A Little Bug s Life
Playing The Game
'Guess what day it is, loser!'
'Uh, Tuesday?'
'No!'
'Actually, Myrmica, he's right; it is Tuesday today.'
'Shut up, Slate! Today is Beat Up Flik Day!' He kicked Flik against a stalk.
'Hey, wait a minute, this isn't fair, I'm not getting a chance here!'
'Life isn't fair, loser! Or would you rather I told Princess Atta, you stole from her, hum?'
'But I didn't take anything! And she's hasn't lost anything!' The other children nearby pretended not to notice. 'We can easily change that!' Flik stared at him. The last thing he wanted was the princess thinking he was a thief. 'Slate, Herb! Hold him.' Flik made a dodge. 'Hey, look everyone! The loser's doing ballet dancing!'
'That quite enough of that!' They all turned. Flik let out a sigh of relief. Princess Atta was flying rather unsteadily towards them.
'Hello there, Princess, Me and Flik were playing a little game.'
'Well, I think Flik's had enough of playing games . . .' She landed next to Flik, 'And Recess is almost over anyway.' She took Flik's arm and led him away. 'That game didn't look very fun to me, was it?' Flik could recognize some form of sarcasm in her voice.
'Not really.' Flik answered.
'Recess is over!' Shouted Mr. Soil, 'Back to class!' The young ants ran towards the entrance of the anthill. Flik fell over in the rush. Ivy ran back to help him up. They were left outside.
'Aren't you going to class?' drawled a voice. They turned to see it was Myrmica who was speaking. 'I would've thought,' he continued, 'a couple of goodie goodies like you, would've returned early!' Martha, who was beside him, smirked.
'Come on, Flik, let's go.' She led him towards the anthill.
'Hey, loser!' Myrmica called after them, 'It's still Beat Up Flik Day!'
'Come on, Flik, we've gotta get to class.'
Ivy and Flik ran into the chamber, breathless.
'Late again, Flik. But it's not like you, Ivy, to be late.'
'Sorry,' puffed Flik, 'won't happen again.'
'That's what you said last time,' Mr. Soil remarked.
'Flik fell over,' explained Ivy, 'I stopped to help him.' The majority of the rest of the class groaned. Mr. Soil sighed heavily and rolled his eyes,
'Why am I not surprised. Sit down, sit down.' They sat down. 'Now, let's talk about Ant Island history. Now, does anyone know how long ago it was when the grasshoppers first arrived? Yes, Princess Atta.'
'Approximately four generations ago.' Flik started gazing at her as if in a dream.
'Correct, your highness,' Atta noticed Flik looking at her and scowled. He quickly looked away, embarrassed. 'Now, what is the lead grasshopper's name?' There was a spooky silence. Every child knew it but they were too afraid to say it. Flik, slightly irritated by everyone else's hesitance, answered,
'Hopper.' Many other kids shuddered. There was a look in Mr. Soil's eyes that he didn't feel particularly pleasant thinking about it.
'Yes, and why do they keep coming back?'
'Because,' replied a gray girl, 'we need the protection and . . .'
'Because we are too cowardly to stand up to them!' replied Flik defiantly. All the others stared at him.
'Now, now, Flik, no need for over exaggeration . . .'
'If anything, I was under exaggerating . . .'
'Well, you seem to have the wrong impression!' Mr. Soil was beginning to lose his temper with the rebellious lad.
'But Mr. Soil, that's not true! And I think Hazel would agree!'
'Queen Amadala's husband is a bad influence! Heaven knows what might have happened if she didn't keep an eye on him almost constantly. He's digging his own grave! And probably a lot of other people's too! Now, let's get back to what I was saying before all this needless interruption; the grasshoppers . . .'
Flik looked at the floor, not paying the slightest bit of attention to Mr. Soil's lecture on 'the grasshoppers are nice really' He was wrong about Hazel and he was wrong about the grasshoppers! He had learnt more from Hazel than he had ever from Mr. Soil.
He pictured a scene with himself and Hazel waving down to the rest of the colony in triumph after the completed revolution. Princess Atta was running up to him through the cheering crowd, glowing in admiration,
'Flik, we would've all been doomed if it hadn't been for you!' You were so brave! You're a hero . . .'
'Flik?' Are you paying any attention to what I'm saying?' Flik started and realized that everyone was looking at him.
'Um . . . well . . . yes, Mr. Soil.'
'Good, well as I was saying, the grasshoppers . . .'
'Mr. Soil?'
'Yes, Flik?' he replied warily,
'What do grasshoppers look like?'
'Why would you want to know that?' asked a blue girl coldly.
'Well Flik?' inquired Mr. Soil. Flik thought, he needed to speak along Mr. Soil's lines to get him to answer.
