Young Scrooge Read Online Free PDF Page A

His short brown hair is brushed straight back. He smiles sometimes, but I’ve never seen him laugh. When he talks to you, you have to lean forward. His voice is so soft, his words seem to dribble down his chin.
    He pointed to a chair at the end of the table across from his desk. I sat down in front of a laptop computer. He pulled out the chair next to me and sat down.
    â€œI can explain about the ants,” I said. “It was a total accident.”
    Okay, okay. A little white lie.
    â€œI don’t want to talk about the ants,” he said. I could smell coffee on his breath, kind of sour. His tennis ball eyes stared into mine. “I want to show you a movie, Rick.”
    A movie?
    He started tapping keys on the laptop keyboard. “This is a movie about a boy named Phil,” Martin said. “The movie is being shown in schools all over this country because it’s about bullying. Do you know what a bully is, Rick?”
    I shrugged. “I guess.”
    â€œWell, I think you’ll recognize what a bully is when you see Phil,” he said. A dark screen came up, and he clicked play. “The film is pretty short. When it’s over, you and I will talk about it.”
    He picked some papers off his desk and left the room. I rested my head in my hands and gazed at the laptop screen as the movie began.
    I was feeling pretty good. I expected a long lecture about why I shouldn’t put ants in kids’ costumes and how I ruined the Christmas play. But instead I got to watch a movie.
    It was fun, too. The movie was called Phil’s Story . This guy Phil looked about my age. And like me, he was the biggest kid in his class. He was loud and funny.
    In the first scene, he is in the lunchroom. He tries to take a girl’s sandwich. When she grabs it back, he tips a whole carton of chocolate milk over her head. She leaves the room screaming and crying. She’s your typical bad sport.
    Phil goes out on the playground. He takes a Frisbee away from a bunch of little kids and throws it down a sewer. The little kids get all crazy and upset and start crying. They can’t take a joke.
    A boy and a girl are doing schoolwork together, standing against the wall. Phil sneaks up behind the boy and pulls his pants down. The boy is so embarrassed, he runs away. Then Phil trips a girl carrying a birthday cake to the lunchroom. She falls on top of the cake and crushes it beneath her.
    This is a comedy , I thought. Why is Mr. Martin showing me a comedy?
    Back in school, Phil takes a girl’s homework paper away from her. He crosses out her name and puts his name at the top. Then he hands it in to the teacher. Very clever.
    He presses a finger over one nostril, then blows his nose in a girl’s hair. Then he pours a box of grape juice into a boy’s backpack.
    In the last scene, Phil is taken to the principal’s office. The principal is this older woman with a stern expression. She sits him down in front of a laptop. And she shows him a movie. It’s called Phil’s Story.
    The movie ended. I gazed up and found Mr. Martin standing behind me. He pulled out a chair and sat across from me. “Rick, do you understand now why we are showing this movie to certain kids across the country?”
    â€œNot really,” I said.
    My answer made him blink. He clasped his hands together on the tabletop. “Well, do you understand about Phil? Why he has no friends? Why he is so unhappy and alone?”
    â€œNot really,” I said. “Phil looked pretty happy to me.”
    Mr. Martin made a choking sound. He blinked a few times. He pushed his glasses up on his nose. “Well, let me ask you this, Rick,” he said in his soft, quiet voice. “What is your opinion of Phil? What do you think of him?”
    â€œHe’s awesome,” I said. “I think he’s way cool. I mean, he’s the star of his own movie, isn’t he? That’s totally cool!”
    Mr. Martin swept