My name doesn't matter

Part 2

I remember walking home from the last day of middle school.  I was almost 14, and I couldn't wait to be in high school.  That was where the magic happened.  High school parties, reinventing myself as a cool teenager, and no longer going to my town's combination middle and elementary school all sounded like amazing prospects.

I'm 17 now, and I know that summer wasn't what it should have been.  There were a lot of things I wish hadn't happened, but, as a whole, I guess things turned out okay.  The nightmares have stopped, and I got my teeth fixed.  Now, the only thing left to remind me that it was real is the scar across my thigh, and the newspaper article I clipped from the local paper.  I've never read the article, but I've looked at the headline twice a day since I cut it out.

Local boy found after three month search.

It still made me feel something odd in the back of my head.  A dull ache that didn't really hurt.  Like getting hit in the head on a Tuesday, but now it's Saturday.  That kind of feeling.

I was walking past the woods between my parents' house and my school when Darren (corn chip boy) and his friends scooted by my on their razor scooters.  He did one of those little hops, and the scooter went all catiwompus under his feet.  He hit the pavement with a really funny sounding splat that made me instantly start laughing.

"Fuck you, Trips!" Darren yelled as he stood up.

"Make me, Corn chip boy!"  I yelled back.  I don't know why I did it.  Maybe it was because I was sick of him being mean to me, or maybe I was just so excited about becoming an older teen, but I added: "You're a bitch."

"Oh, yeah?"  Darren asked grabbing his scooter underhand.  Before I could respond, he swung it at me.  The back wheel barely missed my face.

His two cronies, whom we'll call Fat and Skinny, rushed me as he readied for a second swing.  I knew they were going to hurt me bad, like the kid they had put in the hospital back in fifth grade, if they got their hands on me.  So, without thinking twice, I turned and ran into the woods, following a barely used hiking trail.  I could hear Darren and his idiot friends crashing down the trail behind me.