Don't Mess with Bigfoot!

“You Bigfoot! That’s what you are - BIGFOOT!”

Above the noise of the crowded lunchroom, Kenny Brown, the biggest and meanest fifth-grader at JFK Middle School, snorted insults at classmate Madeline Croley. Chunks of the greasy beef barbecue he devoured flew out of his mouth when he said the word ‘Bigfoot.’

It was lunch period, and Madeline ended-up sitting across from the bully and his only friend, Mark Adams. Her friends, Megan and Lyndsi, didn’t save a seat for her. The lunch duty teacher, Mr. Lantz, never allowed anyone to save seats. They sat nearby, watching and listening as they ate their lunch.

Madeline tugged on the poof of her blonde ponytail to tighten it. She narrowed her blue eyes and glared at Kenny. He had started making fun of her first thing in the morning when he saw her stepping off the bus. Pushing up the sleeves of her red flannel shirt, Madeline wiggled her feet inside her brown hiking boots. The new boots stuck out from the bottom of her jeans like huge, brown watermelons. Silently she ate her lunch as Kenny continued his attack.

“I think I’m going to be sick sitting across from BIGFOOT!”, Kenny said as he shoveled the last fork-full of lima beans into his cavernous mouth. With his mouth full of half-chewed lima beans he went on, “My appetite is ruined!”

The entire fifth grade feared Kenny. Laughing evilly as kids scrambled from his path, he waddled through the halls looking for his next victim. Even his appearance was scary. The smell of month-old gym socks greeted any nose that got close to him. His grimey, dark brown hair, looked wet and laid flat against his head. He wore a white, long-sleeved shirt, with pens and pencils sticking out of the pocket, and brown pants that looked like the kind teachers wore. A pair of Drew Carey-style glasses sat on his pig-like nose magnifying his beady, black eyes. His moon-shaped face, peppered with pimples, shined from the greasiness of his skin. When he smiled, Kenny’s lips curled back revealing large, greenish-brown teeth.

Mark Adams sat next to him. Scrawny, pale Mark kept his head tilted sideways to keep his long, shiny black hair from hanging in his half-closed eyes. He constantly flung his head to the side to get the hair off his face. Everything Kenny said or did sent Mark into a fit of laughter that sounded like Sponge Bob Squarepants.

Kenny picked up a bowl of fruit-cocktail and held it up to his face, loudly slurping the juice and fruit. Slurp! Slurp! He looked up once, calling Madeline ‘Bigfoot’, then went back to slurping. Slurp! Slurp! Madeline slowly reached across the table, her hand shaking, and quickly flipped the rim of the bowl upward with the back of her hand. The fruit and juice splashed back onto Kenny’s greasy round face! Slowly, a chunk of fruit slid down the lens of his glasses; another, dangled from the arm, and still another hung from the end of his snout-like nose.

Megan and Lyndsi’s uncontrollable laughter rang through the air. Mark started laughing while drinking his milk, and it shot out of his nose onto the table. His laugh sounded louder and faster than usual. Kenny quietly called Madeline ‘a rotten Bigfoot’ while cleaning his face and glasses with a used, crumpled napkin. He snorted and grunted like a pig. Kenny was laughing too.

The bell rang signaling the end of lunch period. Megan and Lyndsi, still laughing, ran over to congratulate Madeline for standing-up to Kenny. Other fifth-graders, who had seen the whole thing, ran over too. They cheered and laughed, patting her on the back. They had all been victims of Kenny's attacks at one time or another. Walking past Kenny, who was still wiping fruit and juice from his glasses, Madeline yelled, “Don’t mess with Bigfoot!” Megan and Lyndsi almost fell over from laughing so hard.