Bessica Lefter Bites Back (10 page)

“When’s your first game?” Noll asked.

“Next week,” I said.

“Who do you cheer against?”

“T.J. the Tiger.”

Noll’s face stopped looking happy and started looking concerned. “That kid is nuts. You don’t have to stand near him, do you?”

I shrugged. I thought maybe I did.

“Listen, T.J. is a little prankster dweeb who isn’t above tripping or shoving or worse. You keep your eyes peeled during your game. And if something happens and you need help, you can call me.”

“Even if you’re at horse school?” I asked.

“Absolutely.”

I watched gorgeous Noll Beck walk back into his house and slam the door. When was I supposed to pick up Bianca the lizard? It didn’t matter. He had just given me permission to call him whenever I wanted. I wondered if that meant he wanted me to. I ran back to my room so I could tell Lola. Too bad Sylvie and I were basically no longer friends. She’d explode if I told her what had just happened.

Lola screamed when I told her that Noll had broken up with his girlfriend and wanted me to feed his precious
lizard, Bianca. She said we needed to call Annabelle, Macy, and Dee
immediately.
Everybody freaked out when they heard the news, except Dee, who stayed basically calm.

Dee said, “Relationships require bargaining skills.”

And I said, “Whatever. That relationship went kaput. Yay!”

“Do you want to call Sylvie?” Lola asked me after we hung up with Dee.

What a terrible thing to ask me. I stared at my carpet and contemplated what to do.

“Is something wrong?” Lola asked. “Or do you see a bug on your carpet?”

I looked at Lola and her serious face. “I don’t see a bug on my carpet.” Then I decided I didn’t need to hide anything from Lola. “I can’t call Sylvie because we had a war of texts and now we’re not talking to each other.”

“What’s a war of texts?” Lola asked.

“I sent her a mean text. Then she sent me a stinking mean text. And that happened a few times and I ended up making fun of her ears and she stopped texting me,” I explained.

“Sending mean texts makes you feel good for a few minutes, but then you have to live with the aftermath.”

“I never had a friend who used the word
aftermath
before,” I said. It made things feel very tragic.

“My mom never texts or sends emails when she’s angry. She always sleeps on it,” Lola said.

“I bet your mom has a lot of friends,” I said, sounding a little regretful.

“Tons,” Lola said.

When Lola left I had mixed feelings about everything. I regretted my rude texts. I regretted not having learned anything at mascot clinic. I regretted not making Mom take the funnel and jam jars out of Grandma’s underwear drawer. I regretted my father’s purchase of an illegal jammer. And I sort of regretted agreeing to feed a lizard named Bianca live crickets. Because what did
gut loading
mean anyway?

W
e sat at our lunch table and picked through our macaroni and cheese entrees, trying to rid them of evil bacon flecks that were buried in the sauce. Nobody wanted to discuss gut loading crickets.

“That’s the most disgusting thing I’ve ever heard,” Macy said. Then she made gagging sounds.

“Do you think crickets feel pain?” Lola asked.

“They must,” Dee said, sounding very sad.

“Maybe I can just feed his lizard lettuce,” I said. “Don’t lizards in the wild eat that?”

“I think they eat crickets,” Annabelle said. “Let’s change the subject.”

Okay. I stuffed some noodles in my mouth. I was worried that I was eating orange food again. My collage needed to have lots of different colors. I needed to mix it up and be on the lookout for foods that were purple and blue.

“Have you guys noticed Jasper’s new shoes?” Annabelle asked.

“Yeah,” Lola said. “His feet are growing.”

“I know!” Annabelle said. “He’s getting taller too.”

I was surprised that they kept track of which shoes Jasper wore. Did they keep track of which shoes I wore? Because I basically just wore the shoes Grandma got me before she left. I could change the tongues with a variety of colors so they would match anything I owned.

“Have you talked to Jasper yet?” I asked.

Annabelle shot me a scared look.

“I think that strategy works really well,” I said.

Nobody could argue with me.

“I can’t do it at lunch in front of people,” Annabelle said.

