Add to that the fact that my two best friends were boys, and I was practically an outcast. But it didn’t matter to me at first. I had Jesse and Nat. If Jesse had grown away from us a little in fifth grade, he made his way back over the next few years. That was mostly because Nat and I began playing kickball at recess. Even though he couldn’t really run, Nat could kick the ball. The other kids let me be his pinch-runner, and together we were a great team. Jesse stopped being embarrassed by his two friends who sat on the monkey bars every day. He always chose us first for his team.
When I got to school on the first day of eighth grade, Nat and Jesse were already standing in line against the building. This was junior high, and there was no playground anymore. Instead we waited outside the glass doors until the bell rang, and then we filed inside and hoped to find the lockers we’d been assigned.
I joined the boys, smiling my greeting. Nat returned my smile and greeted me. “Hey, Abby! You look really pretty.” This was high praise from Nat, who rarely paid anyone a spontaneous compliment. I smoothed the denim skirt my mom had made me wear that morning and thanked him and then snuck a look at Jesse.
Most of the boys in our class were still shorter than the girls and scrawny. They could have easily passed for a year or two younger than thirteen. But not Jesse. He had sprouted up three inches over the summer, and the lawn mowing business he ran with his two older brothers had given him muscled arms and a light tan. He grinned at me from his spot against the wall.
“Hey, Ab,” he said. “Your mom make you wear that?”
Irrationally his words irritated me. It was true that I didn’t wear skirts or dresses very often, but couldn’t he have said something nice, like Nat had? Instead he had to tease me. I suddenly hated the skirt more than I had this morning when my mom had handed it to me.
“Of course,” I snapped. “Didn’t your mother dress you today?”
Still grinning, he shrugged. “Sure. I don’t care about clothes.” His eyes wandered along the lines of other students, and I saw them warm with appreciation. I followed his gaze to a pretty girl in a short cotton sundress and heels. She was definitely older than we were, but I didn’t like the expression of admiration on Jesse’s face. I bet he wouldn’t tease her about wearing a dress.
“Bet she can’t play kick ball or anything in that dress,” I commented. Jesse jerked his attention back to me and flushed a little when he realized I’d seen the girl. I rolled my eyes at him.
“No more kick ball, Ab. Least not at school. We’re not in grade school anymore.”
I became aware that Nat was watching both of us very closely, and I turned slightly to include him.
“How was your vacation, Nat?” I asked. His family spent the last two weeks of every summer at a rented cabin in the Poconoes while my family stayed at the beach for a week. Jesse usually stayed in town.
“Good,” Nat answered me. “We went fishing. And canoeing. My dad says if I keep working at it, maybe I could do something like that, rowing or whatever, in high school and college. It would help build my upper body strength.”
“That would be cool,” I agreed. “Does the high school have a crew team?”
“No,” Jesse answered for him. “But I think there’s a local club. Your dad’s right, Nat. It would be good for you.”
Nat smiled, pleased that both of us had responded so positively. He looked up at me. “Did you have fun at the beach, Abby?”
I opened my mouth to tell them about the days I had spent building sand castles and playing in the waves, but before I could say a word, I heard a soft voice behind me.
“Hey, Jesse.”
I recognized the girl in the dress, the one Jesse had been staring at earlier. Her name was Sarah, I remembered, and she was very pretty, with black hair and huge brown eyes. She was gazing up at Jesse as though he were a luscious chocolate ice cream cone.
“Hi, Sarah,” Jesse replied, and I realized to my amazement that he was flustered. He pushed off from the wall and shoved his hands into his pockets. “You ready to start school?”
Sarah giggled as though Jesse had made a witty comment. I barely refrained from rolling my eyes again. “I guess so. Not going to be as much fun as summer, though, right?”
Jesse laughed, too. “Yeah, I don’t think so. Not unless they let us run through the sprinklers here, too.”
“Oh, I know! Can you believe how soaked we got?” Sarah had moved closer, effectively edging out Nat and me.
“My mom asked me if I had stopped at the pool on the way home,” Jesse confided. “I told her it was a sprinkler inspection that went bad.”
That sent Sarah off into more peals of laughter, the last of which was thankfully drowned out by the bell ringing, signally the beginning of the school day. We all moved toward the doors and into the building.
I stayed near Nat, making sure he didn’t get jostled in the crowd of kids. Our lockers were on the same hallway, and we found them easily enough. I had to try the combination for my lock three times before it worked, but Nat must have had more luck, since he was standing next to me, waiting patiently when I looked up.
“Where’s Jesse?” I asked him.