Prologue
Twenty-five years earlier...
“Rory’s a boy’s name,” the mean little boy who’d pushed her off the swing only seconds earlier announced as he glared down at her accusingly.
Never taking her eyes away from the bully, Rory slowly got up as she wiped the dirt off her shirt and jeans. When she finally stood up all the way, she was forced to tilt her head back so that she could continue to glare at him the way that her brothers taught her.
“It’s a girl’s name,” Rory said, taking a deep breath before shoving him back.
One thing she’d learned thanks to having five older brothers was never to let anyone push her around. Once you did, you’d have to sleep with one eye open and keep an eye out for snakes in your bed, spit in your cereal, and toenails in your mac and cheese. She might have to put up with five big bullies at home, but that didn’t mean that she had to put up with it at preschool, Rory decided as she gave the boy that had all the girls giggling and calling him cute another shove.
“You’re ugly!” he practically sneered as he reached over and pulled one of her pigtails, hard.
“Well, you smell like my brother’s butt!” Rory said, shoving him hard because she really couldn’t call him ugly since he was cute. It also didn’t hurt that she really liked his honey blonde hair and green eyes.
“Well, you look like my uncle’s butt!” he said, yanking the other pigtail hard enough to make her eyes sting.
“Well, you-”
“That’s enough of that!” Mrs. Fitzpatrick, the mean woman her father left her with, said as she grabbed them both by the arm. With a firm tug, she dragged them towards the large multicolored building that her father said looked like a rainbow had taken a shit on. Rory wasn’t sure what shit was exactly, but she knew that no matter what it was that her father was probably right.
“She started it!” the boy pointed out as they were dragged to the small table in the far corner with the scary clown painted on it.
“That’s enough of that, Connor,” Mrs. Fitzpatrick said sternly as she planted them both on red stools that wobbled every time they moved. “You will both sit here and think about what you did while the rest of the children enjoy free time.”
Rory narrowed her eyes on the little boy that had cost her a turn on the swings as he narrowed his eyes on her.
“You’ll pay for this,” he promised tightly.
“No, you will,” Rory said, knowing the second, the very second, that Mrs. Fitzpatrick turned her back on them that the large jar of pink glitter by the window was going to find its way into Connor’s hair.
Twenty years earlier...
“Give it back, Connor!”
He held the notebook up higher, making little Rory James jump for it. She tried to glare at him, but unlike the other boys at school, he wasn’t afraid of her or her big brothers. As far as he was concerned, little Rory James had been put on this earth solely for him to torture.
“Give what back?” he asked innocently, waving her notebook in the air above the brown pond water just to taunt her. Not that he was going to give it back to her, because he wasn’t. In a minute or two, when he grew bored with this, he fully planned on throwing it in the water with the hopes that she’d go after it.
“My notebook, you jerk!” Rory said, giving up on trying to get it back and moved on to the kicking phase, but he’d been ready for that. After five years of making her life a living hell, he knew what to expect and he knew that if he gave her a chance that she’d drop him to the ground. Then, she’d probably make him eat dirt again.
“Just give her the notebook,” Zack, the annoying boy from Mrs. Plumes’ class who’d been following after Rory for the past two weeks like a puppy dog, said. Connor hadn’t minded the kid before he’d started following Rory. He was a decent basketball player and knew how to make an awesome spitball, but he didn’t like anyone getting between him and Rory.
“I can take care of myself,” Rory said, never taking her eyes away from him, which pleased him immensely, but he wasn’t happy with the interruption.
“Why don’t you come take it for her?” Connor suggested as he reached out and palmed Rory’s face and shoved her away before she tried to kick him while he was distracted. With a curse that would probably have her father reaching for a bar of soap, she stumbled backward, fell over a dead log, and landed in the mud. Connor would have laughed, but he had other things to do at the moment.
“Fine,” the only slightly smaller boy said as he stormed over and made a move to grab the notebook. With a bored sigh, Connor held the notebook higher. As soon as Zack reached for it, Connor hooked his foot between the boy’s legs and pulled up just as he turned, causing the boy to lose his balance and take a header into the dirty water.
“Next time, mind your own business,” he said, laughing when the boy started to cry. Crying over a little dirty water, what a dork, Connor thought. Rory wouldn’t have cried. She never cried, which he took as a personal challenge.
“And next time,” Rory suddenly said as he felt her small hands press against his back, “don’t touch my math homework.” With that, he went stumbling forward and landed in the water right next to the big crybaby.
Connor rolled over and spit a mouthful of murky water at Rory, laughing when it hit her bare leg. Deciding that wasn’t nearly good enough, he used her now-soaked notebook and splashed her until she was as wet as he was.
He wasn’t entirely surprised when she launched herself at him instead of running off and crying like most of the girls he knew would have done. There was no running off and crying for Rory James, not when she could try and kick his ass.
As they rolled around in the muddy water, trying to make the other one eat a handful of mud, he couldn’t help but smile. She was just so much fun to torture, Connor thought as he forced a handful of mud, and God only knows what else, in her mouth.
