Free The Bully Bug by David Lubar

slower. This time, I didn’t shoot up into the air. I went up slowly. Not bad. I flew a little higher and looked down. It was weird, seeing my feet dangling like that, not touching the ground.
    So I could go up. But that wouldn’t do me much good unless I could also go other ways. I wondered how I could go forward. I tried leaning, then almost toppled over. No. That wasn’t the way to do it. Then I tried flapping back a little with my wings.
    It worked.
    Except I shot forward real fast. Right into the side of the house.
    Kasplat!
    I felt like a bug that had smacked a windshield. I slid to the ground.
    I guess it was like driving a car. You could go places easily, but if you messed up, you got hurt. I turned away from the house and tried again. This time, I managed to fly around the yard without slamming into anything.
    I flew around the yard a couple more times.
    â€œ Luuuudddddd! Where are you?”
    Oh man. May was calling for me. I thought about just flying away. But then Mom would worry. I fluttered back to the ground and stood by the side of the house.
    â€œI’m out here,” I called. My voice sounded nearly normal. Maybe just a little bit buzzy. Hey, I thought of a joke. If my voice was kind of rough, that made me a hoarse fly. “I got up early. I’m heading out for school.”
    â€œWhat about breakfast?” May called.
    â€œI ate already,” I said. I looked over at the trees next to the house. Sure enough, I’d munched down on one of the branches. So I wasn’t lying.
    â€œThere ain’t no school,” May called. “It’s Saturday.”
    â€œI want to get a head start for next week,” I told her.
    I slipped out of the yard before May could argue with me. But I hadn’t gone more than a couple steps when I heard Bud shouting, “Hey, Lud! You out there? Wait for me. Okay? Wait for me, Lud.”
    â€œI’ll meet you later,” I called back. Then I hurried down the street. I was only wearing my pajama bottoms, but the way I looked, that didn’t really seem to matter. With luck, nobody would see me.
    It’s amazing how bad luck can be when you need it to be good.

 
    Eighteen
    SEE YOU
    Â 
    I flew above the town. At first, I followed the streets. Then I realized I didn’t have to. I could go wherever I wanted, even right over houses and trees. Somehow, I knew exactly how far away everything was. I knew how long it would take to get to Norman’s house, or back home, or anywhere else. Once I got the hang of it, I didn’t even have to think.
    This was even better than having my own airplane.
    After a while, my shoulders got tired, so I came down and started walking.
    That’s when I ran into her.
    Dawn. The last person I wanted to scare. She was coming down her porch steps, holding her collie on a leash.

    She looked up. And then she screamed.
    I must have scared her bad. Because Dawn isn’t the kind of girl who goes off screaming for no reason. But I guess I was a whole lot of reasons.
    I ran away.
    Man, I could run fast, too. Before I knew it, I was blocks from her house, right by the school. I ducked back in the trees. I felt awful. I didn’t want to scare anybody. I didn’t want anybody screaming just because they saw me.
    But that look in her eyes—the terror. I’d seen it before. I just hadn’t paid too much attention to it. I’d seen it all the time in smaller kids. And every kid in school was smaller than me. Except for Bud. I’d seen that look in the nerd’s—I mean, in Norman’s eyes every day. And he was helping me.
    Man, I really was a bug. Even back when I looked like a human, I guess I was really nothing better than a scary insect. The only difference now was that my outside matched my inside. Maybe I should just stay a lousy bug.
    I was so busy thinking about all of this that I didn’t pay any attention to the rumbling I felt. It was weird. I could feel