DRAGONWINGS

She went on breaking pea pods into the pot. She said but now I took that Jack. “You know him. He’s the biggest boy in our school, and yet I happen to know personally from Maisie, his sister, that he’d rather die than let anyone know he was afraid of being bit in the face, ‘cause he’s scared of he become ugly.”
She studied me for a moment. She and I both knew the dragonish thing to do. Then she went back to shelling the peas. Outside in front of the house I could hear the voice of Jack, he was alone. I began to shell peas for a while. Robin and I both knew I did not walk on Polk Street much because of the demon boys, especially Jack. Suddenly I put the last peas into the pot and got up.
Robin raised her eyebrows. “Going for a walk?”
“A little one,” I said.
Jack immediately stopped playing mumblety-peg when he saw me. He took his penknife and drove it point first into the dirt of the alley. He got up with a big grin, and he gathered by the alley.
“Ching Chong—“he began.
“I no like that song,” I said.
“Too bad,” Jack said.
“I think it stupid.”
“You saying I’m stupid?”
“Everyone know that.”
Jack charged me with a shout and began to yell with shrill, excited voices. I am a bit frightened. There was as much luck with me that day as anything else. I was smaller maybe quicker, but with his long arms and his strength, Jack could have strung me from a lamppost. But Grandfather and the other Old Ones must have been there to help me at that moment. Jack expected me to run, probably; he never expected me to stand up and fight, and he did not think of dodging. I swung out and my fist went right into his face. Jack sat down with a plop in the dirt, his cloth was totally dirty.
“You bit me,” he said in surprise and angry.
“What you expect?” I asked. I doubted if I would ever get such a lucky punch in again. Still, I had come out here for the satisfaction of giving one punch to Jack for all the times he had tormented me—even if it meant getting beaten up in the end. I put up my fists awkwardly, ready to fight him some more. But Jack did not get up. The other people who saw this shouted at me and then went to Jack’s home.
“My legs are bleeding, too,” Jack said, holding up a hand to his face. “And my mom just cleaned this shirt and she love me very much. She’ll kill you. Haha!”