Badd Read Free

buckle down to business and make the trek back through mighty forests of grass blades with all sorts of trouble lurking to take them down. And you’ll see them with these huge, boulder-like crumbs on their backs, hauling them back to the hill, where all of them are working together, making this pyramid, this colossal wonder of the world, to keep them safe from sand lions and grasshoppers and toads. They’re amazing.
    And Jared Jones was stuffing Black Cats down the door to their pyramid and blasting it to pieces.
    “Yeah!” they all yelled as another firecracker exploded. “Kill those little suckers.”
    There wasn’t any question in my mind what I had to do. I walked right up to those boys and slapped Jared hard across the back of his fat head and told him to stop it if he didn’t want to end up eating a handful of dirt.
    He rose up with this look in his eyes like he was ready forWorld War III, but when he saw me, the fierceness pulled up short. “You’re lucky you’re a girl,” he said. “I’d feed you one of these Black Cats if you weren’t.”
    I just stared him down and said, “You’re gonna stop blowing up those ants.” It wasn’t a question.
    “I doubt that,” he said.
    I put out my hand. “Give me those firecrackers.”
    “Why don’t you stick one up her butt,” said one of his buddies.
    I left my hand where it was.
    “What are you gonna do?” Jared asked, sizing me up. “Go tell your big brother on us?”
    “I don’t need to tell my brother,” I said, and before I even finished, I whipped my hand over and grabbed the string of firecrackers away.
    Of course, he wanted them back, said he’d forget I was a girl if I didn’t hand them over. I didn’t say anything. I just turned around and started to walk away. I knew what would happen, though. I’d seen the same situation with Bobby. He had some words with this guy Ally Taylor, and just when Bobby turned around to leave peacefully, Ally rushed him from behind. I learned something important from Bobby that day. Movie fighting is crap. You don’t need spinning kicks and fancy karate fists of fury. You just need to get the other guy on the ground as quick as possible and don’t let him up till he knows he’s beat.
    So I did just what I saw Bobby do. As soon as I sensed Jared coming at me from behind, I whirled around low, under any punches that might be coming, and tackled him at the waist. In the next second, he was on the ground and I was sitting on his chest, slapping his face. His friends just laughed.
    Fat tears boiled out of Jared’s eyes, and as much as I despisedhim, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. Beat up by a girl. His friends would spread the word around like a bad case of the bird flu. But I guarantee you, they didn’t want any piece of me either.
    After that, I wasn’t just the badass’s little sister anymore. I was a badass in my own right. That’s a lot different from a bully. Bullies start things. Badasses finish them. And as the baddest girl in Knowles, there are certain things I’m bound to do.
    Dealing with Captain Crazy is one of them. He started something, and I’m going to finish it.

3
    It’s me and my two main boys, Gillis Kilmer and Tillman Grant. Gillis and I grew up two houses apart. Tillman joined up with us as soon as we hit first grade. Whereas Gillis is stocky and hard, Tillman’s tall and lean and twice as hard. Black-haired, brown-eyed, dark-skinned. He looks Italian, but he’s not. From that Adam’s apple of his, you’d think he got a hand grenade stuck in his throat. He’s the kind of kid who never has you over to his house and doesn’t hang around there much himself if he can help it. It’s a dump. His dad’s long gone, and his mom’s kind of a tramp. Tillman would probably be in reform school by now if it wasn’t for us. Who knows, our whole group may still make it. I’d probably fit in better there than in this town anyway.
    I don’t ask my girl Brianna along. She’s too