"Let's go, then." There was nothing else I could do. If I didn't go I'd be the laughing stock of the whole first grade class at Doughty Falls Elementary, which just so happened to include Mary Stidwell, the cutest girl in York County, in my book, anyway.

So I followed him.

We get up to the front steps and Jimmy stops.

"You first."

"No, you can go," I says.

"Chicken shit."

That was it. I wasn't gonna take this kind of abuse anymore. Especially 'cause I was bigger than Jimmy, even he did always act so smart all the time. So I went up the steps.

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