I was sitting with the other kids in my class in a giant circle playing Duck Duck Goose. Any time a girl was up, I was always picked to chase her around. I didn’t have freakishly long spider legs back then so it was almost a fair fight.
A redheaded girl named Brittany made it fairly obvious she had a crush on me. When she would shout “Duck!” after tapping everyone’s head, she lingered over mine long enough to brush her fingers through my hair. “Goose!” she’d screech as I bolted …