“Don’t you have your last class together?” I asked.

Annabelle nodded.

“Do it there!” Lola said. “It would be so exciting.”

For a person who wore a serious face most her life, Lola sure did like excitement.

“What do I say?” Annabelle said. “I don’t want to scare him.”

“Don’t be aggressive,” Dee said. “No creature on earth likes aggression!”

Dee’s parents were dog trainers, so she would know.

“No aggression is a good idea,” I said. “But I’d also be nice and compliment him.”

“Ooh!” Macy said. “Tell him you like his butt!”

I could not believe how loud Macy said that.

“Shhh!” Annabelle said. “If he heard that I’d die!”

Then the bell rang and we all had to go to our terrible classes. I groaned.

“What are you guys going to learn about in geography today?” Lola asked me as we walked down the hall.

“Something about the Arctic,” I mumbled. Mr. Hoser had recently assigned us a collage in that class too. I was supposed to picture the Arctic and paste images on a big piece of poster board of what I’d expect to see when I got there. I found that topic zero fun to think about.

“And what’s your next class?” Lola asked.

We stopped in front of my locker.

“Public speaking. We’re analyzing a popular speech made by Julius Caesar,” I said.

“Isn’t he dead?” Lola asked.

I bent down and started turning the dial on my
combination lock. “Yeah. A long time ago. A group of his friends stabbed him.”

“Living in the olden days would’ve been a total drag,” Lola said. “See you in PE.”

Time dragged and dragged until it was time for PE. Sadly, even though I was liking Lola more and more, I didn’t get to spend too much of PE with her. Since I’d won grizzly bear mascot, that class operated a little bit differently for me. I only had to do what the class was doing for the first half of the period. Then I got to go off to the side and practice my routine.

After I changed into my official PE uniform—a yellow T-shirt and purple pants—I sat on a bench in the gym next to Lola. But we didn’t spend too much time talking, because Ms. Penrod took PE very seriously.

“Today we are going to test your abdominals,” Ms. Penrod said.

I hated tests.

“We’re going to learn ten ways to strengthen your abs!”

Strengthening my abs seemed better than jogging, so I didn’t mind.

“But before we do that,” she said, “let’s jog around the gym five times to get our blood flowing. I’ll set the pace.”

There was a little bit of groaning when Ms. Penrod said this. Because her pace was very, very fast. I stood up and started jogging behind Ms. Penrod. Lola joined me.

“You’re so lucky,” Lola said.

“No I’m not,” I huffed. “I’m jogging.”

“Yeah, but when the rest of us are stuck doing cruddy sit-ups, you get to practice bear moves all by yourself while the boys watch you.”

“Huh?” I asked. I didn’t know the boys watched me. Why hadn’t Lola mentioned this to me before?

“Yeah. They stand underneath the bleachers and watch you practice.”

I didn’t want that happening. I wasn’t ready to be seen yet. That was why it was called practice.

“Four more laps!” Ms. Penrod said.

“I can’t wait to see how things go with Jasper and Annabelle,” Lola said.

“I know,” I huffed. “They could be talking right now.” But I wasn’t really thinking about Annabelle. I was thinking about the boys watching me.

“Are you going to work on your growling today?” Lola asked.

I was a little bit surprised to hear this question because I hadn’t been aware that Lola watched me when I practiced growling. I’d thought everybody was exercising while I was off to the side doing my own thing. I’d had no idea so many eyeballs were on me. It made me feel self-conscious.

“I think I’m just going to stretch and practice silent growling,” I said.

“Bears stretch?” Lola asked. “How boring.”

I didn’t like to think I was boring. But I just kept jogging.

“Don’t forget to breathe!” Ms. Penrod hollered at us.

But I was breathing quite a bit. And sweating. Bleh.

Once we finished jogging, we gathered in a circle around Ms. Penrod. A couple of girls flopped down on the floor, but Ms. Penrod did not enjoy seeing this.

“Get back up and keep moving. Walk in place,” she firmly instructed. “You want to stay warmed up.”

