Sugar and Spice Read Online Free PDF Page B

one of my sandwiches and sniffed at it. “Peanut butter? Man, that’s some repulsive crap!”
    All the food that Mum had put in my lunch-box went hurtling across the playground.
    “What else yer got?”
    “Nothing.” I said. “It’s just homework.”
    “Homework?” He upended the bag and shook out the contents. “Only nerds do homework!”
    He was about to mash all my books and papers into the ground when a voice yelled, “You do that and I’ll beat you to a pulp!”
    It was Shay. I couldn’t believe it! Shay, daring to threaten Brett Thomas…I felt like snatching up my stuff and making a run for it, but I knew I couldn’t leave her there. She didn’t know what Brett Thomas was like; she didn’t know what she was letting herself in for.

    “Honestly, it’s all right,” I said, “it doesn’t matter, it’s not important, it —”
    “Course it’s important!” She turned on me, fiercely. “Can’t let people get away with this sort of thing!”
    “So who’s gonna stop us?” Brett brought his foot down on top of my maths book and began grinding it into the mud.
    “I am,” said Shay.
    “Oh, yeah? You an’ whose army?”
    “Don’t need any army!”
    Shay launched herself at him. He was bigger and stronger than she was, but she caught him by surprise and managed to throw him off balance.

    I hastily scooped up my papers and rescued my maths book.
    “Come on,” I said, “let’s go! Shay… let’s go !”
    But she wouldn’t. She stood there, glaring, hands on hips.
    “That is such bad behaviour,” she said. “What are you? Some kind of throwback?”
    “ Please! ” I was hopping from foot to foot. There still wasn’t anyone else in the playground. “Leave him!”
    “Next time,” said Shay, “just pick on someone your own size.”
    We turned, and walked off across the playground. Brett came after us. He didn’t actually do anything, just fell in behind us, breathing over our shoulders and uttering threats.
    “I’ll get you for this, bitch! You don’t know who you’re dealing with!”
    Even now, Shay couldn’t resist answering him back. “I know what I’m dealing with,” she said. “Stone Age moron’s what I’m dealing with!”
    By the time we reached our classroom I had this great big tremble running through me, from top to bottom, making my whole body shake. I sank into my desk, next to Karina.
    “You look really freaked out,” said Karina. “Like you’ve been chased down the street by a horde of headless ghosts.”
    I told her it was worse than that. “Brett Thomas snatched my bag and Shay said she’d beat him to a pulp and he was a S-Stone Age moron!”
    “What a total idiot.” Karina craned her head to give Shay a contemptuous glare. (Shay had chosen to sit next to me, on the other side.) “Stupid thing to do!”

    “Pardon me?” said Shay. She also craned her head. “You don’t think it’s right someone stands up to him?”
    “Not unless they want to get themselves knifed,” said Karina.
    “He’d just better try it!” said Shay.
    “You wait. You’ll see! He’ll get you.”
    “You shouldn’t have done it,” I said. “He’s a horrible boy! He’s been excluded once.”
    “Really?” said Shay, but she didn’t sound too impressed.
    “Yes, and then they went and let him back, and now he terrorises everyone.”
    Shay tossed her head. “Doesn’t terrorise me!”
    “But he’s dangerous,” I said. “He’s really mean.”
    “So’m I,” said Shay. “I’m meaner than a hyena! He’s not gonna get me.”
    And he never did. I don’t know what it was, whether he was scared of her, or whether he respected her, but after that he never came anywhere near her. He never came near me again, either, thanks to Shay. I don’t know how it is that some people can stand up for themselves and beat the bullies and others can’t. If I’d told Brett he was a Stone Age moron, I dread to think what he would have done. There was just something about Shay