Page 92-98
New Words
1.
wailed
(哭叫)
2.
faded
(褪色)
3.
snarled
(咆哮)
4.
defend
(保護)
5.
groceries
(雜貨)
6.
bellowed
(大叫)
7.
puzzled
(困惑的)
8.
auditorium
(禮堂)
9.
slugged him
(重擊)
10.
stammered
(口吃)
11.
smashed into
(撞擊)
12.
snapped
(突然大叫)
13.
concrete steps
(水泥)
14.
determined
(下定決心)
15.
hysterically
(歇斯底里地)
16.
(laughing) hyena
(土狼)
17.
hands folded
(雙手交握)
18.
shrieked with anticipation
(激動的尖叫)
19.
Quit bothering me.
(別吵我)
20.
Don’t be a chicken.
(別當膽小鬼)
Definitions
1.
stop being so scared,
stop being a coward,
you are not brave enough 
2.
stopped and started
while trying to say something ,
couldn’t say something easily
3.
leave me alone,
stop giving me trouble
4.
suddenly said something angrily,
suddenly became angry
5.
doing something crazily,
out of control,
done wildly
6.
screamed excitedly
because something very good
will happen soon
7.
hit someone very hard
with a closed hand,
punched someone strongly
8.
doing something
to make a person safe,
to protect someone
9.
shouted VERY loudly
10.
when a color became lighter,
it became less dark,
something became less easy to see
11.
made someone feel confused,
didn’t know the answer,
something couldn’t be understood
12.
said of a person
who laughs like a wild dog
that makes a laughing sound
13.
very sure
you want to do something,
not letting anything stop you
14.
when the fingers of one hand
go around the fingers
of the other hand
15.
said something very angrily
like a dog barking
and wanting to bite someone
16.
things like food and milk
bought from a store
or a supermarket
17.
when someone is running
and his or her body
hits another person very hard
18.
made a loud crying sound
when hurt
19.
stairs made of
a mixture of sand,
stones and cement
20.
a very big room or hall
for many people
to listen to someone speaking
Page 92-98
Page 92
“Here he comes,” said Lori.
“Don’t be a chicken.”
Colleen bit her bottom lip.
It was after school.
The three girls stood across the street and watched Jeff.
“Maybe we should wait until tomorrow,” said Colleen.
“Hey, Jeff!” Lori shouted.
“No,” Colleen whispered.
Jeff turned.
Lori and Melinda walked toward him.
Colleen lagged behind.
“Hello, Jeff,” said Lori.
“Hi, Jeff,” said Melinda.
“Hello, hi,” answered Jeff.
Lori laughed.
“C’mon, Colleen,” said Melinda. “Ask him.”
Colleen blushed and looked away.
“Colleen has something she wants to ask you,” said Lori.
“Well, see, um, okay, well – ”
stammered Colleen.
“Quit bothering me,” Jeff said very quietly.
“We’re not bothering you,” said Lori.
“Colleen just wants to ask you – ”
Melinda stopped her.
“Let Colleen ask him,” she said.
Page 93
“Well, see,” said Colleen. “Okay.”
She took a breath.
“I’m having a…it’s my birth – ”
“I don’t want her asking me anything!”
Jeff snapped.
Colleen turned bright red.
“And quit saying hello to me too!”
“We can say hello if we want,” said Melinda.
“It’s a free country.”
“I don’t want you saying it to me,” said Jeff.
“Don’t worry!” Colleen exploded. “I won’t!”
“I will,” said Lori.
“Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello.”
“Shut up!” said Jeff.
He slammed his book down on the sidewalk.
“Hello, Jeff, hello, Jeff,” said Lori.
“Jello, Jeff.”
She laughed at her mistake.
“Jello, Jeff. Hello, Jello.”
She laughed hysterically.
“And quit laughing!” Jeff shouted.
“She can laugh,” said Colleen.
“You can’t tell her she can’t laugh.”
“Hellohellohellohellohellohello,”
said Lori as fast as she could.
“Shut up!” screamed Jeff.
“You shut up,” said Melinda.
“I’m not afraid of you, Melinda,” said Jeff.
“I’m not afraid of you either,” said Melinda.
Jeff raised his fists in the air.
Melinda did the same.
Lori shrieked with anticipation.
“Okay, hit me,” said Jeff.
“You hit me first,” said Melinda.
Page 94
“No, you hit me first,” said Jeff.
“Somebody hit somebody!” shouted Lori.
Jeff tapped Melinda’s shoulder with his fist.
She slugged him in the stomach.
As he bent over she hit him in the nose. Jeff flailed his arms as he tried to defend himself, but Melinda kept punching him, in the neck, in the stomach, then in the eye.
Jeff fell to the ground.
Melinda jumped on top of him, knees first. She sat on his chest and held his arms flat against the ground.
Lori knelt beside them and slapped the ground as she counted:
“One…two…three…four…five…six…seven…eight…nine ten!”
