Blush Cutiebunny's Arc

Chapter 9 of 12

Blush sat on the cottage steps Tuesday afternoon, adding Warren's bakery stall to her map in red marker. She drew an X through it and wrote "NOT REAL HEROES" in careful letters underneath. A shadow fell across the paper. She looked up and saw a girl about her age standing at the edge of the garden. The girl had dark braids and wore a backpack covered in stickers. She held a phone in one hand and pointed at the cottage with the other. "You're the hero girl, right?" she said. "I need help. My brother Warren is trying to make our parents forget about me." She pulled something from her backpack—a cardboard square painted black with maroon letters. The words read "Attention is the Original" with a date underneath. "He put this outside my room," she said. "He says I steal his attention and his magic won't work if I'm around. He's been telling Mom and Dad I'm lying about everything." Blush stood up slowly, studying the painted board. The girl thrust the phone forward. On the screen was a text message: "I wish to am plan I Warren Warren and a sleepover." The girl's voice cracked. "He typed that on my phone so Mom would think I can't write. He wants them to send me away." Blush's hands felt cold. She'd been focusing on Warren's bakery stall and his magic tricks, but she hadn't thought about who Warren might hurt at home. The girl set down her backpack and pulled out a kitchen knife wrapped in a towel. Red stains covered the blade. Blush stepped back. "He told Mom I broke her favorite cutting board," the girl said quickly. "But he put jam on the knife and hid it in my drawer. I found it this morning." Blush looked at the painted board, the phone, the knife. Warren wasn't just pretending to be a hero—he was making his own sister look bad so he could be the only one people noticed. Blush picked up one of her protection cards from the cottage steps and held it out. "These don't stop mean people," she said. "But I can hide your stuff here so he can't use it against you anymore." The girl took the card and clutched it against her chest. She handed Blush the phone, the painted board, and the wrapped knife without saying anything. Blush carried them inside the cottage and placed them in the wooden chest next to Zorie's seed jars. When she came back out, the girl was crying. "Does that make me a hero too?" she whispered. Blush shook her head. "It makes you someone who needed help," she said. "And that's okay." The girl wiped her face and walked back toward the school gate. Blush sat down and picked up her map again. She added a new section next to Warren's bakery: "Kids Warren hurt." Underneath she wrote the girl's description—dark braids, sticker backpack—because she'd never asked her name. Grown-ups might not believe kids could be heroes, but Blush had just proven that sometimes being a hero meant protecting someone from another kid who wanted all the attention for himself.