Walk. Walk. Walk.
While I walked, my mind drifted to Sylvie. She didn’t have to take PE at her school. She took dance. I bet she didn’t have to warm up for her dance class by doing sweaty jogging and boring stretching.

“Your abdominals are the core of your body,” Ms. Penrod said.

We kept moving.

“They support your entire framework. They are made up of six muscles. And in addition to supporting your trunk, they hold your internal organs in place.”

I did not enjoy thinking about my internal organs.

“Your six abdominal muscles have names: transverse abdominis, rectus abdominis, a pair of external obliques, and a pair of internal obliques.”

“I bet we have a quiz on this,” Lola said.

But I didn’t say anything back. Because when Ms. Penrod talked, all I did was listen.

“We will identify where these muscles are located and then we will alternate between crunches and curls to strengthen them,” Ms. Penrod said. “Ready, campers?”

I don’t know why she liked calling us campers, but she did. We all got down on the floor and waited for more instructions. But I didn’t get any. I got a tap on the shoulder. And it was Ms. Penrod tapping me.

“I know mascot clinic didn’t turn out the way you’d hoped,” she said.

“No, it really didn’t,” I said.

“I’ve brought in a special trainer for you today,” Ms. Penrod said. And then she squeezed my shoulder in a happy way.

I blinked at her. Because I hadn’t expected Ms. Penrod to be this helpful.

“Hi, Bessica!” a person with red hair said to me.

“Hi,” I said, waving a little bit.

“It’s me! Vicki Docker! I cut my hair.”

Ooh! I waved more enthusiastically. I’d met Vicki and her twin sister, Marci, a few weeks before I started middle school. Even though they were in high school, my mom had invited them over for pizza so they could tell me what to expect when I started middle school. And
they gave me lots of great advice. Like don’t stand in front of Dolan the Puker in chorus and avoid the Crispito at lunch.

“Vicki was a stellar mascot,” Ms. Penrod said. “And I think she’ll help fill in the blanks for you.”

Before my school split into North and South, Vicki was the Teton Middle School Bee. And while I wasn’t sure exactly what an ex-bee could teach me, a bear, I was hopeful I’d learn something. Because my game was coming up and I knew almost zero about how to be an awesome mascot. I smiled at Vicki. Ms. Penrod still hadn’t left yet.

“She possesses unmatched vigor, and I think she can teach you how to be a champion bear,” Ms. Penrod said.

“Okay,” I said.

“So cool!” Vicki said. “Let’s get started!”

And I thought it was pretty cool that I didn’t have to learn how to exercise my six stomach muscles. We walked to the other side of the gym. And for the first time I noticed some of the boys hanging out behind the bleachers watching me.

“Do the gawkers bother you?” Vicki asked, pointing to the boys.

“A little bit,” I said.

She pointed her finger at me in a very excited way. “It shouldn’t! Because you have the skills required to work an audience!”

“I do?” I asked.

“Bessica,” she said, putting a hand on my shoulder. “From the moment I met you I could see your inner cheer beast trying to break free.”

I didn’t know I had an inner cheer beast stuck inside me.

“You can’t care what anybody else thinks. You’ve got to follow your beast instincts or you’ll never be authentic.” Vicki spoke in a way that sounded very serious.

And just then Ms. Penrod showed up and stood next to Vicki.

“I’m teaching her about being authentic,” Vicki explained to Ms. Penrod.

Then I felt Ms. Penrod touch me on the shoulder, and she held me with her pawlike hands for several seconds while she looked deep into my eyes. “Being authentic means that you’re brave enough to represent your mascot animal in a sincere way. You’re not playing around.”

“Right,” Vicki added. “It means that you commit yourself to acting like a bear to the point where you actually develop a bear’s personality.”

“Oh,” I said. That made a ton of sense. Because a mascot bear would have the personality of a bear. I thought that was what Duke and Pierre had been trying to tell me but with different words.

“That’s what made me such a successful bee,” Vicki explained. “I read about bees. I watched movies about bees.
I even went out and got stung a couple of times so I could fully understand the power of the stinger.”