\u201cOkay!\u201d yelled Ari, as the boys streamed past him and thundered down Duchy Street. \u201cOkay! So when you get to the park, STOP THE FIGHT!\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d said Arden shaking her head. \u201cThey\u2019re not paying any attention to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cLet\u2019s go,\u201d yelled Ari. \u201cAll they have to do is stampede the fight.\u201d He tore down the hill after the blue mob with Arden right on his heels.<\/p>\n
\tThe crowd at the park was three times bigger than when they\u2019d left, and most of it was densely packed around the boxing ring.
\n\tWilton Daylatch\u2019s voice on a loudspeaker cut through the din of the chattering crowd like a knife. \u201cLadies and Gentlemen,\u201d he oozed. \u201cLet the match begin, and may the best man win!\u201d<\/p>\n
\t A starting bell rang out. The blue mob of boys hit the wall of spectators surrounding the ring and, amazingly, began to filter through and disappear into the crowd.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cSqueeze through!\u201d commanded Ari, as he and Arden ducked under smelly armpits and between melting ice cream cones. The crowd was beginning to murmur, and sometimes roar, in unison. Although he still couldn\u2019t see through, Ari guessed that Hunker and Uncle Ellery were facing off. Ari finally squished between two large men to find that the Daylatch boys were surrounding the boxing ring ropes like a blue moat.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cKill Hunker!\u201d yelled a boy in blue.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cPop\u2019im!\u201d screamed another boy.<\/p>\n
\tIn the ring, Uncle Ellery was hanging back, as Dudge Hunker, towering like a colossus in the center of the ring, hopped forward and back taking token jabs at the air.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cNo!\u201d yelled Ari. \u201cStop the fight!\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI don\u2019t think they want to stop the fight,\u201d said Arden.<\/p>\n
\tThe boys in blue began to tug at the ropes and scream harder.
\n\t\u201cKILL HUNKER!\u201d they bellowed.<\/p>\n
\tSuddenly Uncle Ellery stopped and looked around at the mob of boys hanging from the ropes. His posture relaxed. \u201cI\u2019m not gonna kill him,\u201d he muttered through his mouth guard, with a slight chuckle.<\/p>\n
\tBut Uncle Ellery had dropped his guard. And before he could turn his attention back to Hunker, who was bobbing and weaving around the ring, Hunker swung a meaty fist and landed a stunning blow into Uncle Ellery\u2019s cheek.<\/p>\n
\tAri\u2019s stomach sunk, as if he\u2019d taken the punch to his own gut.<\/p>\n
\tUncle Ellery staggered back a step, then–before Ari could even see where it came from–rammed a lightening-fast right fist into Hunker\u2019s forehead. Hunker stood stock-still, and looked down at Uncle Ellery with a mocking grin. Then he teetered, and crashed to the floor of the ring, shaking the ground under Ari\u2019s feet.<\/p>\n
\tThe referee jumped into the center of the ring and began to count. \u201cTen…nine…eight…seven…\u201d<\/p>\n
\tHunker raised his head slightly, then plopped back into the mat.<\/p>\n
\t\u201c…six…five…four…three…two…ONE!\u201d<\/p>\n
\tThere was a fraction of a second of stunned silence from the crowd before the entire park erupted into a triumphant roar.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cYou won!\u201d cried Arden, grabbing Ari\u2019s shoulder.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe won!\u201d screamed Ari. \u201cWE WON!\u201d He spotted Wilton Daylatch staring, shocked and appalled, from the judge\u2019s stand. \u201cYo! Daylatch!\u201d he called \u201cWe WON!\u201d<\/p>\n
\tAri scrambled under the rope and over to Uncle Ellery who had retreated to his stool in the corner of the ring. The welt under his eye was swelling, giving his face a lopsided look. Uncle Ellery gave Ari a wry, and obviously painful, smile.
\n\t\u201cYou ready to go home?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cYep,\u201d Ari replied. Ari and Uncle Ellery climbed out of the ring, and started through the mob of spectators who stepped aside to let them pass, while offering congratulations and pats on the back.<\/p>\n
\tWilton Daylatch had descended from the judge\u2019s stand and was about to slink grouchily into his dark limousine when a blue sedan screeched to a halt in front of him and a woman in a gray business suit stepped purposefully out of the car.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWilton Daylatch?\u201d she began. \u201cWe\u2019ve received extensive documentation from a Mr…um…Sneezy showing flagrant violations of child labor laws at Daylatch Academy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWhat?\u201d retorted Daylatch.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cFlagrant and well documented violations,\u201d repeated the woman. \u201cThe school has been placed under the temporary management of Cherry Acres Boys\u2019 Schools, Incorporated. You\u2019ll have until tomorrow to clean out your office.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cLet\u2019s go,\u201d said Ari to Uncle Ellery.<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cOkay!\u201d yelled Ari, as the boys streamed past him and thundered down Duchy Street. \u201cOkay! So when you get to the park, STOP THE FIGHT!\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d said Arden shaking her head. \u201cThey\u2019re not paying any attention to you.\u201d \u201cLet\u2019s go,\u201d yelled Ari. \u201cAll they have to do is stampede the fight.\u201d He tore […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=242"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":244,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242\/revisions\/244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emilygillespieclement.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}