Mariana was walking home from school, holding her books against her chest when she suddenly fell face first on the floor, her books sprawled out all around her. As she looked up, she heard the snickering and immediately knew who it was.
Tony Woodward.
Sneakers were heard in the distance as Barry Allen came running towards her and helping her up, pushing her behind him and looking straight at Tony's face. Since he was taller than him, he was glaring up, straight at him.
"Protecting your girlfriend, Allen?"
"Barry, don't do it. He's going to hurt you." I whispered in his ear and he glared at Tony, lunging at him and punching him in the jaw. Tony stumbled a few feet and regained his balance, shooting Barry a killer death glare.
"You are so dead, Allen!" he screamed as I grabbed Barry, and gripped his hand.
"Run!"
We both ran down the street towards his house, immediately opening it since Barry's mother, always left a spare key in the flower pot. As we ran inside, I noticed that Barry's jaw was bleeding a little.
"Mom!" Barry yelled and Ms. Allen appeared from the doorway of the kitchen, smilling at both of us.
"Hello Mariana."
"Hi Ms. Allen."
"Barry, what happened?"
"Tony was picking on Mariana because she was a nerd. It wasn't right."
She quickly grabbed a damp towel and dabbed at her son's lip. Taking as much blood as she could without hurting him, she responded.
"I know."
"I guess I wasn't fast enough." Mariana sighed as she heard Barry's words and Ms. Allen stopped dabbing at his lip, and looked at him with a lot of love.
"No. You have such a good heart, Barry. And it's better to have a good heart than fast legs."
The door opened and Barry's dad walked in, suitcase and doctor's robe on.
"Hello. I'm home."
"Barry got into a fight protecting Mariana."
"Oh yeah?"
"And he won."
"Way to go, slugger." Ms. Allen turned around, one eyebrow up staring at Barry's dad.
"Oh, and no more fighting."
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"Are you sure you're okay, Mariana? You are welcome to stay if you'd like."
"No, I'm okay Ms. Allen. Thank you for the food."
Barry's mother chuckled, looking at Mariana and smiling.
"Well, here, take this to your father. Tell him to come over for dinner sometime soon." Ms. Allen handed Mariana a plate of cookies and she smiled.
"Okay. Thank you."
Mariana left, walking towards her house, as it was just a couple houses down from Barry's. Before she got down two houses, she saw a red streak and a yellow one run past her on the street. She turned just in time to see it run straight into Barry's house. Hearing screams. she ran towards his house and frantically tried to open the door. It was locked. After knocking a couple times, she saw the same streak of red go through the house, carrying Barry and a couple blocks away. It then, disappeared and Barry was left alone. Mariana, scared, ran straight home, letting her father know what had just happened.