"So, you've got a little brother now?" David asked, glancing up at a cloud as it passed over them.
Jack sighed, looking over at his best friend as they laid in the grass. "Yeah. My dad married that dumb broad Linda and she convinced him to adopt some poor, underprivileged orphan from the city. Like I wasn't enough already." He rolled onto his side, propping his head up on his arm. "And this kid is so freakin' annoying. Always following me around the house and shit. I'm surprised he didn't follow me here."
"Francis! Francis!"
The two boys looked over to see a little boy running down the hill towards them. Jack groaned. "Speak of the devil."
"Francis," the boy said as he reached them, collapsing onto the grass and panting.
"Look, kid, I told you. My name is Jack. Not Francis."
"But Dad said--"
"I don't care what Dad said. My name is Jack Kelly." Jack pulled at some grass in irritation. "Now what do you want?"
"I'm bored. Mom and Dad said to come find you." The boy grinned at Jack, hoping for some reaction other than the unabashed disdain Jack was showing him.
"How'd you know where we were?"
"I had to look all around the whole neighborhood. Took me forever to find you. It's funny, 'cuz I got lost and I found you totally on accident. It's like you guys were trying to hide from me or something." He chuckled a little, as if it were a joke and Jack was supposed to reassure him that it wasn't true.
"Dave, did I forget to mention the kid's a genius, too?" David let out a snort, then sat up.
"This is him?" David looked over the little boy, from his dark, chocolate-colored skin, to his curly hair, to his huge brown eyes, all the way down to his old, tattered leather boots.
"Yeah," Jack said, not even trying to mask his distaste for the situation. Rolling his eyes, he waved his hand at the little boy. "Dave, this is Cornelius. Cornelius, this is Dave."
"Cornelius Sullivan?" David smirked. "Man, Jack, you were right. He is underprivileged."
Cornelius looked from Jack to David, confused. "What's underprivileged?"
"It means you're denied the enjoyment of the normal privileges or rights of a society because of low economic and social status," David said, adjusting the collar of his hooded sweatshirt to block out the crisp fall air.
"Oh... kay..." Cornelius blinked at David, then looked at Jack. "So can I hang out with you guys?"
"No," the boys said in unison, shaking their heads.
"We have an age limit of sorts," David said.
"Yeah, and height. Kind of like you must be this tall to ride."
"Also no casts, open-toed shoes, and people who are pregnant or have heart conditions should reconsider." The boys collapsed into a fit of laughter, leaving Cornelius to sit and pout.
"Hey, David!" A small boy stood at the top of the hill, waving. When David looked up, the boy ran down to the small group.
"What?" David sighed, looking pitifully over at Jack.
"Hi, Jack," the little boy said as he reached them, and Jack nodded before the boy turned back to David. "Mama said to tell you she has to go out and run errands so I'm s'posed to bring you your house key." He held out a key and dropped it into David's hand, then looked over at Cornelius.
"Thanks," David said. "Bye."
"Hey, who's this kid?"
David mumbled some swear word in Hebrew and Jack raised his eyes to the sky. "Les, this is my... brother, Cornelius. Cornelius, this is David's little brother, Les."
Cornelius smiled at Les, and Les raised an eyebrow. "Cornelius? What kind of a name is Cornelius?" When the other boy didn't answer, Les's eyebrows knitted together in curiosity. "Jack, how's he your brother? He don't look nothin' like you."
"He doesn't look anything like you," David corrected, and Les shrugged.
"Whatever. Their skin isn't even the same color."
"My dad and stepmother adopted him." Jack fell back onto the grass, obviously fed up with the little pow-wow his time with David had turned into.
"Oh, so he's not your real brother. Okay. Is he from Africa?" Les leaned in close to Cornelius, staring him dead in the eye. "Welcome to America," he said, speaking slowly and loudly. "I hope you like it here."
Cornelius set his jaw, rolling his eyes. "I'm from Queens."
"Oh." Les shrugged, as if there were little difference. "Hey, how come he gets to hang out with you'se guys? You always make me go do something else!"
"He doesn't," Jack said, glaring at Cornelius. "He was actually just about to go home."
"No, I wasn't," Cornelius interjected.
"Sure, you were." Jack looked at David, and David smiled. "Hey, Corny, how old are you again? Seven?"
"I'm ten and a half," Cornelius said indignantly. "And don't call me Corny."
"Hey, whattaya know, you're the same age as Les," David said, forcing an enthusiastic, albeit fake, smile. "Why don't you two go and play together? You have a lot in common."
The two younger boys regarded each other, each apprehensive to make the first move. "Maybe you guys'll actually like each other," Jack offered, "and maybe you can be best friends, like me and Dave."
Les shrugged. "I guess. Wanna hang out, then? I can show you around the neighborhood if you want."
