فصل شانزدهم

Chapter 16

Bradley walked slowly, holding his hand over his eye so nobody would see it. His mother would have let him stay home from school, but his father said he had to go.

“He’s scared,” his mother had said. “Some bullies have been terrorizing him.” “Babying him will not solve the problem,” said his father. “He has to learn to stand up for himself and fight back. The only reason the bullies pick on him is because they know he’s afraid.” Bradley was afraid, but not of bullies. He wasn’t scared of Melinda, either. It was little Lori Westin who scared him. He could picture her standing in the middle of the playground with her big mouth shouting for the whole school to hear: “Melinda Birch beat up Bradley Chalkers and made him cry!” Cautiously, he walked across the schoolyard, hand over eye, and entered Mrs. Ebbel’s class. He sat down in the last seat of the last row.

Jeff’s chair was empty.

Good, he thought, still covering his eye. He probably got kicked out of school.

Out of his uncovered eye, he looked at the chart full of gold stars on the wall next to him. He was glad he didn’t have any. He thought gold stars were ugly.

Mrs. Ebbel was in the middle of teaching the difference between adjectives and adverbs when she suddenly stopped and asked, “Bradley, is there something the matter with your eye?” “No.”

“Then please take your hand away from it.”

“I can’t,” he said.

“Why can’t you?”

He quickly tried to think of a reason why he had to keep his eye covered. His mind raced through a hundred ideas. “My hand’s stuck,” he said.

“It’s stuck?” asked Mrs. Ebbel.

“I was gluing something and got glue on my hand, and then I accidentally touched my face with my hand and it got stuck.” “Bradley, take your hand away from your eye.”

He grabbed his wrist with his free hand and pretended to try to pull it away. “I can’t. It’s stuck.” “Do you want to go to the principal’s office?” she asked. “He’s good at unsticking things.” “Wait, I think it’s starting to loosen now,” he said. He pried his hand away.

There was a bluish-black circle around his eye.

For a few seconds nobody said anything, then everybody started talking at once.

“What happened?” asked Mrs. Ebbel, but then quickly said, “Never mind, I don’t want to know.” She told the class to turn around, and started again on adverbs and adjectives.

Jeff walked in late. He said something to Mrs. Ebbel, then sat down next to Bradley.

Bradley looked the other way, at the chart full of gold stars. Of all the stars, Jeff’s were the ugliest.

For once, he wished he sat in the front of the room. Then only Mrs. Ebbel would have been able to see his face. Where he was, everyone could turn around and stare at him. All morning, Mrs. Ebbel had to keep telling kids to turn around and face front.

When the bell rang for recess, he put his hand over his eye and hurried outside. He went to the far end of the playground where nobody would bother him. But the word quickly spread that Bradley Chalkers had a black eye and kids kept wandering past him trying to get a peek.

“Melinda fights dirty,” said Jeff, coming up behind him. “She hit you when you weren’t looking. And you couldn’t hit her back because it’s impolite to hit a girl.” “Right!” said Bradley, turning around. “I would have punched her face in, except it’s impolite. Melinda probably told the whole school that she beat me up, she’s so stupid.” “No, I don’t think she told anybody. After you left, she asked me not to tell anyone what happened. She made Lori and Colleen promise not to tell too.” “She’s probably afraid I’ll punch her face in,” said Bradley.

“Probably,” said Jeff. “Then, this morning I was called into the principal’s office. He thought I was the one who hit you.” “Wha’d you tell him?” Bradley asked.

Jeff shrugged. “I told him you’re my best friend.”

“The principal’s stupid,” Bradley agreed.