Page 43 of Releasing 10
“Tell your brother to come find me,” he said before proceeding to hook the sliotar he’d hit her with onto his hurley with expert precision. “I’ll be waiting for him. And as for you?” Catching the white, leather ball midair, he tucked it into the pocket of his school trousers and added, “You better take note ofthiswarning because it’s the last one you’ll get, ya hear?”
Loretta sucked in a loud breath before turning around and running in the direction of the school buses.
Ha!
Good enough for you.
I didn’t even try to hide the laugh that escaped me.
I was thrilled.
“Shan,” Joey said then, turning his attention to his sister. “You good?”
“All good, Joe,” she mumbled, quickly moving to his side.
Nostrils flaring, he stared down at his sister for a long moment before saying. “Good.” And then, without looking at me or Claire, he nodded stiffly. “Let’s go.”
“Uh, bye, guys,” Shannon called out before hurrying after her brother, who was striding off in the direction of town. “See you after Halloween break.”
“Bye,” we both called back before turning to gape at each other.
“That was so cool!” I laughed as we hurried toward our bus. “He made her cry.”
“That was so scary,” Claire offered, brown eyes wide. “Shannon’s brother looked super-mad at everyone.” She frowned before adding, “He even looked mad at us.”
“That’s because he’s always mad,” one of the twins from our class said when we lined up behind them for the bus. I wasn’t sure if it was Marybeth or Cadence because they lookedexactlythe same. I didn’t mind either way. They were both nice.
“With everyone,” the other twin agreed at the same time I said, “I think he’s great.”
“Ooh,” the first twin snickered, covering her mouth with her hand. “Lizzie has the hots for Shannon’s brother.”
“What’s the hots?”
“It’s when you look at a boy and your face gets hot.”
“No it’s not.”
“Uh-huh, yeah it is.”
“I think I have the hots for Joey, too,” the second twin confessed. When her cheeks turned bright pink, I decided this one had to be Cadence. She was the twin that blushed whenever a teacher asked her a question. “My face gets hot when I see him on the playground.”
“Me, too,” Marybeth agreed. “It’s because he’s pretty, like Casper.”
Claire frowned. “The ghost?”
“Yep,” the twins said in unison, before both adding, “but the real boy Casper.”
The line moved, and my friends climbed up the steps of the bus, while I followed behind.
When I reached the aisle and saw how full the bus was, I felt something strange in my belly. Normally, we took a smaller one home from school at 2 p.m. that was just for junior and senior infants, but because today was Halloween break and everyone had finished at 12 p.m., we had to take the bus with the bigger kids. This bus was one of the big ones, and it picked up children from other schools, too. I didn’t like it.
When one of the twins pulled Claire down to sit beside her, and the other sat with someone else, the feeling in my belly got worse.
Finding an empty row across the aisle, I set my schoolbag down on the outside seat and took the seat near the window before the bus took off.
Everything was so loud.
The other children.
