We were in the schoolyard, all the girls sitting in a circle, stretching before going for a run in sports class. The sun was beating down pretty hard and it was already starting to feel that heat that makes you sweat even without moving much. Casey and I were nearby, stretching too. At one point, she took off her sweatshirt and changed into a lighter t-shirt. That's when I noticed it: a tattoo on her arm that I hadn't seen before.

I looked at her with a mixture of surprise and curiosity, and asked her without much thought: -Is that a new tattoo?

She looked at me with that half-smile of hers, with that slightly cocky attitude, and said with a tone between playful and defiant: -Yes, I'm a bad boy.