"P.E. should be illegal," thirteen-year-old Justin Costa grumbled as he wiped the sweat off his forehead and pushed his glasses further up his nose.
His class had been doing nothing but play volleyball for the past two weeks and he was thoroughly sick of being laughed at for covering his head and screaming like a little girl whenever the ball came his way. Not everyone could be an athlete, okay?
He was good with computers not sports. Ask him to program a robot to pick up and move heavy objects? He had done that in fifth grade. But catching a ball was impossible.
This didn't make him a very popular person to have on anyone's team. For as long as he could remember, he had been picked last in P.E.
"C'mon, Costa! The ball!" someone shouted in exasperation.
Justin frantically looked up and, in a desperate attempt to save his face, actually ended up hitting the ball away from him. To the surprise of his teammates, it soared over the net and…directly smashed into a girl's face, knocking her to the ground.
The coach blew the whistle as everyone scrambled towards the girl. Justin, who finally peeked through the gap in his arms at the commotion, was frozen in place. Did he do that?!
"Costa!" the coach yelled. "Get over here and take her to the nurse's office!"
"Yes, sir," he stammered, tripping over his own feet in his haste.
The coach reached out a hand to help up the dazed girl on the floor. Justin saw that her curly brown ponytail was askew and her nose was bleeding heavily onto her white uniform shirt. He clapped a hand over his mouth.
"I-I'm so…I'm so sorry," Justin choked out as the coach practically shoved the girl at him.
She was still woozy and leaned into him so he reflexively wrapped an arm around her shoulder and half-dragged her out of the gymnasium.
"What's your name?" the girl asked thickly as she tried to stem the blood flow with her hand.
"Uh, Justin."
"Well, Uh Justin, I think I'm going to pass out," the girl said before doing exactly as she predicted.
Thankfully, he managed to catch her before she hit the ground but he realized as he looked around in a panic that no one was going to be able to help him. The campus was dead because it was the middle of class.
'Okay, Justin,' he thought. 'You've carried spare computer parts heavier than her. You can do this!'
With that bit of self-encouragement, he propped her up and slung her over his back like a sack of potatoes. By the time he got to the nurse's office, he was about ready to pass out too.
"What on earth happened!" the nurse exclaimed.
"I accidentally hit her in the face with a volleyball in P.E. and then she got a bloody nose and the coach told me to take her here but she passed out on the way and I had to carry her," Justin said all in one breath before gasping.
The nurse gently laid the girl in a bed and gave Justin a cup of water that he hastily gulped down. The girl on the bed stirred and the nurse sprang into action, prodding her swollen nose and flashing lights in her eyes to check for a concussion.
She clucked, "You don't have a concussion and you didn't break your nose. You probably passed out from blood loss. That was quite a gusher you had there."
"Ugh, how embarrassing," the girl groaned.
"Can you tell me your name, dear? I need to sign you in and make a record of your visit."
"Emily Carter."
The girl—Emily—slowly sat up and ran a hand through her hair. "Are you going to call my mom?"
"Yes, dear, you fainted," the nurse said. "I have to contact your guardian and see if they want to take you home."
She sighed and finally looked at Justin, whose heart stopped beating when her eyes locked on his. He hadn't noticed before that they were the deepest shade of green he had ever seen. His dull brown eyes weren't nearly as interesting.
"Can you tell the class that I probably won't be coming back? My mom tends to overreact."
"Of course!" Justin said immediately. "And I'll get you a new gym shirt too. It's only fair."
If only he wasn't such a hopeless klutz, it wouldn't look like she had gotten a bottle of ketchup poured on her.
Her lips quirked up into a half smile. "Thanks."
As Justin left the nurse's office, he saw Emily lie back down on the bed and cover her eyes with her arm to block out the light. She suddenly seemed very tired.
His sense of guilt and unease grew. Great. Another person in this school who thought he was weird. Just what he needed.