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Easy.
I dashed to California and landed there before Peter could even reach Texas.
I smirked as I walked back to the lineup. I gave Hailee a smug look from across the way, and she rolled her eyes. She was annoyed that I had won. I couldn’t wait to be happy when she lost.
Lars cleared his throat. “Okay, number five get ready!”
Hailee’s eyes narrowed, and she got into her power stance as if she was going to skyrocket to whatever state came out of his mind. Her opponent on my team was Kevin. Gosh, I hoped he crushed her so I could mock her about it forever.
Lars shouted out, “Mississippi!”
The two dashed off, and dang it, Hailee got to the state before him. She looked smug and proud at first. That didn’t last long, though.
“She cheated! There’s no way chubby hippo beat me there! She was on the wrong state!” Kevin stated as he went and shoved her hard, knocking her down to the ground. Hailee’s hands slid across the concrete, and she scraped herself pretty bad.
I didn’t know what hurt her more—Kevin’s shove or his words.
Her eyes glassed over, and I was almost certain the tears were about to fall. Before they could, I tackled Kevin to the ground and started swinging my fist at the jerk’s face. I got in lots of trouble for that, and my parents told me I couldn’t use my fists to fight people. But they didn’t see Hailee’s eyes. They would’ve fought that jerk, too.
That night, I looked over to Hailee’s bedroom from my window and threw a shoe at it to get her attention. “Hey! Hey, loser!” I shouted. She moved over to the window and opened it. I climbed out of mine and walked over to her.
“What do you want?” she asked. Her hand had Band-Aids on it from where she got cut up. I didn’t know why, but that made my stomach hurt. If I could, I’d tackle stupid Kevin again for hurting her. I didn’t like Hailee, but no one should’ve ever hurt her.
“Nothing,” I muttered, scratching at the back of my neck.
“Then why did you throw a shoe at my window?”
“I didn’t.”
Her eyes darted to the grass, where my shoe was lying.
I kicked it behind me as if that would stop her from seeing it.
I huffed. “I just came to see if you were all right, okay?”
“Why do you care if I’m all right?”
“I don’t!” I snapped, but my stomach still felt wound up. Why did I feel so angry? Hailee didn’t even say any of her annoying stuff to make me upset. Still, I was mad. I think. I think I was mad. Sometimes I felt like my dad, and I didn’t understand my emotions all that well.
“Okay,” she replied. She didn’t argue. She didn’t call me a name. She simply went to close her window, and when my eyes met hers, she still looked sad. Like how sad she looked on the playground. That made me mad. Or sad. Or sad and mad.
“Hailee, wait,” I said, stopping her from shutting the window.
“What?” she asked, short and direct.
I stared at her blankly.
I didn’t know what to say.
I didn’t know what to feel.
All I knew was I wanted to be by her that night, and I didn’t know why.
“You’re being weird,” she told me.
“Am not.”
“Are too.”
