A Hero in the Making
Tucker was grinning as he raced around the playground. He had helped his mom make cookies and she let him lick the spoon and the beaters. It tasted amazing as always and then she had shooed him out the door to play while they baked. There were only a few weeks left of the summer before third grade and the weather was perfect! It was nice and warm outside, birds were singing and kids were laughing while they played. He ran past a bench where a red haired girl with headphones had her nose in a book and a sandbox where the little kids were digging for treasure.
His eyes lit up when he spotted that the big slide was empty. He clambered up the rope ramp and bounced in excitement at the entrance to the tunnel. He had just put his hands on the top to go in when he felt someone grab his shirt from behind and yank him back. He stumbled as he was pulled and tried to keep his feet under him while being dragged backwards to the edge of the platform.
A tall blond boy with green eyes gave him a mean smile and said, "Kids with glasses aren't allowed to slide."
Tucker shook his head at him twisting his neck to try to see the other boy, "Yes I am! I've gone on this slide before!"
Tucker was flailing around and trying to get the bigger kid to lose his grip on his shirt. The blond boy smirked as he yanked Tucker back again and swung him around. He then shoved Tucker down the ramp. He was bouncing and tumbling as he rolled over the knots to the ground.
"Hey Frankie, this kid thinks he's allowed to slide on our slide!"
Another blond boy who looked like the big kid snatched Tucker's glasses off the ground from where they had fallen. He peered through the lenses; his eyes magnified as he held them up to his face.
"Wow Russ, his eyes are really bad. I can't see anything!" He looked around the playground with his dirty hands half covering the glass and smudging the lens as he twisted and bent the frames.
"Hey give them back!" Tucker shouted, shedding wood chips as he scrambled to his feet and lunged at the thief.
The other boy laughed and held the glasses up high above Tucker's head where he couldn't reach them. There was a thud as Russ jumped back down to the ground.
"You're just a little kid, you're not even big enough to get your glasses back!" He taunted, shoving Tucker.
"A blind little kid!" Echoed the other blond as he pushed Tucker back into Russ's grip.
Russ grabbed Tucker's ball cap off his head and threw it behind him, "My big brother is on the Casper football team and you're not cool enough to wear a Ravens hat!"
Tucker's hair had sprung into a fluffy cloud without his hat and Russ squashed his hand into it, smacking Tucker on the head in the process.
"Wow! Look how girly his hair is!"
He shoved Tucker back to his friend.
"It's so gross and poofy!" Frankie exclaimed, shoving Tucker again.
"Stop it!" Tucker cried as he was violently shoved back and forth between the other boys. His vision became more blurry as his eyes started to tear up. New insults assaulted him with each push.
"So girly like a princess!"
"Aw look he's crying now!"
"Little girly crybaby!"
"No one is going to save the crying princess!"
"Princess Poofyhead!"
"Cotton Candy Head!"
Frankie pointed Tucker's glasses at him and said, "More like Cotton Head." He said slyly, "You should go find some cotton and pick it like-" his next words were cut off as a red and white blur flew into him and tackled him to the ground.
"You're just a mean bully!" A voice shouted from the figure kneeling on the downed bully.
Russ shoved Tucker one more time, knocking him to the ground as he rounded on the shorter boy that had interrupted his fun.
"Hey kid, we're just showing this crybaby who's allowed and not allowed on the playground. It wasn't very nice of you to knock down my cousin."
The boy swiped the glasses from the stunned blond he had knocked down and leaped in between Tucker and the bigger bully. Now that he was closer, Tucker could see he had curly black hair, a red and white shirt, shorts, and red shoes.
"It wasn't very nice of you to be a bully and be mean!" he shouted.
"Hey hey, we're not bullies! We were just...enforcing order on the playground." Russ, hands stretched out in placation.
"You're lying!" The black haired boy hissed through clenched teeth, "The rules are to be kind to each other!" He clenched the hand holding the glasses and roughly pointed his other at the bully. "Stealing is wrong! Pushing around kids that are smaller than you is wrong! Calling people mean names is wrong!" His volume increased until he was shouting.
The second bully slowly got to his feet. He rubbed his backside and then brushed off the playground dirt and wood chips that were clinging to his shirt and shorts. "We were just having some fun." He muttered.
The smaller black haired boy heard him and quickly changed targets, "It's not fun if it hurts someone else! If you don't leave us alone and go away…" he paused, face scrunched as he thought of a good threat, "I'll yell for my mommy and daddy and tell everyone that you were hitting and calling names."
Russ stood still for a moment thinking before he grimaced slightly, "Hey Frankie, let's go. Slides are stupid anyways. Let's let the babies play with the stupid baby toys." He turned and tugged his cousin along when it looked like he was going to argue.
