LAND OF MISTASIA
PHILLIP & WHIZZY TRILOGY (BOOK 1)
ATTACK OF THE BULLY, BILLY LAWTON
Chapter 3
The school day was almost
over. I had made it through my math, science and French tests without any major
disasters. It was the last hour, and we were being released to the football
field for our year-ending assembly.
Every year before summer
our Principal, Mr. Deters, would talk to us about responsibility and safety.
Nobody ever paid any attention.
I walked out through the
gym doors and followed the other kids to the football bleachers. Sitting at the
top was Whizzy. He waved at me.
The gray clouds had moved
on and now it was very sunny and quite hot.
I noticed that Whizzy was
standing when I reached the top of the bleachers.
“Hey, Phillip, watch
this.” He pointed at a couple of 6th grade boys. As they started to
sit, Whizzy let out a strange giggle. He grabbed my arm in anticipation. The
boys lowered their butts and sat on the metal seats. They burst back up like
being ejected from a toaster and grabbed their backsides. Whizzy exploded into
laughter. “Did you see that?”
“Whizzy” I scolded.
“Come on, Phillip. That’s
funny. They burned their butts.”
I just shook my head, and
then proceeded to sit down and burn my butt.
Whizzy laughed even
harder. I think he may have actually cried, but he hid his face.
Principal Deters began his speech, “Students. Thank
you!” No one was clapping. “We have had another wonderful year here at
Greenville Middle School. I want to congratulate this year’s 8th
grade class. You will be moving on to our high school next year…” he continued
to assault us with his speech for the next forty-five minutes. His bald- head
reflected so much sunlight that it appeared that his body was a candle and his
head a flame. I watched in amazement thinking he was going to have the worst
sunburn tomorrow. Whizzy would probably find that hysterical. I found it quite
sad. Boredom reigned, and I watched the different groups of students…all not
paying any attention to Principal Deters either. Two boys in the corner of the
bleachers were slapping each other’s hands in some random punishment game. The
same group of 6th grade girls was texting on their cell phones and
snickering. They were most definitely making fun of Principal Deters. I
continued to keep myself occupied watching the other students when I noticed
something strange.
“Whizzy, look. Isn’t that Billy Lawton with Rachel?”
I pointed directly below us about twenty rows.
“What the heck? No way!” You could tell by the
expression on Whizzy’s face that he wasn’t happy. He never got along with his
sister, but having our biggest enemy becoming friends with Rachel wouldn’t be
in Whizzy’s best interest. Or mine for that matter.
Billy made some peculiar gesture with his face, I
assumed he was mocking Principal Deters, but I couldn’t see Deters’s face from
all the sunlight beaming off his head. Rachel laughed. Way too hard I might
add. Billy wasn’t funny…believe me. Mean…yes. Funny…not at all.
Whizzy stood beside me stewing in anger. I swore his
reddish hair had turned a little brighter. He gritted his teeth and clenched
his fist.
“Calm down, Whizzy. There has to be an explanation.”
“Billy Lawton…and my sister!”
He never really finished his thought aloud, but I
figured it had something to do with inflicting pain and a lot of bad words.
Fortunately, Principal Deters had apparently
finished his speech and announced that summer had started, because the student
body erupted and everyone had leapt off the bleachers so quickly you could feel
them sway forward.
Whizzy and I went back into the building to clean
out our lockers and get our backpacks. The hallways were covered in papers that
kids had tossed onto the floor. It had become something of a tradition at Greenville
Middle School, but I wasn’t quite sure why. Janitor Findley swept the papers
into a pile as we went past. He gave a crooked smile. “Good summer boys.”
We said thank you and walked out to where our moms
would be picking us up.
Standing in front of the school, Whizzy and I
planned our first day of summer vacation…baseball, bike riding and swimming!
“Hey, Wasn’t!” a cruel voice blast. Then Whizzy shot
forward and stumbled to keep his balance. It was Billy Lawton. He had pushed
Whizzy from behind, but Whizzy quickly regained his balance. I, however, would
have hit the pavement for sure.
Billy was quite large…not tall, but thick. His was
between Whizzy and I in height, but probably weighted as much as us combined.
His arms were so big that they stretched his sleeves. The girls at Greenville
Middle School fawned over him…apparently including Rachel who was draped around
one of Billy’s large arms. It looked like she was hugging a tree branch.
“That’s not his name, Billy” I responded. I could
immediately tell that Whizzy wished I hadn’t.
“He knows that, Phillip. Billy just isn’t smart
enough to pro-nounce it pro-per-ly.” He over-enunciated.
Billy wasn’t stupid, though we wished he were. The
vein in Billy’s neck pushed outward and his nose shrugged. I was well aware of
what that meant. Whizzy had the unfortunate ability of pressing Billy’s
button’s, which I still am not completely sure why he would want to…but Whizzy
did it anyway.
Billy lunged at Whizzy and snatched him up in the
air by his shirt. “Listen here, Wasn’t! You keep that up and it’s gonna be a
long summer for you. We’re gonna be seein’ a lot of each other.” He tossed
Whizzy into me and we fell to the ground. “I’ll see ya’ round, Wasn’t”
Then Billy did something I wished I had never seen.
He kissed Rachel…ON THE LIPS! I almost vomited.
“Rachel!” Whizzy yelled. He struggled back to his
feet. “Rachel, you cannot be serious? Billy. Billy Lawton?”
The Whizzenmog twins continued to argue until their
mom picked them up.
“There’s mom!” Whizzy bolted for the car, nearly
getting run over.
I could faintly overhear Whizzy animatedly
describing the kiss.
“Mom, he’s lying!” Rachel yelled back as she entered
the car.
I stood on the sidewalk and watched as the
Whizzenmog family car drove away with them arguing inside.
“Bye, Whizzy.” I said out loud. Standing next to me
was a small girl. She gave me a sad look as if she felt sorry for me. “That’s
my best friend. He had to go.”
I normally felt uncomfortable. I was used to that,
but I wished the earth would open up and swallow me whole right about now. Then
the bottom of my backpack broke open and spilled onto the ground. “Great day!”
Copyright Held by: Christopher M. Purrett
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