It was a beautiful day, and Dot Warner, instead of heading back to Tony's house, just decided to go to the park. Clutching her new guitar, she sat down on the merry-go-round and played a few chords. A small smile crept across her face. She felt a strong urge to start singing, her heart was so light and free.

She had hardly begun playing, however, when something caught her eye and drew her attention. There was a group of three boys standing by the swings and yelling at the three people on the swings to get off. The ringleader of the group looked to be the oldest and biggest.

"Get off those swings!" he yelled. "We want em!"

"But we were here first!" protested a boy on the swings.

"Yeah, well I don't care. You get off right now or we'll push you off!" The authority in his voice made the three children meekly stop and crawl off the swings.

Dot, angered by the injustice, decided to teach those boys a lesson. She stomped over to the bullies and yelled, "HEY YOU MEANIES!"

All three of the boys looked at Dot, then threw their heads back in laughter. It wasn't very nice laughter, either.

"What's so funny?" demanded Dot.

"You're so little!" laughed the ringleader, whose name was Peter. "And you're not even human, you freak!"

Dot glared at them. "You guys need to learn some manners. And I am not a freak! "

"Yeah you are!" laughed Peter. "You're an ugly, timid, stupid little freak!"

Out of all those insulting words packed into that mega-insult, one hit Dot especially hard. "Ugly?" she whispered, almost choking.

No one, no one had EVER called her ugly before. She was always "cute". A lot of people she passed by said that she was cute. The audience at the talent show thought she was cute. She was pretty sure Tony thought she was cute. Her brothers called her cute too, but she figured that might be the thing that brothers do. Had everyone who had ever said that she was cute just said that because in reality she was SO ugly that they didn't want to hurt her feelings?

"Yeah, you ugly monster! You can't boss me around!"

Dot could feel tears well up in her eyes. Ashamed and embarrassed, she ran back to the merry-go-round, covering up her face so that no one would see it.

Ugly? Ugly? Am I really ugly? she thought to herself, now letting her tears run freely down her face. Have people just been calling me cute not to hurt my feelings?

Dfot didn't notice that, while she was crying, an older girl was confronting Peter and his henchmen. She had seen them bullying Dot and had wanted to do something about it.

"That wasn't very nice you, Peter! You should go and apologize right now!"

Peter laughed. "I don't ever wanna see her ugly face again, or yours either."

The girl snorted. "You're so rude." Then she walked off to the merry-go-round and sat next do Dot. "You okay?" she asked gently.

Dot looked up and saw the girl, with a worried look on her face. "I'll be fine," she said.

The girl sighed. "Peter does that to everyone. His idea of a good time is putting other people down. And no matter how much you yell at him, he won't stop or even apologize. So what's your name?"

"I'm Dot… Dot Warner."

"I'm Claire Thompson."

"Am I really ugly?"

Claire shrugged. "Don't take what Peter says personally. He insults everybody. I think you're cute."

"That's what everyone says. I thought that they might be lying, you know, to not make me feel bad."

"We probably shouldn't dwell on this very much longer. Don't worry about it. Peter's probably insulted his own mother. So your name's Dot, huh?"

"Yeah."

"That's strange, but nice. How'd you get that name?"

"I don't really know," said Dot with a shrug.

"Have you asked your parents?"

Dot looked down at the ground. "I don't have any parents."

"Oh! Sorry!" Claire said quickly. "What happened to them?"

"I don't know. I don't even know if they were human or not. Yakko, my oldest brother, can't even remember."

"Oh, so you have siblings? How many?"

"Two brothers, Yakko and Wakko."

Claire grinned. "Those are strange names too."

"Yeah, but they fit. Yakko yaks all the time! And Wakko… well, he's wacko." Dot smiled too.

"So how old are you and your brothers?"

"Yakko's nine, Wakko's seven, and I just turned five yesterday." Dot stretched uncomfortably. "I'm getting tired of talking about myself. How old are you? And do you have any siblings?"

"I have an older sister. She's sixteen, and is always running off to some party or something. I'm eight, and trust me, when you're eight, you get used to insults."

"But you don't like them, do you?"

"Heck no!" cried Claire.

"Me either," said Dot. She suddenly felt like she had to cry again. "Usually, I don't hafta cry about them though."

"You should cry. It makes you feel better."

Dot turned around and saw Peter getting off the swings. Since she had excellent memory, she could remember everything that he had said to her: "You're an ugly, timid, stupid little freak!" Tears leaked out her eyes again.

"I'm trying not to take it personally," she said, her voice quivering. "But I wouldn't have to worry about it anyway if he just was nicer! Why does he have to be so mean?"

