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“What job do you want to do when you grow up?”
Lincoln looks up into the sky, the late summer sun warm on our skin, and I admire his profile. He’s always nice to me, but he can be different when his father is around, colder, as if he’s scared of upsetting him. I still like him though. Clark doesn’t seem to care what his dad thinks, he’s always my friend.
“I want to be a dinosaur hunter.”
I wrinkle my nose. “Dinosaurs are scary.”
He laughs as he puts his arm around me. “Don’t worry, Lottie, I’ll protect you.”
“You will?”
He looks down at me and I see the truth of his words in his eyes. “Always.”
The moment stretches between us as I let my head fall to his shoulder and wish he could be in my class at school; nobody would bully me then.
Suddenly he jumps up from the grass and I tense as I watch him disappear into the potting shed. Mommy said I’m not allowed inside there as it has dangerous stuff for the plants to help the bugs stay away.
I sag back in relief when he comes back out a minute later with a green box in his hands. Sitting in front of me, he pops the box on the grass and opens it. Mommy has one of these too, it’s for fixing boo boos up.
“Let’s clean you up.”
Gently Lincoln pulls my leg flat and takes out a wipe to clean the blood. I look away and bite my lip as the sting makes my eyes water.
“Still hate blood, Lottie?”
Lincoln is the only one who calls me Lottie, everyone else calls me Vi or Violet, but I like that he does. It makes it special. Clark called me Lottie once and I didn’t like it and told him not to. I think I hurt his feelings but he wasn’t mad for long. Clark is never mad for long. He’s my best friend in the whole world, but I like Linc a lot too. He’s just different. He makes my tummy feel weird and jumpy.
“There, all done.”
I was so busy daydreaming I didn’t feel him put a Band-Aid on my knee. Now it’s all clean around my knee, leaving the dirt everywhere else looking even worse. “Thanks, Linc.”
He nods and goes to put the first aid box away leaving the wrappers and wipes he used on the grass.
He comes back and I sigh, knowing I can’t hide forever, but I wish I could. I wish I was big and then I could decide if I wanted to read or go to stupid school.
“We should go back to the house. Your mom will be worried.”
Mom is the housekeeper here at the Kennedy Estate and we have our very own place just for us. It’s pretty neat and I love my room too, it’s violet like my name and I have my very own desk so I can draw and stuff.
He holds out his hand and I take it as he pulls me to standing. As we walk back toward the house my tummy knots the closer we get and I slow my steps until I almost stop.
“I wish I could run away.”
Linc turns to me, his head cocked so that the curl at the front falls over his forehead. “Why?”
“I don’t belong here, Lincoln. I’m not like the other kids. My mom isn’t rich and I don’t have a daddy. I’m stupid and I wear old clothes. Everyone hates me.”
“I don’t hate you and you’re not stupid.”
“I am. I can’t even read.”
A hot stain of shame creeps over my face at the admission and I want to fall through the earth and disappear. Why did I tell him that? Now he’ll hate me too.
A hand on my shoulder, makes me look up through my eyelashes at him so tall and handsome. He’d never be called stupid. He has everything, and yet he’s nice to me still.
“I can help you. Reading is hard at first and some people have this thing where the letters move when they try to read and it makes it even harder. My friend Peter has it and he has some special-colored glasses to help him.”
“He does?” Hope swims inside me and I feel lighter, that maybe I’m not stupid after all.
