And none of us objected to this. Because stopping Annabelle from texting Jasper took way too much energy.
Watching the narwhals almost get eaten made me think a lot about T.J. Because he was like a killer whale. Out for blood. And I needed to outsmart him. Or else I’d get slaughtered.
“It’s over,” Grandma said, pushing a button and returning us to the main menu. “Do you want to watch the bonus footage?”
“My mom just texted me that she’s parked out front,” Annabelle said.
Honk. Honk. Honk.
“That’s her,” Annabelle said, leaping up off the couch and grabbing her coat. “Thanks for everything!”
I walked to the door and gave Annabelle a hug. “Good luck with your collage,” she said. “And that crazy lizard. This was so much fun!”
But Annabelle only hugged me with one arm because she was texting somebody with her other hand.
“That girl sure likes that Jasper,” Willy said.
But I didn’t want Willy to judge my friends.
“I should probably get started on my collage,” I said.
“Where will you get the pictures?” Grandma asked. “You can’t cut up Willy’s books.”
“I have some magazines,” I said. “I won’t cut up Willy’s books.” Even though I’d already seen some excellent pictures of polar bears in his copy of Silent Snow.
Once I focused, it only took me an hour to cut out my pictures. I also went online and found some, which was allowed, as long as we had some other sources. I used Willy’s books to help me make more of a story out of my collage. For instance, since polar bears eat and drink lots of pollutants, they’ve become some of the most toxic creatures on the planet. To reflect this, I had them dripping black and purple toxic droplets onto the snow. And when I attached my pictures of the killer whales, I added blood around their mouths. And when I added a narwhal, I placed a thought bubble next to it that said I have decades’ worth of chemicals trapped in my blubber. Because just like the polar bears, narwhals are toxic too. I worried a little bit that my collage was looking a little depressing. Especially when I wrote next to a group of walruses, Don’t eat me. I am contaminated. It was a bummer that the Arctic was in such bad shape.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
“Status check,” Grandma said.
“It’s done,” I said.
Grandma stared at it and blinked. “Wow. That looks pretty grim. Why are your polar bears sweating? Is that meant to suggest global warming?”
I shook my head. “They’re so toxic they’re dripping chemicals,” I explained.
Then Willy poked his head in the door. “Can I see it?”
I lifted it above my head.
“You really nailed the direness of the situation,” Willy said.
I smiled. “Do you think I’ll get an A?”
“That all depends on how Mr. Hoser feels about direness,” Grandma said.
I released a huge yawn.
“I’d give you an A,” Willy said.
I smiled at Willy. Then I yawned again.
“You better rest up. Tomorrow is the big game!” Grandma said. “Do you wear a special outfit to school to show team spirit?”
I shook my head. “Just jeans and a cute top.” Then I stretched. “I wish I could wear my bear paws. Do you think the school would let me?”
“You don’t want to walk around in your bear paws all day,” Grandma said.
But I sort of did.
“Brush your teeth and get ready for bed,” Grandma said. “And try not to think about the toxic Arctic.”
“I won’t,” I said. But that wasn’t true. Because after I’d assembled my collage I’d grown very worried about all the animals storing chemicals in their blubber. Were they ever going to be okay? How do you get pollution out of a seal or a narwhal once they have it inside them? What about the baby polar bears?
I brushed my teeth. And swished some fluoride. Then I changed into my pajamas and crawled into bed.
I hoped Mom and Dad were having a fun date night. I hoped Annabelle had stopped texting Jasper. And I hoped Noll Beck hadn’t gotten injured on his horse trip. I really wanted to text him. Maybe tomorrow. I flicked off Bianca’s light.
“Oh, gorgeous Noll Beck,” I whispered. “I want you to come back the same way you left. In one gorgeous piece.” Then I felt something on me and almost screamed because I thought it was a cricket. But it wasn’t. I sighed. “I hope when Noll gets back I’m still in one piece too.”