"Why does who have to be so mean?" someone suddenly asked. Dot and Claire spun around. Yakko had his hands on his hips and looked at Dot quizzically.

"It's nothing," said Dot, trying to quickly wipe away her tears.

"Yeah, nothing my butt," muttered Yakko. To Dot's surprise, he actually picked up Dot and held her, with one arm under her back and the other arm under her knees. He stroked the fur on her face gently.

"What's the matter, Dottie?" he asked.

Dot remained silent. Claire spoke up. "There's this jerk over there named Peter, who never fells satisfied unless he picks on at least one person a day. He's done about five or so today, and Dot was one of them."

Yakko sighed. "Someone should go and teach him a lesson."

"But it never works," said Claire sadly. "Almost everyone I know has yelled at him to stop it, but he never listens."

"That's the problem right there," said Yakko, setting Dot down on the ground and facing Claire, talking with both words and gestures. "It's the yelling. The way you tell people something makes a big impact on how they react to it, you know. Oh sure, you have to be assertive and all, and yelling some of the time might work. But when you come up and yell, in a timid fashion especially, he knows that that's just a cover up of how frightened you are. Even if you are frightened, you have to hide it. And what do people do when they're frightened? They yell, of course. This Peter jerk knows that."

"Are you sure he'd know that?" asked Claire. "I mean, he isn't very smart. He's two years older than me but he's flunked so many times that he's in second grade with me. He'll probably flunk this year, too."

"He may not be book smart, but the way he became a bully was by understanding people, and you don't have to be smart to do that. Now, in this particular case, I think that you first yell to get his attention. Then you talk very quickly and angrily, but not yelling. Talk like you're on the verge of yelling. Then, for a strong finish, at the end of your speech really let it all loose and YELL. Not a frightened yell, but a yell of pure anger. He'll be whimpering in a corner before you know it!"

"I'm not sure if I could do that, or if I had the guts to," admitted Claire.

"Alright, then I will," said Yakko. He winked to the girls and walked over to the sandbox, where the bullies were belittling even more children.

"Are you sure he can do it?" asked Claire, as Yakko strolled over to the boys with an amused smile.

"Oh, don't worry," said Dot, all the tears gone from her face. "Yakko's got a way with words."

"But Peter," a kid said, almost crying, "I don't have any money."

"Well kid, that's too bad. Cause I'm gonna keep you here till you get me some!"

"HEY!"

Peter turned around. "What?" he yelled angrily. When he saw Yakko he started laughing again. "Look boys!" he cried. "It's another freak of nature!"

But suddenly Yakko grabbed Peter by the shirt collar and yanked him down to his level. Yakko was about average sized for a nine-year-old, and Peter was a large ten-year-old, but Yakko, just like Dot had that morning, looked much taller and nastier than Peter ever could.

Peter started to protest, but Yakko cut him off. "Shut up and listen to me," he said quickly and dangerously. "Congratulations, you're just won the Jerk of the Year award. You probably are honored, aren't you? Well let me tell you, it's no honor. Must I be a kindergarten teacher and tell you that it's rude to be a bully? Heck, I didn't even go to kindergarten, and I've known that probably since before I was four. Now even if someone was fat, and you said that they were fat, they wouldn't like it, would they? That would be extremely rude on your part. How would you like it if you were fat and someone called you a fatty? It's like, you don't need someone to tell you, you already know. Now, that's bad enough. But when you insult someone, and that insult is false, that's even worse. Tell me, what did you say to my baby sister?"

"Aahh…" whimpered Peter. "Ahhh, I, uhh…"

Yakko pulled a little harder on Peter's shirt collar. "Tell me," he whispered dangerously, "tell me what you said to my baby sister."

"I… uh… said that she was a freak, and uh… that she was… ugly…"

"There it is," whispered Yakko, sounding, if possible, even more dangerous than he had before. "If you think that my baby sister is ugly then you need your eyes examined. Not only was it extremely rude, it was also a total lie." He glared at Peter. "I hope you've learned a lesson. Not everyone will be as easy on you as I have."

"E-e-easy?" stammered Peter. "You call this easy?"

"As a matter of fact, yes," sneered Yakko. "This is what I call hard." Claire and Dot, who were watching, could tell that this was that strong finish that Yakko was talking about. "You know, insulting MORONS like you shouldn't be allowed to LIVE! What was God THINKING when he put the slimeballs like YOU on this planet? You're the reason the ENVIRONMENT is the way it is, you're fouling it up! And if you don't apologize RIGHT NOW, YOU WON'T LIVE TO SEE THE NEXT SUNSET!"

"I'm sorry!" cried Peter, sobbing.

