“DON’T CALL ME CHUM!” he screamed, and he picked me up. Like, all of me. He picked me up like a battering ram that he was going to use to bust down the first castle door he saw.

He ran out onto the playing field, carrying me under his giant arm. I was too shocked to do anything.

He was going full speed, and I could see other kids’ shocked faces as we ran past, so he could smash my head into who knows what.

I think I went out-of-body for a minute or so. Like PTSD.

Chum is fast and huge, and I could see that we were heading for the soccer net at the end of the playing field. He was still giving this kind of warrior cry, and I didn’t know whether to brace myself or go limp before we hit. A person could get a broken neck from being used as a battering ram, and I don’t have such a strong neck to begin with.

“AAAAAGGHHHHHHH!” he said.

For some reason, I started yelling too.

“AAAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!” I said.

The two of us were yelling as loud as we could, and we were almost at the soccer net when I saw a blur out of the corner of my eye.

“AAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!!” said the blur.

“AAAAGGGHHHHH?” said Chum.

“AAAAAAAGGGGHHHH?!” I said.

The blur got between Chum and me and the net and somehow headed us off. Chum lost his footing and we went down. He landed on me and it was like getting squashed by a stegosaurus. Knocked the wind right out of me.

“Ooof!” I said.

“Ugh,” said Chum.

Once Chum climbed off me and my eyes uncrossed and my ears stopped ringing, I saw a boy standing there, holding his hands up like he was trying to calm things down.

“Fisherman,” he said. “I thought we talked about this. You can’t go smashing people into the soccer net every time you lose your temper.”

“Yeah, but it’s better than smashing them into a wall, right?” said Chum/Fisherman.

“I admit, the net is better. But it’s still not great.”

“He really made me mad,” said Fisherman. He sounded calm, like he was talking about why he liked blueberry instead of raspberry Pop-Tarts.

The boy nodded. “But you made him yell with terror, so you’re probably even.” I realized then that it was Ben, the boy with the bike. He hadn’t been back at school since the first day.

Fisherman nodded and started to smile. His face was no longer bright red. It was more rosy, I guess. He looked kind of funny when he smiled, as in humorous, not strange.

Then he laughed. His laugh was extremely high-pitched, and it was one of those laughs that makes everyone else want to laugh too.

I laughed in return and so did Ben.

“AAAAGGHHH!” said Fisherman.

“AAAAGGGHHH!” said Ben.