"We're the Mailmen of Revenge!" Jackson cannons his arms into the sky.

I kick my bike to a stand and slap the back of his unruly, head.

"Be quiet! Top secret, remember?"

Still on his bike, Jackson slowly lowers his arms, and then he nods wildly, curls springing. I pull my hand from the back of his head, but the curls stick to my knuckles like bubblegum.

"Yowww!" Jackson howls. "Caya, if you don't stop I'll go balder than an eagle!"

I pull again.

"Owyow!" 

"Sorry, but it won't let me go!" The sun is red and already halfway down the sky. I look at the crimson envelope in my bicycle basket and yank.

"Yooww!"

Jackson and I land bottoms first on the sidewalk, my eye under his elbow and his candy-apple handlebars crashing just at my ear. My hands rush to shield my ears.

"Free! Jackson, I'm free!" I stand and stare at him still rolled on the sidewalk. "Aww, C'mon you big toad, get up."

I pull him up and we drag his bike to a stand.

"I'm too young for spray on..." he mutters.

I rush to my bike for the red letter. Holding it to my stomach, I whip back to Jackson who stands scratching his head.

"Okay, I'll deliver. You stand watch over bikes."

"Aww, no fair!"

"You'll be like their really cool bodyguard."

"Nope. That's not gonna work this time. Remember how I missed those fire apples?"

I glance before us at the trimmed lawn and white house, casted a deep flame-red by the sunset. I look back at him, the corners of the letter pricking my thumbs and the remaining sun scorching the sidewalk.

"Oh, fine."

"Yahooo!" Jackson gallops in the air then dashes for the house's front door.

"Top secret!" I beeline after him.

Our feet pad against the grassy soil and my stomach flips.

"We're not trespassing, right?"

"Course not, we're the Mailmen of Revenge!"

I smile.

When we reach the small porch the letter weigh ten pounds more in my perspiring palms. 

"By the way, what exactly are we revenging?"

Heat splatters across my cheeks.

"A- a boy."

"Eeh?! What'd he do? I'll beat him up!"

The heat climbs.

"No, he just... he helped me on a absolute values worksheet last week... I was really stuck... and he was nic—"

"Ahhhh gross! You tricked me. You said we'd be really cool Mailmen of Revenge. I can't even believe I jus—"

Jackson's fiery monologue fades out as I slink the red envelope into Henry's mailbox. After a moment there's a metal rattling.

"You're too noisy! Let's go."

"I pushed a button."

"What? Houses don't have buttons."

Jackson gaze shifts over my shoulder and his cheeks pale.

"BIKES! NOW!"

A sea of snarling picks up and I run after him with no time to think. After we're both pedalling, I Iook back to an army of chihuahuas scrawling the streets.

Oh, crud.

"Mailmen of Revenge. Scratch that. Defenders of Chihuahuas!"

...

"You do realise we're running away."

"Don't ruin it!"