Bobby the Brave (Sometimes) (3 page)

T
hat afternoon when Bobby got home, Casey was outside explaining leprechauns and rainbows to Wormy Worm Worm. Bobby waved hello to her and went on into the kitchen, where he found his father.

“Hi, Bobby!” Mr. Ellis-Chan said as he rinsed the mixing bowl. “How would you like to be the first to try my blueberry-tomato cookies?”

Bobby looked at the lumps on the plate and shook his head. “No thanks, Dad. Maybe later.”

For a split second his father looked disappointed. But he quickly composed himself and asked, “Everything okay, son?”

“Everything's just fine,” Bobby said as he rushed to his room. He couldn't bear to tell his father about what had happened in PE.

Koloff and Beatrice were swimming back and forth. Diver Dave was swimming up and down. Bobby watched them for a while before releasing a huge sigh. “I got in trouble at school today and had to sit on a bench during PE,” he confessed to them. “You probably have no idea what it's like to be stuck in one spot for a whole hour.”

Beatrice stopped swimming and then began to circle the tank. She was a pretty white fish with orange spots. Koloff, who was all orange, was skimming the rocks on the bottom of the aquarium.

Bobby leapt up. “Oh my gosh, you
do
know. You're stuck in this aquarium all day and night.” He paced his room. “Wait,” he said as he ran his hands through his hair. “Just because I was benched doesn't mean you have to be too!”

 

“What are you doing with that spoon?”

Casey looked up at Bobby. She had dirt on her face and all over her gown. “Digging a lake for Wormy Worm Worm. Want to help?”

“No thanks,” Bobby said. “Hey, can I borrow your Princess Becky wagon?”

“What for?” she asked as she emptied a cup of water into the hole.

“I want to take the goldfish for a walk,” Bobby explained. “They don't get out much.”

“Fishy Fish Fish and Fish Fishy Fish?” Casey said.

“They have names, you know,” Bobby grumbled. It bugged him that she was always making up dumb names. “It's Koloff and Beatrice.” Those were great names. Koloff was named after the amazingly sticky and stinky Koloff tree at the Huntington Gardens. Bobby knew that tree really well, having been stuck to it on a class field trip. Beatrice was the name Holly had given the other fish. Technically, Beatrice belonged to Holly, but really she was both of theirs.

“Okeydokey, Koloff and Beatrice. Don't be mad, Bobby.”

Instantly, Bobby felt guilty that he had snapped at Casey.

“Bobby, can Wormy Worm Worm go for a walk too? He doesn't get out much.”

Bobby nodded. If that was the price of borrowing her wagon, then it would be worth it. He had considered balancing the fishbowl on his skateboard and pulling it with a rope, but that seemed too risky. Yes, the wagon was the best form of transportation. After all, didn't the settlers cross the plains in covered wagons? Bobby imagined his fish were the pioneers and he was the horse.

There was lots of preparation for Koloff and Beatrice's big adventure. First, Bobby cleaned out the wagon and put all of Casey's dolls and plastic Smiley Meal Princess Becky toys in a pile. Then he lined the wagon with a bath towel for maximum comfort. Back in his room, it took a while to transfer Beatrice and Koloff into the glass bowl with a fish net.

Bobby carried the bowl with both hands, taking small steps so the water wouldn't spill. Along the way he said in a soothing voice, “Don't worry, guys. I'll take care of you. You're going to have a great time.”

Casey filled her empty water cup with dirt and dropped her worm into it as Bobby carefully placed the fishbowl in the wagon. “We'll have to go slow so the water doesn't slosh,” he explained to her. “Also, I'll need someone to look out for bumps in the sidewalk so no one gets hurt. Do you know anyone who could do that?”

Casey raised her hand. “I can do that! Bumps,” she called out to show him how serious she was. “Bumpitty, bump, bump bump, bump.”

