Fight (#0.5, Fierce Series) by Clarissa Wild

Chapter 1
    Growing up
     
    Age 7
     
    Somewhere in the distance the sound of
bells ringing comes closer, but I shut it out. The rattling of
bikes draws my attention, but I won’t let it distract me. Building
a teepee from a bunch of
sticks takes concentration, and I want mine to be perfect. It needs
to be bigger and stronger than the one Brody is
building.
    My tongue is partially hanging out because
I’m so busy trying to get this thing together. The grass underneath
me feels gross, but I don’t mind. The final stick is almost in
place, and I’m even squinting, trying to get them all lined up.
Once the entire thing is set, I take the old rope we found and wrap
it around the tip.
    “Done!” I say, smiling broadly.
    When I look Brody’s way, he’s smirking,
and then I notice his teepee. It’s already done. Crap.
    “Aww …”
    “Haha! I was first!”
    I frown and pout. “So what! Mine is much
bigger.”
    “Well yours looks crooked!”
    I sit down in the grass, my clothes
smeared with sludge. “Does not!”
    “Does to!”
    I stick out my tongue and so does he. Then
we crawl into our teepees and take sneak peeks outside to see if
the other is watching as well. We’re giggling like crazy, until the
rattling of the bikes comes closer and our curiosity is
peaked.
    We step outside our home-made Teepees.
Dave approaches on his shiny red bike. It looks cool, and I can’t
imagine what it’d be like to ride one. I think it would be
amazing.
    “What are those?” he asks with a
condescending tone. I don’t like him, not one bit.
    A bunch of his friends come up behind him,
stopping right in front of us.
    “Ugly!” One of them yells.
    “They are not!” Brody says.
    They all start to laugh.
    “Shut up!” he yells.
    “ You call that a hut , Autumn?” Dave says, and he drives
closer.
    “I made it. It’s fine,” I snap.
    “ Well it’s on our terrain.”
    “What? This is just grass,” Brody says,
making a face.
    “No it’s not. This park is ours. You can only
come here if you have a bike. Do you have one?” He lifts one
eyebrow.
    “No,” I mumble.
    “Then you can’t play here!”
    His buddies start laughing again.
    “You don’t have a bike as cool as ours! You
don’t even have a bike! Haha!”
    Brody tries to hit them with a stick,
running after them, but they escape him easily on their
bikes.
    “ You can’t come here if you’re not cool,
and you’re only cool if you have a bike like this one,” Dave says
with a smug face.
    “We don’t need anything,” Brody says.
    Dave frowns and squints, then snaps his fingers. His buddies
suddenly drive right at us, and we have to duck to get away before
they hit us. Instead, they crash into our teepees. I gasp, my jaw
dropping as they thrash our teepees, smashing the sticks to bits.
What’s left after they’re done is one pile of rubble.
    “See you, losers!”
    I stare at my teepee, which is no longer a
teepee but a wreck. It’ll take hours to get this fixed, and I don’t
think I want to do it anymore. Not like this.
    “Jerks…” Brody mumbles, picking up the sticks
one by one.
    I check my watch and realize I have to be
home for dinner soon. “I have to go home.”
    “ Oh …” he drops the sticks again and lets
his shoulders sag. “Well, we could do it again tomorrow. We’ll make
even better teepees!”
    I sigh. “I don’t know, Brody. I don’t want
them to ruin it again.”
    “Okay …” He looks sad, but he’s not the only
one.
    “See you tomorrow,” I say, waving. Then I
turn around and walk away. The walking soon turns to running, just
when tears start rolling down my cheeks.
    When I get home my mom is already at the door, looking around the
neighborhood for me. As she spots me, she rolls her eyes and
sighs.
    “Dinner was ready five minutes ago,” she
says.
    “Sorry, I was building a teepee with Brody
and forgot.” I walk up the steps to our small, suburban house.
    “Well, just make sure to remember next time.
Dinner is