James

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"My eyes must be deceiving me," Jasper remarked.

I averted my eyes from him instantly. Ignoring his jabs was the only tactic that had ever successfully made him leave me alone.

And it still hardly worked.

"Because there is no way that the Jamie the crybaby I know dares to attend a summer camp all on his own," he said.

I winced at the nickname. Jasper had been calling me that since the start of fourth-grade when I tripped over my shoelaces one day in gym class and hit my face on the wooden floor. My response had been to cry; I was in pain and humiliated after all. That same humiliation was beginning to creep over me now, and I felt it kick up a notch when Jasper finished his sentence saying,

"Unless he brought his imaginary friends along to keep him company."

I glanced up swiftly.

That voice didn't belong to Jasper.

It belonged to Mike Douglas. Mike was Jasper's partner in crime, who was just as cruel if not more than Jasper was. They were standing side by side, looking intimidating like always.

I swallowed the lump in my throat, hoping the fear would go down with it. I didn't know how to stand up for myself. I could hardly handle Jasper by himself, but I most certainly could not handle him when Mike was around. It was two against one, an unfair fight: a bully's favorite kind.

But then, I remembered maybe it wasn't two against one this time.

I had Evan now, and we were friends. Surely, he wouldn't let them pick on me this way, right? I looked to him for moral support.

I noticed he had moved to an entirely different corner of the room.

He refused to make eye contact with me.

Jasper chose that moment to call his name.

"Evan, how are you going to survive sharing a bunk with crybaby Jamie? I heard he's afraid of the dark, so you might need a nightlight and to sing him a lullaby," he taunted.

Mike guffawed. Kaden broke his silence and laughed some too.

It wasn't even that funny. So I was afraid of the dark. Weren't we all at that age?

Frustration boiled within me. I wanted to speak up. But every retort I had was either too weak or so fierce that it would result in me being pummeled. So, I kept my mouth shut.

And I did my best not to let the laughter surrounding me weigh me down.

Evan finally spoke.

"Come on, Jasper; he's nice. Give him a break," he admonished.

Instantly, Jasper and Mike's menacing smiles faded. Jasper's face contorted into a frown. He folded his arms and leaned against the door giving Evan a disapproving glare.

"Oh, I get it. You're friends with crybaby Jamie; are you, Evan?" he taunted.

Evan gave another one of his signature shrugs.

Jasper's smirk returned.

"Well, you know what Mike and I always say, don't you? If you're friends with a crybaby, that makes you one too. So, maybe we'll just have to start calling you, crybaby Evan. What do you think of that?"

Evan's face went red; the nickname had the same effect on him as it did on me. It made him feel wimpy like he wasn't masculine enough to be called by his real name.

I knew the feeling all too well. That's why I couldn't even hate him for the next thing he said.

"No," Evan replied. "We are not friends." He glanced at me once more with reluctance before finishing his statement with, "I would never be friends with a crybaby."

Kaden let out another laugh as Jasper nodded for Evan to follow them outside and leave me behind. Guilt flashed through Evan's hazel eyes, but only momentarily. He regained his composure and left the cabin with Jasper, Mike, and Kaden.

I sat down on my empty bed as hot tears stung my eyes.

It took everything in me not to let them fall. I kept them in for as long as I could. But all bets were off once the sad realization hit. They were right about me. It was true. No one wanted to be friends with "crybaby Jamie." Otherwise, someone would have stuck up for me.

But they didn't.

Evan and I were only friends for about five minutes.

And still, that was the longest friendship I'd ever had.

The strength inside me vanished.

I buried my face in my pillow.

And then, I cried like the baby everyone said I was.

That first week turned out to be just as bad as I assumed it would be. Someone was always verbally harassing me. If it wasn't Judy, it was Jasper. Judy was continuously yelling at me for my shyness, while Jasper never seemed to grow tired of making fun of me for it. Kaden had even moved cabins because he had grown tired of the constant drama. If I'd known we were able to move cabins that easily, I'd have done that too. But as my luck would have it, now all of the cabins were full.

One afternoon, seven days after my arrival, I was sitting at my lunch table, relieved to discover neither Judy nor Jasper were around. Judy had just gone off on another camper for soiling her shoes, and then she'd stormed off. And Jasper either had better things to do than torment me or simply had not shown up yet. I silently prayed it would be the former. Then in case it wasn't, I picked up a menu and set it up atop the table vertically to hide myself from the rest of the world.

Well, not the entire world.

My friends, Luis, Ayla, and Horace, were there. The ones that Lizzie called "imaginary."

Okay, maybe they were imaginary.

But they were real to me.

I started giving them a brief description of how my week was going, and they tried to cheer me up.

"It'll be okay," Ayla comforted me. "You've just got to stop being so afraid, James. Put yourself out there."

I shook my head at her. "I don't want to put myself out there. Kids don't like me. Not at Fairington. Not at home. I guess I'm just forever alone."

"Hey, that rhymed!" Luis responded with a laugh.

Horace and Ayla both gave him a death glare.

"Not helping Luis," they remarked in unison.

I gave Luis a measly shrug (I guess Evan was rubbing off on me) before saying, "Thanks for the help guys, but I don't want any more friends."

I took a bite out of my sandwich. I puckered my lips and separated the slices of bread to explore what the contents of the sandwich were. Pickles, cheese, and something pink, I assumed, was supposed to be meat.

"Ew," I muttered before tossing it into the trash.

Starving to death was better than being poisoned, in my opinion.

As my sandwich hit the bottom of the trash can, my menu flew off the table. My first thought was that the gush of wind from my sudden movement had blown it off. Until I looked up and came face to face with Jasper and Mike.

They were wearing their trademark smirks, and if they didn't look so distinctly different from one another (Mike with dark brown hair and brown eyes and Jasper with shamrock green eyes and blonde hair), I'd mistake them for twins. Wicked twins that were both big, strong, and relentless.

I tried to brush them off and reach down for the menu only for Mike to kick it away.

Silence fell upon the neighboring picnic tables.

I gulped hating that I was not only the primary target of Jasper's bullying, but now I had garnered the attention of everyone else at lunch.

Jasper looked at me with amusement and asked,

"Who you talking to back there, crybaby Jamie? Some of your good ol' imaginary friends?"

Mike snorted. A few other kids laughed.

I closed my eyes. After an entire school year of people laughing at me, you'd think I'd be used to it by now. But I wasn't; it still hurt just as much. I still felt like an outcast that no one would ever willingly be friends with. Like a loser.

That was the effect of bullying, I suppose.

Jasper held the menu above my head, probably hoping I would jump up and down to grab it from him. But I wasn't so pathetic as to fall for that. I kept whatever remained of my dignity and sat still.

"You want it back, crybaby Jamie? Oh wait, you're not even tall enough to reach it, are you?" he taunted.

"Do something, James; don't just sit there!" Luis said to me.

But before I could follow his advice, the menu was ripped from Jasper's grasp.

Someone had snatched it from him.

All of our eyes followed the direction it was yanked in.

There stood a tiny Mexican girl with mocha-colored hair, tan skin, and piercing olive-green eyes. Her arms were crossed, and she was tapping her foot like an impatient mother scolding a young child.

Jasper's amused expression was replaced with one of rage, but the glare on his face couldn't compare to the fury on hers.

She looked way angrier than Jasper did.