Bobby the Brave (Sometimes) by Lisa Yee

Jillian Zarr’s football and then threw it over the fence. “You sure are lucky.”
    Bobby nodded. He did feel lucky.
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    That afternoon, Bobby raced to his bedroom. Next to the poster of Troy Eagle doing his record-setting ollie, Bobby put up another poster: This one was of The Freezer flying through the air, catching a football.
    â€œHalloween’s this weekend,” he told Koloff and Beatrice as he stood back and admired the posters. “I’m still not sure what my costume’s going to be. I know for sure it won’t be Sandy the dog.” Bobby took the little soccer ball out of the cigar box. “Are you ready to practice?”
    When neither fish responded, he said, “What? Are you trying to tell me you don’t want to do tricks? Sure you do! You should have seen all the amazing things Rover could do with this soccer ball.” Beatrice turned away and explored the castle, while Koloff just stared at Bobby. “Come on you two, you can be exactly like Rover —”
    Suddenly the smile fell off of Bobby’s face. In shock, he sat down on his bed and stared straight ahead. Then he got up and went over to the aquarium. “Oh man, I owe you two an apology,” he told the goldfish. “I was trying to get you to do tricks like Rover, but that was what I wanted, not what you wanted. I am so sorry. Here, look!” Bobby took the ball and the hoops out of the fish tank. “See, you don’t have to do tricks. Not if you don’t want to. Really, I promise. You two are terrific just the way you are!”
    Upon hearing this, Beatrice swam up to the top of the fish tank, and Koloff joined her. Then together they swam to the bottom and, side by side, circled the tank twice before returning to the surface.
    â€œWhat was that?” Bobby asked.
    Again, the fish swam side by side, this time doing flips and spins along the way.
    Bobby couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
    Koloff and Beatrice were dancing.
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    The outside of the Ellis-Chan house was decorated with not-too-scary skeletons and big pumpkins carved to look like Annie, Bobby, and Casey. Fake friendly bats hung from the rafters of the front porch and sparkly cobwebs adorned the windows. Mr. Ellis-Chan secured a giant spider made from plastic garbage bags to the roof as Annie raked the leaves off the lawn and then put up fake tombstones.
    Inside, Mrs. Ellis-Chan, Bobby, and Casey were seated around the kitchen table. In the middle were piles of individually wrapped gumballs, fun-sized chocolate bars, and sparkly Go Girly Girl stickers.
    â€œYou still haven’t told me what your costume is,” Bobby said to Casey. He popped an orange gumball into his mouth, then blew a bubble. Bobby was good at blowing bubbles. Sometimes they got so big that the gum got stuck in his hair.
    â€œGuess! Bobby, guess who I’m going to be for Halloween!” Casey said as she slapped a sticker on her forehead and then one on his.
    Bobby pretended to think about it. “Princess Becky?” It was a pretty safe bet, since that’s who Casey dressed as every day.
    â€œNope.” She giggled. “You’ll see.”
    â€œWhat about you, Bobby?” Mrs. Ellis-Chan asked as she dropped a gumball, a chocolate, and some stickers into a bag and then tied a ribbon around it. “Since you can’t wear your Sandy costume, we can run to the store, or maybe cobble together something from home. How about your space alien costume from last year? Does that still fit?”
    â€œOne of the heads fell off,” he informed his mother. Bobby snuck his fifth gumball. It was getting hard to talk. “But don’t worry about it. I have something else in mind.”
    After the bags were filled, Bobby went into the yard to admire the tombstones. Casey was talking to Wormy Worm Worm as Gnomey Gnome Gnome stood quietly off to the side.
    Bobby picked up the gnome. “Casey,” he said.