A plan to avoid the football jerks

Matt gave Ophelia a couple more compliments, then stepped down from the bus. She'd been pretty insistent that she wasn't interested in a high school kid, but she'd also started dressing more sexily, which had to be a reaction to his compliments. Or maybe he was completely deluding himself. He just had to find out which one it was.

In the meantime, he had his usual morning ordeal of getting past Freddy and Jordan ahead of him. The rest of his life was going surprisingly well. Although the girls here were rich and snotty, somehow he was doing better with them than he ever had with the girls in his old high school. But no girl is going to date a guy who gets pushed around all the time. He needed to find a plan to protect him from that ****.

"Need me to walk you past the badguys?" {if Karen>20}Karen grabbed his arm and whispered into his ear.

At least she was whispering, not shouting it out to the whole school.

{else}Karen shouted the words out, advertising his problems to the whole school.{endif}

Did he want his sister's help? "Do you have something in mind?"

"Just thought I'd hold your arm and protect you."

He wished he could read her mind, understand if she really was trying to help him or was making fun of him. Their relationship had always been close, but it was also marked by frequent clashes.