Chapter 1
Ausha
“No, Jessie! He’s mine! Give him back!” I plead. Fat tears roll down my cheeks as I reach for Mykie. He’s mine. I found him and he’s my most favorite thing in the world.
Jessie smacks his hand to my chest with Mykie gripped entirely too tightly in his other hand. My heart is beating fast as terror rips up my throat.
I’m not freaking out over me. I don’t care what Jessie does to me. Not even as my bottom hits the blacktop violently.
No. All I’m worried about is Mykie. I attempt to stand up to save him, but I can’t. The wind is knocked out of me and I can’t get any more back into my lungs.
Mykie stares at me with his black, beady eyes. His mouth is wide and opens with a ribbit. I know he’s telling me you did this to me. You let him take me from you.
Jessie throws Mykie down and he hits the blacktop the same way I did. I reach for him. Jessie raises his foot and stomps down hard on Mykie.
His guts go everywhere as blood splashes around Jessie’s shoe.
Oxygen returns to my lungs. I scream with my might, springing up to my feet. “He was my pet. My friend. My frog.” I growl at Jessie, charging at him. I tackle him down to the ground and straddle him, pummeling his face and whatever else my fist can hit.
Tears still stream down my face and all I see is black and Mykie looking at me for help, blaming me.
“Ausha! Ausha!” A strong arm wraps around me. The ringing in my ears subsides and the world around me regains color.
“Jessie wants to get you in trouble with Miss Megan. He’s been trying to get you locked in the time-out chamber all week.” Rhys’ hands are caressing my face. His dark hair is shaggy and hangs above his steel-colored eyes.
My anger and grief morph into something new. Something unfamiliar. It shouldn’t. Rhys is a friend. He looks out for me and has been at this hellhole for the past however many years. For as long as I can remember anyway. Same as Rev and Krave.
None of us has gotten adopted and now that we are close, we don’t know what we’ll do when one of us does. They are like my brothers, so these feelings are wrong. I hadn’t thought about the way Rhys’ hands felt before. Why am I noticing how warm they feel? How big they are. The wetness of his plump lips.
Rhys lets go of me and shakes out his hand as if he feels it, too. “Ausha Kennley!” Screeches Miss Megan.
I turn to see a bloody face and Jessie pointing at me. He’s fake crying and when Miss Megan takes her eyes off him, he grins at me. I hate him. I hate his brown buzzed hair. I hate his muddy eyes.
“It was me.” Rhys lies, grabbing my shoulders and placing me behind him.
As he does, Krave and Rev exit the building, joining us at “recess”. This isn’t recess. We are shoved out here from sun up until sundown with little supervision. Their eyes go to me and then a scowling Jessie.
Blood streaks his face and they conclude what happened. It isn’t hard. Jessie’s always a bully. An asshole.
“We helped,” Rev adds.
“Yeah. We did it.” Krave seconds.
Miss Megan looks at the three of them and shakes her head. “You can’t defend her forever.” She scolds but says no more. She grabs Jessie by the wrist and stomps off to her office, I assume.
Krave runs a hand through his close-kept chestnut hair. His hazel eyes scan my face. “What’d he do?” He asks.
Rev steps closer. The boys crowd me. Rev’s light blue gaze turns dark when he notices the tears staining my face. Blond hair falls on his forehead as he examines me closely.
I can’t tell them what Jessie did. It’s too awful to remember. My mind is already doing what it does best. Bottling it up. Shoving it away.
That didn’t happen. I let it blot the memory away. “He stomped on Mykie.” Rhys says. Making my brain buzz as the awful memory pushes against the cork, I tried putting on it.
Krave and Rev glance at where Rhys is pointing. Mykie’s blood and guts are on the pavement. They grimace and bring their eyes back to me.
Later that night, the boys wake me up. To be honest, I wasn’t fully asleep. Sometimes when I close my eyes, it’s just blackness. Nothing. A vast blankness. That was the case tonight.
The boys shouldn’t be on the girls’ side and if they’re found here, they’ll be punished. But selfishly, I’m happy to see them.
“Come on, we got something to show you,” Krave says, grabbing my arm. His warm hand sends a jolt of electricity through me that brings butterflies to life in my stomach.
Rev is lifting the window and climbing out. Krave helps me out of it. I hang onto the pane. Lowering myself down, Rev grips my waist. My shirt is rucked up, so he hits my bare skin there.
A weird tingling buzzes beneath his fingertips. My backside rubs down his front as he lowers me. We both make a gasping sound and refuse to look at one another.
Krave jumps out, and Rhys does the same. Rhys grins at me and grips my hand and the same feelings I had for him earlier return. Shouting at me to remember them.
Rev grabs my other hand and glances at me quickly. Under the soft glow of the light poles, I see his red blotchy cheeks. I don’t get time to think about them though as we take off running.
Rather, they take off and I’m drug along behind them. We run until the blacktop ends. My burning feet find relief in the cold dew that clings to the blades of grass.
Rev marches over and stands aside a shoe box. It’s covered in gems of various shades of my favorite color, green.
Next to the box is a freshly dug hole. We gather around it and Rhys speaks. “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here this night to honor and remember Mykie. He was a good frog. He was loved and cherished.” He nods down at the box. I don’t want to think about what he looks like beyond the lid.
“Ausha was the perfect owner. She always looked out for him and kept him fed.” Krave says. My eyes prick with stinging water.
“And it’s not Ausha’s fault Jessie got a hold of you. Jessie is a bully and Ausha is small. If she could have saved you, she would’ve.” Rev makes the pesky water fall over the rims of my eyes.
Rhys places the box in the hole and hands me a dead cricket. They each throw one atop the box and I follow suit.
“I’m going to miss you. Mykie.” I whisper, adding my cricket. Krave pushes the dirt over the box, and we hurry back inside.
