Chapter 8: Second Grade

Second Grade - March

The playground at recess was always crazy, but today felt different. Worse. 

I was hanging upside down from the monkey bars when I heard Tyler Williams start crying. He was sitting by himself on the concrete steps near the building, holding his knee and making those hiccupping sounds that meant he was trying not to cry.

"Crybaby Tyler!" Marcus Phillips yelled, pointing and laughing. "Look at the crybaby!"

Soon half the second grade was gathered around, chanting "Crybaby! Crybaby!" Tyler just curled up smaller, which made them laugh harder.

I dropped down from the monkey bars and started walking over, but I wasn't sure what I was going to do. Tyler was weird. He collected bugs and read books during recess instead of playing games. But watching everyone pick on him made my stomach feel sick.

That's when I saw Avy marching across the playground.

She walked right into the middle of the circle, stood in front of Tyler, and put her hands on her hips.

"Stop it," she said loudly. "Just stop it right now."

Marcus laughed. "Why? He's being a baby."

"He's hurt," Avy said, crouching down next to Tyler. "What happened to your knee?"

Tyler sniffled and pointed to the monkey bars. "I fell. It's bleeding."

"See?" Avy stood back up and glared at Marcus. "He's not crying because he's a baby. He's crying because he's hurt. There's a difference, you know."

"Who cares?" Marcus shrugged. "It's just a scrape."

"You should care," Avy said, and her voice got that serious tone she used when she was really mad. "How would you feel if you fell down and instead of helping you, everyone called you names?"

Marcus shuffled his feet and didn't answer.

"That's what I thought." Avy turned back to Tyler and held out her hand. "Come on. Let's go to the nurse."

Tyler looked up at her with wide, grateful eyes. "Really?"

"Really. And on the way, you can tell me about that caterpillar you found yesterday. I want to know what kind of butterfly it's going to turn into."

Tyler's whole face lit up. He took her hand and let her help him stand, already starting to chatter about metamorphosis and wing patterns.

As they walked away together, the crowd around us started to break up. Marcus and his friends wandered off to find someone else to bother, but I just stood there watching Avy and Tyler disappear into the school building.

My chest felt weird. Warm and tight and fluttery all at the same time.

"That was nice of her," said Jessica, who'd appeared next to me. "Avy's always nice to everyone."

"Yeah," I said, but I was thinking about how Avy had looked when she was defending Tyler. Like she knew exactly what was right and wasn't scared to do it.

"She's probably the nicest person in our whole grade," Jessica continued. "Maybe in the whole school."

I nodded, still watching the door where they'd gone inside. 

That warm feeling in my chest was getting stronger

"Bryson? You okay?"

I looked at Jessica, who was staring at me with a confused expression.

"Yeah," I said. "I'm fine."

But I wasn't fine. I felt funny. Good funny, but still funny.

Avy was really brave. She wasn't scared of Marcus at all, even though he was mean. And she was nice to Tyler even though everybody said he was weird.

She was always nice to everybody. Like when Tommy forgot his lunch last week and she gave him half her sandwich. And when I couldn't figure out the math worksheet, she helped me even though Mrs. Peterson said no talking.

She was the nicest person I knew. Maybe the nicest person in the whole world.

My tummy felt weird now too. There was definitely something flying around in it.

And then I knew something for sure, the way you know your own name or that your birthday comes once a year.

I wanted to be Avy's friend forever and ever. Not just until we got older. Forever. I wanted to always be there when she needed help, and I wanted her to always be there too.

Maybe we could even live in the same house when we grew up. Like how moms and dads lived together. That would be the best thing ever.

"Bryson? You okay?"

"Bryson!" 

I turned to see Avy jogging back across the playground toward me, her ponytail bouncing.

"Tyler's okay," she announced when she reached me. "The nurse gave him a band-aid with dinosaurs on it. He said it was the coolest band-aid he'd ever seen."

"That's good," I said, and my voice sounded normal even though the butterflies were zooming around.

"Want to go on the swings?" she asked. "We could see who can swing higher."

"Okay."

As we walked toward the swing set together, I kept looking at her. She still looked the same as she did ten minutes ago. The same messy hair, same dirt all over her clothes, same everything.

But it was all different now.

Because now I knew I was going to marry her someday.

"Race you!" she called, and took off running toward the swings.

I chased after her, laughing, already thinking how I was going to tell her. I could write it down and give it to her. Maybe I'd tell her next time during lunch time. Maybe I'd wait until we were older, like eight or nine, when we both knew more about being married.

But I was definitely going to tell her.

Because Avy Whitmore was the best person I'd ever met, and I wanted to spend my whole life being her friend and taking care of her and making sure nobody ever made her sad.

She was pushing her legs on the swing, trying to go higher than me, her hair flying everywhere.

"I'm winning!" she called.

"No fair! You got a head start!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

But I was smiling as I said it, because being with Avy was the best feeling in the world.

And that day I promised that even though I was just seven years old,  I was going to be with Avy Whitmore for the rest of my life.

I just had to figure out how to keep her safe first.