I waved desperately at Theo. Stacey grabbed my hand and shoved it down on the table. Theo stopped walking over to us, now standing around with his lunch tray and wide eyes like a lost sheep. Stacey shook her head at him. Our other friends at the table looked away or down at their hands, including Adaline.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “He can’t keep sitting here,” Stacey said. “He’s a little kid and I’m tired of having him around.”

  “I’m younger than all of you!” I said. “Are you going to kick me out next?” I looked over to Adaline. “Are you going to let her do this?”

  Adaline hesitated. “I don’t think it’s the same. Theo’s even smaller and he’s a boy, he can’t just join our friend group like you did.”

  “What does that matter?” I asked. I crossed my arms. “He’s our brother.”

  Adaline looked down. Stacey leaned in.

  “I’ve been talking to the others,” she said. “And we know he’s your brother and you like to wave him over, but he’s kind of weird. He’s always reading and he’s weirdly intense whenever you try to talk to him. It’s uncomfortable.”

  “You can’t just kick him out because you think he’s weird or whatever,” I said. “What does that even mean?”

  I looked back at Adaline. She was carefully looking away, which only pissed me off more. Stacey started to elaborate on the ways Theo was weird and couldn’t sit with us, but it just faded to an angry buzz in my ears. We were supposed to be family, and she wasn’t defending Theo at all! Just because he was younger and a boy and a little odd. What did that matter?

  I looked back and saw a couple other boys already approaching Theo, but not in a friendly way. They were older boys, the kind of boys who gave me trouble sometimes.

  I stood up. “I’m going to bring him over here.”

  “You can’t do that!” Stacey objected. “Haven’t you been listening to me?”

  I ignored her, looking over to Adaline. “Come on, Adaline. We should back him up! He’s our little brother.”

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  Adaline made a strained face, glancing between me and Stacey. Stacey gave her a sharp look in return. I was increasingly angry.

  We weren’t the most popular kids to begin with. All the kids at this table knew what it was like to be picked on, and now they were going to abandon Theo to it? Adaline was going to abandon Theo to it?

  “If you want to go get him, you two can go sit at your own table!” Stacey announced.

  “I wouldn’t want to sit with you anyway,” I said, then turned around.

  The boys were crowding Theo, saying something that I couldn’t hear. Theo seemed to shrink in between them, giving them a passive little smile. He was always either too spacey or too intense, off in his own world just to slam hard back into reality, but that wasn’t a bad thing. He was always excited to chat and had a sweet absent-minded smile- more importantly, he was our little brother.

  I was burning with anger already as I approached the three of them. If I wasn’t, I probably wouldn’t have done this at all. I didn’t confront my own bullies; I was small and that could make it worse. But some raging family instinct had awakened in me and survival instincts were gone.

  I stalked up to them, pushing past the two boys. This only worked because they didn’t see me coming. They started back for a moment, and I approached Theo.

  “Come sit with me,” I said, my anger making it come out more like an order than an offer.

  “Aw, the freak’s going to come protect you,” one of the boys said. “It doesn’t even know it’s a boy or a girl, but it knows it’s family.” He made an exaggerating aww noise before fake vomiting.

  I spun around on them. “Let us pass.”

  They were absolutely taller than me, but I had momentum behind me. I was a small ball of unstoppable rage.

  “Now why would we do that?” the other one said.

  The first one faked a punch at us, and both Theo and I flinched back. He laughed like it was the funniest joke he’d ever made. I glanced back at Theo cowering and I saw red. I was so tired of feeling powerless. Something uncoiled inside me.

  I threw up my hands and both boys were flat on their backs.

  The slapping sound as they hit the ground echoed through the entire lunch chamber, making everyone quiet down and look over. The chattering voices lowered to a fearful murmur. My hands were still up, but I hadn’t even touched them. Not physically.

  I was frozen in shock. A million warnings from my parents rang out in my head, too late to do anything. I couldn’t take this back.

  “Maxine!” Adaline called out. She stood up, her eyes wild with fear and anger. “What did you do!?”

  That memory was a lesson I should have learned better: family isn’t worth it.