Peanut Goes to School (Elder Races #6.7)(9)

“You mean they’ll start picking on me,” he said.

She looked exasperated. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you.”

“Okay, thanks for the warning,” he told her. He still liked her, but he had to admit, she seemed pretty grumpy. “What about you? You stuck up for Perrin too.”

She looked angry and a bit lost. “I have to. He’s my neighbor, and we’ve sort of grown up together. We had to play together when we were little. And he doesn’t have a clue about how anything works.”

So she recognized Perrin as prey too. Liam blew out a breath. “So, they don’t leave you alone either?”

“Like I said, that’s probably changed, thanks to you crashing their party. It’s hard to believe you found so much trouble in your first recess.”

It didn’t seem like the best time to tell her he’d been looking for her.

Her head turned in the direction of the larger play area. “Look, I gotta go. Try not to be too stupid, will you?”

That sounded like some great advice. As she ran off, he called after her, “Thanks, I’ll try.”

The recess bell rang, and everybody ran to get in their line for class. For a few minutes, the playground swirled with confusion as kids pushed past each other, searching for the right place to get in line.

Something hit Liam between the shoulder blades, hard enough to send him down on one knee. Coughing in surprise at the sharp pain, he went forward, splaying his hands on the asphalt in front of him.

Then a blaze of energy shot through him. Breathing hard, he leaped to his feet and whirled, looking around. He couldn’t see Andrew or either of the tools, Joel and Brad. Other children surrounded him. The babble of their voices seemed too loud and shrill. Nobody was paying attention to him, or looked like they thought anything was odd, but he knew what happened.

That hadn’t been an ordinary shove. Someone had hit him, hard.

Nobody had ever hit him before.

He rotated his shoulders to ease the ache, while blood pounded through his body. It was another good lesson.

As strong and fast as he was, someone could still strike him in the back and hurt him bad, and if he didn’t keep his guard up, he might never see it coming.

The rest of the morning dragged on. Mrs. Teaberry didn’t smile at him or call on him, no matter how many times he raised his hand when she asked questions. She always picked somebody else to answer, until finally Liam stopped raising his hand altogether.

Perplexed, he studied her. She almost acted as if she were mad at him, or as if she didn’t like him. He didn’t know quite what to make of that. Usually, people liked him, but school had turned out to be much trickier than he had expected.

He was happy when lunchtime came. He would have gone to look for Marika, if he could have, but they were supposed to stay in line as they got their trays and went to sit at the long tables. Hungrily he ate all of his food, even though some of it was unappetizing.

After the meal, they went outside for another recess. The day had turned hot, and some of the other kids gathered in the shade of the large trees, but he liked the warm sunshine and basked in it.

The area between his shoulder blades, where somebody had hit him, still ached, and he rotated his shoulders. Sally, the girl he had sat by at lunch, asked, “Wanna play hopscotch?”

Just then, he caught sight of Andrew, Brad and Joel. They hung on the metal railing that bordered the concrete stairwell. As they talked, all three looked at him.

Andrew met his gaze. The other boy’s eyes were narrowed and cold, and the sore spot between Liam’s shoulders throbbed.

He said to Sally, “Thanks, but not right now. Maybe tomorrow.”

“Okay.” She walked away.

He watched as Sally joined a couple of other girls, and they started a new game of hopscotch. Then he looked back at Andrew and the tools.

While he had been looking away, one of the tools, Brad, had disappeared. Andrew and Joel leaned their elbows on the railing, still watching him.

Liam’s heart kicked. On reflex, he spun in a circle, but Brad was nowhere in sight. Andrew smiled at him, and it wasn’t a nice expression.

It was obvious they were planning something, but what? Liam didn’t know. He was starting to feel twitchy again, and after giving that first big kick of surprise, his heart kept pounding, only this time it didn’t feel good. This time, he didn’t have any idea what he should do or where he should go.

Was this how Perrin had felt, when the three other boys had bullied him?

As Liam stared at Andrew, a slow, wild anger started to burn through his uncertainty.

I’m not prey. I will never be prey.

But he could still be hurt.

They could still hurt him. They could still hurt other kids.

When Andrew crooked a finger at him in unmistakable invitation, he started forward. He glanced around at the buildings and the open land on the other side of the school fence. He still couldn’t see Hugh or any of the other guards.

Moving toward the other boy, he slipped one hand into his pocket.

And turned off his phone.

Chapter Four

* * *

The sun felt hot on his head and shoulders as he crossed the asphalt expanse toward the other two boys, and he burned with energy.

He also had plenty of time to think things over, just as he had when Andrew had tried to punch him at morning recess.