Jeremya Jones

Chapter One
This was the third morning Jeremya had awoken in a cold sweat with his heart beating fast. He opened his eyes and lay there looking around his bedroom. “Wow!” he said, “I had that wild dream again!”
He heard his mom call from downstairs, “Jeremya! Jeremya boy, you’d better get up and get moving before you’re late for school!”
“Yes, Ma’am,” he replied. Jeremya rushed to get dressed and wolfed down his breakfast. He didn’t want to miss the bus, so he ran as fast as he could to the bus stop.
There she was, sitting on the bus stop bench…Sara Johnson, the prettiest girl in the whole school. Jeremya really liked Sara Johnson. She was looking good this morning. Jeremya made sure he was next in line behind her as they got on the school bus.
“Good morning, Sara!” he said with a big smile.
Sara returned the smile and said, “Good morning, Jeremya!”
They sat beside each other as the bus pulled away from the stop. A few minutes later, they heard the brakes squeaking as the bus driver slowed at the next stop.
Jeremya was just about to tell Sara that she really looked good this morning when Billy Batson got on the bus.
“Hey, Sara!” Billy called, “You really look good this morning!”
A lump formed in Jeremya’s throat at Billy’s compliment, and he wanted to scream.
“Thank you, Billy.” Sara looked pleased. “This is a new dress my mom bought me.”
Billy gloated at Jeremya and said, “Who are you looking at, Church Boy?”
Jeremya had gotten the label “Church Boy” because he read his Bible everyday at lunchtime. He had always felt different from the rest of the kids at school. None of them understood how important his walk with God was to him. They taunted and teased him because he was open about his faith.
Billy Batson was a bully who had failed two grades, and he was about to fail ninth grade, too. “Hey, Church Boy! I’m talking to you,” Billy said now in a louder tone of voice. All the kids on the bus stopped talking to hear what was going on.
Billy sat with two of his friends, James and Tommy. They were also failing the ninth grade. “Maybe Church Boy can’t hear!” they shouted as they laughed.
Jeremya held his peace, but when he saw the fear in Sara’s eyes, he said, “I can hear just fine, but you’re like a dull knife that can’t do any cuttin’. You’re talkin’ loud and not sayin’ nuttin’!”
The other kids on the bus roared with laughter.
Billy and his friends were hot with anger as they demanded that everybody shut up. Billy was like the principal; when he spoke in that tone, the kids jumped in fear. Everybody immediately quieted down.
“So you’re a comedian, huh, Mister Funny Guy? Well, let’s just see how funny you are when we get off this bus!” Billy threatened angrily.
“I don’t want any trouble,” Jeremya said with as much bravery as he could muster.
The other kids waited with baited breath to see what would happen next. Wouldn’t you know it? The bus was that minute coming to a stop in front of the high school.
Billy and his friends jumped off the bus. “Come on, Church Boy!” they shouted. “You’re about to get a good whippin’!” A gang of kids gathered around Billy and watched to see what Jeremya would do.
“I’ll go get the principal for you, Jeremya,” Sara said with concern.
“Don’t worry, Sara. I’ll talk to them. “They’re just showing off.” In his mind he hoped he was right.
“Okay guys, I said I didn’t want any trouble,” he said as he stepped off the bus.
“Well, Church Boy, Mr. Funny Guy, you got trouble anyway!” the three boys shouted at the same time.
“James, grab him!” Billy commanded. As James took a step toward Jeremya, Jeremya turned and roared, “I SAID I DIDN’T WANT ANY TROUBLE!”
In the very same instant, the three bullies and all the kids standing around waiting to see a fight just fell flat on their backs.╬1 It happened so fast, no one knew what hit them. As everyone was getting up, Sara came running with Mr. Tracey, the principal, and two male teachers.
“What’s going on here?” Mr. Tracey demanded.
The kids who had circled around the four fighters didn’t answer, but instead began to run in all directions toward their classes. The adults let them go in order to focus on Jeremya and the other three.
“Nothing! We were just fooling around, right guys?” Billy said with a fake smile.
The principal looked at Jeremya and asked, “Is that true?”
Billy, James and Tommy looked at him with a mixture of fear and anger still on their faces.
“Yes sir, we all got a bit too carried away. We won’t do it again.” Jeremya bit the inside of his cheek. He knew he’d only told a part instead of the whole truth, but he didn’t want to add “Tattle Tale” to the list of names he already got called.
Mr. Tracey knew that Jeremya was an honest student, so he said, “Alright. All of you get to class!”