Unlikely

The Goons

Marshall's POV

Collin just a about sprints out of his classroom towards me.

"Woah there. What's the rush?" I say as he passes me and pulls me with him.

"Um. Well. I might have pushed Emily off my desk," he says trying to get me to keep walking.

"Really?! That's awesome!" I walk with him.

"You're not mad?" He looks at me blinking a few times.

"Of course not. She's never liked me and I've never liked her. She deserved it. I've always seen the way she looked at you. I don't like it. It's annoying," he frowns.

"Are you saying you were jealous?" I raise an eyebrow and smirk at him.

"N-no... I just- you know I just don't like it when people like that look at you like that," he explains.

"So what you're saying is that you were jealous?" I look at him, chuckling.

"Oh shut up," he playfully elbows my arm. We walk down the hallway and both of us laugh and smile. After a few periods, is lunch. This is the only class that I can't fail. Although, knowing me, I'll find a way. I spot Collin from the other side of the room. He sits down at our table with his batman lunch box like always. Some people might find it stupid and nerdy, but I find it kinda cute. I grab a lunch and sit down with him.

"So. What do you think of the biology work?" Collin asks, taking a bite of his sandwich.

"I find it completely unnecessary. It's just an entire packet teaching us everything we learned last year," I pick up my apple and take a bite.

"It's not that bad," he says with his mouth full. He swallows and continues,
"At least you won't fail this one," he joked

"True I guess," I chuckle. I look over to my right to see Emily trying to burn holes into my head with her eyes. I take another bite of my apple and look back at Collin to see him making something out of cheese cubes and pretzel sticks. He creates a stick figure almost and plays around with it. He looks up at me and realizes I had been watching him the entire time. He blushes brightly and pulls off the cheese head, popping it into his mouth.

"I'll be right back," I stand to go to the restroom and so does Emily and two boys from her table. I walk to the bathroom but I'm stopped halfway there. One of the boys that were with Emily pushes me against the wall, making me fall.

"Can't you morons find anything better to do?" I remark coldly. They look at me like my comment had actually gotten through their thick skull and to their nonexistent brain

"Actually. I need to talk with you Marshall," Emily states and her little body guards go on either side of me so I can't run. Just great.

"What do you want," I stand and brush myself off.

"I want you to stay away from Collin," she snarls at me.

"Good for you. Not happening," I shrug and look totally unfazed by her.

"Oh it will happen whether you like it or not," she says confidently.

"What if I don't? You're going to pout and tell your daddy on me?" I cross my arms and sigh.

"I'll make you pay. See my friends here?" She motioned to the large boys beside me, "they can make sure you learn your lesson."

"Emily. The world doesn't revolve around you," I spat.

"Who do you think you are! Talking to me like that!" Emily screeched at me. I duck under the boys arms and bolt back towards the cafeteria.

"Get back here! I'm not done talking to you!" I hear Emily yell from down the hall. I get to Collin as quickly as possible and see that he was thoroughly perplexed.

"What? What's wrong?" He puts down my apple that he had taken a bite out of.

"Nothing to worry about. Just some morons," I try to catch my breath.

•••

"So are you still going to Emily's party?" We talk and walk home together after getting off the bus.

"I don't think so. Although it would be kinda fun to crash it," he suggests.

"How about we stay at my place and just play video games. Emily doesn't seem to like me. And I don't really want to get kicked out," I trudge through a pile of leaves that were perfectly placed. Well, was perfectly placed.

"Alright. To be honest that sounds 2000 times better than a party," he smiles and picks up a leaf, carefully inspecting it.

"Collin I've got an idea," I smile.

"What's the idea?" He looks at me quizzingly. I grab his hand.

"Let's skip home," I say. I might be 15 but my mental age is still at 4.

"You are so weird. But sure," he chuckles and we skip home like little kids. I open the front door and smile seeing a note written by my mother on the table.

Marshall and/or Collin,
I had to run some errands. I'll be home later. Help yourself to something in the fridge/pantry.
Love,
Mom  :)
P. S. Please don't make too big of a mess.

"Well my mom is out. She will probably be back in a few hours. You know the drill," I say to Collin, putting down the piece of paper. Every time my mom isn't home and we are, we always end up trashing my room somehow. He grabs a 6 pack of Dr. Pepper and I get a bag of chips. We run up to my room and throw our backpacks on the ground.

"Fort time?" I look at him with an evil smirk on my face. He returns the expression.

"Fort time." He nods and grabs the pillows off my bed. I go to the hall closet and get all the extra pillows and blankets. After about 45 minutes of taping blankets to walls or draping them over furniture, the masterpiece is finished. A bunch of pillows are made into a C shape and blankets are all over the place. In the main area of the fort is the tv, we had built it around it seeing as that is the most important thing when it comes to making a fort. I hide a few Nerf guns on both sides of the tent-like structure.

"Better watch out Collin! Because it's about to rain... Rain Nerf darts!" I yell to him and laugh as I watch duck for cover. I follow little ripples in the blanket and see that they're coming closer and closer. I duck into the tent to see him there waiting just for me.

"Gotcha," he pulls the trigger and a squishy, foam dart hits me in the chest. I fall down dramatically and lay on the ground.

"I told you I was better at this than you," he smiles victoriously. I take his arm and flip our positions. When I am standing above him.

"Oh really?" I smirk down at him. He pushes me off him and we both lay beside each other, laughing with no other care in the world.