Maliea’s pov

“Hi,” I said to the new kid. He gave me a dirty look. "What do you want?” he said, rolling his eyes. “I wanted to apologize for you know.. Those two barnacle heads making fun of you, my friend laid into them already about it.” He nodded, but still wasn’t highly convinced they truly felt bad. But then he started to tense up a little bit more, and pushed me to the ground. Anthony and Zack came rushing over. Zack pulled me up, while Anthony got into his face. “Don’t ever talk to her again, let alone touch her.” We walked away. “You okay?” I silently nodded my head looking forward. Gym class crept upon us, and that in itself was a mess. The gym teacher separated the girls from the boys, which was a mistake considering that there were only 3 girls in the class. “Ames join over with Larusso’s team, they need some help.” I nodded and jogged across the gym, already out of breath. Lia and Mya gave me a hopeful smile from the bleachers. We began the game, that new kid is good. “Cover over there.” Zack pointed over to the corner and nodded at Anthony. I tried blocking him, but the kid who’s name I learned was Kenny went to shoot and hit Anthony in the face, causing him to tremble over me. I groaned in pain as Lia and Mya ran over to me and helped me up. I thought nothing of it until Anthony wiped the blood from my nose. “Holy shit Maliea, are you alright?” I titled my head in confusion. “You’re bleeding.” Zack said with a concerned look on his face. “Larusso take her to the nurse, the rest of you get back to playing, we still got 30 more minutes of class time!” The teacher blew his whistle while me and Anthony walked out of the gymnasium in complete silence. “Hey, I’m really sorry for toppling over you in there-” “It was an accident, I thought it was funny how serious you boys get playing sports like that. Especially in gym class of all places!” I cut him off and giggled. He let out a chuckle too and opened the door for me. “Name?” The school-nurse asked me. “Maliea Ames.” I replied back. She stood up from her spinny chair and washed her hands, now  noticing my bloody nose. “That’s a lot of blood on your shirt there.” Pointing to my now bloody shirt. I nodded nervously, praying in my head that nothing was wrong. She called my mother first, but she didn’t pick up. She huffed and searched for something in her medicine cabinet. I waited patiently as she wrote something down for my mother, and the teacher. She reached over me and grabbed a tissue. “Tip your head forward, if you need anything else please come back immediately.” She nervously smiled as I walked out. Pacing back and forth stood Anthony out in the hallway. “Just an average nosebleed Larusso, let’s go.” He squatted down, signaling me to get on his back. Just like the old times. He piggybacked me back to the gymnasium, just as the bell rang.