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“I can’t go any faster. The grass is too wet.”
“You must!”
I fill my cheeks with air and plow forward as June’s grip tightens around my neck, nearly strangling me.
Apparently, there was no emergency. June just wanted to prove that I gave the best piggyback rides in the world, and now eleven other third-graders are on my heels, wanting to experience it for themselves.
The things I do for this kid.
“Yeah, Brant…faster!” A different voice calls out to me this time—a familiar voice. When I twist my head to the left, Wendy Nippersink is waving at me from the sidelines in a dangerously short sundress and with a deadly sparkle in her eyes.
The distraction causes me to slip, and we go down.
Crap.
I reach around my back on instinct, holding June as well as I can as I plummet face-first into the sprinkler-soaked grass. Her scream transforms into a fit of giggles when she pinwheels off me, and I just lie there trying to decide if my chin is more bruised than my pride.
It’s not.
Rolling onto my back, I catch my breath as a curtain of ruby-red hair inches into my line of sight, hovering above me. Wendy asks worriedly, “Are you all right, Brant?”
Yoshi licks my face, like he’s trying to bring me back to life.
Theo is next to appear, frazzled, racing straight to June. “Holy hell, Peach…you good? Did you break anything?”
“I’m good!” She’s still laughing.
I’m still trying to find a way to erase the last fifteen seconds of my life.
I pull up on my elbows, glancing at June just to make sure she is good. She appears unscathed, so my heartbeats manage to settle with relief. A swarm of children surrounds us, followed by Monica and a few of the adults, and I clear my throat, reaching my hand out to June to help her up. “Sorry, Junebug. I guess I deserve to have my title stripped as world’s best piggyback giver, huh?”
Her nose crinkles, her freckles scattering. “That was really fun! Can we do it again?”
“I wanna do it!”
“My turn!”
June’s friends descend on me, but I’m saved in the nick of time when someone snatches my wrist, dragging me away from the inevitable siege. I glance back over my shoulder at June, catching the way her blue eyes dim as I retreat, despite the hazy sunshine causing the water droplets to glimmer on her skin. My heart falls a little when she slowly sulks away, but the scent of coconut perfume pulls my attention back to the girl who still has her fingers coiled around my wrist.
My skin heats when our eyes meet.
“You sure you’re okay, Sonic?”
I falter, fumbling for words. “Sonic?”
“The hedgehog, dummy.” Her flash of teeth softens the insult. “You’re fast.”
“And clumsy, apparently.”
“Maybe you were just distracted,” she winks, tugging me toward the swinging bench. “Come sit with me.”
Wendy smooths out her mint-green sundress that seems to complement the rosy undertones of her hair, then takes a seat. I sit beside her, leaving a few inches between us. Coughing a bit, I ask, “What are you doing here?”
“Monica texted me. Said there would be cake,” she tells me, studying her crimson-tipped fingernails. “I can’t resist cake.”
The way she looks up at me then has me feeling like I’m the cake.
I gulp. “Cool. I made it myself… It’s raspberry-flavored.”
