Broken Arrows

00 | a shocking clash

Hope is the only thing stronger than fear.

—The Hunger Games (2012)

☁☁☁☁

Erin had been the only person who'd entered into their circle with ease, and soon, the three were closer than peanut butter and jelly. They'd remained a trio for the next two years until fifth grade. Until another person worked their way through.

Elliot O'Rielly was the kind of boy who normally would've been loved by everyone. He was a great conversationalist, and he could always worm his way into people's hearts. The only deterrent were his demons, or more specifically, his bullies.

As soon as Elliot had transferred into their class, Sachi had wanted to interact with him, but he'd fallen into a different group of students, and so, she never got a chance to even say a word to the boy.

At first, everything seemed fine. And then, one day, Ms. Page had called on Elliot to read a passage from their current reading book: Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry. Sachi didn't think it would be a problem, and she doubted Ms. Page knew it would be, because as soon as Elliot started reading and the kids started snickering, both of their faces blanched.

Elliot didn't have a speech impediment, or anything like that. There was no reason for the kids to tease him maliciously. All he did was read slowly. He merely tripped over his words, mispronounced some phrases, and started fidgeting in his seat only a paragraph in. Her classmates caught onto his uneasiness and saw his flaw as something to use against him, and by the time the class finished, everyone was laughing. Everyone except for her trio, Ms. Page, and Elliot.

Elliot looked terribly embarrassed, red-cheeked, hands shaking. He left the room seconds later, darting out of his chair without so much as an explanation. Ms. Page let it slide as she ordered the students to quiet themselves, and once Elliot returned, it looked like all was forgotten.

Then, recess rolled around. Erin and Hunter were playing Spit—taught to them by Erin herself—while Sachi watched the other kids, waiting for her turn to play. A commotion by the fence on the other side of the lot caught her eye, the crowd of kids unusual to her, and before she fully realized what she was doing, she was standing up.

"I'm going to walk around," she said.

Hunter grunted in response, and she took that as her cue to cross the lot and make her way to the crowd. The children consisted mostly of her own classmates, and they surrounded three people in particular. She couldn't recognize faces at first, being one of the shortest people in the grade, so she shoved past elbows and bodies, ignoring the jabs of pain, till she made it to the front.

Tyler, a tall boy with close-cropped blonde hair and a terrible attitude, stood in front of Elliot, who'd fallen back against the fence and was clutching onto the metal with wide eyes. The fear was evident in his face, and she didn't think she'd ever seen someone so vulnerable before.

The other boy partaking in the teasing was Nate Simmons, the first boy to ever run away from Sachi while screaming "Cooties!" and bawling during kindergarten. She might've had a teensy crush on him back in the day. Had was the key word.

Tyler was dangling Roll of Thunder in front of Elliot's face, waving it back and forth as if he were trying to hypnotize the boy, the book opened to the exact pages he'd been instructed to read. "What's wrong, Elliot? Can't read?" Tyler barked a laugh, and everyone in the circle joined in.