Slowly, Bobby pulled the wagon down the block as Casey raced ahead. Every now and then she would shriek, “BUMP!” and he was careful to go around it.

As they made their way through the neighborhood, Bobby pointed out fascinating sights to his passengers. He felt like the guide on the red double-decker bus his family rode when they had taken a tour of Washington, DC.

“And to our left is Holly Harper's house. Beatrice, she's the one who chose you…. See that wall over there? That's where I had a huge wipeout when I was first learning to skateboard … and that over there is —”

Suddenly Bobby stopped so fast the water in the fishbowl sploshed.

“What?” Casey asked. She was holding a fistful of flowers and a lawn gnome. “What's the matter, Bobby? Did you see a bump?”

Bobby couldn't speak. He couldn't even move. There, planted in front of him on the sidewalk, was the scary cat … the one with twenty-seven toes. It was rumored that the cat was so vicious that it had once destroyed a minivan.

Bobby tried not to look directly at the scary cat for fear that it would lock its eyes on him and then pounce. Instead, he looked up at the sky to show that he wasn't afraid. One could never tell what the scary cat was thinking. That was the problem with sinister beings. They hardly ever told you what they were up to.

“Bobby?” Casey said, peering out from behind him. “He's not going to hurt any of us, is he?”

Bobby had been so afraid the cat was going to attack him that he had forgotten about everyone else. His adrenaline started pumping. He had to get Casey, Beatrice, Koloff, and Wormy Worm Worm out of there. But how? The cat stood firm in the dead center of the sidewalk, as if daring them to pass.

“We'll just have to turn around slowly and go back home,” Bobby whispered to Casey. He could see her trembling. “Come on. It's okay. I'll protect you.”

As Bobby turned the wagon around, he kept his eyes on the cat, who kept his eyes on him. Every now and then the cat would release an evil meow, sending shivers through Bobby.

Slow and steady, slow and steady. Bobby continued down the sidewalk — slow and steady so the water in the fishbowl wouldn't splash.

“Bobby!” Casey gasped. “The cat is following us!”

Sure enough, the scary cat was stalking them. Only now he wasn't looking at Bobby. He was looking at the goldfish.

“Casey,” Bobby said, trying to sound braver than he felt. “You pull the wagon with Wormy Worm Worm in it. I'm going to carry Koloff and Beatrice.” Casey looked like she was on the verge of tears. “Don't worry,” he whispered. “I'm here.”

Suddenly, Casey screamed. The cat was now in front of them. “Bobby, do something,” she shouted. “He's going to eat us. Do something!”

But what? What could he do? If he could fly, he could whisk them all into the air. If he were invisible, he could push the cat away. If he had superhuman strength, he could pull up the sidewalk. But he was just Bobby.

“Shoo,” he said.

The scary cat refused to budge. He just licked his lips and stared at Beatrice and Koloff. Bobby held the fishbowl tighter to his chest. “Shoo!” he said again, trying to sound mean and menacing, only it came out more like a squeak. “Shoo?”

Without warning, something flying as fast as a missile shot out of nowhere and nearly landed on the cat. The cat let out a loud screech and ran away. Bobby looked around to see what had fallen from the sky. Could it have been a meteor?

That's when he saw it.

Of course.

A football.

“Hey, twerps,” Annie cried from way down the street. She was on her way home from football practice. “What do you think you're doing?”

“Annie! Annie! Annie!” Casey cried, running into her arms. “That bad cat was going to eat us!”

Annie laughed and hugged Casey. “Well, you're safe now. That cat's not going to bother you as long as I'm around.”

Casey hugged her sister harder and buried her face in her football jersey. “Annie, you're our hero! Wait until Mommy and Daddy hear about this!”

“I was going to rescue you,” Bobby told Casey.

“I know,” she said as she gazed lovingly at her big sister. “But Annie did it first.”

B
obby hated it when they picked teams for soccer in PE. A few kids looked excited, but even more looked distressed, just like he did.

