I cried and yelled but no one came to get me.

No one found me until after school let out. My mom was mad. She went and spoke to the principal. The principal said he’d do something.

Stu was still mean to me.

Now he was worse.

I was scared. I didn’t want them to walk with me.

“Freaky Flyyynn,” another voice sing-songed and I stopped. Because that was the voice of my friend. Ellie. She liked me. She came to my house almost every day and we played with Marty and ate Mom’s banana bread.

Mom told me she wasn’t a good friend. That if she was mean to me at school then she didn’t really like me. I got angry when Mom said that and broke the mirror in my bedroom. Mom started to cry and then I felt sad. I hated it when my mom cried.

I turned around and was happy to see Ellie. She was smiling too but it looked weird. I didn’t like that smile.

“Hi, Ellie,” I said. I pulled my gloves off and dropped them in the snow. I started rubbing my hands. Running my fingers along my skin. I didn’t like the cold. Up and down. Over and over again.

“You didn’t answer my question, Freaky. Where ya headed?” Stu asked. He wasn’t wearing a coat. Wasn’t he cold?

“Home,” I told him.

“Home? Well why don’t we walk with you to make sure you get there safely. Wouldn’t want anything to happen to our good buddy Freaky on the way,” Dania said.

That was nice of them. Maybe they wanted to be my friends now. Maybe they’d want to hang out like Ellie did. Maybe then she would talk to me in school and they’d let me eat my lunch.

That made me happy so I nodded.

“You can come to my house,” I said.

Ellie was frowning. She looked mad.

“Let’s go, guys. We’re supposed to meet Shane and Reggie at the diner,” Ellie said. Why didn’t she want to come to my house with Dania and Stu?

“No, Ells, we’re going with Freaky. We have to escort him home. It’s our civic duty, ya know,” Dania smiled at me again and I smiled back.

She was being nice. I liked it when she was nice.

She put her arm around me and I shoved her back.

“Whoa, what was that for?” she asked me and I knew I had done something wrong. She wasn’t smiling anymore. She didn’t look like she wanted to be my friend.

“He doesn’t like to be touched, Dania. Everybody knows that,” Ellie said. I shook my head. That wasn’t true. I liked it when she touched me. Sometimes Ellie would hold my hand and that felt nice.

Ellie was frowning again and that made my stomach hurt.

Dania said something to Stu and then they were smiling again. “Come on, Freaky. Let’s go to your house. I won’t touch you. I promise,” Dania said.

“My name isn’t Freaky. It’s Flynn,” I said as we started walking again.

“Freaky Flynn. Yeah, I know,” Stu said. He was walking beside me.

“No. Not Freaky Flynn. Just Flynn!” I told him. I hated that name. It made me mad when people called me that. I never wanted to hear it again.

Stu patted my arm and I pulled away. He laughed. He was laughing at me. I wanted to hit him.

“Stop laughing at him, Stu. Be nice,” Dania said, hitting his arm. I liked Dania. She was nice.

My feet were really cold. I needed to take my socks off. My toes hurt. I couldn’t walk while my toes hurt.

“Why did you stop?” Dania asked.

“My socks are wet. I need to take them off,” I told her.

“Let’s walk up to the bridge and you can take them off there. I’ll help you,” Dania said and I was smiling again. She would help me. She was my friend now.

I looked at my watch. “We will be at the red barn in four minutes. That’s two hundred and forty seconds,” I told them, proud of myself for not needing the paper Mom had made for me. I could tell them without looking at it.

“Two hundred and forty seconds, huh? Well that’s good to know,” Dania said.

“Guys, seriously. We should be heading to the diner,” Ellie said from behind me.

“I want them to come to my house, Ellie. Just like you do,” I said and she looked mad again. Dania started laughing. I laughed too because she was my friend.

“Oh really? Like Ellie? She comes to your house?” she asked me.

I started to nod but Ellie shoved me from behind and I stumbled forward.

“Shut up, Freaky! You don’t know what the f**k you’re talking about!” she yelled and it hurt my ears. Ellie hurt me and I wanted to cry. Why was she being so mean?

“Stop being so nasty, Ells. You’re upsetting Flynn,” Dania said and she gave Ellie a mean look. Why was Ellie hurting me?

“You’re a bitch,” I said to Ellie then Stu and Dania started laughing again. I never said bad words. I didn’t like them. But I knew what a bitch was and Ellie was being one.

Ellie’s mouth was twisting in a strange way and I pointed at it.

“You’re doing that thing with your mouth again. Why are you doing that?”

Dania and Stu were still laughing.

“Am I being funny?” I asked them.

Stu hit my back and I moved away from him. He held his hands up. “You’re the funniest dude I’ve ever met, Freaky.” He covered his mouth with his hand. “I mean, Flynn,”

Stu wasn’t being so scary right now. Maybe he wouldn’t hurt me anymore. That made me feel really happy.

When we passed the barn I told them we had five minutes until we got to the bridge and then I could take my socks off. My toes were even colder. I hated the wet snow in my shoes.