What a time for Bram to return, carrying dog waste on a leave, with a devilish grin on his face, which dropped a soon as he saw the older boys. "Leave Clover alone!" He shouted, throwing the dog poo at the boys. His aim was not great.

Well, this was swiftly going downhill. Clover now had dog poo on his shoes, a group of older, tougher boys glaring at him and smacking their fists into their hands like they meant to beat him up, and a partner-in-crime who was barely bigger than Clover himself and wasn't much help in the fight last time. He stumbled back and hit the stand behind him; not expecting it, he went head-over-heels into the dirt, arm landing funny and making him cry out. It didn't feel twisted or broken, but he expected a bad bruise to form and he frowned.

Oops.

And oops again. The boys began to laugh when Clover fell. Bram rushed over. "Clover, sorry!" He said, trying to help his friend up. He glared at the older boys. "Shut up! Leave us be!"

Even though, really, Clover and Bram hadn't let the older boys be.

"Or what? You gonna stab us?" said one of the older boys. Another boy put his hands around his neck, bended his knees a little to imitate a drop, and pretended to suffocate.

Clover appreciated Bram's help up, but not that he'd caused this whole mess (in the moment, Clover was ignoring the fact that half of it was his idea, too). One of the older boys taunted them and Clover tried to sneer at him like he wasn't intimidated- but then one of the other boys pretended to be hung and he started shaking. "That's not funny!" he cried, gaze suddenly becoming fierce, and his hands curled into fists.

"Ooooh, little Clover wants to dangle beside his friend!" one of the boys jeered. But by that point, Bram had picked up a rock, and he flung it at the older boy who had imitated a hanging.

It hit the window of a classroom instead, and with such force that it smashed part of it and went right through. Bram looked at it wide-eyed, and then shouted "Run!" at Clover, and suddenly not only Bram, but the older boys too bolted away.

If Clover had known any curse words, he would have shouted them at the top of his lungs when the window shattered. As he did not know any, however, he took off running after Bram, stumbling over loose cobblestones as he went, eyes wide and heart going a mile a minute. This was not what he'd expected to happen, nor what he wanted to occur. He just hoped his Pa didn't think he threw the rock.

Bram knew that he could be in very big trouble if anyone ever found out he had broken that window, and that gave strength to his legs. It wasn't until he had reached the pier, a mile away or so, that he stopped, rested his hands on his legs and caught his breath. Then he turned. "Clover?!" He had forgotten about his friend in his rush to get away from the crimescene.

Clover raced along right behind Bram and when they reached the pier finally, he was out of breath and his chest burned with a level of exertion he wasn't used to, especially not in this cold air. Bram came to a halt and as he turned, Clover skidded on his feet and stumbled right into his friend barely a second after the shout came. Clover fell over immediately and skinned his knees on the hard ground, but he didn't cry, just started shaking.

Bram was relieved to see that Clover had managed to follow, although the boy dropped to the ground. Bram walked over. Äre you alright? That was close..."

Clover fell onto his bum then, but he'd meant the motion, and held his knees, wincing as he tried to bend them. "Owwwww..."