Jake Drake, Bully Buster

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of bullying and racism.

Over the next week, Link continues to bully Jake. He breaks Jake’s favorite red pen, hides his book bag, and pushes Jake into a group of older girls. Jake begins to worry that he will not be able to solve the problem of Link’s bullying. Then, just before Thanksgiving, Mrs. Brattle assigns Jake and Link to work as partners on a social studies project showing how Indigenous Americans lived in the past. Link tells Jake that he will have to do all the work. During their research time in the library, Link reads a comic book while Jake looks up information. Jake is the one who finds and labels pictures and creates a report—but on the day before the project is due, they still do not have a model of an Indigenous American traditional home to show the class. When Link tells Jake that he should also take care of this, Jake finally snaps. He tells Link that either Link can help or they can both fail the assignment. Jake thinks that Link is about to hit him, but finally Link just shrugs and tells Jake to come over to his house after school so they can make a model together.