"Not to me, you asshole, to my sister." This was the first time that Yakko ever cussed, and it surprised him as much as it did Dot.

Peter ran over to Dot, who looked amused. "I'm sorry!" he screamed, then turned and ran away. As he ran, he kept on yelling, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

Yakko turned to Peter's two followers. "Well?" he asked, that same dangerous tone in his voice.

The two boys looked at each other, screamed, "AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!" and ran as fast as they could.

Once they were far out of sight, Yakko grinned. "I don't think you'll have any trouble from them for awhile," he said to Claire. "Whoo, but what that fun! I oughta yell like that more often! Really takes a load off of a guy."

Claire just stared at Yakko for a while. Finally she said, "You're amazing."

Yakko grinned even wider, making it seem so unlikely that just a minute ago he had screamed his head off in anger. "Yeah, I am, aren't I?"

"Hey, Yakko! Hey, Dot!" It was Wakko, who ran up next to them, also looking somewhat amused. "There were these three kids that just tore down the street next to me and were screaming and crying, and I have a feeling that you were behind it."

"You know me too well, don't you?" laughed Yakko. "They felt the need to pick on many a person, including Dottie here, so I thought I would teach them a little lesson."

"Don't call me Dottie!" cried Dot. "Wait… you did earlier, didn't you? YAKKO! You know I hate that name!"

Yakko wasn't really listening. "Wakko, where did you get that hat?" he asked.

"Like it?" asked Wakko. "I bought it with my prize money."

"You bought that, and not food?" asked Dot, sounding very surprised.

"Yeah, I kinda surprised myself, too." He looked at Claire. "Who's this?"

"Oh," said Dot. "Claire, this is my brother Wakko. And this is Yakko, of course. Yakko, Wakko, this is Claire Thompson."

Wakko courteously shook Claire's hand. "It's very nice to meet you," he said sincerely.

"It's very nice to meet you too," said Claire just as sincerely. "All three of you Warners seem like very nice people." She suddenly grinned. "Except maybe Yakko."

Yakko laughed. "I only treat people like that when they deserve it. And you, young lady, deserve nothing but the best. Care to join me on a little stroll?"

Claire blushed. "Sure," she said quietly, smiling.

Yakko and Claire started down a path in the park, leaving Wakko and Dot behind. "So Dot tells me that you don't have any parents," said Claire, in an attempt to get a conversation going.

"Afraid not," said Yakko. "Maybe we did once, but I can't remember."

"Isn't that… scary? I mean, freaky, you know? Like, not even knowing where you came from?"

Yakko sighed sadly and sat down on the edge of a fountain. "Yeah," he said quietly. "Who knows, maybe wherever we came from was great. Maybe our parents were real nice, and it was by complete accident that they lost us… or we lost them. But…" Yakko gulped. "But sometimes I have these dreams about where I came from. I… I don't know. They're just not very pleasant dreams at all. You know, like that I came from an abusive family or whatever."

Claire sat down next to Yakko and put her arm on his shoulders for comfort. "I can't say that I understand, because I never could really understand what you've been through the way you can. All I can say is that I'm sad right along with you."

Yakko felt a little better. "My brother and sister are probably waiting for me. I'd better go."

"Alright," said Claire. She stayed sitting on the fountain and watched Yakko leave until she couldn't see him anymore.

Wakko and Dot were waiting for him. "So," said Dot mischievously, "what were you two doing in there?"

Yakko shrugged. "We just talked. Why do you ask?"

"Because she had a crush on you," said Wakko simply.

Dot, of course, embellished what her brother had just said. "She was sweet on you. She wanted you to hold her in your big, strong arms and whisper sweet nothings in her ear. Oooh, Yakko, you devil!"

"Well, even if she did have a crush on me, I didn't have a crush on her."

"Oh, come on, Yakko!" said Dot. "Be a little romantic here!"

Yakko rolled his eyes. "I don't think I'll ever be romantic. I'm never going to fall in love."

Wakko sighed. "Yakko, I may be just seven, but from what I know about love, you don't choose to fall in love. It just happens."

"Well, it won't happen to me. I've seen people who are in the streets and grossing people out because they're kissing and slobbering all over each other's faces. And equally bad, I've seen couples get into nasty fights that probably end up in divorce. It all seems like too much of a hassle, you know? I've got enough to worry about."

"Like lunch," said Wakko. "I'm starving."

"You're always hungry," said Dot.

"Well, I am too," said Yakko, "so let's go to Tony's house. He gave me the key, you know, so we can go in and see what he's got."

Wakko followed his siblings over to Tony's house. "I'm so hungry I'll eat everything he's got. I think I'll have a sandwich, and maybe some chili, and a hamburger, and…"