Jesse Hunter rushed over and shielded Michael in his arms, turning his back to the crowd as bricks, tiles, stones, and plastic bottles rained down from above, dragging her quickly out of the battlefield. Michael had no idea how many hits he took in the process.

In the end, there weren’t that many people causing trouble at school, so they were quickly scared off. Except for two who climbed over the wall and escaped, everyone else who fell was dragged off to the office by the PE teachers who had rushed over to deal with them.

While the crowd was cheering and celebrating, Michael suddenly pounced like a tiger and knocked over the chubby kid who was still holding a half-full bottle of Wahaha purified water.

“Why are you hitting me again…”

“Don’t think I didn’t see you taking advantage of the chaos to throw things hard at where I was standing. I knew it, you still haven’t given up on the class monitor!!”

The chubby kid had grown up a bit after all. He broke free from Michael’s grip and started to run. The two of them began a chase around the small playground, cheered on by everyone.

No one knew that Michael had to run away from everyone because she needed the wind in her face to help her digest the uncontrollable smile on her face.

She didn’t know why she wanted to laugh, but she couldn’t stop.

Maybe it was because she had survived a disaster.

Maybe it was because beating up the chubby kid was just a happy thing in itself.

Maybe it was because, just after she escaped the danger, that person had scolded her softly by her ear: “Do you really think you’re Superwoman? You’re just a girl, can’t you be a little more careful?!”

This person suddenly awakened the sense of gender in her that had long been dormant.

He said she was just an ordinary girl.

In the middle of running, Michael turned her face, and that figure in a beige T-shirt was far away from the crowd.

Still holding the leg of the stool she had pulled off.

So later, she ran to Jesse Hunter’s desk, where he was reattaching the stool leg, and said loudly, “You’d better stick with me from now on, I agree.”

He still didn’t look up, just said calmly, “Got it.”

Jesse Hunter had never been afraid of or worshipped Michael like everyone else. Michael guessed to herself, maybe it was because he had seen her fail to lift a brick too early on, so he never built up any goddess image of her in his heart.

But not long after, she found out that Jesse Hunter’s religion was monotheism, and he already had his own goddess.

That goddess’s name was Zoe Young.

That goddess didn’t fight, was cultured, polite, and good-looking.

Michael sat on a concrete pipe, rubbing the dust that had accumulated on the back of her hands all day, quietly listening to Jesse Hunter’s story, and lowered her head with a dismissive smile.

What, just a female pretty boy.

Zoe Young jumped up at this and shouted, “Pretty boy?”

Michael raised her eyebrows proudly, “Yeah, aren’t you?”

Unexpectedly, Zoe Young excitedly jumped in front of the mirror at the sink, touched her face, and smiled, “Thank you, Michael, you’re so nice.”

Michael was so disgusted she could hardly stand it—this time, it definitely wasn’t because of chemotherapy.

Michael didn’t really care much about the pretty boy Zoe Young, because at the end of fifth grade, Jesse Hunter got a little girlfriend.

Some of the girls who developed early had already had their first periods, and there was a bit of innocent attraction between boys and girls. After Jesse Hunter’s heroic rescue of…the class monitor, plus his outstanding performance in a few fights with students from other schools, he finally gained the unanimous approval of the boys. He blended into the class more, became familiar with the arcade and billiard room, and Michael & 奔奔番外 were called upon and needed by everyone. Although he still didn’t like to talk much, he had become much more cheerful.

Michael never took credit for turning the popular pretty boy Jesse Hunter into what he was. She still believed that deep down, Jesse Hunter had a kind of cold, wicked air, but he was also very polite. Even when mixed in with the rough boys, he still stood out like a good kid.

That was just his contradictory nature—just a matter of which side was stronger.

The little bit of girlish feeling that had arisen after being rescued last time gradually evaporated under the bright sun. With such a blue sky overhead, such vast land on the outskirts of the city, at the end of fifth grade when Zoe Young was crying over math competitions, above Michael’s head, the sky was still cloudless.

