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"Okay," Lucy said, quietly "That&039;s the guy You see hi the school parking lot Classes had let out a few o and normally Brent would be on his bus headed home but Lucy had assured him this would be worth his while He wasn&039;t so sure yet "Yeah, I see hiht a pair of binoculars and had pointed out a kid, just a fresh lot Brent could see hiht had been ith The kid had his head ducked down and his arht try to steal it froet He&039;s coet was a senior Brent knew him, or at least he&039;d been pointed out to Brent very early on when he got to high school It was Matt Perkins, the notorious bully Perkins was overweight and not particularly tall He had hair that fell down over his eyes and bad teeth For the last two years he&039;d been preying on the inco one or t kids to pick on He would harass therew bored and then he would pick a new one and start in on them He&039;d never bothered Brent - Perkins only went after the scrawny kids, the little ones who couldn&039;t fight back

"You want me to beat him up?" Brent asked He had to ad

"Yeah, but you have to do this right He has to knohy he&039;s getting beat down," Lucy explained "He has to know it isn&039;t cool to prey on little kids"

Brent frowned "Hey," he said "This isn&039;t personal, is it?"

"I don&039;t knohat you , such as, I don&039;t know, maybe last year Perkins and I had a run in, you know, maybe he shook me down for my lunch money every day for three weeks in a row, and ht back with these braces on "

"Uh-huh Okay They&039;re about to cross paths"

"Good luck," Lucy said, and squeezed his bicep "Go be a hero"

Down in the parking lot Perkins was leaning against the side of a car, sht The fresh to back away but Brent knew exactly how this was going to happen If the freshman ran, Perkins could chase hiround Perkins would just beat him up The kid didn&039;t have a chance

Which here Brent caht? He knew that was hoas supposed to work He was supposed to protect the defenseless Stand up for those who couldn&039;t stand up for the his feet into the ground and juh the air, down the side of the hill, to land not more than ten feet away from Perkins

The bully juhost "What - ?" he had tiround with one hand

Perkins struggled, kicking at Brent&039;s face and shoulders while his hands grabbed on to Brent&039;s shirt and pulled It was easy for Brent to fend hi, justto Brent&039;s new muscles

He looked down at the fresh on the sidewalk

"What&039;s your naby"

"This guy giving you a hard time?" Brent asked

The freshman just nodded He looked like he couldn&039;t believe this was happening

"You want ot up slowly and shrugged "I - I don&039;t know, I just want him - I want him to stop Every day he&039;s here I live just over there," he said, pointing at some houses on the other side of a chainlink fence "This is the fastest way forway but he was just waiting forto kill ave hi my Dad but he just said I should learn to stick up for myself I tried that, and he - Matt - beat me up pretty bad"

"Okay," Brent said "I&039;ll take it froo home, now? I don&039;t think he&039;ll be here tomorrow"