"Why are you listening to him? He's just a whiny little kid, the only reason he knocked me down was he got me by surprise." Frankie complained.
Russ leaned towards him and loudly whispered, "Cause we don't want the Freaky Fentons coming over here. Let the weirdoes play, we have better things we can do."
Frankie faced the smaller boys as he was led away and called, "Keep your weirdness to yourselves freaks!"
Tucker's rescuer waited until the tormenters were far enough away before crouching down level with him. "Hi! I'm Danny!" He said with a friendly grin.
"My name's Tucker." he responded, using his sleeve to wipe away his tears.
Danny offered his hand and helped pull Tucker to his feet. He frowned as he passed the glasses back to their owner, "I'm sorry they messed up your glasses. I ran as fast as I could but I was on the monkey bars when I saw what happened."
Tucker shook his head still letting out little sniffles, "Thank you for helping me, they were really mean and said some really bad things."
Danny had a thoughtful look as he picked up the hat and handed it to Tucker. "Do you want me to tell the grownups?"
Tucker shook his head again as he put the crooked glasses on his face, "No then they'll just be mad and come after me again. They're not worth it." He blinked as he adjusted to being able to see again, Danny's eyes were very blue.
Danny shrugged, "If you're sure." He offered Tucker his hand again. "Come meet my big sister! Jazzy is really smart, she skipped the fifth grade and is starting middle school this year."
Tucker hesitantly took Danny's hand and asked, "Why are we going to your sister?"
Danny grinned at him, "Cause we're friends now right? Jazzy will want to meet my new friend and know who you are!"
Tucker felt hope in his chest like a little bird stretching its wings for the first time. He shyly returned the smile, "Yeah I'd love to be friends."
Danny's grip was gentle as he led Tucker to the park bench, chattering the whole way. "And I have these really cool model rocket ships that my mommy and daddy got me, they glow in the dark! And I have glow in the dark stickers on my ceiling too! Daddy had to help me put them on, he's really tall! We had to do them over a lot until they matched the real constellations. My mommy makes cookies every week and they're really good! We have ghost sprinkles that we can put on them."
"My mom makes cookies too, I helped her make some today." Tucker said.
"Helping make cookies is so much fun! Did your mommy let you lick the spoon?" Danny asked.
"Yeah! She let me lick the spoon and the beaters from the mixer too! It was so good!" Tucker answered.
"Ohhh that's the best!"
They came to a stop next to the bench that Tucker had run past earlier. The red-haired girl was still reading her book. It didn't have many pictures and Tucker could see a lot of big words. He recognized 'mitochondria' and 'nucleus' but didn't know what 'vacuole' or 'cytoplasm' meant.
Danny reached out with his free hand and put it right over the pages, "Jazzy!" he sang while wiggling his fingers.
"Danny! I was reading that!" The girl slid her headphones down around her neck as she finally looked up. Mozart continued to play as she and Tucker stared at each other for a moment.
Danny looked back and forth between them with a sunny smile on his face, "Jazzy! This is my new friend Tucker. Some bullies were being mean to him but I stopped them." He said proudly.
She held her hand out to Tucker, "It's nice to meet you, my name is Jasmine Fenton, but you can call me Jazz."
Tucker gave her his best firm handshake and replied, "My name is Tucker Foley and I just turned 8 last month."
Now that the introductions were through, Danny pressed forward and asked, "Jazzy can Tucker come over to our house to play?"
His sister frowned at him, "Danny you can't just invite him without checking with his parents first. He can come over to our house if he gets permission first."
Danny turned to Tucker with hope shining brightly in his eyes. Tucker rubbed the back of his neck as he considered what to do, Danny was even better at the puppy eyes than him. "We can go ask my mom if it's ok, she can fix my glasses up too." He grinned at the other boy, "She'll be really glad to meet my friend and the cookies might be done now too!"
Once he had agreed Danny began bouncing in place and tugging on his sister's hand. "Come on Jazzy, you have to come too!" As she packed her book and music away, he turned expectantly to Tucker, "Where do you live?" he asked.
Tucker pointed and said, "The second street over from the park on that side. I live in the yellow house." He grinned as Danny took his free hand and started swinging their arms as they walked, Jazz trailing a few steps behind them.
It only took a few minutes for them to arrive at the door to the Foley house. Tucker shoved the door open, kicking off his shoes while yelling, "Mom! I made a new friend!" He turned to the Fenton siblings and pointed to the mat by the front door. "You can put your shoes here and then you can come into the kitchen and meet my mom."
Once all the footwear had been dropped onto the mat, he led them down the hall and into the kitchen.
