Mia sneezed. A huge glob of glistening snot shot out her nose and landed on the sidewalk in front of her. It sat there, like a shaking alien, she thought. While she was reveling in how fantastic the sneeze had felt, Stanley looked at her, horrified.
"EWWWW! MOCOS!" He shouted, his hand covering his mouth, his eyes nearly popping out of his head.
They were walking home from school. It had been a busy day in second grade. Several students in their class had been absent because of "some dang bug," the school nurse said. The walk home had started out pleasantly enough. Stanley prattled on about Minecraft and Mia sort of listened, but mostly looked up at the sky and waited to sneeze. She had felt the need to sneeze for at least the past eight minutes, and it was particularly hard to focus on someone talking about a video game (Was Minecraft a video game? She wasn't sure, but it was too late to ask now).
Now, of course, they focused more on her sneeze, specifically the snot. It stopped trembling on the sidewalk and settled into a tiny slimy puddle. "Mocos?" Mia asked.
"You know. Snot. Boogers. Gross. Don't you know you're supposed to cough and sneeze into your sleeve? Your elbow? Like a vampire?"
"It surprised me," Mia said. "I didn't know that was gonna come out like that. And it's so shiny." She giggled and wondered about the shininess.
Stanley recovered from his disgust and giggled a little too. They squatted down to look at it more closely. They were quietly debating whether or not to poke it with a stick to see if it jiggled again when a dark shadow fell over them. Mia stopped mid-sentence. Her heart began to beat faster. The shadow probably meant a big kid. Big kids came in a few forms, some of them very mean.
A pristine white sneaker came into view, a few inches from the snot. It tapped a few times to get their attention. Stanley and Mia both looked up. Up the long denim-coated legs, up the pink hoodie, up to a shadowed face. It was Rosa. They were relieved it was Rosa. You could never tell about some sixth graders. Without a hello, Mia asked, "What's the point of snot anyway?"
"Everyone has moquitos," said Rosa. Mia could tell Rosa knew what she was talking about. Rosa didn't even need a backpack. She had a purse. And, she won the school spelling bee last year, so she pretty much was an authority on anything. Rosa didn't tell them she had just learned about "mucous" in her health class that day. "It's a slime to coat the inside of our nose. It's other places in our body too, but that glob there is from your nose, isn't it? If we didn't have it, our inside-nose-skin would be so dry it would crack. Also, boogers traps germs. They stop the germs from entering our body and making us sick. Sometimes. Also. My teacher said it does something else. Some stuff in it actually helps fight germs. Anti--, anti--. UGH I can't remember what they're called. Anti--"
"Bodies!" Stanley shouted. He had wandered off while Rosa answered Mia's question. He was now a few feet away and squeamishly poking his toe at an anthill. Hundreds of ants were swarming. "Bodies. So many ant-y bodies," he said, as if to himself.
Rosa frowned. Ever since she had screamed at a spider in the school cafeteria, the whole school knew she wasn't a fan of creepy crawly things. She strode off, her sneakers slapping the sidewalk. Mia admired her posture and thought about the amazingness of boogers for about three seconds.
Then, she caught up to Stanley and yanked his arm. "We got to go," she said. Your mom said she'd let us have Takis if we got home on time today. Takis. Let's go."
Stanley looked up, eyes wide. "Okay."
They continued walking. A few steps later, Mia slipped slightly. She caught herself without falling, not realizing something green and slippery was now on the bottom of her shoe.
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