Robin was sitting on the playground of the elementary school near his house. It was one of those special early fall days, cool enough so you knew that summer was over, but sunny and dry.
Robin had a lot of thinking to do.
He was a freshman this year and he had a terrible crush on one of his teachers. He knew that it was silly, but he hopped that he could ride to her rescue as if he was a white knight on his charger.
Miss Goodbody was the new drama teacher. From what Robin had learned, this was her first job teaching, so she wasn't that much older than he was. Robin knew that he would do anything to help her out.
Suddenly the peacefulness of the empty school yard was shattered. "How you doing, RAT?" A voice that could only belong to Willy 'Billy Boy' Williams invaded Robin world.
When young, Robin had liked his name, thinking that he was a lot like Robin Hood, a super hero type person who helped those in need. It was only as he grew older and kids like 'Billy Boy' found out that Robin's was Robin Ashley Thomas, that he had begun to be teased.
While both Robin and Ashley were now more girl names than boy names, Robin had been named after his grandfathers, and there were men with names like his. Look at Robin Williams and Ashley MacIsaac.
Being slow to enter puberty was hard enough on Robin, especially since he was the only male in his family and even his younger sister was taller than he. The fact that she had darker hair on her legs and under her arms was something that neither of them liked, she because leg and under arm hair are feminine, and Robin because his sister was more mature than was he.
Robin tried to ignore 'Billy Boy' and his band of thugs; it did sometimes work. Just not today.
Robin felt a hand push him off the climbing thing upon which he had been sitting.
Robin fell to the ground, his hands out in front of him to protect himself from the fall.
He noticed the shinny rock under his hand just before he said to himself, "I wish "
