Page 171 of The Compass Series

AIDEN - TEN YEARS OLD

I couldn’t believe Hailee got Mrs. Elk’s class, too.

Now I didn’t only have to look at her stupid self outside of my bedroom window all the time but I also had to sit in the same class with her for a whole year.

That was Hailee overload. She was also in my second-grade class last year, and all I did was make stupid faces toward her because it bugged her.

But now I was in third grade and didn’t want to see her face anymore.

Stupid Hailee and her stupid chipmunk cheeks.

When it was time for recess, the whole class headed outside.

On our playground was a gigantic map of the United States, and Lars Thomas thought it would be fun to play a game where we’d break into two teams. We’d each get a number, and then he’d call out a number and a state, and each player from each team would have to dash to the state before the other player did.

Dashing States, he called it. It was a stupid name, but I liked to win games.

Hailee was on the opposite team of me. Good. I didn’t need her being on the winning team. It made me happy when she wasn’t winning.

I was number two. Hailee was number five.

Everyone knew two was better than five.

Lars called out my number and California.

Easy.

I dashed to California and landed there before Peter could even reach Texas.

I smirked as I walked back to the lineup. I gave Hailee a smug look from across the way, and she rolled her eyes. She was annoyed that I had won. I couldn’t wait to be happy when she lost.

Lars cleared his throat. “Okay, number five get ready!”

Hailee’s eyes narrowed, and she got into her power stance as if she was going to skyrocket to whatever state came out of his mind. Her opponent on my team was Kevin. Gosh, I hoped he crushed her so I could mock her about it forever.

Lars shouted out, “Mississippi!”

The two dashed off, and dang it, Hailee got to the state before him. She looked smug and proud at first. That didn’t last long, though.

“She cheated! There’s no way chubby hippo beat me there! She was on the wrong state!” Kevin stated as he went and shoved her hard, knocking her down to the ground. Hailee’s hands slid across the concrete, and she scraped herself pretty bad.

I didn’t know what hurt her more—Kevin’s shove or his words.

Her eyes glassed over, and I was almost certain the tears were about to fall.

Before they could, I tackled Kevin to the ground and started swinging my fist at the jerk’s face.

I got in lots of trouble for that, and my parents told me I couldn’t use my fists to fight people.

But they didn’t see Hailee’s eyes. They would’ve fought that jerk, too.

That night, I looked over to Hailee’s bedroom from my window and threw a shoe at it to get her attention. “Hey! Hey, loser!” I shouted. She moved over to the window and opened it. I climbed out of mine and walked over to her.

“What do you want?” she asked. Her hand had Band-Aids on it from where she got cut up. I didn’t know why, but that made my stomach hurt. If I could, I’d tackle stupid Kevin again for hurting her. I didn’t like Hailee, but no one should’ve ever hurt her.

“Nothing,” I muttered, scratching at the back of my neck.

“Then why did you throw a shoe at my window?”

“I didn’t.”

Her eyes darted to the grass, where my shoe was lying.

I kicked it behind me as if that would stop her from seeing it.

I huffed. “I just came to see if you were all right, okay?”

“Why do you care if I’m all right?”

“ I don’t !” I snapped, but my stomach still felt wound up. Why did I feel so angry? Hailee didn’t even say any of her annoying stuff to make me upset. Still, I was mad. I think. I think I was mad. Sometimes I felt like my dad, and I didn’t understand my emotions all that well.

“Okay,” she replied. She didn’t argue. She didn’t call me a name. She simply went to close her window, and when my eyes met hers, she still looked sad. Like how sad she looked on the playground. That made me mad. Or sad. Or sad and mad.

“Hailee, wait,” I said, stopping her from shutting the window.

“What?” she asked, short and direct.

I stared at her blankly.

I didn’t know what to say.

I didn’t know what to feel.

All I knew was I wanted to be by her that night, and I didn’t know why.

“You’re being weird,” she told me.

“Am not.”

“Are too.”

“Am not!”

“Are too!”

“Whatever. Are you okay, though?” I questioned, rubbing my neck. “After what happened?”

Her eyes looked like she was going to cry again, and that made my stomach hurt even more. “I’m fine.”

“Oh…okay. Well…I thought I’d just check.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

“Good night.”

“Night,” I muttered. Turning away, I began walking back to my window.

“Hey, Aiden?”

I looked over my shoulder and saw Hailee wiping a few tears from her eyes, which made my eyes kind of sad, too. I didn’t know seeing someone else’s eyes sad could make mine sad, too. “Yes?”

“Do you think I’m a chubby hippo like Kevin said?”

I was going to rip that jerk’s arms off at school tomorrow. Mark my words.

“No. Kevin is stupid and says stupid things because he’s stupid. You’re good, Hailee. You’re not a chubby hippo.”

“Promise?”

I nodded. “Promise.” I shifted around in the grass, slid my hands into the pockets of my jeans, and shrugged my shoulders. “Some people might even think you’re perfect.”

She shook her head. “No one does.”

“I’m sure someone does.”

“Oh…okay.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.”

“Hailee?”

“Yes?”

“Stop crying.”

She shook her head. “I can’t right now.”

“Oh…okay.”

“Okay.”

“Okay.” I cleared my throat. I didn’t want to leave her crying alone, so I sighed and gestured toward the grass. “Wanna lay in the grass and count the stars? My mom and I do that sometimes.”

She shrugged her shoulders and then agreed.

We lay down in the grass next to one another and didn’t talk for a while. Then Hailee began counting. “One… two… three…”

“Four, five, six.” I pointed toward the sky.

We got up to thirty-four before Hailee turned toward me. Her eyes didn’t look as sad, which made my eyes feel less sad, too.

“You punched Kevin for me,” she whispered.

“Yeah.”

“You know what that means, right? It means we have to be friends now.” She turned back to stare at the sky and pointed up. “Thirty-five.”

“You already counted that star.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“You did.”

“Didn’t!”

“Did!”

“Aiden!”

“What?”

“We’re friends now, so you have to agree with me sometimes. Like it or not, that’s what friends do.”

I grumbled and rolled my eyes, then pointed at the sky at the same star Hailee was pointing toward. “Thirty-five.”