teapot flowers

Part 6

James Williams, catching a thief?

Of course, after the fight got broken up I landed just over three weeks of detention. Thiago did too, or so I heard, but conveniently, I never saw him there.

Detention wasn't so bad, really. Mr.Cortez was strict but as long as you were doing something productive he left you alone. Sometimes other students would get in trouble for talking or disrupting his concentration but other than that nothing ever happened. It started getting boring the third week because I finished all the books in Mr.Cortez's prized collection and he scolded me for trying to reread them. He said I should stick to homework instead of wasting time. But in four more days I can kiss detention goodbye.

Honestly, I got off lucky. It could have been a lot worse; considering how black and blue we were, we could have gotten suspended.

Two good things came out of the fight though. First, Thiago stopped his normal reign of terror... at least for now, anyway. And the other thing is every day at lunch that kid Peter always finds his way to my favorite little nook of the garden, and he is just as interesting and funny as I suspected from the moment I met him.

He always says the most bizarre and non-childlike things. I am never bored when he comes to eat his box lunches made by his older sister, a subject which Peter seems to have a lot to say about. Sometimes he would complain about how she always nagged or made way too much food, but mostly he'd gush about how much he looked up to her, although not in so many words. He never talked about his parents, or his life for that matter, nothing except comic books and his 'amazing' older sister.

I was sitting on a rock eating and reading, without even realizing my eyes kept on wandering down the path waiting for that funny little old soul Peter. Before long I saw him coming down in a hurry just as always, only going a little faster than normal, which was entertaining in and of itself to watch his little legs swiftly moving back and forth, arms crossed holding his backpack in front, and his head tucked down.

"You're late, everything alright pet?" I asked. "Oh, just fine," he said almost out of breath. "My sister forgot she had to pay a bill so we had to stop on the way here. Oh man, did we ever get an earful! In all the schools I've ever been to this is the most strict about punctuality and that principal is so cross." And with the last part of his speech he stuck out his tongue like he had eaten a sour patch candy and I could only just resist an urge to smile.

He sat down beside me without another thought, opened his bag and grabbed out his lunch. "Irmaaaa seriously?" Peter said to himself. "Hey James, do you want some? She made too much again and I hate to see it go to waste."

I just laughed and helped myself to some of the ---. "Mmm, so good. She always makes this much?" I asked, looking at the stuffed to the brim lunch box. "Yeah, she is always trying to get me to eat more," Peter replied with a sigh, but despite his words, a small smile tugged at the corners of his lip. He tried to hide it by taking a huge bite. Peter's sister obviously was worried about his weight, and I can see why - he was so thin, it was hard to imagine that this tiny kid was 12.

"Oh yeah. By the way, kid why do you always wear your backpack backward? I sometimes see others around the city doing the same thing," I questioned.

"You don't know? You must be very new to Rio" he said, astonished. "Yeah... just about 3 months now," I answered. "You see, like in many big cities, there are a lot of pickpockets in Rio, so if it's in front you can keep an eye on it, although even then something could be nabbed. You should be extra careful" he said, shaking his finger at me with all the wisdom of an old soul. "Especially on the metro", he continued. I straightened up. "Sim, Senhor!" I said with a salute.