Bessica Lefter Bites Back (22 page)

The night before the peer review I couldn’t get to sleep. Because I realized that more than anything, I wanted to keep being the mascot. My mother drove me to school and walked me to the principal’s office.

“I’ll wait out here,” she said.

“But what if it takes over an hour?” I asked.

“I’ll wait.” She sat down in a chair next to Mrs. Batts’s desk.

“Mom,” I said, before I went into Principal Tidge’s office. “I am sorry I did this.”

My mom looked on the verge of tears. “I know you are.” She wiped her eyes. “I just don’t remember middle school being this hard, Bessica. Look around. You should be enjoying yourself.”

I did not look around. When my mom said crazy things like that, it made it a lot harder for me to connect with her.

“Wait!” Mrs. Batts said. “The peer review is taking place in room 211.”

“It is?” I asked.

Mrs. Batts led me quickly by the shoulder to the room. She walked me in. It was terrible. “Why are so many people here?” I asked.

“Well,” Mrs. Batts said. “There are eight students on the peer review panel. And then there are witnesses who the panel has asked to question. And then a couple of people asked to come to speak on your behalf.”

I searched the crowd. I didn’t recognize anybody who’d want to be here on my behalf. Then Duke the eagle walked in the room and he was with Pierre the spud and I recognized them right away because they were dressed like mascots. They waved to me.

“Are they in trouble too?” I asked.

Mrs. Batts rubbed my arm sympathetically. “No, just you.”

The chairs were arranged in a semicircle. And there was an empty chair in front of them.

“That’s where you sit,” Principal Tidge said. She was dressed in an unfriendly black skirt and a stiff gray top.

I took my seat and stared out at my peers. They were all people I knew. Ooh. Some looked sympathetic. But some did not. I went through the names in my head and decided who I thought would be on my side.

Robin Lord: Liked me okay.

Cameron Bon Qui Qui: Mostly did not like me.

Jasper Finch: Liked me quite a bit.

Dolan the Puker: Not sure. Jealous that I was voted mascot.

Blake Bradshaw: Enormous dweeb. Probably liked me.

Davis Pontiac: Locker above me. Liked me.

Dee Hsu: Loved me! My friend.

Raya Papas: Wild card.

“We all know why we’re here,” Principal Tidge said. “Before Bessica speaks, we have two guests who have asked to say a few words on her behalf.”

Everybody stared at the eagle and the spud. Even I did.

“Duke and Pierre, could you please come to the front of the room?”

They looked so solemn as they walked to the whiteboard. Duke lost a couple of feathers and they floated in the air behind him. Then he took off his head and spoke.

“I’m Duke. The Flat Creek Bald Eagle.” He bowed a little.

“I’m Pierre. The Powderhorn Spud.” He waved.

“I’d actually like to begin by asking Pierre a question,” Duke said. “How many times have you cheered against T.J. the Tiger?”

“Four times,” Pierre said.

I sort of wished he wasn’t in his spud costume, because
he looked funny, almost like a joke. And I wasn’t sure that I wanted people who were speaking in my defense to look like jokes.

“How would you characterize T.J. as a mascot?” Duke asked. He lifted his feathered arm up in a thoughtful way.

“He’s rotten. Totally, completely, absolutely rotten.”

I looked out at the panel. Robin nodded a little bit. That was a great sign!

“Care to share any stories?” Duke asked.

Pierre cleared his throat. “I had prepared a few stories about all the unspeakable acts I’ve seen T.J. perpetrate against other mascots, but looking at Bessica sitting on that chair of judgment, I feel compelled to say something else.”

I squirmed a little. I didn’t like to think of myself as being seated in a chair of judgment.

“How many of you have ever dressed up like a potato?” Pierre asked.

Nobody raised their hand. Except for Pierre.

“An eagle? A cougar? A falcon? A bear?” Pierre continued.

I raised my hand.

