A Little Bug's Life

They Come, They Eat, They Leave

'Goodness! Is it time to finish already?' said Mr. Soil, 'Alright Second Graders, you can leave.'

'Last one out of the lesson chamber is a dragonfly larva!' Flik shouted, running towards the chamber entrance. Everybody rushed out. Flik managed to knock over a few of the other kids. 'Sorry!' he called back as he ran. He wasn't watching where he was going and bumped into Hazel.

'Hey, Little Rebel! Be careful down there! You're going to make yourself dizzy!' Flik grinned up at him.

'Hey Hazel!' He picked himself up. 'Sorry! I . . .' Hazel laughed.

'Doesn't matter! How was your first day of Second Grade?'

'Great! One of my better days actually!' Flik replied brightly. Hazel looked around quickly and lowered his voice to a whisper.

'What about the bullying?' Flik's face fell.

'Wh-what bullying? I . . .'

'Flik, it's okay, I know. But I can't interfere much I'm afraid. It wouldn't be a natural process, one day you'll be able to put a stop to it and besides knowing how people can be makes you more suspicious and alert to be being deceived.' Flik nodded.

'Right. But I've managed to avoid them for the most part of the day.' Hazel gave a nod.

'Listen, I've got to go to a council meeting now but I'll meet up with you later, okay?'

'Sure!'

'See you later then, Little Rebel!'

'Bye Hazel!' When Hazel had gone, Flik looked around and caught sight of Fossil and a worker from the First Grade. He hurried over to them.

'Hey, Fossil! How was your first day of First Grade!' The two other children were slightly surprised by his enthusiastic entrance.

'Oh, hi, Flik.' Fossil said not particularly keenly, 'Yeah, it was okay. Um, you're in a good mood . . .'

'Yeah I am! And I had a pretty good day too!' Flik didn't notice the obvious signs of boredom from the other two nor did he seem to hear their sighs, 'I understand something in class for once! It was great and . . .'

'Flik!' Fossil shouted, rather irritated. Flik stopped. Fossil hesitated. Flik was now expecting him to say something. 'Um, this is Pondweed, Pondweed Cassandra, Pondweed for short.' Flik easily recognized the short, dark blue, freckly worker.

'Right. But then at Recess, I hid behind this leaf and Myrmica and his cronies didn't spot me and then . . .'

'Flik, um . . .' Fossil began.

'Gotta go!' Pondweed interrupted.

'Um, yeah. Gotta go to, um, the . . .'

'Infirmary.'

'For a check up,' Fossil added, 'Yeah, gotta go . . .'

'Yes, gotta go now! Come on Fossil!' They both ran off.

'Oh . . . um, okay then . . .' Flik replied, 'I'll, um, just go then . . .' They had gone before he had replied. He sighed and slunk off. He headed for the anthill entrance. The others were probably outside.

'I'm the queen of the clovers!' Martha shouted from on top of one of the clover plants. Carlos, Ivy and (recently joined by) Flik kept trying climb up but Martha kept pushing them down.

'No you're not!' Ivy retorted.

'If any kid's queen of anything it would be Atta!' Flik added crossly. Martha was suddenly kicked off. She quickly grabbed the stalk to prevent herself falling. Atta was hovering very uneasily above the clover.

'Shove off, Princess!' Martha snarled.

'Why don't you shove off, Martha!' Flik shouted.

'Shut it, dweeb!' she replied nastily. Flik felt hurt.

'Could you possibly be a bit nicer Martha?' Carlos said with a sigh. Martha glared at him. She slid down the stalk and left. The other four slid down too.

'Let's go to the edge of the island, Atta!' Ivy said, 'Carlos, you come too.'

'Okay!' They began to walk away. Flik didn't know what to do. He didn't want to be left alone again.

'Hey!' he called uncertainly. They all turned. 'Um, can I come too?' Atta sighed and rolled her eyes. Carlos and Ivy looked awkward.

'Um, okay.' Ivy said, after a few moments. Flik hurried after them.

'Whoa!' Flik exclaimed.

'Nice view, isn't it?'

'Sure is Ivy!' Carlos replied.

'The cliff's pretty steep . . .' the uncertain princess said.

'Oh, come on Atta, it's not that scary!' Ivy said laughing,

'As long as you don't go too close to the edge.' Flik added, looking uneasily over the edge. The princess scowled at him.

'Let's sit down here for a while.' Ivy said to the others. They nodded (Flik and Atta rather uneasily).

'Don't be such a wimp, Flik!' Carlos told him. Flik sighed and looked at the ground.

For a short time, they just relaxed on the ground, looking up at the clovers and the sky. They were close to falling asleep when Flik shouted out.

'Look! Look over there!'

'What is it, Flik?' Ivy asked drowsily.

'Yeah!' said Carlos with a yawn. Atta stretched and rubbed her eyes.

'Come and look! Look up! Look over here!' The other three slowly got up and went over to him. 'Look!' In the distance, were some browny colored dots heading in the direction of the island.

'What is that?' Ivy asked.

'Looks like flying dirt to me!' Carlos said.

