I launched into the air like a flying squirrel, totally missing the last few steps, and landed at the bottom of the stairwell, flat on my face. My glasses flew off my face as my chin hit the ground.

“ARCADE!” Zoe’s voice echoed through the subway station.

“Oh . . . uh . . . haha . . . sorry!” was all I heard. And then a bunch of laughter and the pounding of feet on concrete as they ran away.

“Hey!” Zoe yelled. “Get back here and apologize, you big . . . ugly . . . SACK OF POTATOES!”

The laughter faded into the distance.

Zoe put her hand on my back. “Arcade, are you all right?”

“Uggggggh.”

“I found your glasses. Here. Thank goodness they’re not broken.”

I sat up, grabbed the glasses, and jammed them on my face before slowly scooting myself against the wall to make room for the crowds of people passing by. One lady gave me a concerned glance, but I smiled and waved her on.

“Did you notice what kind of potatoes hit me?” I tried to smile. “Were they Idaho Russets?”

Zoe wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. “Hey, stop making fun of me when I’m trying to take care of you! He was big. That’s all I could see. And his clothes were brown and lumpy. Like a huge potato sack. So that’s what came out of my mouth. He had a few other people with him.”

“Smaller potatoes? Like tater tots?”

Zoe gently punched me in the arm. “Very funny. I didn’t catch any other details. I was busy watching you fly through the air as they ran by.”

“Did I look cool at least?”

Zoe scrunched up her mouth. “Super cool. For a flying dork.”

I rested my face in my hands. “I hope no one had their phones out taking videos.”

Zoe put out her hand to pull me up. “I do. Then maybe we could ID those guys. And the video would totally go viral. It was that ridiculous.”

Still a little woozy, I took a step and kicked my phone across the concrete toward the subway turnstile. I put both arms up in the air. “GOAL!”

Zoe ran and picked it up. She frowned when she looked at it and handed it back to me. “Sorry. Screen’s cracked.”

“Oh, man! NOT cool.” I swiped my finger on the screen. “At least it works. For now.”

A subway car rumbled in the distance. “We better go, Arcade. I think that’s our train.”

I shoved my phone into my back pocket as Zoe and I approached the side-by-side turnstiles. She swiped her metro card and pushed her way through.

I reached for my flamingo backpack to grab my metro card.

Hey, where’s my backpack?

“C’mon, Arcade, we need to catch this train so we aren’t late for the bus on Eighth!”

“Uh, Zoe, I’m having a little problem.”