Facing the Bully!

FEAR sets in for CALBERT as his Bully appears!

“Hey, look there!”  I say as some bad guys come into view from the cornfield.  I sink lower in the tree so that the outlaws can’t see me.  I pull my pistol from its holster, and bang bang bang, I got him.  He won’t be bothering anybody anymore.

Hey, Jason and Ethan are making a fort. “Wait a minute.  I’m coming over to play with you.”  Jason loves to build teepees and shelters.  He is two years older than I am and knows all about those kinds of things.  “Hey, Jason, do you remember the time we made an oven outside using a rock?  I hope we get to do that again.  It was so cool!”

“Sure, but next time, we are going to

have to wash the rock off first.  The dirt made them a little crunchy from the last time.”  Jason laughs.

Jason is being too bossy and Ethan keeps tearing down my part of the fort.  “I’m not playing with you guys anymore.”  I tell Jason.

“Go ahead ‘Shorty’.”  Jason replies

“My legs may be short, but I can run faster than you,” I tell Jason.  The new shoes got last weekend make me even faster.

There go our two dogs barking again, I wonder what they are after this time.  Maybe they have cornered an animal, or just maybe something is going on I need to take care of with my six-shooters.  “Nolan, Star!”  I yell as I start walking toward the dogs.

I am almost at the gate when I see the very familiar red bike coming toward the house.  It’s Ernie.  I think he is the meanest kid in the third grade. My stomach’s starting to get that funny feeling I always get whenever he is around.  My heart is racing, and my hands are beginning to sweat.  I wonder what he is doing at my house.  But I feel brave because Ernie never picks on me when

my Mom is around.  She's one of the teachers at our school.

          Slowly, I begin walking up to the gate. In my loudest, toughest voice, I shout, “Who’s there?”  The kid doesn’t answer me.  I can’t see Ernie’s face very well, but I am pretty sure that is his bike.  The rider on the bike has on a light-blue jacket with the hood up over his head.  I can’t remember ever seeing Ernie with a light-blue jacket.

“What do you want?”  I ask in my toughest cowboy voice.  “Why did you come to my house?”  But this time, I say it under my breath so he can’t hear.

What does Ernie really need?

Thought-provoking and entertaining as well, Calbert: The Third-Grade Cowboy tackles a timely and serious subject of school bullying to which parents of children and children themselves can actually relate with. Calbert’s story will awaken the minds of the readers to an alarming situation that continues to exist not only in the school system but generally, in today’s society. Furthermore, it represents to readers an arresting story that depicts two contrasting personalities in Calbert, an adopted child showered with love by his family and friendship by his peers and Ernie, a child longing for love from his family and friendship from others but doesn’t get one therefore ends up being the school bully.

A Cowboys Work is Never Done...Chapter 1

         “Bang bang bang!”  I shout.  I pull my six-shooters out of my holster and dart around the corner to my older brother’s bedroom.  “Take that!”  I say, pointing my pistol at imaginary bad guys.”  Jason yells at me, “Get lost, kid!”

“Kid!  Who are you calling a kid?  I am Calbert, the toughest cowboy in the Third

grade,”   yell back at him.  “Even my name    means ‘cowboy,’ so there.”

 I move into the kitchen.  You never know what kind of outlaw may have stopped in for a bite.  Especially if they had fresh baked chocolate chip cookies on their minds.  “Bang bang bang!”  I shoot again, only to find my little brother staring back at me.  He's the real “kid” around here.  Ethan is two years younger than I am and very annoying.

Ethan just looks at me and says, “Calbert, Calbert, Calbert, will you play with me?”

“If you'll play cowboys,” I say.

“No way,” Ethan replies and then hops out of the kitchen.

I sure don’t know what Mom was thinking when she adopted Ethan along with Jason and me.  We have always been brothers, but this was our chance to get rid of him—wish we could give him back!  Actually, I do kind of like him, but I’m not going tell him that!

 “Yay, it's Saturday,” I yell as I run outside.  My teacher likes me, and I have lots of friends, but there is this one kid that likes to pick on me sometimes. On Saturdays, I don’t have to worry about Ernie at all, just about having fun.

I love to play “shoot ’em up” games like cowboy games.  My black cowboy hat fits me just perfectly, except for the flat part on top. Thanks a lot, Ethan!

Live or Die...by way of the Bully

But, when Calbert and Ernie found themselves trapped together in a fire at the school building during a dress rehearsal for a school program, they must find a way to work together to escape with their lives.  Will Calbert and Ernie be able to put aside their differences, in order to survive? Or will they end up being burn into ashes?

Why does Ernie Bully Calbert?

Calbert wonders why he is Ernie’s favorite victim at school. He learns from Roland, his trusted friend that Ernie’s dad died a couple of years ago, and Chuck, his step dad doesn’t really like him mostly because Ernie  looks like his real dad, and he has the same name as him. It makes Chuck jealous of Ernie’s dad. Sometimes he gets really mad at Ernie for no reason. He doesn’t have any true friends except for Munch, his pet dog.

The Bully

Calbert: The Third--Grade Cowboy  tells the story of an average school boy named Calbert who is fond of playing a cowboy with his buddy Roland during the weekends but is afraid to go to school during weekdays because he always must find a way to face down Ernie, the certified school bully. Ernie makes life unbearable for Calbert in many ways, but he especially enjoys picking on him for being an adopted child. He always makes fun of Calbert for being adopted and says that neither Calbert’s birth mom nor his adoptive mom wanted him and his brothers.

New York here I Come!

Yesterday, I was invited to the Big Apple to present Calbert: The Third-Grade Cowboy.  I have tentatively accepted, because this small town women is very nervous about not only going to New York City for the first time,  but also presenting my book to professionals in the field.  However, nothing ventured is nothing gained!  So, I will be heading to New York next month for two days.