“Since there are twenty-eight of you, we're going to have four teams. That'll make the competition more interesting,” Mr. Rainerhaus announced. “Who would like to be a team captain?”

Jillian Zarr's and St. James's hands shot into the air. Another girl and Jackson raised their hands too. “All right, you four. Jillian, you start.”

Bobby could tell Holly was disappointed when Jillian Zarr didn't pick her. He felt the same way when neither St. James nor Jackson picked him. As the group of kids who hadn't been picked grew smaller, Bobby shifted from one foot to the other. When he heard Jackson say, “I'll take Bobby!” his heart lifted.

“Okay, Robert, you're on Jackson's team,” Mr. Rainerhaus noted.

Bobby said good-bye to Chess and joined the kids on the other side. When the last kid was picked, he noticed that St. James and Jackson had picked all boys. Jillian Zarr and the other girl picked all girls. This happened every time.

It was Jackson's team against Jillian Zarr's. This made Bobby shudder. The girls were always out to win. The boys got ahead with an early goal, but they didn't hold the lead for long. When one of the girls yelled, “Look, there's a dinosaur!” St. James took his eye off the ball and the girls scored a goal. Then they scored another goal when one of them shouted, “Look, there's a dollar on the ground!”

When the girls won, Bobby couldn't believe how loud and obnoxious they were. Only Holly said to the boys, “Good game.” But then Holly was like that. She was the student council representative for Room 15, so it was like her job to be nice to everyone. Bobby was the alternate student council rep, so he didn't have to be quite as nice as Holly, which was a relief because having to be nice all the time would be exhausting.

Still, if his team had won the soccer game, Bobby knew he wouldn't be boastful and rude, like Jillian Zarr. He'd be proud and humble, because though he wasn't good at sports, he knew it was important to be a good sport. His dad always said that.

 

“Why don't we ever play chess for PE? It's a sport,” Chess asked as kids flew past him. Bobby and his buddies were at the new Troy Eagle Skate Park and Rec Center. The great Troy Eagle himself had come to the grand opening, and Bobby had stood in line for two hours to get an autographed poster of the skateboarding superstar.

“I dunno,” Bobby answered. He pulled up his kneepads, which had slipped again. Annie always made fun of him for being too skinny. “They ought to have skating in PE. It's a sport. It's part of the X Games. Plus everyone knows Troy Eagle is the best athlete ever.”

Over on the far side of the park, two kids had collided and were both on the ground. Jackson was whooping it up while skating backward. “Look at my fakie!” he yelled. “Look at me!” Chess was a silent skater. He always looked like he was going in slow motion, even when he fell down, which was often. Then there was St. James, who was a daredevil with or without a skateboard. “Everyone, watch me,” he yelled seconds before a spectacular crash.

Bobby was a good, solid skater. Not showy, but not a wimp either. He'd study the bigger kids and then start off slow, working his way up to the trick, whether it was as simple as a nosegrind or as hard as an aerial. Though he still had trouble grabbing his board while flying though the air, he was getting better.

One of the things Bobby liked best about skating with his buddies was that no matter what happened, no matter who wiped out, no one was ever made fun of.

Just as he nailed a 360-degree turn, he heard someone yell, “Bobby Bobby Bobby, time to go home!”

Across the skate park, standing outside the fence under the giant Troy Eagle billboard, were Casey and Mr. Ellis-Chan. Both were waving. How long had they been there? He hoped his father had seen his 360.

Bobby nodded to them and glided down the ramp. When he reached the bottom, he slammed the back of his board with his heel so it shot up, then grabbed it midflight and headed toward the gate.

“Quite impressive,” Mr. Ellis-Chan said.

Bobby grinned as his dad mussed up his hair.

“We watched you,” Casey added. “You're good, Bobby Bobby Bobby! You twirled in the air like a ballerina!”

“That's called a 360,” Bobby said. He hoped no one had heard her compare him to a ballerina. “But thanks.”