Free The Bell Bandit by Jacqueline Davies Page A

the older boy, pushing his chest out and balling up his fists, but just then a rock landed on the ground right between them.
    "Stop it!" said Jessie. "Fighting is for morons!"
    "Yeah, like that moron who broke our window!"
    "He's not a moron. You're the morons! It's disgusting what you were doing!"
    "What is going on?" shouted Evan.
    "They were torturing a frog in there, Evan!" Jessie said, and Evan could tell she was on the very edge of crying. "Maxwell and me were spying on them—"
    "Yeah, you were spying on us. On our property—"
    "So what! You should go to jail for what you did!"
    "You're the one who's going to jail! Trespassing. Spying. Breaking windows!"
    "Shut up!" Evan yelled, and everyone did. "Jessie, did you break the window?"
    "No. Maxwell broke the window. Because they had a frog tied up and were trying to pull its legs off. While it was still
alive.
"
    Evan looked at the two boys, and suddenly they didn't seem to have anything to say. The older one looked at the ground. The younger one looked at the older one, and then he looked down at the ground, too.
    Evan shook his head. "That is
sick.
That is really, really sick." Evan was a tough kid who liked guts and gore as much as anyone. But the thought of hurting a real animal made his stomach turn.
    "It's our property. We can do whatever we want on it. And you're still trespassing." The older boy made a move toward Evan, and the younger one backed him up from behind.
    Evan stepped forward to show he wasn't afraid. But two of them at once. That was going to be hard, and Evan didn't have a lot of experience with fighting. He tightened his fists at his sides, wishing he had one of his friends from home. Paul or Jack or even Scott Spencer. It would be a fair fight if it were two against two.
    Wham.
Another rock came sailing at them, and this time it hit the older boy in the shoulder.
    "Jeez, what are you doing?" he shouted. "You can't throw rocks."
    "Who says?" said Jessie. "Show me the rule book." Her voice sounded funny, and Evan could tell she was shaking. But there she was, standing up to those boys. Just like she'd stood up to Scott Spencer when she put him on trial for stealing the lemonade money. She might be the smallest fourth-grader in the world because she'd skipped a grade, but Jessie had bossed around the whole class. When it came to justice, she was fearless. Maybe this was going to be a fair fight after all.
    "Hold her down," said the older boy to the younger boy, and as soon as the smaller one took a step toward Jessie, Evan let loose. He shoved the younger boy so hard, the kid fell to the ground, then he turned on the older boy with both his hands up, ready to swing. The older boy quickly backed away.
    "Hey, calm down. It's no big deal," he said. "Jeez, you two are really a pain in the neck. Just take your stupid sister and get out of here."
    Evan kept his fists up in front of him, standing his ground. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that the younger brother was crying but had gotten up on his feet. Bullies! It was like his mother said—stand up to them and they always back down.
    "Come on, Jess," said Evan, lowering his hands halfway.
    "No," said Jessie.
    Evan could see that she was holding two more rocks, one in each hand.
No? What was she thinking?
    "Jess, we're going."
    "Not until we get that frog out of there."
    The older boy took a step forward. "You are
not
going inside our barn. There is no way I'm letting you in there."
    Evan could tell the boy meant it. You didn't mess with farm families and their property. Evan had spent enough time in these woods to know that. Jessie was pushing their luck, and she was going to get them both in a lot of trouble.
    But Jessie didn't care. "I'm going to break every window in your barn until your mother comes out here to see what all the noise is, and then
you
can tell her what you're doing in there."
    Oh man,
thought Evan, feeling his insides crumple up.
Now we're going to get