Melinda stood up.
Lori held Melinda’s arm high in the air. Holding her nose with her other hand, she bellowed:
“The winner, and still champion of the world
…Marvelous Melinda!”
Colleen clapped her hands.
Page 95
I’m going to be good, thought Bradley, and then, when everybody sees how good I am, they’ll know I’m not a monster.
“And Mrs. Ebbel will give you a gold star,” said Ronnie.
Bradley was so excited, he didn’t realize he was putting on two different-colored socks: a blue one and a green one. He tied his shoelaces, then went into the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror.
His black eye was almost all gone. It had faded into a light brownish-yellowish color. He hurried out to breakfast.
His mother made oatmeal for him.
“I hate hot cereal,” he complained.
“You’ll eat what you’re served,” said his father. “This isn’t a restaurant.”
He frowned, not because he had to eat oatmeal, but because he realized he never should have said he hated it. That was something the Bad Bradley would say. The Good Bradley liked hot, lumpy cereal.
He took a big spoonful, brought it to his mouth, and swallowed the glop. “Mmm, good!” he said, but as he withdrew the spoon from his mouth, his elbow bumped his glass of orange juice.
Claudia screamed and jumped up.
Page 96
“Oh, Bradley!” said his mother.
His father glared at him.
“It was an acci – ” He started to say it was an accident but then remembered Carla didn’t believe in accidents.
That puzzled him. He wondered why he would want to spill his orange juice on purpose. He liked orange juice. It was the oatmeal he should have spilled.
“Are you just going to sit there, or are you going to help your mother clean it up?” asked his father.
He picked up his napkin to help, but his mother told him to stay out of her way. “You’ll only make a bigger mess,” she said.
Silently, he finished eating.
As he headed back to his room, Claudia burst out laughing.
“What’s so funny?” he demanded.
“Look at your socks!” she laughed.
He looked down at his feet, then back at his sister, the laughing hyena.
“Thank you, Claudia,” he said.
“I appreciate your sharing that with me.”
She stopped laughing and stared at him.
He walked into his room, sat on the edge of his bed, and took off his sneakers.
“Wow!” said Bartholomew. “You were so good. I would have punched her face in if I was you.”
“He’s going to get a gold star today,” said Ronnie.
Bradley changed his socks, but once again he was so excited thinking about the gold star that he didn’t pay attention to what he was doing. He took the green sock off his right foot. He took the blue sock off his left foot.
Page 97
He put the green sock on his left foot and the blue sock on his right foot. Then he put his shoes on and left for school, determined to be good.
He walked into class and took his seat – last seat, last row. He sat up straight with his hands folded on top of his desk. He tried to hold back his excitement as he glanced at the chart on the wall next to him.
Jeff came in and sat down – last seat, second to last row.
Bradley saw him out of the corner of his eye, then turned to get a better look. Jeff had a black eye!
“What are you staring at, Chalkers!” Jeff snarled.
“Hey, you two look like twins!” exclaimed Shawne, the girl who sat in front of Jeff.
“Turn your ugly face around,” Jeff snapped.
“Oh, shut up, Bradley,” said Shawne, turning around.
Bradley looked at the back of Shawne’s head. She still thinks I’m a monster, he realized. But once I get my gold star, then she’ll know I’m good.
For the rest of the morning, he sat at attention with his eyes fixed on Mrs. Ebbel. He kept wondering if she had noticed how good he was yet.
As he walked outside for recess, he was almost certain there’d be a gold star next to his name when he returned.
Curtis and Doug, two of Jeff’s friends, came out of Mrs. Sharp’s class.
“What’s the big idea?” asked Doug. “Hitting
Jeff when he’s not looking,” said Curtis.
“Huh?” said Bradley.
Doug pushed him.
Page 98
He stumbled backward into Jeff, who pushed him back the other way.
Bradley looked around. He was surrounded.
“Jeff’s our friend,” said Robbie.
“Yeah!” said Brian.
“You hit me when I wasn’t looking!” said Jeff. “And my hands were full of groceries. I didn’t want to break the eggs.”
“Chicken Chalkers,” said Dan.
There was a space between Andy and Doug. Bradley dashed through it and ran across the playground.
Jeff and his friends chased after him.
Bradley looked back at them and smashed into a girl standing on one foot. The girl fell onto the hard hopscotch ground and wailed.
“I’m telling, Bradley!” said one of her friends.
“I’m sorry,” Bradley said helplessly, then continued running. He ran up the concrete steps and entered the school building through the auditorium. From there, he walked quickly to the library.
“What do you want, Bradley?” asked Mrs. Wilcott, the librarian.
“Nothing,” he muttered as he sat down at one of the tables. He leaned his head against his hands, propped up by his elbows.
What if Carla’s wrong? he worried. What if I really am a monster?
“I don’t want any trouble from you, Bradley,” said Mrs. Wilcott.
The End
ThEnd