Zoe ducked.
Evelyn’s momentum carried her partly around.
Zoe pivoted away.
Students shouted for both girls to stop, though only one continued advancing.
Evelyn attacked again.
Zoe blocked and pushed her back.
Evelyn regained balance.
For several seconds, the two stared at each other.
Zoe’s breathing was fast.
Her hands remained up.
Evelyn glanced toward the phones.
Then she rushed forward one more time.
Zoe slipped outside the incoming arm, redirected Evelyn’s momentum, and struck once as she created distance.
Evelyn lost her footing beside the bike rack.
She fell hard onto the pavement near the scattered books.
One shoulder hit first.
Her red hair spread across the ground beside Zoe’s history textbook.
Zoe immediately backed away.
Evelyn did not stand.
Zoe lowered her hands.
That was the end.
No kick.
No extra strike.
No victory speech.
Zoe stood several feet away, breathing hard enough that she could hear it.
One student said, “She started it.”
Another answered, “We got the whole thing.”
Zoe looked at the phones.
Then at Evelyn.
She said nothing.
Instead, she turned toward the pavement.
Her purple notebook lay upside down near the front wheel.
Zoe picked it up.
Then the binder.
The research folder.
The history book near Evelyn’s foot.
Evelyn looked up from the ground.
“You’re crazy.”
Zoe paused.
She could have answered.
She did not.
She placed the books back into the bent basket.
The front support had twisted sideways from Evelyn’s kick.
Zoe tested it.
The basket sagged.
She removed the books again and stacked them against her chest.
Then she unlocked the bicycle fully.
She pushed it away from the racks with one hand.
Books in the other arm.
She walked away.
Assistant Principal Reeves met her halfway toward the main building because somebody had already called the office.
He saw the bicycle first.
Bent basket.
Books against Zoe’s chest.
Then the redness along her forearm.
“What happened?”
Zoe tried answering.
Her voice disappeared.
She swallowed.
“Evelyn kicked my bike.”
Reeves looked toward the racks where students were gathered.
“And then?”