'Well . . . if we saw one, we would know what it was. I mean strange bugs . . .
'Alright, Flik. Grasshoppers are huge, more than double your size, long antennae, wings, two legs and four arms, brown or green in color.' Flik stared.
He spent the rest of the lesson imagining a scene of him fighting five grasshoppers at once. He had just got to the part where he was about to fight Hopper single handedly, when the lesson ended. He was still in a daze when he left the chamber, and almost crashed into Princess Atta!
'Oh, I'm so sorry, Your Highness!'
'Were you even listening to anything Mr. Soil was saying?'
'Uh, actually, no . . .' Flik admitted. She gave an odd smile,
'I didn't think you did!'
'Well . . . I . . .' She laughed.
'Neither did I, Mother had already told me most of it anyway.' He managed a smile. 'So, what are you doing this lunch time?'
'Avoiding Myrmica's games!' Both children burst into laughter.
'What would you say to avoiding by spending Recess with me?' Flik's eyes widened,
'Y-you want to spend Recess with me? Really?'
'Really. Why not? It's not like you're a grasshopper or something!'
'Well, I'd - I'd love to. I mean to spend Recess with you, not to be a grasshopper . . .' she laughed. Flik smiled nervously. She took hold of his wrist.
'Come on,' she said, 'we'd better get our food.'
'Where's that loser got to? I want to give him a surprise!'
'Dunno,' Herb said to Myrmica, 'Haven't seen him since Recess this mornin'.'
'Maybe he's hiding!' Myrmica sneered.
'Um, he's over there, Myrmica,' Martha told him, 'with Perfect Princess . . .'
'What!' He turned and looked where his sister was pointing. Sure enough, they were sitting on a rock eating their lunch together. Flik looked very happy. And Atta didn't look in the slightest bit irritated with him at all. Myrmica was furious.
Not only was Flik with the princess enjoying himself but there was no way that Myrmica could go over there and start picking on him. He clenched his fists and gritted his teeth in anger and jealousy. How could the princess prefer that total loser to him!
'Let's leave him,' Myrmica muttered to his cronies, 'we'll get back at him later.'
The workers in the first grade had gone for a talk about digging so the First and Second Grade classes had been combined. Dr. Flora was acting as a substitute teacher for the class and she wasn't finding it particularly easy. There was a large amount of chatter. Myrmica kept poking Flik in the back and Martha kept pulling Atta's antennae. Dr. Flora hadn't noticed the nastiness; she was too busy trying to stop the talking.
Without thinking, Flik slapped Martha's hand to try to stop her picking on Atta. Myrmica and Martha shoved him hard. He bumped into the worker in front of him. She turned. Flik stared.
'Oh . . . um, sorry, Clarice . . . I . . .'
'No worries,' she replied smiling at him. She helped him up, 'Not your fault if you're clumsy . . .' Straight after she had said this, and Flik had looked away, she glanced suspiciously at Myrmica and his cronies.
Dr. Flora was close to giving up. It was hopeless. She was supposed to be teaching them Math but how could she get the kids to listen to her if she was talking about multiplication and division? If this class was not to be wasted, she needed a topic that would some what interest them. She cleared her throat. The class looked up at her briefly. She knew one thing that was taught in school which had an element that interested children.
One of the subjects was predators so they would be prepared for later life. But there was one creature that would catch their attention.
'Okay, class,' She said, hoping she sounded reasonably confidant, 'Today, I'm going to talk to you about dragonflies . . .' There was a murmur of excitement going through the class. Dragonflies. The classic fairy tale monsters. The one creature it was not possible to find a child who hadn't heard of them.
'Dragonflies are huge!' one boy said to another.
'Yeah! And scary!' the other replied.
'Shamrock could fight them off though!' Flik said enthusiastically, 'The tales of Shamrock are the best! They're my favorite!'
'Mine too!' Atta replied.
'Shamrock was the one who discovered Ant Island, wasn't he?' Clarice asked.
'Yeah, that him!' Flik told her.
'Dragonflies always go after princesses don't they?' a worker asked, 'at least that's the impression you get.'
'Hey, Atta!' Ivy laughed, 'You'd better watch out for dragonflies!' Atta gave a small nervous smile. 'I was joking!' Ivy added quickly.
'I know, but . . .'
'If any dragonflies did come along, I'd help you, Princess.' Flik told her.
'Uh, you would?' Flik felt miserable, it wasn't really the way she'd said it but the expression on her face which had got him. It wasn't disgust but it was close enough to make him feel awful.
'A coward like you! Not likely! Whatcha' gonna do? Challenge the dragonflies to a tripping over contest!' Martha snorted. Everybody laughed. Flik felt worse.
'Actually dragonflies would go for any ant, not just queens . . .' Dr. Flora explained.
