PROLOGUE
Joyful screams and laughter echoed across the playground as my classmates ran like their lives depended on it; the simple game of tag to others was just short of war to them. How seriously they took it sometimes took the fun out of it. I preferred swinging on the swing to playing tag.
My feet pumped back and forth, pushing the swing higher and higher. I couldn’t go as high as I wanted to because Mommy had always told me I could break a bone if I did. She did not want me to break a bone. I didn’t want to break a bone either, so I listened to her. Mother knew best.
Lost in thought, I hummed a tune I didn't realize I knew—a pop song my sister liked to blast in her bedroom after she had gotten in trouble—when Wesley and his friends ran up, keeping their distance to avoid a kick. I dragged my feet along the ground to stop myself on the swing.
“Hey, Axel,” Wesley stood with his fist balled and on his hips like a superhero.
“It’s Alex,” I stated. Why could he never remember my name? We’d been in the same class since kindergarten.
Wesley and his friends snickered among themselves. “I know, same thing. Anyway, Erica told Brody, who told Dan, who told me you got a PS3 for your birthday last week.”
I did get a PlayStation 3. I had been begging for it for months, and I was sure that Mom and Dad were firm on their ‘no.’ When I ripped off the balloon-decorated paper and discovered the gaming console, I almost fainted. My sister called me dramatic, but she just never understood how awesome it was.
Wesley clapped his hands. “Cool! Let us come over and play it today after school.”
I blinked, words falling flat on my tongue. Wesley had never asked to play with me before. He was kind of a bully sometimes and always made ugly faces at me, like sticking his tongue out and rolling his eyes. I guessed he liked me now?
I shrug. “Sure.”
Wesley’s friends leaped in excitement, and Wesley punched me in the shoulder. It was probably supposed to be light, but it stung.
“You’re the best, Axel!” Wesley exclaimed as he ran off, his friends following closely behind.
Huh, he never even asked where I lived. Wesley had never been to my house before, so how would he and his friends find it without my help?
“You shouldn’t have agreed,” said a voice from behind me.
I whipped my head around, but the boy had already moved before me. My eyes trailed up the boy’s smooth, velvet-dark skin all the way to his deep-brown eyes. The tight coils of his hair hugged his head and were lined neatly on the sides like he had recently gotten a haircut, and he stood a few inches taller than me.
I had seen him around. I think he was in the other first-grade class, but I had never spoken to him before. He usually played ball on the field with the other popular kids at recess. Why was he talking to me at the swings?
“Wesley is a jerk, and he only wants to use you for your PS3.” He leaned against the pole of the swing set. “You have to tell him he can’t come over.”
“I can’t,” I admitted quietly.
“Why not?”
“I don’t want to hurt his feelings or for him to get mad at me… he was never nice to me before, but maybe he wants to change, and I also want someone to come play with me because I’ve been dying to play with someone, but my sister won’t play with me because she thinks it’s stupid. So, even though Wesley is kind of a bully, I don’t mind him coming over because he and his friends will play with me.”
Plus, I wanted a friend. I had never had that before.
I sucked in a shaky breath of air after I let all the words out. The boy stared blankly at me, and I wondered if I had spoken too fast.
The boy blinked, a humored smile tugging at his lips. “You talked really,reallyfast, so I could barely understand you.”
I could feel the warmth on my cheeks. “Sorry. Sometimes I do that. My dad said that it’s a problem that I need to fix.”
“I don’t think it’s a problem; I think it’s funny.” He let out a goofy giggle that brought out a contagious smile. “I will come by your house and play with you if you want me to.”
I sat up straight. “Really?”
“Of course, bunny. Especially if it will stop you from letting Wesley take over your game.”
I raised an eyebrow. “That’s not my name.”
“I know. Your name is Alex, and my name is River.”
