By age ten, Clyde still hadn’t hit his growth spurt, so a lot of the kids watching thought Marlo would cream him. Marlo talked tough and looked tough in his leather jacket and cowboy boots, so everyone assumed he was tough.
Clyde assumed he was tough too, and he would not take any chances. He had never been in a fight before, but he wasn’t nervous because this had to be done. He looked around at the gathering crowd, but Princess wasn’t there. That made him happy, because he didn’t want her to be tainted by this violence.
“You sure you want to do this, Wiener? We aren’t on school grounds, so no one can save you.”
“You called her dumb. You must pay.”
“I didn’t call her dumb, I called her a mor—”
Before Marlo could finish, Clyde grabbed him by the hair and drove his face down into the pavement. Using his full weight, he rammed it into the concrete four more times before an adult rushed over and pulled him away. There was a gasp from the crowd, and Marlo started crying.