Page 35 of Bookish Boys Don't Date Social Girls

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Another bob of the head.

“Do you know those boys from school?”

Bob. Bob.

“Are they mean to you at school too?”

Nod. Nod.

My heart aches for her. School is hard enough without getting bullied. A distant memory of Ava being bullied flashes through my mind and my anger piques. I glare across the park to make sure the little hoodlums aren’t returning for more. “Do you have friends you can hang out with to keep you safe?”

She shakes her head and looks across the park, too. Maybe to see what I’m glaring at.

“You don’t?”

“I’m new,” she whispers.

“Where are you from?”

“Virginia.”

I bite my lip. That’s a big move. Then I frown. “But if you know them from school, aren’t there any kids who you met that you could get to know better?”

“Summer school.”

“Oh.” Then I get an idea. “Hey, you up for a trip to the library?” I point to the building at the far end of the park.

The girl eyes me suspiciously and leans away from me.

“I think the library might help you. We can walk.”

She considers me and then the library and finally shrugs.

“My name is Sam, by the way,” I say, as we head across the grass toward the big brick building.

“Latisha.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Latisha. I’m very sorry you have bullies in your class at school.”

She eyes me with a critical eye. “Is your hair really that color or did you dye it?”

I laugh. “My hair is really this color.”

“You’s looks like you’s is made from snow or somethin’.”

She has a drawl that makes her difficult to understand, but I’m so excited that she’s talking that I don’t want to frustrate her back into silence by asking her to repeat herself. “Sometimes people call me the ice queen because my skin and hair are so white.” Mostly my brothers, but Latisha doesn’t need to know that.

“You’s was scary when you come running at us.”

I replay her words in my head before I can figure out what she said. “WasI?”

She nods. “Like that mean witch in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.”

“I was that scary?”

“Uh-huh. When you’s was running you was.”

“Scared those stupid boys away.”

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