Cornelius nodded. "Yeah, okay." He got up and he and Les wandered off, looking over their shoulders to see Jack and David high-five one another and lay back down in the grass, chattering contentedly once again.
"So what do you like to do?" Les asked, stuffing his hands in his pockets and kicking at a rock.
"I don't know. I ain't been here that long, only like a week, so I don't really know what there is to do around here." Cornelius shrugged.
"Oh. Well, what'd you do for fun when you lived in Queens?"
"Uh... well, there wasn't much for me to do. I didn't leave my house much. I just kinda stayed in my room most of the time. I read a lot, I guess. I used to play video games but my dad sold my Nintendo and my TV set."
"Wow. I would've been really mad." Les looked over at Cornelius. "I don't know what I'd do without my Nintendo."
"Wasn't much I could do about it." Cornelius shrugged.
The two boys walked in silence for a while, until Les looked down, noticing the boots Cornelius wore. "What's with your shoes?"
"They're the only ones I have. Mom and Dad ain't taken me to buy new ones yet. 'Sides, I kinda like 'em." Cornelius looked down at his feet, smiling a little bit. "They're some of the only things of mine that my birth mom and dad didn't sell."
Les nodded, unsure of what to say, then decided to change the subject. "Hey, how come Jack calls you Cornelius? Jack always makes up nicknames for everybody. What's yours?"
"I don't got one... what do you mean, nicknames?"
"Well, like, everybody calls Jack Cowboy, and Dave, he's the Walking Mouth. 'Cuz he talks a lot or somethin'. And then there's Mush, and Kid Blink, and Racetrack, and Skittery... there's a whole bunch of 'em."
"What's your nickname?"
Les stopped walking. "I... I guess I don't got one yet, either." He shrugged. "How about we give each other nicknames?"
Cornelius looked over at Les, smiling a little. "Yeah, sure."
"I'll call you Boots."
"Boots?" Cornelius laughed. "Okay, I guess."
"What're you gonna call me?" Les led Cornelius, now Boots, over to a cluster of trees and started looking through the sticks and branches that had fallen to the ground.
"I dunno. You talk a awful lot." Boots laughed.
"Yeah, so's my brother. That's why Jack calls him the Walking Mouth."
"Well, I'll call you Mini Mouth, then. Even though there ain't nothin' mini about your mouth."
Les laughed, nodding. "Okay. So we're Boots and Mini Mouth. We sound like a couple of superheroes."
"Yeah, but I think we're too small to be superheroes. I think Jack and Dave and all their friends are more like superheroes. We're more like sidekicks."
"Yeah, I guess we are." Les picked up two branches, handing one to Boots. "Wanna fight, sidekick?"
The two boys sword-fought with the branches for a while, until they collapsed onto the grass, giggling hysterically. They laid beside one another, trying to catch their breath, until they fell back into an easy rhythm and stayed in silence for nearly half an hour.
"Hey, Boots?" Les said finally, looking over at his new friend.
"Yeah, Mini Mouth?"
"Can I ask you something?"
"Go ahead."
Les took a deep breath, looking back up at the late-afternoon sky. "How come Mister and Missus Sullivan adopted you? I mean, what happened to your real mom and dad?"
Boots sighed, biting his lip. "Well... see, my real mom and dad, they had this problem. Junk was what they called it, but the policemen who came to my house were talking about something called methamphetamine. I remember that word 'cuz I thought it was really cool to say. But it's really bad stuff. It made them all crazy and it made them not love me anymore." He closed his eyes, as if he could hide from the memory. "That's why they sold all my stuff, so they could buy more of the junk. Sometimes they forgot to feed me or buy me food and stuff but I didn't really care, 'cuz they seemed like they were happy. I ate whenever I went to school."
"Wow. Why didn't you just leave?" Les rolled onto his side, staring at Boots.
"'Cuz I couldn't. They were my mom and dad, I couldn't just leave them." He sighed. "But they went to see the guy they were buying the junk from one night and I guess they owed him a whole bunch of money and they didn't have it, so the guy... he, um, he killed them. And the policemen came to my house and took me away. I had to go live in this orphanage for a little while, but then the Sullivans came along and said they'd be my new mom and dad."
"Do you like it here?"
"I don't really know yet. I mean, I feel safe here and all, I guess. But I kinda miss Queens. And I kinda miss my real mom and dad, even though they weren't very good people... at least, that's what the policeman said."
Les stared at his new friend for a few moments, then leaned in and pressed his lips to his cheek. Boots opened his eyes as Les rolled onto his back. "What was that for?"
"To make you feel better."
Boots smiled a little, then reached out and took Les's hand into his own. "Thanks." They squeezed one another's hands, and laid together, staring up at the sky. "Y'know, Mini Mouth, I think I'm gonna like it here."
"Yeah, Boots, I think you will."