Free Certainty by Eileen Sharp Page A

and threw the remote.
    "No!" Derek yelled and ran after it. I lay back on the grass, holding my knee where it had hit the ground, laughing and gasping for air.
    "Ha! I win!" I wheezed, breathing in the scent of grass and weeds.
    He held up the remote and let out a triumphant man-roar. "OWNED!!"
    "But you had to catch me first!" I gasped out in singsong.
    He stomped over to me and held out the mouse. "You lose!"
    I made a feeble grasp for it, laughing.
    He stomped back to our yard, whooping and holding up the remote. I rolled over and limped back to the house. "You broke my knee!" I yelled.                
    This earned me a glance but that was all. He let out another whoop. He could tell when I was faking.
    Dad drove up just as I was opening the back door and I waved. I probably had grass in my hair.
    Derek was already at the television when I made it to the kitchen and collapsed on a chair, catching my breath.
    Dad walked in and greeted me. "Hi honey. How was your day?"
    "Good."
    He narrowed his eyes at me. "You look like you were rolling in the grass."
    "Derek attacked me."
    He shook his head, not even remotely alarmed. "What did you do this time?"
    "I borrowed the TV remote and went for a jog. Like a normal person. And he ran after me and stole it. So now I can't exercise."
    He smiled while he washed his hands and went to the fridge, pulling out some chicken.
    "I'm scarred for life,” I emphasized.
    He threw a head of lettuce at me. "Chop that. We're having salad."
    "You really should talk to him about his kleptomatic tendencies."
    Dad plopped the raw, slimey chicken out onto a cutting board and grabbed the biggest knife out of the block. "You just made up a word. There is no such thing as kleptomatic."
    "That doesn't excuse his behavior," I pointed out.
    "I don't hear chopping."
    All things considered, I had outrun a Caesar Rodney High School JV football player for almost two minutes. Well, I did have a head start on him, it wasn’t that much of an accomplishment. Still, I had sort of owned him for a little while and I was going to Homecoming Dance. Life was about as perfect as it was going to get.  
     
    ****************************
    Ren              
     
     
    I walked out the door Friday morning to find dark clouds. For the first time since summer ended I was truly cold and wished I had worn more than my sweatshirt. The wind stripped the leaves from the trees, leaving the dark branches stark against the slate colored sky. The street seemed empty, the houses shuttered dark and tight against the coming cold. I put my skateboard down and played around, waiting.
     
     
    MacKenzie finally came out of her house. She wore a hoodie over a thick sweater and she had on gloves. Her hair was loose, blowing in the wind. Her gaze locked on me the moment she looked up. Her blue eyes were bright, a startling splash of color against the gray of everything else around us. She smiled right away, her face lighting up and I couldn't help the strange rush through my blood. It was obvious that I made her happy, and I couldn't help liking it.
    I smiled back at her. "Hey.”
    “Hey. You look cold.”
    “I am." 
    She smiled. "This is nothing--wait until December."
          "Great."
    The wind whipped at us and she eyed the heavy sky. "We'd better run if we don't want to get soaked."
    Trusting her east coast weather instincts, I kicked up my board and she started jogging with me. She had trouble keeping up, so I slowed down a little. We ran in the gusting, wild wind that smelled like rain.  A car pulled out of a driveway right in front of us and I skidded to stop. MacKenzie bumped into me, giggling. The old man driving the car stared at us as he backed up, shaking his head. I looked at  her and we both laughed, drunk with being goofy and the excitement of outrunning the rain. We started running again, racing against the brooding clouds above us.
    We made it to the school parking lot as small drops started.