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Steve watches Robin ride up the sidewalk of Hawkins Middle School. “Robbie, over here!”
She coasts to the bike rack —barely stops her bike in a slot— and tackles Steve in a hug. “I missed you, Stevie!”
“I wanted to call, but my Mom wouldn’t let me.” Steve pushes Robin off of him and stands. He holds a hand out to her. “Come on, I want to show you all the cool stuff.” He pushes through the front doors and the student body is a mass of limbs. A large banner that reads “Welcome Back!” hangs above the hallway. Steve shoulders his way through the crowd and stops at a wall of lockers. “This one is mine.” He spins the lock and opens the door. “Look, I’ve already put our pictures up.” He points to a row of photo booth film, each frame features him and Robin in goofy poses: tongues sticking out, bunny ears, Steve pushing Robin out of frame, Robin doing the same back to him, and the final one is them beaming out of focus and too close to the camera. “Your locker’s going to be in the sixth grade hallway.”
“Slow down! I’ve barely got in a word and I haven’t seen you since the end of July.” Robin places her hands on Steve’s shoulders. She frowns and tilts her head from side-to-side. “Still, tragically, 30% hair and 70% dingus.”
Steve laughs and bumps his shoulder against hers. “So are you.”
Robin blinks and squishes Steve’s face between her hands. “When did you get braces?”
Steve feels his face flush. “Around the middle of August. I can’t eat gummy worms now.” He pouts.
“No! Who’s going to eat my green gummy worms now?” Robin shuts Steve’s locker and pulls a folded paper square from her pocket. “Can you help me find Mr. Clarke’s room? He’s my home room.”
“Who’s this Steve? Your sister?” Tommy wraps his arm over Steve’s shoulder.
“Oh, this is my best friend, Robin. Robin, this is Tommy.” Steve gestures to Robin.
Robin wrinkles her nose. “Nice to meet you?”
“You want to join us? I’m taking Robbie to Mr. Clarke’s,” says Steve.
Tommy drops his arm. “I’ve got to find Carol. She saw Heather and stopped to talk to her.” He turns. “See ya, Steve.” Tommy slides back into the bustling hallway.
Steve loops his arm with Robin’s. “Mr. Clarke’s is this way.”
“How long have you known Tommy,” asks Robin. She chews on a hang nail.
“We’ve played Little League against each other, but he just moved to Loch Nora. I hung out with Tommy and Carol last year since you were still at Eastside." Steve kicks his sneaker against the tile floor.
"Oh," says Robin. "I don't think I ever noticed."
Steve shrugs. "That's okay."
“Not if it’s important to you.”
Steve leans closer to Robin and turns them down a hallway. “It’s not like my Dad goes to my games anyway. I like looking out from the field and seeing you read in the stands.”
Robin bites her bottom lip. ”I should really figure out baseball if you’re still going to play in high school. What if someone asks me a question? ”
“I’ll teach you. You can come over to my house on opening day.” Steve stops in front of a classroom, the door already open. “Here we are. Drop off your bag then come back out here. We’ve got ten minutes until the bell.”
“I see you’re being a good citizen to our new sixth graders, Mr. Harrington.” Mr. Clarke stands just inside the doorway at the chalkboard.
“Oh, that’s just my best friend, Robin.” He watches as she picks a chair in the middle of the room to drop her bag next to.
“No Tommy and Carol?”
Steve shrugs. Tommy and Carol are good friends, but they can't beat Robin.
Mr. Clarke brushes chalk dust from his hands. “Well Robin, welcome to Hawkins Middle. I look forward to having you in class.”
Robin sends a small twitch of a smile his way and scuttles out of the room. She falls in step next to Steve as they rejoin the masses. “Mr. Clarke seems nice.”
“He’s pretty cool. He was really nice to me last year when I didn’t understand the difference between animal cells and plant cells. Better than the other kids.” Steve presses close to Robin as a trio of eighth graders pass. The rectangular oval that connected each grade wing to each other made for a great social walking path, but also a social nightmare mixing sixth, seventh, and eighth graders together.
Robin frowns. The one that means she’s trying to process a social cue that everyone else gets. “Why didn’t Tommy or Carole defend you?”
”We weren’t in the same class. They’ve stuck up for me in other ways. I think once you get to know them, you’ll like them.” Tommy could be a bit mean, and Carol a bit snobby, but they were his friends. For their faults, they grew close over the school year and were sure to even more this year. “Which lunch period do you have?”
Robin pulls her now crumpled schedule from her jean pocket. “Second.”
“Damn, I’m in third. Better luck next year.”
“We’ll have more chances in high school, anyway.”
Steve ruffles Robin’s hair. “No way, you’ll be taking all kinds of nerd classes and languages.”
“Stop! NO!” She swats his hand away and laughs. “We could always take a language class together. How do you feel about French?”
“ Non .”
Robin’s eyes go wide. “Have you been a secret bilingual this whole time?”
He blushes. It’s just a little. He traveled a few times with his parents after he befriended Robin, but he didn’t talk about it then. He’d much rather play adventure or tell each other the most gross thing one of them could think of. “No way. My mom knows some French for when my parents travel. If it really means that much to you, maybe we should take French together.” The warning bell trills overhead. “Do you remember where Mr. Clarke’s room is?”
Robin taps the side of her temple. “Like a steel trap.” She holds out her pinky finger.
Steve latches hers with his pinky finger. They clap their hands in a rhythmic pattern that makes up their best friend handshake. “See you after school?”
“Meet you at the bike rack.” She waves one last time and turns back into the crowd.
Steve turns to head towards Miss Knopf’s math class. He spots Tommy and Carol three students ahead of him. “Tommy! Carol! Wait for me.”