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Ian sat on the swing set that was a little further from the rest of the play ground. School started in about 10 minutes, and it was Ian's first day of third grade.
Monica had forgotten to give him lunch money-despite the fact that he reminded her at least three times. He'd be more understanding if the reason she was so distant was because she had to spread her affection evenly to all five of her kids, but it seemed as if none of them got ever got her attention.
Lip had told Ian that he needed to learn how to find his own lunch money. He'd given an example by walking up behind one kid, and slipping the deck of pokemon cards that was in his pocket out of it. The kid didn't notice. Lip waited a couple seconds, then said, "Hey! Kid! These yous?"
The kid turned around and looked at the deck. "Oh, yeah, thanks." He reached for it.
Lip pulled it away. "Hang on," he said, "how do I know these are yours?"
He looked confused, but turned out his jacket pockets. "I don't have mine," he explained, "it must have fell out."
Lip shook his head. "That doesn't sound like good enough evidence. You know what? How about I say they're yours for, say … five bucks?"
The kid started to look pissed. "No! They're mine! Give them!" He lunged for Lip's hand.
He took a step back and held the cards in the air. "Well since I don't know that they're yours, I'll just burn them." He took out the lighter that he stole from Frank earlier that week, and held the flame close to the deck.
"No!" The kid scrambled to reach in his back pocket. He pulled out three ones. "Here! This is all I have!"
Lip grabbed the money, and handed the kid back his pokemon cards. He smirked. "Pleasure doing business."
He walked back over to Ian, and gave him one of the ones. "There. Now figure out how to get the rest of the money yourself." He walked over to some other kid that Ian assumed was his next victim.
Ian sighed. The money Lip gave him was useless- lunch was $2.50.
He looked around at all the other kids on the playground. There was no way he could do what Lip was doing. The bigger kids would just beat him up, and he didn't want to make any of the littler kids upset. They were all so small and dumb-looking, it'd be like kicking puppies.
Ian really didn't like confrontation, unless he was sticking up for someone he cared about. He decided he'd just do what Lip did, but just try to take some kids money instead of something to sell back to him.
He moved closer to where all the older kids were, the kids who were in middle school.
There was a group of large, dirty, tough-looking boys, who were all probably Fiona's age. He decided to avoid them.
Then he spotted the perfect opportunity.
Two girls, wearing tight shirts and tiny shorts, were standing near the fence, holding up compact mirrors to their faces, and applying make up. Their back packs were on the ground a couple feet away from them.
Ian watched them for a minute, before finally they turned their attention to a tall, cute boy, who was walking by. The took a few steps toward him, distancing themselves even more from their bags.
Ian seized the opportunity to quickly walk over to the nearly abandoned bags and rifle through them, keeping one eye on the girls the whole time. He almost got distract for a second when he got a good look at the boy they were talking to. He was really good-looking, and Ian couldn't blame the girls for flirting with him. He had always thought it was weird that boys were supposed to like girls. If he was supposed to like girls, then why were there so many good-looking boys in his school? But he knew he couldn't share these thoughts, so he never asked anyone.
He quickly pocketed the money he found-$8 total!-and tried to casually walk back to the swings, looking around. No one noticed any of it.
He sat on the swing and counted his money at least five times. He not only had enough for lunch today, but enough for a few days.
Suddenly he heard a yell, and looked up.
A dirty boy, with black hair and ratty clothing, was pinning some kid up against the wall. He recognized the boy as Mickey Milkovich. Lip had pointed him out to Ian during the summer, and told him to avoid him. He said Mickey was bad news, always looking for a fight.
The other kid was Roger Spikey, another boy in Lip's grade. Ian had a little bit of a soft spot for Roger. He wasn't just good-looking, but funny and nice too. He got to hang out with him once, with Lip, and a couple other boys from Lip's grade. He was the only one to not pick on Ian's crazy read hair. Roger even told Ian that his hair was cool, when none of the other boys were paying attention.
"Get off me!" Roger yelled at Mickey.
"I will when you give me your money!"
Ian was actually a little impressed-Mickey was somewhat smaller than a lot of the other boys in his grade, and Roger was one of the tallest. He wondered how Mickey was able to be so ballsy, and how he was able to make everyone so afraid of him.
"I don't have any!" Roger yelled, trying, and failing, to push Mickey off.
"Bullshit!" Mickey yelled, "Give me your money or I'll break your finger!"
"Fine! Fine!" Roger reached into his pocket and pulled out a five.
Mickey grinned and grabbed the five, but still punched Roger in the stomach before letting him go.
Ian watched as Roger grabbed his stomach, looking like he was going to be sick, and debated on whether or not he should go over and ask if he was okay.
Then his gaze turned to Mickey, who was now walking away. Though still impressed, Ian was a little mad at him. He liked Roger, and he didn't like when people he liked got hurt.
That's when he saw Mickey go over to a group of girls in his own grade. He pulled Mandy Milkovich out of the group, and Ian only just made the connection that they must have been brother and sister.
Ian liked Mandy-she was one of the few girls in his grade that he could actually stand. She could be rude sometimes, but she could also be funny, and even friendly. Ian even thought she was pretty-not the in the way where he wanted to kiss her or anything, but he had to admire her bright eyes and long dark hair.
When Mickey got Mandy's attention away from her friends, he said something to her, that Ian was too far away to hear, and handed her the five he took from Roger.
Mandy smiled and hugged Mickey, but was only able to for a second before he pushed her off and walked away. Mandy didn't fazed by it, as she pocketed the five and went back to her friends.
Ian thought about the whole scene for a moment. He knew that Mickey shouldn't have punched Roger, but other than that he couldn't see how Mickey was any worse than Lip, or anyone else for that matter.
As far as he could tell, Mickey wasn't looking for a fight- he was just trying to help out a sibling. Which was exactly what Lip had done.
Sure, Ian still thought Mickey was scary as hell, but he figured he couldn't be that bad a guy.