91 Petals

Chapter 3

Second Petal

 The next day I rode my bike to school and when I got to school and was shuffling my way toward the building when I heard my name being called. 

                “Max!  Hey Max wait up!”

                I turned to see Ellie, rocketing towards me with this enormous grin on her face.  She skidded to a halt in front of me.  Her hair was down again and everyone outside was staring at us.  I didn’t know whether I should be embarrassed or thrilled.

                “Uh…hi Ellie,” I said pushing my black hair out of my face. 

                “Are you coming back today?” she asked excitedly. 

                “Uh yeah.  I have to pick up my sister first though.”  Ellie seemed very happy to see me. 

                “You have a sister?” she asked. 

                “Yeah, my little sister Brynn.” 

                I started walking and she followed me. 

                “I can’t wait to meet her.”

                “She’s a good kid.”  By the time we were in the building other people were staring at us. 

                “This is my homeroom,” Ellie said stopping abruptly in front of one of the Spanish rooms on the first floor. 

                “Have a nice day,” I said.  I waved to her as I headed upstairs to my own homeroom. 

                The day progressed sort of like this.  Ellie would come up to me in the hall and start talking to me like we had been best friends since second grade.  For the first time since I’d arrived here, she even bothered to eat lunch with me in my little corner of the world.  A lot of people seemed surprised I wanted to hang out with a loser freshman like Ellie, but they stopped bothering me.  After school she actually walked behind me while as I rode my bike to Brynn’s school. 

                “So what’s your little sister like?” Ellie asked.  She was practically jogging to keep up with me by now. 

                “Well, she’s really cute so a lot of teenage girls like to fawn over her and she’s a pretty smart kid.  She’s really small for her age and she worships me,” I replied trying to slow myself down. 

                “She sounds nice.  Rachel will like her,” Ellie said thoughtfully. 

                We finally reached my sister’s school.  She wasn’t the only kid waiting to be picked up.  She was sitting on a bench trying to keep a smile on her little face while a bunch of pretty eighth grade girls squealed and tried talking to her like she was stupid.  Brynn obviously had her attention on something else.  A bunch of other kids maybe a little older than she was were standing in a circle around some kid I couldn’t see.

                “Brynn!” I called out to her.  Brynn ripped her eyes away from the crowd to look at me.  She smiled and waved. The eighth-graders turned and a few of them giggled.  One of them asked Brynn a question. She nodded her response, picked her book bag up off  of the ground, and ran over to me. 

                “Max those third graders are bullying Patrick,” she said pointing at the circle of gangly looking kids.  At the name Patrick, Ellie looked up.