I felt like I was going to puke. The game was tonight and my entire life was on the line. Literally. That morning, I got up and rushed to the computer. I needed to find out what it meant to be facebombed. I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t looked it up yet. I guessed that was what happened when you had multiple assigned collages. You did your homework online, but you forgot you could solve your problems that way too.
“What are you doing, Bessica?” my dad asked.
I turned off the computer before I had a chance to find out what facebomb meant. I was supposed to ask for permission before I went online.
“Nothing,” I said. “How was Jackson Hole?”
“Your mom and I had a pretty wonderful time. We should do that more often,” he said.
But I didn’t know if I agreed with that.
My dad stood in the den area in his bathrobe looking tired and awful. I was glad I didn’t look that way in the morning or everybody at school would laugh at me.
“Are you checking your email?” he asked.
I shook my head. “I check that at school. I was doing research before the big game.”
My dad smiled, yawned, and scratched his neck.
“I’m going to Flip-cam the whole thing! I can’t wait to see you in action. Grrr.” He lifted his hands up and curved his fingers to make paws. I hoped he didn’t do that in front of people from my school.
Once I was all dressed and ready and was sitting at the table eating, I was overcome by feelings of fear, dread, and freaked-outness.
“Why isn’t Grandma eating with us?” I asked.
My mom and dad looked at each other.
“Aren’t you happy I’m here?” my dad asked. Because it was unusual that he got up this early to eat with us.
“Grandma likes Willy more than she likes me,” I said. And I didn’t even know I felt that way until I heard myself say it.
“They were up late and they’re sleeping in. Love isn’t a contest,” my mom said. “One person can love a lot of people.”
“Maybe. But you can’t eat breakfast with one person while you’re living in a Winnebago with another person and sleeping late,” I explained. “You’ve got to choose who you love more.”
“You’re thinking about it all wrong,” my mother said.
“No I’m not,” I replied.
Getting my things and catching the bus didn’t make me feel any better. Because I had to walk past the Winnebago. And instead of banging on the side of it and telling Grandma and Willy that they’d hurt my feelings by missing my game-day pancake breakfast, I sneaked past it as quietly as I could.
All day long I walked through the hallways so anxious that I felt like I was buzzing. It seemed like everybody I passed wanted me to take T.J. down.
“Kick him in the butt!”
“Smack him hard!”
“Say rude things about his mother!”
I couldn’t walk down the hallway without people offering me advice. It was sort of confusing, because I knew it was wrong to want to humiliate and/or injure the opposing team’s mascot. But it was also very tempting.
Walk. Walk. Walk.
I pulled my rolled-up poster board out of my locker and flicked the rubber band back. It made a ferocious snapping sound.
“Ooh!” somebody behind me said. “You should torment T.J. by snapping him with rubber bands.”
But I just blinked at this suggestion, because our costumes had too much fur for that to work.
As soon as I entered geograph
y, it was clear to me that I might not have completed my collage correctly. Because everybody else had pictures that made the Arctic look like a very frozen and lovely place. None of their polar bears or killer whales looked toxic at all. They looked healthy and ready to attack people and seals and each other. I sat at my desk and tried to hold my poster board edges flat. But they kept curling up.
“What happened to your collage?” Robin Lord asked me.
“Nothing,” I said. When I looked at her I saw her eye twitch, and it made my stomach flip.
“But it looks like everything is dying,” Robin said.
I stared at my collage. Then I looked at Robin. “The Arctic got polluted. And now those pollutants are stuck inside most of the animals’ blubber.”
“That’s awful,” Robin said. “Is that why your polar bears are sweating black spots?”
I nodded. “They measure the level of pollutants inside of polar bears by extracting nonessential teeth and running tests on them.”
“That’s triple awful,” Robin said. “Hey. What’s that?”
Her eye twitched so much that I couldn’t look at her while I talked. “It’s a narwhal.”
“And did the toxic Arctic make it grow a mutant horn?”
