It had started innocently enough, the four of us sitting on the library lawn, a golden twilight evening of our seventeenth year, talking and laughing. Somebody made a joke. Someone else threw a handful of red and yellow leaves, teasing. A third escalated hostilities with a double handful. Somebody got up, and suddenly the air was full of adolescent autumn: swirling leaves, the sound of thudding feet and shouts of delight or dismay. Teams of two would form and just as easily be sundered as those momentary alliances were treacherously broken. The shrieks and howls as allegiances shifted proved that each was on their own.

There was a maniacal gleam in Nick's eyes as he carried me to a leaf pile and dumped me in. Mary (an ally for the moment) rescued me from being stuffed like a scarecrow by grabbing Nick's abandoned sweater and flinging it high. As he tried to reclaim it from the tree where Mary had thrown it, she and I converged on Rob, our fingers digging into his ribs until his long, lanky frame crashed to the ground, howling with rage and helpless laughter. Mary stole his shoe and tossed it to me. For a few moments, there was a frantic game, while Rob dashed from Mary to me and we threw our prize, stuffing it with leaves at every opportunity.

Finally, there was a heady moment of power as I stood with the shoe held inside the overnight book drop, watching the confident disbelief in Rob's face as he approached turn to dreadful certainty as he stopped. I would drop the shoe, and he would have to explain to the unamused librarians that it was just a game and that it wasn't his fault- if he had his way, the whole incident would never have happened, and yes he was very, very sorry.

"What will you give me to get it back?"