Running Barefoot by Amy Harmon Read Free Book Online Page A

holding onto the seats to stay uprighton the swaying bus.
    “Mr.Walker, the kid sitting next to me has a bloody nose. Do you have a first aid kit or some paper towels?”
    “Why is his nose bleeding?” Mr. Walker looked at me suspiciously.
    “I don’t know - it just started bleeding,” I said nonchalantly, and felt ridiculously obvious. I was a pretty pathetic liar. Acting was definitely not in my future.
    “Hrumph,” Mr. Walker grumbled, pointing to where a small tin box with a red cross emblazoned across the front was velcroed above the big front windows.
    I unstrapped the box and made my way back to Samuel. He’d put the jacket back up over his hand, hiding the bloody state of his t-shirt from the nosy kids around him. All it would take was one kid seeing the blood, shouting out to Mr. Walker, and Samuel would be ousted.
    I slid down next to him, pulling the little first aid kit open, and rifling through the contents. There were several good sized band aids and antibacterial wipes, as well as some gauze and some white surgical tape. I pulled my backpack up onto the seat behind me, scooting forward until I was barely sitting on the seat. I turned sideways and effectively blocked Samuel from view. I stacked his backpack on top of mine and made a little wall that would be useless if someone in front of us or behind us stood up and looked over the seat. But, itwas the best I could do.
    “Let me see your hand,” I insisted softly.
    Samuel unwound his right hand from the bloody t-shirt and held it out to me. Fresh blood immediately rose from the deep slice across his knuckles and spilled onto his fingers. I slapped a thick white gauze pad over it, pushing it down into the cut to stop the flow.
    “Hold that!” I ordered him, grabbing some little butterfly sutures that I’d seen Johnny use when he’d split the bridge of his nose during football practice. I pulled the tabs off and, at my command, Samuel lifted the gauze pad, and I swooped in, pulling the side of the gash together with the butterfly band aid. I put another one on, and the blood slowed to an ooze at the slit. I put the gauze pad over the top and again asked Samuel to hold it there.
    “What happened?” I questioned lightly as I wrapped some stretchy gauze around the pad.
    “Joby Jenkins needed a fist in his face,” Samuel replied shortly.
    “Why?” My eyes flickered up to his.
    “I got tired of his half-breed jokes.” Samuel’s well-shaped mouth was drawn into a tight hard line. “What is it with some people?”
    I yanked off a piece of surgical tape with my teeth and proceeded to secure the gauze. I wasn’t very good at this, but at least he wouldn’t bleed all over himself.
    “What do you mean?”
    “Some people just can’t keep their mouths shut. Joby is constantly shooting his mouth off -” Samuel watched as I cleaned the blood off of his fingers poking out from my makeshift mound of gauze and tape.
    I completely agreed with him about Joby. “Joby picks on whomever he perceives as weak,” I replied, absentmindedly wiping.
    “If he thinks I’m so weak, why did he come at me with two other guys?” Samuel retorted angrily, misunderstanding my words. “Why didn’t he fight me one on one?”
    “I didn’t mean physically weak,” I protested. “You’re different, so you’re an easy target. Other kids don’t know you, so it’s easier for him to talk trash and turn them on you. He was embarrassed when you pushed him off the seat. I think he’s just been bidding his time, don’t you?”
    “Probably. I broke his nose. I’m going to be expelled. It’ll be just like the reservation school. I got the half-breed comments there too - only at the rez I was too white.” His voice was bitter, his mouth drawn down at the corners.
    “Didn’t you grow up with all the kids you went to school with on the reservation?”
    He dipped his head in a slight nod.
    “So what was the big deal with being half white . . . I mean, was your skin