“No. All male narwhals grow those. It’s a tooth in their bottom jaw.” I was going to explain more, but I didn’t. Because a tall adult shadow fell across my collage. It was Mr. Hoser.
“Wow,” Mr. Hoser said. Then he took his index finger and pointed at my distraught walruses. “They look terrible.”
“Yes,” I said. “They are very, very toxic. I read all about it in Silent Snow.”
Mr. Hoser’s eyes got big. “You read Silent Snow for this assignment?”
“Yes,” I said. Which wasn’t the total truth. But it was part of the truth. Because I’d read part of the book. And that seemed acceptable.
I watched Mr. Hoser trace his finger along my ice floes. “It’s so strange,” he said. Then he moved his finger to my narwhals. “And so sad.”
“Yeah,” I said. “The Arctic is very, very strange and sad. And toxic.”
Robin let out an uncomfortable laugh. And Mr. Hoser didn’t seem to appreciate this. “I wish all my students could engage themselves at this level with their assignments.”
“Thank you,” I said.
Then an office aide walked into my classroom and handed Mr. Hoser a note.
“Bessica,” he said. “It looks like Principal Tidge wants to see you.”
“Really?” I asked.
I searched my brain for reasons why this would be. But nothing came to mind.
“Maybe she wants to wish you good luck for the game,” Mr. Hoser said.
“Maybe,” I said. But I thought she could have accomplished that by sending me a polite note.
“Should I leave my things?” I asked.
“Maybe you should take them,” Mr. Hoser said. “You don’t know how long you’ll be.”
But that seemed like a terrible thing to say, because if Principal Tidge was really interested in wishing me good luck, that would take about two minutes.
“Should I leave my collage?” I asked. I tried to flatten its corners one last time.
“Yes!” Mr. Hoser said. “I’ll hang it up along with the others.”
When I got out into the hallway, I was surprised to see Cameron Bon Qui Qui. She hurried up to me. “You need to visit the row.”
My mouth dropped open. Because the row was where all the alt kids who were too dangerous to mingle with other kids hung out. I didn’t belong there.
“I’m going to see Principal Tidge,” I explained.
Cameron Bon Qui Qui looked nervous. “The note is fake. You’re wanted on the row.”
“Is this about Nadia?” I asked. Because I thought Nadia, who was the hardest hard-core alt person at my school (she wore a dog collar and had almost become my friend until she attacked a vending machine), was still suspended.
“This has nothing to do with Nadia. This is about your destiny,” Cameron Bon Qui Qui said. “Now go!”
And the way she said that made me follow her directions. I rushed down the empty hallways until I had one turn left before the row. The lights flickered overhead, making the hallway dim. The row was a scary place for a normal person.
But then I turned the corner and I saw a bunch of my friends.
“We only have a few minutes,” Annabelle explained.
“It’s really good to see you guys!” I’d missed them at lunch because I’d had to meet my mom in the principal’s office so she could check out my costume. And then we’d walked to the football field with Mrs. Batts so my mom knew exactly where I needed to be dropped off.
“We’re worried about you,” Lola said.
Oh, that was so sweet. “Thanks,” I said.
“Are you going to wear a mask?” Macy asked me.
“Just my mascot head,” I said.
“Your bear head might not be enough,” Lola said.
“What if getting facebombed involves a stapler?” Jasper said.
Ooh. I hadn’t realized that Jasper and I were close enough friends that he would skip class and meet me on the row and give me combat advice.
“You should bring a defensive object,” Jasper said. “You need to arrive armed.”
My eyes were huge. “I can’t do that!”
That was when Jasper slapped the wall and I stared at him. “There is something nobody has told you yet about T.J.”
Oh no. Based on the stories I’d heard so far, I was surprised that T.J. wasn’t already in prison.
“He doesn’t play fair,” Jasper said.
“I know that,” I said.