'It can't be dirt!' Atta answered.

'What ever it is,' Carlos said to the others, 'It's heading this way pretty quickly.'

'Ah! What do we do! What do we do!' Atta shouted, beginning to panic.

'Calm down, Atta!' Ivy told her, trying not to laugh, 'It's probably just some kind of mist or something.'

'But what if it's not!' shrieked the princess.

'I know!' Flik cried, 'Princess, why don't you fly up there and take a closer look for us!'

'That's absurd!' Carlos shouted.

'What are you thinking!' Ivy exclaimed.

'It was just an idea.' Flik replied, shuffling his feet.

'Well, we might be able to tell what it was . . .' Atta said uncertainly but it sounded like she was considering, 'If I could fly better . . .'

'You can fly!' Flik interrupted, 'You flew when you kicked Martha off that clover! Your flying's loads better than it used to be!'

'Well, I guess I did . . . and what harm could come of it anyway . . .' she said very nervously, 'Oh, okay then, I'll go.' The other two stared at her. Flik grinned. Atta unsteadily rose into the air and flew towards the brown dots which were much closer by this time. She stopped. She could see they were some type of insects. The three children below could see a few seconds later that they were insects.

'What do you think they want?' Ivy asked the other two. Carlos shrugged. Flik gasped. He had suddenly remembered something Mr. Soil had told him. More than double Flik's size, winged, brown or green in color!

'Atta!' Flik yelled, 'Get down from there!' She looked down at him.

'Why?' she asked.

'Because they're grass . . .'

'Hey, you!' Atta turned to find herself in front of a group of these very large insects.

'Y-y-yes?'

'What are you doing up here!' the lead grasshopper roared.

'Um, flying?'

'Who said you could fly in this area while we're here!' he bellowed.

'I needed to ask permission?'

'Why wouldn't you need to ask permission!'

'Well it is their home, Hoppy, I mean . . .'

'Shut up, Molt!'

'Say, Hopper,' said one of the other grasshoppers, 'haven't we seen this kid before?'

'Yeah,' added another, 'I think he's right.' Hopper studied Atta for a second.

'They do look similar, don't they?' he said thoughtfully, half to himself, half to the others, 'Hmm, Thumper?' The savage grasshopper appeared beside him. Atta screamed and began to fly back towards the island. The grasshoppers perused. They zoomed passed the other three children.

'Come on!' Flik shouted to the other two as he began to run. They followed him, before overtaking him.

'Nice job, Flik!' Carlos said grumpily.

'Yeah, great!' Ivy added.

'Mom!' Atta shouted,

'Atta, what's going . . ?' Atta had landed and was now hiding behind her mother. The grasshoppers landed not far off. The queen gasped when she saw them.

'B-b-but y-you normally arrive later in the season,' she exclaimed, 'We . . .' Suddenly, chaos erupted throughout the colony. No one had expected this immediate arrival; lookouts hadn't even been positioned yet.

'Oh, we thought we'd come early this year . . .' Hopper replied in a dangerously friendly tone momentarily ignoring the shouts of panic coming from the rest of the ants,

'Silence!' he bellowed, 'Or you'll find yourselves being thrown off this island!' The noise stopped and the ants converged into small, whimpering, groups. Hopper turned his attention away from them and eyed the princess.

'My daughter's done nothing wrong, she's just a child, she . . .'

'Your daughter?'

'Y-y-yes . . .'

'That's the princess!' he snorted, 'THAT'S the princess!' The other grasshoppers laughed too.

'Hey, Hop! How's it goin'?' Hopper turned with a very angry expression on his face. Hazel had arrived.

'You,' Hopper snarled, 'I remember you . . .' If he hadn't been so occupied with Hazel, he would've noticed Flik laughing. Carlos and Ivy shifted away from Flik, fearing getting into trouble themselves.

'He's mad,' the queen insisted, 'completely crazy, can't believe a thing he says. Time to calm down now, Hazel. Not long 'til bed time.'

'Shut up, Amadala!' Hazel muttered, 'And let go of me!'

'Do you want to get us all killed?' she muttered back. Hopper surveyed the offering stone. The ants held their breath. He turned back towards them.

'This is not nearly enough!' he bellowed.

'B-B-But that's all we've had time to gather so far,' the queen stuttered, 'Please . . .'

'We'll be back later in the season. And there better be a lot more grain than that or someone could get hurt . . . Oh, and, we found this along the way here . . .' A couple of the grasshoppers dropped a small, frightened worker to the ground. Hopper turned back to his gang, 'Let's ride!' And with that Hopper and his gang took to the air and flew into the distance. Flik ran up to Hazel.

' 'Hey, Hop! How's it goin''! That was brilliant, Hazel!' Flik exclaimed. Hazel laughed. Atta hurried up to Flik. She was not in a good mood.

'This is all your fault, Flik! You had them chasing after me! You persuaded me to go up there and look and then I get chased by grasshoppers!' she shouted before storming off.

'Don't worry, Flik, she'll get over it.' Hazel reassured him. Flik smiled up at him.

The small girl just sat where she had been dropped without a clue what to do.

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