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Zach flapped the ends of his sweater over his hands, kicking at the gravel beneath his sneakers.
“PEWPEWPEW!” shrieked a boy, popping up on top of one of the big pieces of playground equipment. It looked like a boat mixed with an airplane. “You’re dead, New Kid!”
Another boy with blond hair popped up next to him, a head shorter. “Shut up, Karl, I’m the captain!” he told the bigger boy.
“Well, be captain then,” Karl said back, sneering down at Zach. “Look at him, he’s obviously an alien. We’re meant to shoot aliens.”
Zach squinted up at them, scrunching his nose against the sun in his eyes, “‘M not a alien.”
The smaller boy peered down at him. “What are you, then?” Another pair of boys popped up from another section of the boat-thing, looking at Zach curiously.
Zach shrugged, “I’m a… a Pittsburgh-ian.”
“Sounds alien to me,” called the boy with black hair, and the tiny curly-haired one agreed with a nod.
“Real alien,” Karl said, “You should shoot him.”
“You said you watched the show,” the blond boy retorted, “You said we’re sposed to seek out new lifeforms and stuff.”
“Yeah, but not Pizzurgans,” Karl crossed his arms over his chest.
“You talk funny,” Zach commented, “How come you’re not a alien?”
“I’m a Kiwi!” Karl yelled back, a little shrieky, “It’s totally different, okay!”
Suddenly a bright blue ribbon flew by, tangling itself against Zach’s jeans. A pair of girls raced over after it.
“HEY!” The blond boy yelled, pointing, “We told you, no girls allowed!”
“Shut up, Chris,” the taller girl sassed back. Zach bent to pull the ribbon from between his shoes and handed it back to her.
“Thanks. I’m Zoe. You’re new, right?” she smiled at him when he nodded, and turned to hand the ribbon to another girl in a blue dress, “Here it is, Alice.”
“Ew, now you have cooties!” Karl yelled, and the blond boy giggled.
“That’s so sexist,” Zoe put a hand on her hip primly, “Boys have cooties too. Everyone does.”
The blond boy’s mouth formed and ‘O’ before dissolving in giggles behind both hands. “You said the S-E-X word. I’m gonna tell.”
“Tell, then,” she flipped her ponytail off her shoulder, raising an eyebrow, “It isn't a bad word. It’s just a big word you don’t know the meaning of.” And with that, she and Alice walked away side by side. Zach watched them go with admiration.
“Now we should shoot the Cootie Pizzurgan,” Karl spread his arms, “Shouldn’t we?”
The blond looked long at him and decided, “No, just let him go. It’s bad enough to get cooties from girls.”
“Some captain you are.”
“Shut up, Karl, you aren’t even sposed to be on the bridge,” the smaller boy, Chris, shot back. “You’re sposed to be in Sickbay cuz Anton’s dying.”
The tiny kid in the back exclaimed, "Oh yeah!" and disappeared.
“I’m your first officer though,” Karl said.
“No you aren’t. I don’t have one,” Chris said, ducking back down into the boat. “Not yet,” his voice said from behind the plastic.
“You don’t know how to play this game, man!” Karl grumbled, blinking back out at Zach, “Go away, New Kid!”
Karl turned away, and the blond boy appeared in the clear plastic bubble of the boat’s bridge to peer at Zach. His eyes were super bright blue, like the rec center pool. He scrubbed his hand over his nose.
“Chris come on, Anton’s dying here!”
“I’m dying, aaaaarrgh!” a voice called.
The boy’s bowl cut spun as he turned and then shot Zach a smile before he ran to the next level and disappeared.
Zach gnawed on his lip and then looked across the playground, finding the two girls from before now playing hopscotch. Gathering the ends of his sleeves in his fingers, he ran to join them.