Mom happens to be working a full day today, so I never bothered to text her that I was going to stay after school. I want the ride home that Matt offered me a week ago. What Mom doesn’t know won’t hurt her, right?
We go to Matt’s car, a small sporty thing that looks fairly expensive to me, but I don’t really know much about cars.
“I’ve always wondered,” he says, “how you ended up with a name like Kermit.”
Always?
“It’s a family name,” I mumble. “From way before the Muppets were a thing.”
He grins. “You must take a lot of flak for that.”
“Not as much as you’d think.” Actually, hardly anyone has ever made fun of my name. I figure they have too much respect for Kermit the Frog to diminish him like that. By comparing me to him, or using him as a slur.
“Oh.” Matt seems, I don’t know, disappointed.
“It still ain’t easy, being me,” I say.
He grins again. I could fall into that smile, I think. But I pull myself back from thoughts like that. Like I always do.