“How many of you have put on a costume and stood outside in the elements and risked being teased and mocked, and in the face of those risks, who has tried to rally a crowd’s team spirit?”

Pierre paced in front of the whiteboard while he spoke. Everybody seemed fascinated by him. Even I was.

“What mascots do is hard work. We strive. We risk. We offer ourselves up in front of everybody and sacrifice our own dignity for laughter and cheers.”

I had not thought of myself that way.

“Bessica Lefter is a hero. Because in addition to striving and risking for her team, she also stood up to a well-known bully. She didn’t bite T.J. out of anger. She bit that tiger out of fear.”

I nodded a bunch when Pierre said this.

“I know who Bessica Lefter is. In a way, I feel like I am Bessica Lefter. And you and you and you. You are all Bessica Lefter.”

Raya Papas looked disgusted when she was called Bessica Lefter.

“Bessica was just trying to do her best. Her first game cheering, and the opposing mascot brought a cooler filled with balloons stuffed with shaving cream? Maybe some of you aren’t familiar with that tactic, but it’s called facebombing. T.J. came out onto that field fully intending to facebomb Bessica when your team scored its first goal. She’d heard of this threat, but she went out there anyway. Don’t punish her too harshly for what she did. She was standing up for her team. Her school. Remember, you too are Bessica Lefter. And you. And you. And you. Be lenient.”

“I am not Bessica Lefter,” Raya Papas said loudly.

“Thank you,” Principal Tidge said. “I have one question for Bessica before we go any further.”

This frightened me. Because just one question meant that there was probably just one right answer.

“Had T.J. threatened you prior to the game?” Principal Tidge leaned forward in her chair.

Her eyes were so powerful, they made my whole body feel hot and nervous. I looked above me at the light as it beamed down on me like the sun. Sweat formed at my hairline. One lone drop rolled down the side of my face all the way to my neck. But I knew the answer to this one. Why was I so worried?

“Yes,” I said. “He did.”

Principal Tidge leaned back in her chair. “Well, that changes things.” She stood up. “Peer review, you are all dismissed. You won’t be deciding Bessica’s punishment. I will. This isn’t a case of a mascot gone wrong. What we have here is a complex bullying situation.”

“Really?” I asked. I had suspected we had a bullying situation, but I’d had no idea it was complex.

Everybody filed out of the room, and as Dee left she whispered, “You were going to get off light anyway.”

I smiled.

But Principal Tidge wasn’t smiling, so I stopped.

“Bessica, biting is barbaric.”

“Yeah,” I said, sounding a little ashamed.

“I’m sorry to hear about the facebomb situation, but what you did was wrong.”

“I feel very bad about it,” I said.

She walked over to me and handed me a piece of paper. “Twenty hours,” she said.

“Of what?” I asked, taking the paper.

“Fire safety training for grades kindergarten through three. I’m certain you’ll be excellent.”

“Okay,” I said. I folded the paper and put it in my pocket. “My mom is outside. Do you need to talk to her?”

“That’s a good idea.”

I followed Principal Tidge into the hallway, and she asked me to wait there so she could talk to my mom. As I leaned against the wall I saw somebody I really didn’t want to see: Alice Potgeiser. She looked so happy. She strutted right up to me, smiling, and handed me a slip of paper. “Here’s my address. You can drop off the bear paws at your earliest convenience.”

“Why would I give you my bear paws?”

Alice faked a sympathy frown. “I wrote a persuasive letter to the peer review asking them to suspend you from all further football games.”

I couldn’t believe that Alice had tried to get me suspended for the entire football season. She was evil!

“Take it,” Alice said, thrusting the paper at me. “Your
mom will need to follow the map on the back. MapQuest always sends people the wrong way once they cross the bridge.”

I shook my head. I didn’t need a map to Alice Potgeiser’s house. “Sorry to break your heart, but I’m still half mascot. I wasn’t suspended.”

