Colleen Cosgrove would rather stay at home and an outing to the playground only proves to further her opinion on that. Luckily she has an older brother willing to stand up for her.
"Are you sure you'll be okay here by yourself while I pop into the comic book store?" Caleb Cosgrove asks his little sister. They've traveled down to Isla del Kashmire on a Saturday Afternoon.
Colleen nods absentmindedly, already lost in the book that she brought along. The park is right next to the shop so Caleb won't be far away. It's a nice day and she'd rather be outside.
"Okay, I'll be back in a few minutes. Gotta check if they have the new Action Cat comic!"
Caleb loves Action Cat; he loves the franchise so much that he named their kitten Action Cat.
It's more than a few minutes, Colleen realizes as she finishes a chapter. Caleb is nowhere in sight. Colleen decides to set her book aside and play on the playground. It's what it's there for!
Youch! She doesn't quite stop herself at the bottom of the slide. She probably should have worn trousers too. She rubs her sore behind.
"Look at this miss prissy princess!" she hears a belligerent call and turns to see two rough-looking boys her age enter the playground.
"This is our playground! Who said you could use the slide?"
"What? Cat got your tongue?" the boys flank her and some other children hear the commotion and gather to watch the bullies start bullying. Colleen is taken aback at the audacity! This is a public park!
Her fight or flight reaction kicks in and she puts up her fists, "I don't need your permission! Get out of my face or I will make you!"
"Oooh I'm sooo scared of a little girl..." one of the boys taunts sarcastically while the other seems surprised she's standing up to them.
Colleen is the epitome of 'fuck around and find out' as she pops the boy in the lip and he crumbles. She whirls around on the other, "Do you feel lucky, punk?"
"What the plumb is going on here?" Caleb has finally returned. He takes in the scene with a displeased frown.
Colleen has never been so relieved to see Caleb in her life! The boy with the busted lip picks himself up and looks defeated.
"I...I...They..." Colleen stumbles over her thoughts racing faster than her mouth. The other kids seem to scatter behind her.
"They were trying to bully me off the playground. Please don't tell Mom and Dad I punched someone."
To her surprise, her brother smirks with approval.
"That was really uncool," Caleb crosses his arms and stares coldly at the boys.
They don't seem fazed or regretful for their actions.
This is cause for more drastic action from Caleb.
"Our dad is the Minister of Education in Kashmire. You better fuck off or else I'll tell him to get your teachers to give you extra homework for a month," Caleb points out where the bullies can 'fuck off' to.
What does that even mean? Colleen isn't used to hearing her brother make swears.
Colleen knows Caleb nor their dad has that power but the bullies seem convinced. Boys are dumb.
"You handled yourself well out there, Kid," Caleb praises her as he treats her to lunch at a nearby diner.
"I think those kickboxing classes helped," Colleen muses.
They order burgers and Caleb mentions, "I do feel though as I should remind you that Dad says de-escalation is the preferred method to resolve conflict."
"Yeah, I know. I just panicked!" Colleen admits. She actually feels really bad she made that kid's lip bleed.
When they arrive home, Colleen stops short of the front door and gives her big brother a hug, "Thanks for sticking up for me, Caleb."
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