“No,” Jasper said. “He’s probably already got twenty-seven different plans for how he’s going to facebomb you at the game. He’s a planner. You can’t go into this situation unaware.”
“I’m totally aware,” I said.
Jasper breathed very dramatically and pointed his finger right in my face. Annabelle bit her lower lip.
“I know how to facebomb somebody,” Jasper said. “That’s why I’m here. I’m going to teach you.”
“Wow,” I said. I was lucky to know people this generous. Though out of the corner of my eye I did see Annabelle frown a little.
“The best defense is a strong offense,” Jasper said.
“That’s why we’re all here,” Lola said.
Because I had zero idea what facebombing meant, these were magical words. “This is so fantastic,” I said.
We heard the sound of a classroom door shut and Jasper jumped. “Uh-oh. I’ve got to go.” He handed me a little slip of paper. “This is my number. Call me. I’m great at explaining battle plans over the phone.”
Then Jasper raced off and Annabelle started breathing funny.
“Do you want to come over to my house when I call him and listen on the other end of the phone?” I asked.
Annabelle looked disgusted.
“What are you talking about? You can’t call Jasper,” Annabelle said.
Then Dee and Macy and Lola all nodded.
“Sisters before misters,” Macy said.
“I didn’t ask for his phone number,” I said.
“But you have it,” Annabelle said.
I held it up and Annabelle snatched it. Then she put it in her mouth and chewed it. After she swallowed she said, “I’ve got to get back to class.”
She hurried off very fast.
“You couldn’t have called him anyway,” Lola said. “That would stink of betrayal.”
“Yeah,” Dee said.
“Totally,” Macy added.
“Okay. But I need help,” I said. “I don’t have any battle plans.”
Squeak. Squeak. Squeak.
“Somebody’s coming,” Lola said.
“Bye,” Dee said.
“See you,” Macy said.
And I stood there while all my friends left me. Except for Lola. “Let’s hide in the bathroom!”
Lola and I raced down the hallway to the bathroom. I needed help. I needed somebody to tell me what to do. We got to the bathroom and went into the second stall and shut the door.
“Bessica,” Lola said. “Don’t take what Annabelle said too personally.”
But everything Annabelle said was personal.
“She’s upset that Jasper likes you,” Lola said.
“Jasper likes me?”
Lola nodded. “Lots of people get crushes on the mascot.”
“Huh,” I said. Because I did not know that.
“Out of respect for Annabelle, you should avoid all Jasper contact or the three of you might end up in a terrible crush triangle.”
“What’s that?”
Lola took a breath. “That’s where one person likes one person and that person likes another person and so the first person hates the third.”
“I would never hate Annabelle,” I said.
“Right. But if you talk to Jasper, she’ll hate you. That’s how crush triangles operate.”
My mind flashed to Willy and Grandma and Alma. Without even knowing it, by trying to turn Alma into a third wolf, I’d put those three in a crush triangle. I wondered who would end up hating who.
“You look very panicked. I didn’t mean to scare you,” Lola said. “I think you can avoid the crush triangle.”
“I have so many problems,” I mumbled.
“That’s okay,” Lola said. “I like complicated people.”
I felt like crying. Right there in the bathroom, holding my bogus principal’s note.
“You look sad,” Lola said.
I kept quiet and swallowed several times. “What if something terrible happens to me at the game?”
“You’ll live through it,” Lola said.
“But what if something happens and I look stupid?” I said. Getting facebombed would probably be very humiliating.
“You’ll live through that too,” Lola said. “A lot of people think you’re funny and cool. That’s why you got half the votes.”
But saying it that way made me think of the other half of the votes. Lola let out a big breath. “When I moved to this school two years ago, some people liked me and some people didn’t.”
I could really relate to what Lola was saying.
“And I wasn’t very smart. Because I got all hung up on making the people who didn’t like me like me. And I wasted a ton of time.”
Bessica 2 - Bessica Lefter Bites Back Page 14
