Counting

What made William a real asshole (even at age 9) wasn’t just that he dared Jeremy Flemmons to find a way to stick a quarter in his brother’s crack without Gary realizing it. It was that he told the entire school that, when Gary got home and went to the bathroom, he shrieked, “Mom, I pooped a quarter!” at the top of his lungs.

At lunch, William did impressions of his brother nonstop while the whole table just roared. Allison Gilbert laughed so hard she spit out her sandwich, and that made everyone laugh even harder. William loved it. “Mooooooom,” he kept howling. He could do his brother's voice perfect. “Ah pooped a QUAH-TAH! It’s a QUAH-TAH, Momma!” Holy lord, I know it was mean, but was it funny. “And it didn’t even HURT!!!”

Now, as far as any of us can remember, it was right after that when Gary started acting different.