Barry Allen Whumptober 2020

"No, Stop!"

Pre-Lightning. Like pre pre lightning. Barry is a little kid.

**********

Barry sat on the swing set with his best friend, Iris. They were in the third grade, and Iris had started to make more friends, other than Barry. She was supposed to go over to their house in about ten minutes, and Barry would head home. 

So they spent that time swinging on the swing set, imagining they were flying through the air. Iris decided that she was an eagle, and Barry deemed himself a hummingbird. 

The two stopped swinging. Iris hopped off and hugged Barry. 

"I'll see you on Monday Barry!" She said, then started skipping towards her new friends.

Barry watched her go, then grabbed his bag. He heard a yell and looked up.

Tony Woodward and his goons were cornering some kid. It was a little girl with light brown hair and blue glasses. She was holding a large armful of books. 

Tony shoved her, making her and her books fall to the ground rather roughly. 

Barry dropped his bag and ran over. 

"Hey!" Barry shouted, shoving his way between the girl and Tony. "Knock it off Tony."

"And what are you gonna do about it freak?" Tony taunted, giving Barry a rough shove. He was trying to take Joe's advice and keep his feet planted, but he wasn't very strong so he stumbled backwards.

One of his goons tried to get a go at the girl again. 

Barry turned to him and gave him a shove, "I said don't. Go away."

"Not gonna happen pipsqueak." Tony said.

Then he punched Barry in the face. Barry cried out in pain and fell backwards. Tony and his goons proceeded to kick him. Barry curled up in a ball to try and protect himself.

The girl stood up quickly and tried to pull the boys off of Barry.

"No, stop!" She screamed. 

She then picked up her heaviest book and whacked Tony on the back of the head with it.

Tony stumbled and turned around. He growled, but the girl held the book, ready to swing again. 

"Get lost." She ordered.

Tony huffed and called his goons, saying they had better places to be. 

The girl knelt next to Barry. "Are you okay?" she asked, helping him sit up.

"I've been better," Barry admitted. 

"Thanks for sticking up for me," she said, "I'm Caitlin."

"Hi Caitlin, I'm Barry."

Caitlin carefully checked over Barry's head. "You don't look like you have a concussion..." she prodded his ribs and Barry winced, "But I think your ribs might be bruised."

"Yeah." Barry said. "By the way, that was totally awesome how you hit him with that book."

Caitlin smiled, "Thanks."

"Whoever said 'sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me' has clearly never been on the recieving end of an angry Caitlin." 

Caitlin laughed, "You're funny Barry. You want to be friends?"

"Yeah," Barry said, "That would be great."

**********

A/N- I actually really enjoyed writing this one. Hope y'all liked it!