'The loser said he'd help her.' Myrmica muttered to his sister.
'Yeah, so?'
'I know exactly what we're gonna do.'
Flik still felt miserable when class was over. He couldn't get the image of Atta's expression out of his head. Why had he gone and said that! How could he have been so stupid? And everyone just laughed at him while Martha cracked jokes.
'Hey, Flik!' Flik turned to see Slate and Herb. It had been Slate who had spoken.
'Over here!' Herb said. Flik was very unsure but went over.
'What's my line again?' Slate asked Herb.
'I dunno!' Herb replied.
'What – what's the problem then?'
'Uh, it's Atta.' Herb said.
'Yeah! That was it. Somethin' 'bout Atta.'
'Well, what?' Flik said impatiently.
'Um, damselflies.' said Herb.
'No, you moron, it's dragonflies!'
'Dragonflies!' Flik exclaimed.
'Yeah!' Slate said.
'Group of them took her.'
'Went down Tunnel 19.'
'Tunnel 19!'
'Yeah!' they both said at once.
'Why are you telling me this?' Flik asked, slightly suspicious.
'Because you said you would help her.' Slate stated.
'Yeah!' Herb added. Flik wasn't sure whether to believe them or not but if it was true, who knew what could happen to Atta. He rushed off towards Tunnel 19, which was considered the most dangerous part of the anthill. You were only allowed in a small part of it.
He quickly looked around. No-one. Nobody would see him go in. He took a deep breath and entered. He walked down the tunnel slowly until he reached a fork. On the wall was a leaf with the word 'danger' written on it. Flik gulped. He forced himself to go on. (One of the tunnels from the fork was a dead end). The floor shook beneath him. It looked like there could be a cave in any moment. He increased his speed. Small fragments of dirt fell.
The end of the tunnel was near. They must be down there. He swallowed hard and prepared to fight but as soon as he turned the corner, he saw nothing. Nobody. There were no obvious signs of any creatures having been down there for a long time. He sighed. He had surely been tricked. There was nothing down there and when he thought about it, how likely was it that dragonflies were going to turn up and as Dr. Flora said, they would go for any ant they saw, not just the queens.
He sighed again and went back the way he had come. What a waste of time and courage. No-one else would be stupid enough to go down there alone. But he had thought it was for Atta, didn't that make it less stupid or did it make it even more stupid?
He reached then entrance and decided to look for Atta (just to make sure she was safe). But he couldn't find her. Should he take another look down Tunnel 19? No, that would be ridiculous besides she was probably somewhere with her mother doing something. Suddenly he heard shouts. He rushed down the corridor. A large amount of ants were panicking. Flik stared. It was true! It must be true! Why else would they be panicking? He had to find Slate and Herb. Maybe they'd seen something else. Maybe he'd just missed the dragonflies.
He rushed outside. Where were Slate and Herb? They had to be somewhere unless the dragonflies had taken them too.
'Flik!' two voices gasped. Flik turned to see Slate and Herb behind him. They seemed to be exhausted.
'They almost caught us!' Herb said through his deep breaths,
'We were lucky!' Slate said in a similar manner to that Herb had spoken in. 'We're exhausted!'
'We can't go on! Somebody hold me!' Herb fell onto his back with a dramatic sigh.
'What about Atta! What have they done with her!' Flik demanded fearfully, 'Tell me!'
'They took her! They flew across the riverbed!' Slate flopped down beside Herb. 'Oh, woe is me!' Flik rushed off. He climbed up to where the thorn plant was and looked out into the distance. If he was going to help Atta he would have to go. He was about to begin to climb down when . . .
'Flik! Whatcha' think you're doing?' Flik turned and stared. He hurried down unable to believe his eyes. He flung his arms around her.
'Princess, you're safe!'
'What the . . ? Get off me!'
'You escaped from the dragonflies!'
'What are you on about? Have you been listening to too many stories recently?' Flik stepped back, looking confused.
'But – But what about the panicking and . . .'
'The adults were panicking because they found a fresh sent going into the dangerous area of Tunnel 19! I've been with my mother all this time!'
'Huh?' Flik caught sight of Myrmica and his cronies. They were laughing their heads off. It had been a trick! The whole thing! It was very hard not to cry. He had completely humiliated himself in front of the princess. He began to walk away.
Well I guess that takes care of their relationship! Myrmica thought to himself satisfied. There was no way that any sort of friendship or anything else could develop between them for the time being anyway.
'Flik! Hang on! Wait!' Flik turned.
'Were you, were you going to leave the island to rescue me?' Flik felt very embarrassed but nodded. Although it didn't show, the princess felt very complimented. Myrmica was furious. 'You know,' Atta said to Flik, 'You're okay, for a crazy guy!'
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