Oliver Dibbs and the Dinosaur Cause by Barbara Steiner

Author:Barbara Steiner
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781497624559
Publisher: Open Road Media

11.

Ollie’s Prize

If they wanted to get to Lester they’d found a good way. Lester kept digging in his desk and pulling out all sorts of junk. But his face got redder and redder. If Ollie hadn’t known Lester so well, he’d swear that Lester was ready to cry.

The kids around Lester realized that something was going on. Rebecca looked at Ollie. He shrugged and tried to look away. Crumbs from his cupcake stuck in his throat. He went to the back of the room where the refreshment table was set up and asked for more punch. Mrs. Schultz, one of the room mothers, smiled and filled Ollie’s cup.

Rebecca must not have been in on the trick. She didn’t seem to realize what was happening.

Miss. Andrews picked up on the whispering and the fact that one-third of the class was much too quiet. She circled the room and stopped by Lester’s desk. She looked at Ollie, who looked away quickly.

“Spring cleaning early, Lester?” the teacher asked.

“Yeah.” Lester ducked under his desk. He’d dropped his crayons and took a long time picking them up.

Delivery people kept making the rounds up and down the aisles with fistfuls of white envelopes and colorful cards. Ollie’s desk was piled high. He had started to open them but now lost interest.

He wanted to feel great. Lester was getting just what he deserved. He’d spoiled many a day for Ollie. He’d ruined what could have been one of the best days of Ollie’s life. He had at one time or another pestered almost every kid in the class. It was time someone got back at Lester. It was time something really bad happened to him.

Bullies are usually unhappy. Mr. Dibbs’s words rattled around in Ollie’s head until he felt like shaking it to get them out.

The room was suddenly too hot. Ollie tugged his sweater off over his head. But the hot feeling was coming from inside. It was as if he was being smothered in a huge cloud of steam.

There was one thing that Ollie could do. Fortunately he hadn’t put the big dollar valentine in the box on Miss Andrews’s desk. He still hadn’t made a decision about the card that morning, convinced that he was being silly. Lester would get lots of cards and not all from people whose mothers had made them give everyone a valentine. Besides, Ollie had bought the card before the locked-bathroom episode. That morning he hadn’t wanted to give it to Lester.

Now he slipped the card from his desk, where it was hidden in a dinosaur book. He bundled up his sweater as if he was taking it to the cloakroom. But he made a round trip, detouring by the big, open valentine box.

Fortunately, a sixth-grade delivery person had just brought a basket of ice cream from the school’s kitchen. People were lining up to get a Dixie Cup and a little wooden spoon. No one was paying any attention to Ollie.

He made a successful drop-off, hung up his sweater, and got in line.

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