“Alright, here’s the deal! Boys are cops and girls are robbers! When you catch a robber you bring them to the rusting poles under the big double slides. Then put both the girls’ hands on the pole and they are in jail. Girls, no kicking, biting, or pinching; GOD NO PINCHING,” declared Hayden.
Hayden was usually the enforcer of the rules if you played recess games with him. You were not to question; you just went along with it. Plus with his puppy dog brown eyes no girl was going to tell him different (Although, we tried to act tough.) Boys never gave him a difficult time either.
Ashli, Elizabeth, and I all looked at each other. We flipped our blonde hair, put our hands on our hips, and said in harmony,
“WE. DON’T. DO. THAT!” Hayden, Clay Harden, and Steven Adams all rolled their eyes in disbelief.
“Shut up, you guys are blue eyed, skinny, weak, and blonde. All you know is how to hurt us manly men” said Hayden.
“Excuse me, who ever said you were manly?” Elizabeth said while rolling her eyes.
“Need some Aleo for that one HUH?” said Ashli.
“It’s Aloe,” said Steven.  The thing about Steven was, well I don’t really know. He was pretty quiet. When he would speak up, it was to help someone or it was completely I-need-to-change-my underwear hilarious.
“Would you like me to knock those geeky, little glasses off your face, Steven?” joked Ashli, sinking her hands into her black and blue flannel, down coat. 
“Yea, sure, whatever, let’s just play,” muttered Clay.
We all sprinted towards different corners of the playground. I could feel the crisp air on my chapped cheeks and the smell of the smoke from burnt leaves permeating into my nose. Running in these conditions was almost impossible, but there was no stopping. Taking a quick breath, I glanced to my right and saw Elizabeth taking shelter at the twisty, single slide.
“NA NA BOO, BOO YOU CAN’T CATCH ME!” whaled Elizabeth throwing her pink sparkly scarf over her shoulder. To my left, I spotted Clay heading my way. Darting to the playset, I decided to squirm my way through the long tube. I ran across the walk way, jumped on top of the tube instead of worming through it, and raced to the straight slide of the double slides. This was risky business now. The chipping poles were just beneath my feet and Clay would be catching up any second. It was a “should I stay or should I go” decision. I stayed knowing I’d still have a getaway at the twisty slide or monkey bars if I was fast enough. But for now, I waited for the enemy to arrive.
Clay ran up in mere seconds as I guessed.
“Howdy,” I smiled, hugging my fingers into my belt loops.
“Why don’t you come on down here and don’t be difficult for once in your life,” Clay yelled from the bottom of the slide.
“Oh! I don’t think so. Why don’t you come up here and get me you Little Scaredy-Cat!” I responded. Clay tried with all his might. Attacking the slide with his hands trying to catch a grip honestly, was the most satisfying thing to watch. It was absolutely hilarious because each time he made it half way up, he fell right back down. Finally, he jumped off and looked at me with an evil smirk. 
“Why are you looking at me like that?”I said while tugging at my purple turtle neck.
“Hey, Austin, can you give my friend Sydney a little push down please” said Clay. With a quick twitch of my eye I had enough time to distinguish a black pleather jacket. Austin Armstrong had clearly become Clay’s partner in crime.
“Have a nice trip down!” Austin said as he shoved me down.
“HOW COULD YOU!” I screamed as I tumbled down the slide. The pit of my stomach was filled with rage.
“You realize how dangerous that was! I could’ve died you Dumb Nut! It’s just a stupid game!”
“That I’m now winning,” said Clay,”Thank you Austin!”  Clay grabbed a hold of both of my arms and put them behind my back. With my anger growing by the second, I ripped from side to side like a dog playing with a rope. Clay’s grip broke and I took off running.
“HA I’M FREE” I exclaimed. With that, I felt my whole world tilt. Things were dark and Lord my head hurt. The ground was moist and due to me lying there so long, it started soaking into my jeans. I didn’t want to get up. I could feel the mulch sticking to my skin and God knows where else. I lifted my head and saw Clay’s foot hooked around mine.
“I HATE YOU!” I screamed.
“Sydney, I- I-I’m SO sorry” Clay babbled. I picked the fattest piece of mulch off of me and through it at him aimlessly. WACK! Suddenly Clay’s forehead started to swell. Hitting him definitely didn’t make me feel any better. I felt awful now! I walked Clay over to the yellow painted bench just to left of us. The group ended up corralling around us and Steven got the recess attendant, Mrs. Vreeland. We were dead now.
I felt like I was in a time machine; everything seemed to be moving so fast. Not to mention my head still hurt pretty bad. Everything was just a blur. It seemed that I could only focus on Clay.
“I think she’s a vampire now and she’s just waiting for the perfect moment to bite into his neck” whispered one of the kids from the playground.
“ALEX YOU’RE SO DUMB! Clearly she is so cold from the water she’s hitting hypothermia” said another little boy.
“SYDNEY’S SPREADING HYPOTHERMIA!” taunted multiple devilish kids.  
The playground banter only got worse from there, but I just blocked it out. The bump on Clay’s head had pushed up his camo hat and his ears were beginning to turn a shade of tomato red. Without even noticing it I realized Clay was staring back at me too. Once he had finally got my attention, he started raising both of his eyebrows. It was honestly the oddest thing I’d ever seen.