Alice looked horrified. “That’s impossible! My letter was very convincing. I outlined how you repeatedly mauled the opposing team’s mascot and are unsafe to take the field!”

I held my finger up and wagged it a little to let her know that I disagreed with that assessment. “I didn’t maul anybody. What we’ve got here is a complicated bullying situation.”

My mom stepped into the hallway and interrupted my terrible conversation with Alice.

“That went so much better than I thought it would,” my mom said.

Alice didn’t wait around to hear any more. She flipped around. “Mauler,” she mumbled as she huffed off.

My mom didn’t really notice Alice’s melodramatic exit. She walked up to me and gave me a big hug.

“I have to teach elementary school kids about fire safety for twenty hours,” I said.

“Not in a row,” my mom replied, releasing her grip on me.

As we walked to the car I realized that maybe my mom was right and I should be having more fun in middle school.

“I want to hang out with Sylvie again,” I said.

“I know,” my mom said.

“I need to call Lola,” I said.

“Okay.”

“Does this mean I won’t be grounded?” I asked.

“Let me discuss it with your father,” my mom said.

“It would be nice if I could invite Sylvie and Lola over,” I said. “And maybe also the spud and eagle mascots.”

“You want to invite boys over?” my mom asked as she climbed into the car.

“I do,” I said. “I’m mature enough to have boys as friends.”

“Oh brother,” my mom said.

“I promise I’ll never bite another mascot ever again,” I said.

“You shouldn’t have to make that promise. That should be basic operating procedure.”

“Yeah.” Even though I was a very dedicated mascot bear, I knew my mom was right.

I
was surprised that Sylvie, Lola, Duke, and Pierre got along in my living room as well as they did. It was as if we were all meant to be friends.

“Thanks again for coming over and helping me sort through my fire safety materials,” I said.

“After reading this pamphlet, I’ll never look at an electrical socket the same way again,” Duke said.

Not wearing his eagle outfit and not having a nose zit, he looked a lot cuter than he had when I first met him. But even though Duke was cute, I didn’t
like him
like him. Because I had already given my heart to the gorgeous and
tragically cow-injured Noll Beck. Maybe Duke could become Sylvie’s boyfriend. Ooh!

“You’re going to scare all the kids into never touching a lamp if you tell them this story,” Lola said, pointing to a different pamphlet that outlined the dangers of putting flammable materials near heat sources and lightbulbs.

“Let’s face it,” I said. “My punishment is sort of a bummer.”

“You can still have fun with it,” Sylvie said. “Do you get to go dressed as a bear?”

“I think that’s the idea,” I said.

“Be careful,” Pierre said. “Your costume is extremely flammable.”

I sighed. I didn’t need to be that careful. The fire marshal was going to be standing right next to me.

“Basically, I only need to teach the kids four things,” I explained. I stood on my couch so I could be higher than everybody else while I delivered my message. “Remind your parents to change the batteries in your smoke alarm once a year. Clean your clothes dryer vent. Fireworks have the potential to blow off your fingers and cause forest fires. Make sure you know two ways to escape your house if it bursts into flames.”

“You’re going to make people cry,” Lola said.

“Maybe,” I said as I stepped off the couch. “But I’ll be
very calm when I talk. And I’ll be dressed like a bear. And everything I’m telling them is excellent information.”

“How are things going in there?” my mom asked.

“Great,” I said.

But we all looked pretty gloomy.

“Do you want to show your friends how to feed the lizard?” my mom asked. “Grandma just bought new crickets.”

“That won’t work,” I said. “I have to feed the crickets essential vitamins first. And that takes at least one day.”

Everybody looked disappointed to learn this, especially Duke.

“Okay,” I said. “Just this once we can do it without gut loading the crickets first.”

So we all walked in a line straight to my bedroom.

“This is so disgusting,” Lola said. “I love it!”

I opened a plastic bag and poured a little bit of calcium powder inside. Then I shook it like mad. “It fortifies Bianca’s bones,” I explained.