Before Halloween
Scraped Knees and Falling From Trees
"Hey!"
Puzzled, the girl turned her head, disheveled brown hair moving with the wind. "Yeah?"
Pip frowned at her, gesturing with his arm toward the kickball court. "This is our game. Beat it."
The girl's look of confusion quickly turned to one of anger. "Like heck I will! This is a free country and no one's going to make me leave if I don't want to." She stood up to her full height, brushing dirt from her jeans as she did so. Suddenly, her lips turned into a wicked smile as she contemplated him. "In fact, you know what I think?"
He really didn't care what she thought, but sighed loudly, implicating for her to go on.
"I think you're afraid I'd beat you if I barged in on your kickball game with your little friends. That's what I think."
Normally, Pip would have said, "Good thing no one cares what you think!" But the girl had stepped closer, and he realized she was slightly taller than him and he was beginning to get a little intimidated - the fact that she was a girl was all the more unnerving.
Now she was even closer - he could see the slight scrape on her left cheek and that her eyes were shaded a nice, cool coffee color. "What do you say?" she asked, crossing her skinny arms. "Are you afraid of being beaten by a girl?" He was surprised to find that despite her ruffled appearance, she smelled faintly of flowers.
The next time Pip played kickball with Jenny, she was on his team instead of playing against him.