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Chapter 6 continued...

XL could see that trouble was just beginning. Jake had lots of practice fighting, unlike Beeba or XL. Jake had been a member of a boxing club--one of the few things he was good at. And Jake's friend Derek was there too.

XL was worried. He wanted to help his friend Beeba. But he knew that he and Beeba where no match for Derek and Jake. "The best thing," he thought, "is to stay out of this. Otherwise this could turn into a big brawl. There is nothing I can do."

Meanwhile, Jake had noticed the card that Beeba had in his hand. Quickly he snatched it from Beeba. "What's this?" he asked. "From Florence? Oh, it's from a girl. How cute, the little Baby Bee is in love!"

"Give it back!" shouted Beeba, reaching for the envelope.

But Jake did not give it back. He held it up high with his arm, and pranced around in a circle. "Come and get it little Bee!" he jeered.

All of the boys, including Allan, Derek, James, and several others had formed a circle around Jake and Beeba, several steps back from them, in order to watch. Most of the girls, including Judy, walked away; they didn't want to get involved in a boys' fight.

Beeba continued trying to grab the envelope. "Give it back!" he shouted again.

It looked like Beeba was on the verge of grabbing the envelope. Beeba had one corner of the envelope between his fingers, when Jake spun around and punched Beeba in the stomach, hard. Beeba doubled over, and he had tears in his eyes. Jake tore the envelope in half, threw it on the ground, and laughed.

Derek, Jake's friend, seemed a little bit disturbed at Jake's behavior. He wasn't a bully himself, even though he associated with Jake.

"Come on little roly-poly bee!" taunted Jake. "What are you going to do about it?"

Derek looked at Beeba curled up on the snow, and he did indeed look like a curled up bee. He himself didn't ever want to be in that same situation. He wasn't sure what to do, but he decided to side with Jake. "Yeah," he said to Beeba, "what ya' going to do?"

XL didn't know what to do. He couldn't fight Derek and Jake together.

Beeba stood up. He ran toward Jake and tried to punch him, but Jake blocked the punch with one hand, and with the other he punched Beeba in the face.

Beeba was hurt. He backed up. There was blood running from the nostrils of his nose.

Some of the boys standing round in the circle started to chant in unison, "Fight, fight, fight..." XL remained silent.

"Come and get it!" yelled Jake to Beeba, as he stomped on the letter. Then he kicked it toward Beeba.

Beeba looked at Jake. Then he looked at XL, and at the other boys in the circle. Nobody moved. Beeba turned and walked away.

Jake yelled after him, "Yeah, walk away you yellow-bellied turd ball!" Jake laughed some more.

Then Jake smacked his pal Derek on the shoulder. "Come on buddy," he said, "I sure showed them, didn't I?" He began to walk away.

"Yeah," said, Derek, walking with Jake.

The other boys walked away, except XL. XL picked up the shredded pieces of the letter. He followed after Beeba and caught up with him.

"I'm never coming to this school again!" exclaimed Beeba. "I hate this place."

"I'm sorry," said XL. "I feel badly too."

They walked to the door that led into the school from the yard. About that time, a teacher came out of the school. Apparently she was the one assigned to supervise that day. Seeing the blood on Beeba's face, she asked, "What happened to you?"

"Nothing," answered Beeba.

"Well, you better go inside and clean yourself up," said the teacher, as she walked out into the school yard.

The two boys went inside. They went into the washroom and Beeba wiped the blood off his face. Then they went to the hallway, and Beeba lied down on a bench to make sure that his nose would stop bleeding.

After a few minutes, XL pulled his own envelope out of his pocket and gave it to Beeba. "Here," he said "you take this one. I'm sure that both envelopes have the same thing inside."

"Thanks XL," said Beeba, "but seriously I'm not going to this school again, and I'm not going back to class now."

"Come on Beeba" said XL, "this kind of thing has happened to you before and you always stick it out. You are such a trooper. Just remember, some day Jake will be in jail, and you won't have to worry about him again. That's what usually happens to bullies eventually."

"Yeah, but how many people will he hurt in the meanwhile?" answered Beeba.

However, XL was right about one thing. Beeba wouldn't give up on school. When the bell rang, he stood up, and then he went back to his classroom with XL.

Copyright Arthur de Leyssac, 2017. All rights reserved.