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Bully Bait

Page 6

by Michael Fry

I shook my head no.

  “You’re the kid who brought the crazy. You

  and Roy have . . . issues.”

  I nodded.

  “Why can’t you talk? Are you sick?”

  “Laryngitis?”

  I nodded really fast.

  Becky frowned. “I guess Max doesn’t want to

  be seen with me.”

  No. That wasn’t true! Max, I mean me, I mean

  WE do want to be seen with her.

  Becky started to walk away. I couldn’t let

  her go, but how could I explain? I had to do

  something, so I jumped in front of her and put

  my hands up. I looked at my hands and got an

  idea.

  I could act it out. Like charades. Memaw and

  I play charades all the time.

  I showed Becky the sort of real reason why

  Max couldn’t be there.

  Becky smiled. “If Max is as nice as you, he has

  nothing to worry about.”

  She thought Max could be nice. She thought

  I was nice. And since there is no Max, that just

  leaves ME—with all the nice.

  I started to think now would be a great time

  for Max to suddenly come down with a fatal

  disease that causes horrible face lesions.

  Before Becky said good-bye, we exchanged

  phone numbers in case she needed me to get in

  touch with Max.

  As Becky walked away,

  my phone buzzed. It was

  a text from Molly with a

  photo.

  Molly: WHERE R YOU?! WE

  NEED U NOW!!!

  Chapter 23

  I didn’t mean to forget about Molly and Karl.

  It was an accident. I was distracted. I was just

  juggling too many things at once.

  When I got to the duct above Dr. Daniels’s

  office I was going to explain all this to Molly, but

  she wasn’t in the mood. She had her hands full.

  “What happened?” I

  said.

  “You were LATE! We

  went ahead without you.”

  “You couldn’t wait five

  minutes?”

  “Karl has a dance

  lesson.”

  Karl looked up at us. “Jazz/Tap.”

  “It’s only four feet to the floor,” I said. “Why

  didn’t he just jump down?”

  “He’s afraid of heights!”

  “That is not a height! That is a step!”

  “He insisted on lowering himself with a rope.

  And then there was the spider.”

  “Spiders are evil,” Karl pointed out.

  I looked at Molly. “YOU’RE taller than the vent!”

  “Karl wanted to do it.”

  Karl looked

  up. “You guys

  never let me do

  anything.”

  It took a few

  minutes to get

  Karl untangled.

  Just as he was

  about to crawl into

  the vent and let

  me take over, we

  heard a key slip

  into the office door.

  “Karl, HIDE!” I whispered.

  Dr. Daniels came through the door just as Karl

  dove behind a pile of therapy dolls in the corner.

  Dr. Daniels looked around as though she’d

  heard something. At one point she stopped and

  stared at the doll pile. Molly and I held our

  breath. Dr. Daniels

  blinked a couple

  times and shook

  her head like she

  thought she was

  seeing things. Then

  she picked up a file

  from her desk and

  left, locking the door

  behind her.

  Molly and I finally exhaled. I said, “Karl, get

  back up here, and I’ll finish looking.”

  “No!” said both Molly and Karl.

  “We’ll finish it ourselves,” said Molly. “You

  can go back and hang out with your girlfriend.”

  “I was not with—”

  “You’re lying!”

  She was just like my mom. I thought, Is the

  whole mind-squish deal some sort of girl thing?

  “How did you know I’m lying?” I asked.

  “YOUR LIPS ARE MOVING!”

  “Guys, I found Roy’s

  permanent record,” cried

  out Karl.

  Molly and I looked

  down. Roy’s permanent

  record was as thick as the

  big dictionary in the school

  library. The one you only use to look up words

  you can’t say out loud.

  Molly whispered, “Start taking pictures of

  each page with your phone.”

  “That’ll take forever,” I said. “Just find Dr.

  Daniels’s session notes. They’re the yellow

  pages.”

  Molly interrupted, “No. The blue pages. The

  yellow pages are Incident Reports.”

  “No,” I said. “The blue pages are Counselor

  Recommendation Forms.”

  “Those are purple!”

  “Green!”

  “I’m in her office more than you!”

  “Are you kidding? I LIVE here!”

  Karl started reading from the file. “‘Roy told

  me his greatest fear today. . . .’”

  “That’s it!” I cried.

  “Go! Go! Go!” added Molly.

  Karl aimed his phone at the file and started

  taking pictures. One page in, he stopped and

  looked up.

  The Stare Master instantly trained her laser

  sights on me.

  “Wait. How is the battery going dead my

  fault?” I protested.

