The Smoky Corridor

16

Zack opened his eyes.

“I’m sorry.…”

He had accidentally bumped into the biggest kid waiting at the bus stop—a beefy boy with wild red hair and a sweatshirt with cut-off sleeves, the better to expose his freckled arm muscles. Three equally nasty-looking kids stood behind the giant, sniggering.

At Zack.

The neighborhood guys Zack knew, Benny and Tyler, were busy pretending they didn’t know him.

“You always walk around with your eyes closed, doofus?” the redhead asked.

“No … I—”

“Did I say you could talk?”

“No, but—”

“There you go again. Talking without asking for permission first.” He paused. Snorted some wet gunk up his nose. Stared hard at Zack. “You’re the dork who lives in the dollhouse, right?”

“It’s actually a Victorian but people—”

“Shuddup.”

“Okay.”

“You know who I am, wimp?”

Zack shook his head. “No. Sorry.”

“I have a little brother. About your age.”

“Uh-huh.” Zack was trying not to let anybody see how much his knees wanted to knock together.

“His name is Kyle.”

Uh-oh. This wasn’t good.

Kyle Snertz was the bully who had picked on Zack when he’d first moved to North Chester and had kept picking on him until Zack had finally fought back and showed the world what a big baby Kyle Snertz really was.

“You’re Kyle Snertz’s brother?”

“That’s right. Kurt Snertz. Kyle? Get over here!”

The other Snertz shuffled out of the crowd, head down. His hair was shaggy and covered his eyes.

“Yeah?” Kyle mumbled.

“Is this the punk who turned you into a crybaby?”

Kyle didn’t answer. He kept contemplating his shoelaces.

“Well, little brother, don’t you worry. I’m gonna make him pay.”

“Okay.” Kyle shuffled away.

“You see what you did to my brother, Jennings? You turned him into a wimp!”

“Well, I didn’t mean to.”

“Ah, tell it to somebody who cares.”

“Okay.” Zack could taste something metallic in his mouth. Fear.

“You ever had a toilet swirly?”

“No. Not really on my to do list.…”

Kurt Snertz didn’t like the way he said that. He moved in closer. Clutched Zack’s backpack straps.

“Well, smart mouth, now you have something to look forward to, don’t you?”

Snertz dropped Zack like a sack of marshmallows.

“I’m gonna get you, you scrawny little four-eyed geek. When you least expect it, I’m gonna sneak up behind you and get you for what you did to Kyle—only what I do to you will be worse. Because when it’s Snertz? It hurts!”