17 - Why I'm Afraid of Bees Read Free

back of my head. Then
I folded my arms across my chest and started pedaling no-handed.
    As I passed them, I glanced over my shoulder and flashed my most glamorous
smile at Judy and Kaitlyn.
    Before my beautiful smile faded, I felt a tug at my sneaker. I realized
instantly that my shoelace was caught in the chain!
    A horrible grinding sound filled the air. The bike jerked and lurched from
side to side—and I lost control!
    “Gary—!” I heard Judy shriek. “Gary—look out for that car!”

 
 
4
     
     
    CRAAAAAAACK.
    I didn’t see the lamppost until I hit it.
    As I toppled off my bike and shot sideways through the air, I heard the sound
of metal crumpling, ripping, and shredding.
    I landed on my face in a deep, warm puddle of mud.
    I heard the car rumble past me.
    Slowly, I pulled my face out of the mud.
    Guess I didn’t look too cool, I thought bitterly. Maybe at least I’ll get a
little sympathy.
    No way.
    I could hear Judy and Kaitlyn laughing behind me on the sidewalk. “Nice bike,
Gary!” one of them called. They hurried away.
    I had never been so humiliated in all my life. If I could have, I would have
put down roots in that mud puddle and turned myself into a tree. It might not be the most exciting life in the world. But at least no one laughs at a
tree.
    I’m serious. At that moment, I would have happily traded lives with a tree.
Or a bird. Or a bug. Or just about any other living object on the planet.
    With that sad thought, I decided to get myself up and out of there before
anyone else came along. It took all my strength to peel my wrecked bicycle off
the lamppost. Luckily, I didn’t have far to drag it.
    For the second time in the same afternoon, I crept into my house and up the
stairs so I could get cleaned up before anyone saw me. Now, as I studied my
reflection in the bathroom mirror, I saw there was no way I could hide all my
cuts and scrapes from my mom.
    “Oh, who cares?” I moaned as I washed the mud off my face and hands. “Who
cares if Mom sees them? I’ll be doing her a favor by giving her something else to laugh at. It’ll really make her day!”
    I went back into my room and changed into my last clean shirt. Then I glanced
around, trying to find something to do.
    I decided to boot up my computer. Playing with my computer is one of the few
things I really like. When I’m lost in the world of a computer game, sometimes I
can actually forget I’m a total jerk named Gary Lutz. Nobody in a computer game
ever calls me Lutz the Klutz.
    I turned on the computer and decided to have another try at the Planet
Monstro Fantasy game I’d been stuck on for two days. Monstro is a
really cool game.
    When you play it, you’re a character named The Warrior, and you’re trapped on
the planet Monstro. You have to get yourself out of all kinds of scary
situations.
    Before I started to play, I thought I’d check Computa Note, one of the
electronic bulletin boards I’m connected to on the computer.
    I’d left a message there on Monday, asking if anyone knew how to defeat the
two-headed dragon that kept eating me on the thirteenth moon of Monstro.
Sometimes other people in the country who are playing the same game will send
each other hints.
    When I accessed Computa Note, I saw the following computer-game-related
messages on the screen:
     
    To Arnold in Milwaukee: Have you tried rubbing smashed-up eucalyptus
leaves all over yourself in the rain forest game? It’s an ecologically correct
way of repelling the poisonous ants in EcoScare 95. From Lisa in San
Francisco
     
    To R from Sacramento: The only way to escape from the flood on your
spaceship in SpaceQuest 20 is to inflate your suit and float away. From L in St. Louis
     
    To Gary in Millville: Try stabbing the dragon between the eyes. It worked
for me. From Ted in Ithaca
     
    Oh, terrific, I thought. I’d been trying to stab the dragon between
the eyes. But the creature always ate me before I could do it! What was “Ted