  “If you’d been on time and not getting all

  tater-brained with Becky, Karl’s phone would

  still have worked.”

  “Fine. I’m a jerk. Are you happy?” I said as I

  dug my phone out of my pocket and started to

  hand it to Karl. “He can use mine.”

  Karl reached for my phone just as we heard

  someone singing outside the office door. It was

  Mr. Dupree. “‘Lydia, oh Lydia, that encyclopedia.

  Lydia, the Queen of Tattoo!’”

  “Now, Karl! Get out NOW!” I whispered.

  Molly and I reached down and grabbed Karl’s

  arms and pulled him up.

  We replaced the grate behind him just as Mr.

  Dupree unlocked the door and stepped into the

  office, pushing a mop bucket and whistling.

  Then he suddenly stopped.

  From inside

  the duct, we

  could hear

  Mr. Dupree

  walking

  toward us.

  I could see Mr. Dupree look around the room.

  Then, just as he was going to look toward the

  duct . . .

  It was the sprinklers outside. Mr. Dupree

  turned to the window, muttering, “Those aren’t

  supposed to be on.” He shook his head and

  walked toward the door, whistling as he went.

  Nobody said anything as we started to crawl

  out. After a few seconds, I thought I’d break the

  tension.

  Chapter 24

  Seriously, it wasn’t that bad. We all got out

  safely. We got pictures of Roy’s permanent

  record. Sure, Karl lost his pants, but that

  pretty much happens every day. Mission

  accomplished.

  Molly didn’t agree. Actually, she didn’t say

  anything. When we got
outside, she just scowled

  and walked

  off. After a

  few steps,

  she stopped

  and looked

  back at Karl

  and said,

  “Are you

  coming?”

  Karl was confused.

  Karl’s no match for The Stare Master. He did

  as he was told.

  I shrugged. She’ll get over it, I thought. I don’t

  have anything to apologize for. I’m glad I was

  late. If I hadn’t been late, I wouldn’t have found

  out Becky liked me, I mean Max. I mean—

  “They don’t look too happy,” said Mr. Dupree

  from behind me.

  I turned around. Mr. Dupree was pointing

  at Molly and Karl as he walked toward me,

  dragging a long hose with a spray nozzle

  attached. “Everything all right?” he asked.

  “They’re just tired of practicing,” I lied. “They

  want to get started with Safety Patrol.”

  Mr. Dupree smiled. “‘Sweet are the uses of

  adversity.’”

  I stared at him. Once again, I had no idea

  what he was talking about.

  “Did you know I was once a thumb-wrestling

  champion?” he asked.

  I thought, How would I know that? How

  would anyone know that?

  “I was fast, flexible, and strong. I once

  thumb pressed one hundred seventeen pounds.

  You know how I got to be a thumb-wrestling

  champion?”

  I rolled my eyes.

  “By not thumb wrestling. My coach, the

  legendary Mo Gatsby, wouldn’t let me. He made

  me do thumb circles, thumb-ups, and thumb

  squats until my thumb was about to fall off. But

  no wrestling.”

  “He made me spar with his three-legged cat

  Otis over a piece of yarn. Otis was fast, but he

  wasn’t faster than me.”

  “Finally, after months, Coach Gatsby himself

  wrestled me. At first, he’d pin me in seconds,

  but over time I got better, until one day when

  he had me in a Full-Nelson Nail-Biter, I

  reversed him with a Kobyashi Knuckle Drag

  and pinned him.”

  “So, he let you start competing?”

  Mr. Dupree nodded. “I had to get out from

  under his thumb before I could put anyone under

  mine.”

  I groaned.

  “It’s true.”

  “Or another lie that tells the truth.”

  “Ah, so you understand now.”

  “I haven’t understood a single thing you’ve

  said.”

  He smiled as he continued across the grass.

  “Don’t worry. You’ll figure it out.”

  As I watched Mr. Dupree fiddle with the spray

  nozzle, I wondered if he was acting too weird.

  Like he wants us to think he’s weird, but he’s

  really not. Like he’s really trying to help us, after

  all. Maybe he knows what we’re up to and he’s

  just pretending to hold us back. Maybe he knew

  we were in Dr. Daniels’s office the whole time

  and somehow caused those sprinklers to go on

  to cover our escape.

  Maybe he really did do all that Emily stuff.

  What if he’s Emily? What if he’s always been

  Emily?

  That’s when the water suddenly came on and

  blasted him in the face.

  And then I thought, Maybe not.

  Chapter 25

  I got home to find Memaw practicing her

  hypnotism on Janice again.

