Chapter 12

Chapter 12 A Fair Fight Evan ran toward the bridge, stumbling in the deepening darkness. On the other side, he could see someone running toward him, but the light was so dim, he couldn't tell who it was. The person was running as if a wild animal were chasing it, arms clawing madly at the air, legs galloping down the hill toward the bridge. Evan had to stop abruptly at the bridge to prevent a collision. That's when he saw it was Maxwell. But Maxwell was supposed to be with Jessie. Where was Jessie? Who had screamed? What broke the glass? "Maxwell, what happened?" Evan shouted, but Maxwell wasn't stopping. He barreled over the bridge, running past Evan as if Evan didn't

even exist. "Stop! Stop!" Evan yelled, but it seemed like Maxwell never heard him. He ran up the hill and into the woods, and then he was out of sight. Evan turned and raced over the bridge and up the hill where Maxwell had come from. There was a house up here, the old Jansen house. He saw that the lights were on, so he headed for the porch but then stopped. He heard voices. Coming from behind the barn. And one of them was Jessie's. When Evan rounded the back corner of the barn, he practically ran over his little sister. She was standing with her legs apart, buried halfway up to her knees in the deep snow, with both arms crooked at the elbow. In each hand, she held a rock the size of a baseball. In front of her were two boys. It took Evan just a split second to size them up. The bigger one looked to be just about Evan's size; the other one wasn't much smaller. When Jessie saw Evan,

she took three quick steps backwards but kept the rocks held tightly in her fists. She'd been holding her own against the boys—that was Jessie!—but Evan could tell she was scared. "Hey!" Evan shouted, and took a step toward the boys. "Is this your brother?" shouted the older boy at Jessie. "He's not so big! We could beat him up with our hands tied behind our backs." The younger boy laughed and said, "Yeah!" "Come on, then," said Evan. He made a move toward the older boy, pushing his chest out and balling up his fists, but just then a rock landed on the ground right between them. "Stop it!" said Jessie. "Fighting is for morons!" "Yeah, like that moron who broke our window!" "He's not a moron. You're the morons! It's disgusting what you were doing!" "What is going on?" shouted Evan. "They were torturing a frog in there, Evan!"

Jessie said, and Evan could tell she was on the very edge of crying. "Maxwell and me were spying on them—" "Yeah, you were spying on us. On our property—" "So what! You should go to jail for what you did!" "You're the one who's going to jail! Trespassing. Spying. Breaking windows!" "Shut up!" Evan yelled, and everyone did. "Jessie, did you break the window?" "No. Maxwell broke the window. Because they had a frog tied up and were trying to pull its legs off. While it was still alive." Evan looked at the two boys, and suddenly they didn't seem to have anything to say. The older one looked at the ground. The younger one looked at the older one, and then he looked down at the ground, too. Evan shook his head. "That is sick. That is really, really sick." Evan was a tough kid who

liked guts and gore as much as anyone. But the thought of hurting a real animal made his stomach turn. "It's our property. We can do whatever we want on it. And you're still trespassing." The older boy made a move toward Evan, and the younger one backed him up from behind. Evan stepped forward to show he wasn't afraid. But two of them at once. That was going to be hard, and Evan didn't have a lot of experience with fighting. He tightened his fists at his sides, wishing he had one of his friends from home. Paul or Jack or even Scott Spencer. It would be a fair fight if it were two against two. Wham. Another rock came sailing at them, and this time it hit the older boy in the shoulder. "Jeez, what are you doing?" he shouted. "You can't throw rocks." "Who says?" said Jessie. "Show me the rule book." Her voice sounded funny, and Evan could tell she was shaking. But there she was, standing

up to those boys. Just like she'd stood up to Scott Spencer when she put him on trial for stealing the lemonade money. She might be the smallest fourth-grader in the world because she'd skipped a grade, but Jessie had bossed around the whole class. When it came to justice, she was fearless. Maybe this was going to be a fair fight after all. "Hold her down," said the older boy to the younger boy, and as soon as the smaller one took a step toward Jessie, Evan let loose. He shoved the younger boy so hard, the kid fell to the ground, then he turned on the older boy with both his hands up, ready to swing. The older boy quickly backed away. "Hey, calm down. It's no big deal," he said. "Jeez, you two are really a pain in the neck. Just take your stupid sister and get out of here." Evan kept his fists up in front of him, standing his ground. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that the younger brother was crying