By this time the recess helper was making sure the whole situation was under control.
“Sweetie, do you know your name?” asked Mrs. Vreeland. He pulled at his flannel shirt, “Clay Harden,” he responded, furrowing his eyebrows at the ground.
“Good. Do you know where you’re at?”
“Behind the school, freezing my butt off on this yellow bench,” Clay muttered.
With the health inspection over, Mrs. Vreeland sent all the kids inside. Because she still wasn’t sure things were up to par, she got help from another aide and they both walked Clay and me down the hallway. I thought they were walking us both to the nurse’s office, but then one of the helpers, and Clay, turned right and walked down the hallway towards the office.
Through the entire nurse’s examination I couldn’t focus at all, which didn’t help my cause that I was completely fine. I was curious of what was going on in the office. Why would they send him to the office first when clearly, he’s in worse shape than I am? Maybe he was hurt so bad they were sending him to the Emergency room?
“Sweetie… Sydney? Helloooooo, Anyone in there?” said the nurse trying to wake me up from la la land.
“Oh I’m sorry Mrs. Denis. What were you saying?” I rejoined. The nurse tilted her head, raised her eyebrows, and intertwined her fingers together, “I asked how you were feeling. Does your head still hurt?”
“I feel fine. My head hurts a little, so could I lie down on the couch for a while before I go back to class? But other than that, I’m okay.”
“Of course you can! Go on and head back!”   
  Napping didn’t really happen; I sort of just laid there and stared into space. It was almost more comforting than dreaming. Then the office called for me in the waiting room. The numbness was setting in and my brain felt completely frozen. There was no way I would even be able to form sentences trying to talk back to the principal. I sat down in the waiting room chair. It felt like one of those movies where the shy, blonde girl in pig tails, who clearly has never been to the principal’s office, was sitting next to a boy in ripped jeans and long greasy hair while the cops were waiting for him on the other side of the door.  
“Miss Landrey,” said Mrs. Cline, “Come into my office please.”
So this was clearly what all the adults meant when they were talking about the walk of shame. I’m walking and I am ashamed. I had to establish my plan, there and then! What if Clay told them I hit him with the wood chip? What if he told them he had tripped me? What if he told them nothing? What if he just simply said he tripped and hit his head? I know that look we exchanged leaving the yellow bench meant something! UGH! What did he mean when he raised his eyebrows! Did it mean he was going to bust me or let’s tackle this together? WHY ARE BOYS SO COMPLICATED? I walked through the door and was practically swallowed by the chair as I sat down.
“So, what exactly happened this afternoon, Miss Sydney?”
“What do you mean Mrs. Cline?” I hesitated.  
“Well there was a commotion at recess today. Between you and Clay?”
“I don’t really think there was a problem Mrs. Cline,” I gulped, “I mean, I tripped and got upset because it hurt.”
“And that’s all that happened,” questioned Mrs. Cline with a concerned look, “Don’t take this the wrong way Sydney, but you both look like you came back from World War II. You can tell me if someone is bullying you.”
“I promise I’m fine! I just tripped and fell. No biggie.”
“Ok, you’re free to go Dear, but I’d like to have the nurse check your head one last time before you go back to class.” She fixed both of her elbows up on top of her desk so that her head could prop onto her knuckles, looked me dead in the eyes with her left eyebrow raised to the sky and said, “Thank you for being honest. Have a nice day,” with an I-know-what-you-did-last-summer kind of smile.
Great, now I felt EVEN worse. I had just covered up the truth from the principal of our school. With my luck, I wouldn’t get to go to college someday for that, or even better my door bell would ring and it would be the cops. This day had gone downhill quick let me tell you.
I took sharp turn to my right and took off down the hallway. I wanted to get as far away from that office as I could.  Before going to the nurse’s office, I decided I was worthy of a drink and a little freshen-upper.
“Hey Stranger”
“CLAY!” I exclaimed as I hugged him tightly (but don’t tell any of the teachers, were not supposed to make purple in school,) “How are you, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you, I’m so, SO sorry, By the way what in the world did you tell the principal because I just told her I tripped and fell, I was freaking out, I totally lied.”
“WOAH Beaver, calm down, take a breath. We’re going to be fine” said Clay.
“Did you really just call me beaver… after everything I’ve gone through because of YOU? You’re really going to stand here and make fun of my teeth. This is not a time for teasing.”
“Oh okay, good Lord, calm down. I told them I fell too. We have nothing to worry about. Did you not understand the look I gave you?”
“OH IM SORRY, but after being pushed down a slide, knocked down into mulch, and rushed into the office to be questioned, I wasn’t exactly sure what left and right eye brow raises were code for. MY BAD! Next time I’ll be sure to have an answer key handy.”
“You have to keep up Little Landrey. See you later.” 
As I watched Clay walked down the storybook hallway and up the staircase, the pit of my stomach was smoldering. How could he just nonchalantly act like nothing even happened? Clarity finally smacked me in the face and I realized I was the only one throwing a fit over this whole situation. Taking a deep breath, I envisioned exhaling all the problems. I was going to be fine.
“Just act like Clay.” I told myself. I grabbed a quick drink and strolled to the nurses office before I returned to class.
“Wow! You look a lot better than you did before!” The nurse exclaimed.
A smile overcame my face and I verified,
“I feel a lot better!”