Read Online Bobby the Brave (Sometimes) by Lisa Yee - Free Book Online

study medicine until I realized that being a doctor wasn’t who I was meant to be.”
    Bobby nodded. Mr. Rainerhaus knew how he felt.
    â€œI’m sorry I put you on the spot,” his teacher continued. “I was so thrilled to learn who your father is that I mistook you for him.”
    Hearing this made Bobby laugh. No one had ever mistaken him for The Freezer before. “Thanks, Mr. Rainerhaus,” Bobby said. “That’s a first!”
    As Mr. Rainerhaus walked him back to Room 15, Bobby thought that maybe Mr. Rainerhaus wasn’t so awful once you got to know him. In fact, he no longer seemed like a mean PE teacher. Instead, Mr. Rainerhaus almost seemed like a regular person.

A nd bring your costumes tomorrow,” Mrs. Carlson reminded the class. “We will be having our one and only dress rehearsal.”
    St. James hoisted his backpack over his shoulder. “You should see my Daddy Warbucks costume,” he bragged. “It’s got shoulder pads and everything. I look so good!”
    Bobby zipped his Troy Eagle backpack shut. His father had been working on his costume forever, but he refused to let anyone see it. Bobby wasn’t sure what to expect, especially since his dad had never sewn anything before, unless you counted an upside-down patch on Annie’s letterman’s jacket.
    That afternoon, when Bobby got home, Casey and Wormy Worm Worm greeted him. “You should be more careful,” Bobby advised his sister as she dangled her worm in his face. “I’m not sure if Wormy likes that.”
    â€œOh!” Casey gently kissed her worm, then placed him back in the dirt patch. “Bobby, want to play? Pleeeease!!!”
    Bobby had homework, plus he needed to check on his Sandy costume. But when he looked at Casey, who had her eyes screwed shut and her fingers crossed, he said, “Okay, but just for half an hour. I have important things to do.”
    â€œWill I have important things to do when I’m big like you, Bobby?” Casey asked as she followed him into the house.
    He nodded. “Sure. In fact, you already do a lot of important things.”
    Casey’s jaw dropped. “I do? Like what? Tell me!”
    â€œWell, you take good care of Wormy Worm Worm,” Bobby said. Casey nodded. “And you always make sure your crown is on straight.”
    Casey touched her crown. “Princess Becky says that a true princess always wears her crown with pride. What else, Bobby? What other important things do I do?”
    He gave it some thought. “Well, Mom always asks you to wake me up in the morning so I’m not late to school. And if you didn’t do that, and I was late every day, then I might get kicked out of the fourth grade. And if that happened, I couldn’t get into fifth grade or any other grade, and I might end up a ne’er-do-well.”
    â€œBobby,” his little sister asked, “what’s a ne’er-do-well?”
    â€œI’m not sure,” he answered. “I heard it on the Hop-a-long Howdy Cowboy Show , and I don’t think it’s a good thing.”
    Casey’s eyes welled up with tears. “I don’t want you to become a ne’er-do-well,” she sobbed, flinging her arms around him. “I promise to keep up with my important things. Wow, if it weren’t for me, you’d be a ne’er-do-well! Wait until I tell Da-Da-Doo!”
    As Casey raced to her room to talk to her stuffed dragon, Bobby couldn’t help but smile. He liked being a big brother.
    Mr. Ellis-Chan had left Bobby’s afternoon snack on the kitchen table. Today it was a chunk of cheddar cheese, some green grapes, and what looked like either a cookie or maybe mashed potatoes. Or, knowing his father, a combination of both.
    â€œHow was school?” his dad’s voice said behind him.
    Bobby startled. He had just buried the cookie/potato in the trash and hoped his father hadn’t seen him.