"Wow, your cookies smell really good!" Danny exclaimed as they came into the room.
"Why thank you, young man." Angela Foley said as she used an oven mitt and a spatula to slide the cookies from the baking sheet to the cooling rack. Once all of the cookies had been moved she looked up at the children hovering by the hallway. "Oh my! Tucker, what happened? You're covered in dirt and your glasses!"
Tucker sniffed as he showed the bent frames to his mother, "There were some mean big kids at the playground and they messed up my glasses and tried to take my hat too. Danny made them stop."
"And this is Danny?" she asked, looking at the other boy.
Danny nodded while scuffing his foot as the attention shifted to him, "They were being really mean and pushing him and saying mean names." he explained.
"And who's this?" she asked while looking at the third child in the room.
"My name is Jasmine Fenton, I'm Danny's older sister and I didn't see the bullies." Jazz answered while hovering behind her younger brother.
Mrs. Foley knelt down in front of Danny to meet his eye level and sincerely said, "Thank you Danny for helping Tucker when the bullies were being mean to him. It means a lot to me that he has a friend who will stand up for him if someone is being a bully."
Danny nodded and then surprised himself with a big sniff as tears started to come down. He scrunched up his face in confusion as he continued to sniffle.
Jazz moved around to face him while asking, "Danny, what's wrong? Are you hurt?"
Danny shook his head, "No! I don't know why I can't stop." He said, offended that the tears wouldn't stop.
Tucker tugged on his mom's sleeve, "Mom, why would you cry is you aren't hurt or sad?" he asked.
The other children waited expectantly for the answer.
Angela smiled and said, "Well sometimes if you're trying very hard to be brave and strong when you're feeling scared you can get through without crying, but when you get somewhere safe then the scared or sad feelings will still need to come out. It's ok to cry if you need to, there's nothing wrong with that."
She got off the floor and dampened a nearby towel. She then used it to wipe Danny's face of tears and dirt. Once she had cleaned his face, she rinsed the towel and repeated the action with Tucker. Jazz watched her with something close to awe in her eyes, "How did you know that?" she asked.
Angela chuckled and answered her, "That's called psychology dear. It's the study of how the mind works and is very useful for understanding why people act in certain ways."
Jazz nodded thoughtfully while watching Danny and quietly muttered, "Psychology sounds very useful and helpful."
"There, that's a lot better now." Mrs. Foley said once both boys were cleaned and calm. She gestured to the kitchen table and said, "Why don't you three have a seat and help yourself to some cookies while I fix Tucker's glasses." After plating the sufficiently cooled cookies, she ruffled Danny's hair and held out her hand for the damaged glasses. Tucker handed them over and then slid into the chair next to Danny, "Mom, after my glasses are fixed may I go over to play with Danny?"
His mother hummed thoughtfully as she ran water over the glasses to remove the dirt and smudges. She glanced at the table and had to hide her grin at the pleading looks the boys had. "Of course you may. As long as you come back before dark and follow any rules the Fentons have in their home. You can give their parents our phone number when you get there." She carefully didn't react to the happy exclamations from the boys and gently bent the metal frames back into the correct position. Once she was satisfied with the shape, she used a clean cloth to wipe the lens and passed them back to Tucker.
Once his glasses were back in place, Tucker shoved the last third of his cookie into his mouth and chewed furiously. A moment later he thanked his mother and slid out of his seat. He shifted on his feet while he waited for Danny and Jazz to finish their cookies as well. Once they had all finished and Mrs. Foley had dropped some baggies with more cookies into their hands, they were out the door again.
Angela hummed cheerfully as she started cleaning her baking dishes. She had almost finished scrubbing her baking pan when her husband returned from work and entered the kitchen.
"Hello Honey." He said as he pecked her on the cheek. "Where's Tucker?" he asked as he swiped one of the warm cookies from the plate on the table.
"Tucker made some friends at the playground today. Some bullies were harassing him and another boy stepped in and scared them off." His wife answered while finishing the dishes.
"That's wonderful!" He absently replied before taking a bite of the pilfered treat.
"Yes, the Fenton children are very sweet and were very polite when they came here to ask if Tucker could come over to play." She said while placing the last dish on the drying rack.
Maurice choked on his cookie; "Did you say Fenton?" he gasped out, crumbs flying.
Angela dropped the towel she was using to dry her hands and hurried over to pound on his back. "Yes, the Fentons." she repeated, "Danny is around Tucker's age and Jasmine is his older sister."
"That's great Honey." Maurice wheezed, thinking back to his junior year of college and the party where he poured a whole bowl of punch over some huge freshman with the name Fenton. 'That was years ago and hundreds of miles away from here. Surely it can't be the same Fenton?'