Free Girl Power by Melody Carlson Page A

in his hand. She felt a tightening in her chest and throat. Her eyes widened slightly and she prayed a quick prayer. Then she took a deep breath and pointed calmly at the stick. “What are you planning on doing, Derrick? Youthink you’re going to club us with that?”
    He swung the stick and grinned. “Just protecting my territory.”
    “I’m calling the police,” said Amy as she pushed a button on her phone and held it to her ear.
    “That’s a good idea,” said Morgan. “We have four witnesses and—”
    “I’m outta here,” said the buzz-cut boy, taking off down the alley on his bike.
    Morgan looked directly at Derrick now. “What about you?” she asked. “Want to stick around for when the police arrive, or should we just tell them where to find you?”
    “This is Amy Ngo,” Amy said in her know-it-all voice. Then Amy very accurately described their location. “We’re being harassed by some older boys and one of them is armed with—”
    “Hey, take it easy,” said Derrick quickly. “We were just fooling around. You don’t have to take it so seriously.”
    “Seriously?” Morgan stepped a little closer now. “You knocked Emily off her bike and ruined her front tire. Is that not serious?”
    “We were just messing around with her.”
    “You hurt her!” shouted Carlie with her hands on her hips. “And you’ve threatened all of us. And we are sick and tired of it, Derrick Smith. And we are going to tell the police—”
    “Look, I’m sorry,” he said quickly, and Morgan could tell that he really was scared now. “I’ll fix the bike too. Just don’t tell, okay?”
    Morgan turned and looked at the other girls, and Amy winked at her. “Hold on a minute,” Amy said into the phone, then to Morgan, “I guess we could give him one last chance.”
    Morgan turned back to face Derrick. “Okay, we’re going to give you one chance, but if you do anything like this again—to anyone—we will definitely report you.”
    “That’s right,” said Carlie.
    “And you have to replace Emily’s bent bike wheel,” said Morgan. She glanced at Derrick’s bike now. “I think it’s the same size as your bike tire. Maybe you’d like to hand that over to us right now, Mr. Smith?”
    Derrick looked flustered now. “But how will I get home?”
    “The same way Emily got home,” said Carlie. “You’ll walk. But at least you won’t be limping.”
    “Hand over the tire,” said Morgan in a firm voice.
    “Yes, I’m still on the line,” said Amy into the phone. “Yes, sir, we’re still trying to determine whether or not this boy really intends to hurt us. Yes, he’s still here. Yes, he still has the club in his hand.”
    Derrick tossed the board aside and hopped off his bike. In the same instant he snapped the quick-releasegadgets on his front tire. Then he rolled it over to Emily. “Here.”
    She just nodded. Then Derrick took off on foot down the alley, awkwardly wheeling his disabled bike beside him as he went. The girls stood and watched until he turned the corner at the end of the alley, then they all clapped and cheered, giving one another high fives to celebrate their victory.
    “Way to go, Morgan!” said Carlie, slapping her on the back.
    “Way to go, Amy!” said Morgan. Then she thought of something. “But what about the police, Amy? Won’t they come anyway?”
    “Yeah,” said Emily nervously. “I … uh … I heard that if you call 9-1-1, the police will come no matter what.” She peered down the street, looking as if she was about to run. Morgan suddenly realized what Emily was doing. She knew that Emily couldn’t give her name to the police because it might lead her dad there.
    Amy just laughed. “No fear; I punched in the numerals, but I never hit
Send
. I figured we should just scare the boys to start with. If they didn’t respond, I would’ve put the call through—just like that.” She snapped her fingers.
    Morgan saw Emily relax and step back toward the