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Mullet Fingers/The Running Boy
Beatrice is a hulking, athletic blond girl at Trace Middle School who eventually becomes Roy’s friend. In addition to having a reputation as a skilled athlete, Beatrice is also feared: she once broke a football player’s collarbone when he touched her bottom. Though she attempts to intimidate Roy, Roy sees through her tough demeanor, and she eventually begins to trust him. She reveals to Roy that the running boy, Mullet Fingers, is her stepbrother, and for his safety, she’s the only person who knows he’s in town. Her home life is difficult and borders on unsafe, as her dad, Leon, and stepmom, Lonna regularly get into physically violent fights. And Beatrice is also mature beyond her years, as she cares for Mullet Fingers and makes sure her dad has meals to eat. As she gets to know and trust Roy, she proves herself to be a loyal friend who, like Roy, values doing the right thing and standing up for the weak and innocent, whether that be Roy or the burrowing owls.
Beatrice Leep/The Girl Quotes in Hoot
The Hoot quotes below are all either spoken by Beatrice Leep/The Girl or refer to Beatrice Leep/The Girl. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 1 Quotes
Roy gasped.
“Whassamatter, cowgirl? Had enough?”
This was Dana, hissing in Roy’s right ear. Being the new kid on the bus, Roy didn’t expect any help from the others. The “cowgirl” remark was so lame, it wasn’t worth getting mad about. Dana was a well-known idiot, on top of which he outweighed Roy by at least fifty pounds. Fighting back would have been a complete waste of energy.
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Chapter 7 Quotes
Beatrice Leep had laughed. “No, he’s not an Indian! I call him Mullet Fingers ’cause he can catch mullet with his bare hands. You know how hard that is?”
A mullet was a slippery, free-jumping baitfish that traveled in schools of hundreds. The bay near Coconut Cove was full of them in the spring. Throwing a cast net was the customary method of capture.
“Why doesn’t he live at home?” Roy had asked Beatrice.
“Long story. Plus, none of your business.”
“What about school?”
“My brother got shipped off to a ‘special’ school. He lasted two whole days before he ran away. Then he hitchhiked back, all the way from Mobile, Alabama.”
“What about your parents?”
“They don’t know he’s here, and I’m not gonna tell ’em. Nobody is gonna tell. You understand?”
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Chapter 10 Quotes
Roy trailed him back to the bulldozer, where Beatrice remained perched on the blade, cleaning her eyeglasses.
[...]
Mullet Fingers tapped him on the arm. “Listen.”
Roy heard a short high-pitched coo-coo. Then, from across the open lot, came another. Beatrice’s stepbrother rose stealthily, tugged off his new sneakers, and crept forward. Roy followed closely.
The boy was grinning through his fever when he signaled for them to stop. “Look!”
“Wow,” Roy said, under his breath.
There, standing by the hole and peering curiously at one of the meatballs, was the smallest owl that he had ever seen.
Mullet Fingers chucked him gently on the shoulder. “Okay—now do you get it?”
“Yeah,” said Roy. “I get it.”
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Chapter 11 Quotes
Roy stood rooted in the center of the road. He had an important decision to make, and quickly. From one direction came the police car; running in the other direction were his two friends...
Well, the closest things to friends that he had in Coconut Cove.
Roy drew a deep breath and dashed after them. He heard a honk, but he kept going, hoping that the police officer wouldn’t jump out and chase him on foot. Roy didn’t think he’d done anything wrong, but he wondered if he could get in trouble for helping Mullet Fingers, a fugitive from the school system.
The kid was only trying to take care of some owls—how could that possibly be a crime? Roy thought.
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Chapter 18 Quotes
“Dad wants my brother to come back and live with us again, but Lonna says no way, José, he’s a bad seed. What the heck does that mean, Tex? ‘Bad seed.’ Anyway, they’re still not speakin’ to each other, Lonna and my dad. The whole house feels like it’s about to explode.”
To Roy, Beatrice’s situation sounded like a living nightmare. “Need a place to hide out?” he asked.
“That’s okay. Dad says he feels better when I’m around.”
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“Look,” said Roy, “every day we’ve been reading about regular people, ordinary Americans who made history ’cause they got up and fought for something they believed in. Okay, I know we’re just talking about a few puny little owls, and I know everybody is crazy about Mother Paula’s pancakes, but what’s happening out there is just plain wrong. So wrong.”
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Beatrice Leep/The Girl Character Timeline in Hoot
The timeline below shows where the character Beatrice Leep/The Girl appears in Hoot. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2
...Dana cries out, and then Roy races off the bus, brushing past a tall blond girl as he does so. For several blocks, Roy pursues the boy. They run through a...
(full context)
...up, a strong hand lands on his shoulder. But it’s not Dana; it’s the blond girl from the bus. She tells Roy he could’ve hurt her this morning and asks why...
(full context)
Chapter 4
...won’t recognize him and beat him up. Ignoring this, Roy asks Garrett who the tall girl with blond hair is; she’s mad at Roy for no reason. Alarmed, Garrett says Beatrice...
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...knows he has to do something. He can’t spend the year hiding from Dana and Beatrice. So, at lunch, he sits down next to Beatrice and her soccer friends. Roy says...
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Chapter 5
...Dana’s parents will sue. Roy sneaks his bike out of the garage and rides to Beatrice’s bus stop. From there, he retraces his steps from last Friday and locks his bike...
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Chapter 6
...Coconut Cove is getting a Mother Paula’s. Roy recognizes the construction site’s address: it’s near Beatrice’s bus stop, about where Roy saw Mullet Fingers running.
