Especially when there’s a girl involved. I watched Deevon throwing bits of pink eraser at Beth, which could just be considered annoying if it wasn’t for the fact that he’d dipped each one into a pile of his own snot.

So I started whistling because I knew he hated it. At first he just scowled. Then he launched the snot missiles at me. I whistled louder. Mrs. Lawson told me to stop, I was disturbing the class. Forget it. I couldn’t. This was war.

That’s when he jumped me. I saw him flying my way, heard a desk crash to the ground, Mrs. Lawson’s voice yelling, “Deevon!”

When his hands wrapped around my throat and the room started turning gray, I had a moment of wondering “Why?” Why go to bat for Beth? It wasn’t like she was even a looker. Not even close.

I kicked out. Tried to scratch his face but instinct or self-preservation or some kind of shit like that, made me grab at his hands to pull at them. Failure. I tried to scream but I wasn’t sure if the high-pitched squealing I heard was me, Mrs. Lawson, or Beth, the plain girl who still needed a champion. Because, face it, I’d pissed and missed.