Chapter 3: Problem Child


Someone was shaking him. He heard a female voice talking, but he couldn't make out the words over the ringing in his ears.

Everything hurt; his back was throbbing, his leg twinged from where he landed on it wrong, and his head was pounding.

He cracked his eyes open and his vision swam. He blinked a few times and the world started to come into focus. He was lying on the hard ground staring up at sunshine coming through the leaves on the tree above.

The face of the red-headed girl he had been racing came into view. She was looking down at him in concern and shaking his shoulder.

"Hey kid, you okay? Kid?"

Dewey groaned. Was he okay? Everything hurt but... nothing felt broken. He remembered flipping over the front of his bike, and even though his head was rattled, he was pretty sure he missed it in the fall. He had somehow landed sprawled out on his back instead.

"I… think so," he said as he pushed himself into a sitting position. He winced as his back twinged in pain. "I guess we both lost the race."

This was apparently the wrong thing to say because the girl's concerned expression twisted into an angry scowl as she stood up onto her feet. She was now towering over him, her hands on her hips.

"I WOULD have won if you hadn't knocked me into the street and almost got us hit by a car!"

"Dewey!"

"Dewey, are you okay?"

He heard two familiar voices shout.

Dewey looked up to see his brother's running towards him. Not wanting to make them worry, Dewey climbed to his feet as they approached. He hid a grimace as his muscles ached from the movement.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," he assured them.

When they reached him, Huey's gaze swept him over as if to confirm that he was indeed alright. Louie grabbed his arm, not to steady him, but for Louie's own assurance. Louie always got a bit clingy when he was worried.

"Are you okay? Did you hit your head?" Huey reached out to check his brother's head, but Dewey took a defiant step back. He was never a fan of Huey fussing over him.

"Would you relax? I'm just going to have a bruise on my back, but I'm fine."

Huey give him another once over, just to be sure. "Well, I'm glad you're okay…" Huey said at last, once he seemed satisfied that Dewey wasn't about to fall over again. "I told you that bike was a bad idea."

Dewey rolled his eyes. He wasn't in the mood for an 'I told you so'.

Huey's attention turned to the girl who was now facing away from them currently glaring down at her broken bike. The front wheel had smashed into the tree, which had completely bent the front tire frame. The girl had a cut above her right eye which was bleeding down the side of her face.

"Hey, are you okay?" Huey asked the girl in concern.

The girl whipped around angrily. "Do I look okay?" she growled. "My bike is totalled, I almost got killed, and worst of all, I didn't get to finish the race!" She stalked towards the three boys, her eyes narrowing on Dewey. "And it's all your fault!"

"Umm… not finishing the race was the worst out of those three?" Huey muttered to himself incredulously.

"Hey, it's not like I wanted my bike chain to break!" Dewey defended.

"No, but you didn't slow down once it did! Instead you kept going and ran us off the road!"

Dewey scoffed. "It's not like you were going to win anyway. I totally had you beat!"

"What did you just say?"

Dewey's eyes widened as the girl grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and jerked him forward threateningly. She didn't raise her other fist, but she looked pissed enough to hit him. Dewey was just starting to realize from this girl's fierce glare and unexpected strength, that maybe she wasn't someone he should mess with.

"Whoa, hold on!" Huey shouted and suddenly his hand was on the girl's fist that was clutching his shirt. "I know my brother messed up, but it was just a stupid mistake. Everyone's fine, right? Let's not make this worse!"

The girl's furious green eyes continued to stare Dewey down. For a moment, he really thought she was going to hit him. Despite being shorter than him, she was obviously athletic, and could probably get a good punch in or two before his brothers managed to stop her.

Then, to his surprise, she took a deep breath and opened her hand, allowing fabric of his shirt fall away.

"Just… stay out of my way," she grumbled before she stormed away, leaving her bike and the three boys behind.

"Gosalyn Mallard, what did you do?" An authoritarian voice called after the girl. The boys turned around to see that a teacher had run over to check to see if anyone had gotten hurt in the crash. Some curious kids had tagged along as well.

The girl, who was apparently named Gosalyn, turned around to glower at her audience. "Why are you blaming me? I didn't do nothin'!"

"I saw you, young lady!" The teacher, a crane with perfectly manicured white feathers, scolded. "If you get into one more fight-"

"I wasn't going to fight," Gosalyn snapped. "If you want to blame someone, blame that kid!" She pointed in Dewey's direction. "He was the one that ruined the race. I'm outta of here!"

''Gosalyn, get back here!" the teacher called after her.

Unsurprisingly, Gosalyn ignored her and kept walking.

The teacher sighed. "That child…" she muttered under her breath. She turned to the three brothers. "Are you kids okay?"

Dewey nodded quickly. "Yeah, we're fine."

The teacher frowned. "That was a really bad fall. You need to go to the nurse office."

"No, that's okay… I uh..." Dewey began as he tried to rack his brain for an excuse. As annoying as Huey's fussing was, their Uncle Donald would be five times worse if he found out Dewey had been sent to see the school nurse.

"Laura, can you make sure they get to the nurse?" the teacher instructed a female student who stood next to her.

"Sure, Ms. Crane," the girl agreed. The girl, Laura, was a female duck with grey feathers and dark hair who seemed to be about a year older than them.

Laura showed them the way to the nurse's office. She didn't make much conversation other than asking "you guys are from that Duckburg school, right? I hear you guys actually get new textbooks. Our school only gives us used books."

They hadn't known what to say, so they just nodded.

Laura lead them to the front office where the school nurse was located. The nurse was a dog with tan fur and a tight smile. She examined Dewey's back, and after determining there was no serious injury that required calling their guardian, she gave him an ice pack. Annoyingly, Laura hadn't left the nurses office and she seemed to revel in gossiping with the nurse about the details of the crash.

"Well, I'm just glad no one else was hurt," the nurse said after Laura finished her retelling.

"Well, there was that other girl," Huey said. "She got cut above her eye in the crash but it didn't look like she came here. That wasn't very smart. A cut like that could get infected."

"Oh no, who was it?" The nurse asked. "I should really call her in so I can take a look at it."

"It was Gosalyn Mallard," Laura supplied. "She almost got into a fight with the blue kid after the crash. She was super pissed that she didn't win."

The nurses pursed her lips. "That girl…" The nurse sighed. "I'm not surprised she didn't come to me. I don't like to say this, but she's the definition of a problem child." she shook her head and then turned to Dewey as if she was re-examining him for injuries. "Did she hit anybody? That girl only gets one more chance before she's suspended and I knew it would only be a matter of time."

"No, uh... she just yelled at me," Dewey admitted.

"Yeah, you got off lucky compared to what she did to Joey," Laura said.

"Joey? Uhh… who's Joey… and what did she do to him?" Dewey asked while nervously glancing out the window. "Not that I'm worried or anything."

"She almost broke his beak!" Laura exclaimed. "He didn't even do anything to her! She just got pissed at him one day and… pow! He stayed home for a week after that."

"So…" Louie began slowly. "If she almost broke that kid Joey's beak for nothing, then what do you think she would do to someone who was responsible for losing her chance at winning the big bike race?"

Laura gave Dewey a sympathetic look and he felt his heart beat a little faster. "Maybe you should get out of this school as soon as possible," Laura suggested. "Just in case."


Next chapter they will really get to meet Gosalyn and discover how true the rumors really are. The next chapter is the reason I decided to write this fic so I really am looking forward to sharing it with everyone.

Sorry this chapter was a little short and took an extra few days to come out. I'm finishing up an old job and starting a new one so things have been busy.

Don't forget to comment and let me know what you think so far!