Until she saw, not far away, Jesse Hunter was holding hands with a girl in their class who was recognized as a little beauty.

Michael still can’t explain her actions at that moment. She didn’t use her class monitor authority to shout, “I’m telling the teacher on you,” nor did she slap Jesse Hunter on the shoulder and ask in surprise, “What are you two doing?”—Michael was rough, but not stupid.

However, she didn’t go home and sulk as Zoe Young listening to the story had expected.

She followed them.

And halfway through, she was discovered by Jesse Hunter.

Jesse Hunter gave her a look like he was watching a show, then turned back and kept walking, sending his little girlfriend home—luckily, the two of them didn’t have any goodbye kiss like on TV, and besides, the outskirts were full of old, rundown houses surrounded by the noise of construction, not romantic at all.

Then he walked over and stood in front of Michael, who was hiding behind a utility pole: “You’re too wide, the pole can’t hide you, just give it up.”

You’re too wide.

You’re too wide.

You’re… too wide…

This was a moment Michael would never forget in her life.

They hadn’t sat on the concrete pipe and chatted together for a long time. In the past, only Michael could keep the conversation going, but this time, she was silent too.

Michael instinctively disliked her current state. She pulled herself together and asked in her usual rough tone, “How did you get a scab at the corner of your eye, got into another fight?”

Jesse Hunter smiled, “Oh, my dad hit me.”

Jesse Hunter never tried to hide things. Even though he didn’t like to talk, he never deliberately concealed anything.

Michael wasn’t good at small talk. She immediately jumped up, “Your dad? Your dad?… My dad’s never hit me that hard, he just goes through the motions every time. Why is your dad so harsh?”

Michael’s father was a foreman at a nearby construction site, not very educated. After Michael’s mother died of cancer early on, he raised his little girl alone from the age of three. His way of parenting was simple—buy gifts, good food and drink, never let his daughter suffer, but if she got into trouble, just one word: hit!

In any case, Michael became famous for fighting in the area, got tougher, and understood more and more how gentle her father actually was.

“Yeah, my dad hits hard,” Jesse Hunter said.

Light and casual.

Michael finally realized what she had just said. Jesse Hunter was different from the chubby kid and the others, even different from her. Back then, she didn’t understand temperament or fate, just felt that this person was never meant to be one of them.

Just like that time when Jesse Hunter seriously told her what he’d said to Zoe Young: “You’re different from us. One day, you’ll become someone really amazing,” Michael also wanted to tell him, you’re different from us too.

Michael didn’t know what else to say, but Jesse Hunter spoke up himself.

“He’s usually pretty good to me. I don’t have a mom, it’s always been my dad raising me. But he likes to drink, and when he drinks too much, he becomes a different person.”

At this, he turned his head and smiled: “I should thank you, Michael. If you hadn’t trained me, I wouldn’t be able to dodge so fast. When you saw me with a bruised face before, that wasn’t from the chubby kid and the others, that was my dad. But it doesn’t happen anymore.”

Michael & 奔奔番外 Michael said a little awkwardly, “No need to thank me… but you and… you and…”

“Oh, you mean my girlfriend.”

Hearing those three words come so smoothly from a boy not even thirteen, who hadn’t even grown a mustache yet, really made Michael feel down.

“We just started dating yesterday,” he paused, and finally dropped the cool act, showing a bit of childish excitement, “She said she likes me. The chubby kid and the others say having a girlfriend is really cool.”

Michael was speechless. She thought her life for a long time would just be eating, sleeping, and beating up the chubby kid.

“Actually…” Michael paused, and said in what she thought was the most disgusting tone, “Being my sidekick is already pretty cool, you know.”

Jesse Hunter thought about it very seriously for a long time, then slowly said, “I think… having a girlfriend is still cooler.”

Later, Jesse Hunter upgraded to “having a new girlfriend is even cooler.”

And then, it became “having several girlfriends is the coolest.”