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...really upset—he’s so late. But as Roy waits to cross the highway at West Oriole, Beatrice rides up behind him on his bike and asks what’s in the shoebox.
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Chapter 7
Beatrice obviously followed Roy to the golf course and stole his bike. Now, she tells Roy...
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Beatrice asks why Roy cares about the running boy, but Roy can’t answer. She stops Roy...
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As Roy sits in the police car, he can’t stop thinking about what Beatrice told him: that Mullet Fingers is her stepbrother and is called Mullet Fingers because he...
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Chapter 8
...looking for Mullet Fingers. The rain keeps him inside anyway and, given the immense damage Beatrice did to Roy’s bike tire, his bike is unusable until a new tire arrives. On...
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...Dana stops hitting him after the driver makes another stop. Roy finally looks up at Beatrice and greets her.
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Chapter 10
Beatrice saved Roy from Dana—she stripped Dana to his underwear and tied him to the flagpole....
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Beatrice lives with her father, Leon Leep. A former pro basketball player, he retired young. Beatrice’s...
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Beatrice shares this with Roy on their bike ride to the abandoned ice cream truck. Inside,...
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Beatrice bikes to the construction site where Curly yelled at Roy the other day. Roy asks...
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...places meatballs next to several holes around the property and then leads him back to Beatrice and the bulldozer. Soon, Roy hears cooing and Mullet Fingers excitedly points to a tiny...
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Chapter 11
Beatrice shouts at Roy to run faster; she’s riding the bike, Mullet Fingers is slumped over...
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Before Mrs. Eberhardt can say it looks like Beatrice’s bike, Officer Delinko asks if she and Mr. Eberhardt recognize the strip of fabric he...
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Chapter 12
As Roy and Beatrice sit in the waiting area at the Coconut Cove Medical Center emergency room, Beatrice says...
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Beatrice tells Dr. Gonzalez that big dogs bit Mullet Fingers after soccer practice, and she brought...
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Once Dr. Gonzalez leaves, Roy and Beatrice hurry outside to talk. They agree that once it gets out that Mullet Fingers isn’t...
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...call his parents. He leaves a voicemail, telling them he’ll be home once he and Beatrice clean up. Roy flips through some outdoor magazines and thinks about Montana until he hears...
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Chapter 14
...looking like he hasn’t exercised since retiring from the NBA. He absentmindedly goes to fetch Beatrice, who appears looking stressed. She says she can’t hang out and says she heard about...
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Just then, a cold voice asks who Beatrice is talking to. Lonna herself appears behind Beatrice, fully made up and smoking a cigarette....
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...since he was a kid, and he’s not going to stop fighting back. He had Beatrice write a letter to Mother Paula’s about the owls. He offers Roy the letter from...
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Chapter 16
...he hears someone calling his name. But the person calls louder—and they’re under his bed. Beatrice announces herself, climbs out, and admits she’s been hiding here all afternoon. Roy loses his...
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Chapter 17
Beatrice is already gone when Roy wakes up. During breakfast, Mr. Eberhardt reads the newspaper article...
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Chapter 18
...camera for a school project. Since he’s early, he then jogs all the way to Beatrice’s house. Beatrice claps a hand over Roy’s mouth when she opens the door to his...
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Sure enough, Beatrice didn’t break a tooth in a fall—she broke it biting a ring off Lonna’s toe....
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Beatrice chats with her soccer teammates at the bus stop, but she joins Roy on the...
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...the junkyard. Mullet Fingers reads the newspaper announcement calmly and refuses to let Roy and Beatrice help. He doesn’t believe Roy when Roy pulls out Mrs. Eberhardt’s camera and says they...
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Chapter 19
...bike to school, warning Roy to be safe and smart. When Roy meets up with Beatrice, she also got a note. She offers Roy Mrs. Eberhardt’s camera, which Mullet Fingers dropped...
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Chapter 20
...Councilman Bruce Grandy to the site, while news vans start arriving soon after. Roy and Beatrice arrive just before noon, Mrs. Eberhardt’s camera in Roy’s backpack. To their surprise, half of...
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By now, kids are chanting, and Beatrice’s teammates are displaying signs that read “Mother Paula doesn’t give a hoot about owls” and...
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...be back in the spring for breakfast. But a voice says this isn’t over. Roy, Beatrice, and the crowd look to the voice, which is coming from a head sticking out...
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...asks to look in the bucket, Mullet Fingers says it’s his funeral. Roy hisses to Beatrice that the snakes aren’t real—but Officer Delinko tells Muckle to negotiate with Mullet Fingers. The...
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...leaps between Muckle and Mullet Fingers. As Muckle threatens to make Curly get the backhoe, Beatrice, Garrett and his skating friends, the soccer team, and every other kid in attendance joins...
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...she’s at a party and tells reporters that she’s so proud of her brave son. Beatrice tells the circle of kids to not let Lonna through to Mullet Fingers, and the...
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Chapter 21
...Mr. Eberhardt wants to see him. She assures Roy he’s not in trouble; he and Beatrice didn’t break laws or hurt anyone yesterday. They just stood up for what’s right and...
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Epilogue
...home. Lonna spent that time trying to get reporters to pay attention to her, so Beatrice helped her brother escape while Lonna and Leon were fighting. Unfortunately, a neighbor who saw...
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On a Saturday after the Mother Paula’s scandal has died down, Roy attends one of Beatrice’s soccer games. He doesn’t miss Montana so much anymore, though he does miss real seasons....
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