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“Give me the bear, Julie.”
I looked up from the bear and saw Laurie, his hand extended toward me. I looked around the classroom, then pointed to myself to ask “Who, me?”
“Yes, you. Give me the bear.”
“I’m playing with him.” I replied. “Wait your turn.”
“It’s a her,” Laurie retorted. “And she’s mine.”
“This bear isn’t yours. He’s everyone’s,” I tried to reason. “That’s why we keep Honey at school and not at your house.”
“Honey?!” Lauie raised his voice. “Her name is Pookie!”
“Who cares what his name is, you poopyhead!” I yelled. A hush fell across the room. I looked around and saw that everyone’s heads were turned toward us.
“Oooooh!” someone teased. “He said poopyhead!”
Laurie’s head snapped towards the teasing kid. “Shut up Mary!” he yelled. He leaned in towards me, his face mere inches away from mine.
“Call. Me. A poopyhead. Again.” His voice had lowered significantly, almost to a whisper.
“Poopyhead!” I spat. Everyone in the classroom let out a collective gasp.
“That’s it, you’re in for it now!” Laurie boomed. “Meet me in the gym, right after school. Bring Pookie.”
“You got it,” I replied, narrowing my eyes.
After an entire day of Laurie practically glaring a hole through my head, it was time to go. I stuffed Honey in my backpack and got in line to go home, Laurie right on my heels. Once we were sure the adults weren’t looking, we both simultaneously stood up and quietly snuck away to the gym. We both arrived at the empty court. I took Honey out of my backpack and put him in the middle of the room. I stood under one basketball net, while Laurie stood under the other.
“You’re going down, Julie!” he yelled.
I pushed my glasses up my nose, light reflecting off of them. “I don’t think so,” I chuckled. “It is you who is going down.” I took a basketball from the ball rack and started dribbling it. After a few seconds, I threw it at Laurie. It landed on his head with a thud. He fell onto the ground and slid across it, bare knees sliding across the floor with a screech, like when I fall off the gym scooter at full speed…
While Laurie was recovering, I grabbed a scooter and ran at him as fast as I could. When I was about halfway to him, I quickly jumped onto it. However, just as I was about to run into him, he suddenly sat up and grabbed the handle of the scooter. He smiled a horrible smile at me as he threw me over his head, and me and the scooter went flying into the wall of the gym. I landed on the ground with a thud. He had recovered.
I slowly got up, my body shaking either from the pain or the adrenaline. I wasn’t sure which one. I tried to make my way over to Laurie, although it was hard because my legs were shaking so hard. Meanwhile, he picked a jump rope off the ground and snapped it at me. My arms shielded the rest of my body, so the jump rope hit them many times.
I tried to ignore the jump rope slaps and closed my eyes, focusing on my hands. I could almost feel a warm energy growing inside them. I stretched my arms in front of me, my palms facing Laurie.
“Fire… ball… blast!” I screamed as fire shot out of my hands, directly at Laurie. The imaginary fire knocked him against the wall I was facing, and seemed to scorch his clothes as black as coal. He landed on the ground feet-first. He faced the palms of his hands towards me, and blue energy gathered inside them. I dodged the ice blasts shooting from his hands just in time.
As I was conjuring up a fireball in my mouth, I imagined a voice in my head. It sounded familiar.
“Please… don’t fight…”
It was Honey!
“I love you both… can’t you both have me?”
Laurie dropped to his knees and put his head in his hands. Did he hear Honey too? Tears started to well up in my eyes as well.
“Why couldn’t I have just waited my turn?” Laurie sobbed.
I walked over to him and put my hand on his shoulder. He looked up at me with his big, hazel eyes.
“It’s okay,” I said softly. He pulled me into a tight hug and I hugged back more gently. I felt his tears dampening my favorite shirt but I didn’t care. I needed to be there for him. After a while, his hiccupping sobs slowed down, and eventually stopped. He released me from the hug and wiped the remaining tears from his eyes.
“I’m so sorry,” Laurie sniffed.
“I forgive you,” I said. “Come on, let’s go put Honey back and go home.”
“Pookie,” he laughed.