Kes smiled at his words, which was why she probably would have throttled Pepper for the action taken.
"You git, Pepper!" she shouted at him, as he laughed and ran off. "Next time I see you, you're dead!"
She looked at Jube's back as he continued walking. He never defended himself. He just took the stupid things the other boys did.
"I would be a widow 10 minutes after the service, at the latest, if my mother ever thought of choosing Pepper as my husband," she said, trying to make Jube smile. "If he even made it to the ceremony."
Jube was taller than her, and a year older, but sometimes he seemed to make himself small, like this would make people leave him alone.
She waited until he sat down, then checked the back of his neck. There was a red mark and a scratch.
"I'm going to beat him to within an inch of his life," she growled as she lifted her scarf and brushed away the dirt carefully. "You're too sweet, Jube. Seriously, I'm going to get my father's hammer and make that pig squeal. Why do you put up with that?"
It was a stupid question, one she'd asked him 100 times before.
The problem was that she couldn't bare it. She'd once hit Pepper with a branch so hard he'd ran home crying, but that was after the pig had cornered Jube. He never learnt.
"You need to stand up for yourself," she said, checking the mark.
They'd always been like this. She was the aggressive, protective one, he the kind soul.
"Jube," she said gently, standing behind him and resting her hands on his head so she could put her chin there. "What would you do if someone threw a stone at me?"