped in between us and told him to back off.”

My heart turned over at the thought of my brother being bullied.

“Joe looked like he was confused for a second.” Jimmy continued. “A condition I am sure he is very familiar with by the way. Nate just stood there, daring him to do something. Joe studied him for a long moment and I could swear I saw something changed inside of him. Like he’d realized he’d stepped over the line and taking on Nate had not been in his plans. He pushed me down then turned and walked away.”

I forced my stomach to relax a little, Jimmy wasn’t hurt. Not really. Not enough to go to the nurse. But that didn’t matter when I told Mom about this. She’d have to pull him out of school. She couldn’t expect me to be able to protect my little brother especially not from Joe McCain and his crowd. I couldn’t be there all the time.

.o0o.