  She still wasn’t having any luck. I was on my

  way to my room when Memaw said, “Hang on. I

  got another text from that rude person.”

  She showed me her phone:

  Roy: I’m going to find u. When I do I’m gonna rip ur

  spleen out.

  “Wait, I blocked his number,” I said.

  “I unblocked it.”

  “Why would you do

  that?”

  “He could be

  annoying other old

  ladies. He needs to be

  stopped.”

  I tried to convince

  Memaw it was a wrong

  number. Besides, I

  seriously doubted that

  Roy knew what or where a spleen is.

  But it was too late. Memaw had already

  texted Roy back.

  Max: You are a bad person. You should be ashamed

  for threatening people’s vital organs. It is MY

  spleen, not yours. How would you like it if I

  threatened to deprive you of your spleen?

  I thought so. Good day, sir!

  “He’ll think twice before he messes with me

  again,” said Memaw.

  If he can actually count to two, I thought.

  Chapter 26

  Later that night, Memaw fell asleep watching

  Cats with Hats on the Pet Channel.

  I snatched her phone again and ran upstairs.

  And right into Mom.

  “What’s the rush?”

  “Gotta study. Big test tomorrow.”

  “In what?”

  “Um . . . Social Studies.”

  “What’s it on?”

  Jeez, I thought, she’s

  such a Mompire, always

  sucking me dry for useless

  information.

  I said, “It’s over stuff you

  have to go through to be

  part of a tribe.”

  “Oh. Initiation rites.

  Kind of like some of the

  stuff you’ve been going through at school.”

  What stuff? I thought. She can’t know what’s

  been going on, can she? I mean, she’s a mom, and

  moms have superpowers, but still.

  “The stuff you’ve been talking to Dr. Daniels

  about since school started?”

  “Oh, right,” I said. Whew. She didn’t know

  anything.

  “I’m just saying it can be pretty scary,” Mom

  said.

  “Yeah,” I agreed. And for once, I wasn’t lying.

  “Well, don’t let me keep you. If you need any

  help, let me know.”

  I pushed past her into my room and shut the

  door.

  I immediately texted Becky.

  Max: Sorry I couldn’t make it 2day.

  Becky: That’s cool. Ur friend explained.

  Max: Yeah. Cool.

  Becky: U know, u don’t have 2 b shy.

  Max: Just afraid u

  won’t like me.

  Becky: Why? Do u

  have two heads?

  Max: Ha. Just 1.

  Becky: Whenever u r

  ready, I’d like 2

  c it.

  Max: OK. Soon.

  Becky: Don’t wait 2 long.

  I can’t

  b friends with

  somebody who

  doesn’t want 2 b round me. L8R Gator.

  I looked up from the phone. I thought, What

  am I going to do now?

  My own phone buzzed. It was Karl, sending

  me a photo of his disguise for Safety Patrol

  training tomorrow.

  Karl’s weird. But it’s a genius kind of weird.

  Chapter 27

  Again, it was a great plan. It was an amazing

  plan. It was an awesome plan. No. It was an

  AWESOMAZING plan.

  I was going to give Becky what she wanted.

  After school, she was going to finally meet Max.

  Sort of.

/>   First I had to smooth things over with Molly

  and Karl. When I got to school, I found them

  sitting together next to Molly’s locker. They

  didn’t look happy.

  “This is all your fault.” Molly glared.

  “What did I do now?” I asked.

  “We never found out what scares Roy.”

  “What happened?” I said.

  “We didn’t get a picture of the right page,”

  said Karl.

  “Remember?” said Molly. “Karl got tangled.

  Because you were late. It took so long to untangle

  him his phone went dead. Because you were late.

  Mr. Dupree came in before Karl could use your

  phone. B ecause you were late. Because you were

  too busy with your girlfriend. Because you don’t

  think about anybody but YOURSELF!”

  That’s not true. I think about lots of other

  people. Take Max for example. Sure, he’s not

  real but when I’m thinking about him, I’m not

  thinking about me.

  “We did get

  a clue, though,”

  said Karl as

  he showed me

  a picture of

  a page from

  Roy’s file on his

  phone.

  “The tree house!” I said. “Whatever he’s

  afraid of losing, it’s in there. We’ll check it out

  together.”

  “No,” growled Molly.

  “You’re not checking out any-

  thing. Not after yesterday.

  We voted. It’s two to one.

  We’re going this afternoon.

  Karl and me. Alone!”

  “Fine!” I said as I fake-stomped away, secretly

  thankful I wasn’t going. Because nothing was

  going to get in the way of my meeting with

  Becky.

 

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