On their way to the first day of school after summer break Scott and Alex decided they would find the juiciest pear in the orchard. A trail of pears, each missing a bite, followed them through the rows of trees. They trotted out onto the field with pears piled in their shirts. At the school entrance the principal shook their sticky hands and ordered them to rinse their chins and clean their collars. At their desks in the back of the room they doubled over their paining stomachs and noticed for the first time Natalie Rutherford’s long black hair, the way she turned this way and that.
