Darrin yelped and toppled backwards, landing hard on his ass. He groped around for his backpack to pull out his baseball bat, but it wasn't there. Damn it! Mattie had it! And then he heard laughing. His face burned with humiliation, and he picked himself up with the look of a wounded dog. He narrowed his eyes at Nicholas. [i]He wouldn't be laughing if I had my bat. I'll beat the shit out of him.[/i] 

Mattie was doing her best to hide the giggles. The only reason she'd wished Nicholas hadn't jumped out was because he had a fever. She knelt down and pulled him back onto the couch, careful to keep her hands away from his wound, and smiled a little. "Enough stunts." 

"Okay, first of all," whined Darrin, "He was being a dick to me and you're helping him? Second of all, you are [i]touching[/i] an infected. 

"Go to bed," Mattie told him. "Maybe in the morning you won't be such a prick." 

This was the last straw. Darrin grabbed Nicholas by the hair, lifted him, and threw a punch at his stupid feverish face.