Gary Lutz

Gary Lutz is the protagonist in the seventeenth Goosebumps book, Why I'm Afraid of Bees.

History
All his life, Gary had been a very troubled boy. He was very clumsy and he hardly seemed to have any real friends because of it, earning him the nickname "Lutz the Klutz" among kids in Millville. Worse, he was always beaten up by the bullies and to him, his little sister, Krissy didn't seem to like him. He was also afraid of Krissy's cat, Claus and many other things. But the one thing Gary was most afraid of was bees and to make it worse for him, his family lived next door to a beekeeper named Mr. Andretti, whom Gary detested, because one time, he caught Gary spying on him in his back yard, as whilst Gary was afraid of bees, he was also fascinated by them and he has a book about them. Mr. Andretti made a really big deal of Gary spying on him and insulted him by asking Gary if the FBI was recruiting ten-year-old boys these days, which really steamed Gary because Mr. Andretti knew perfectly well that he was twelve years old. Ever since then, whenever he was spying on Mr. Andretti, Gary would always try to be careful not to get caught by him, but he was still terrified of bees and he couldn't understand how Mr. Andretti could stand them and handle them without wearing gloves, remembering a conversation he had with Gary's father, Ken Lutz (of course the pompous beekeeper acted as if Gary wasn't there).

One day in July, Gary was underneath his favorite tree reading comic books, when he heard Mr. Andretti out in his backyard with his bees, so Gary decided to spy on him again, determined to not let his neighbor catch him again. Gary was most terrified to see the bees and really grossed out to see Mr. Andretti covered in them. Then after a moment, Gary heard Mr. Andretti scream that the bees were out of control and was ordered to run, prompting him to run back into the house. But then Gary heard his neighbor laughing outside the back door. Apparently Mr. Andretti lied about the bees being out of control to trick Gary and told him to get a life and stop spying on him all day. Gary was really angry about the trick as to him it was bad enough to have kids that are his age but now adults were starting in. Mrs. Lutz came in as Gary pounded the table and asked her son if he would like a sandwich. Gary requested the usual, which was peanut butter and jelly, but there was no jelly and Gary was offered honey, which he really hated.

Physical appearance
Gary is twelve years old, Caucasian, tall and skinny with a long skinny face, a medium-sized nose and straight blond hair.

Personality
When he was first introduced, Gary was a heavily discouraged and insecure boy who had no faith in himself. He was very clumsy and he was always picked on by bullies and he could never go through a whole day without injuring himself. He felt that he had no real close friends and that Krissy and Claus didn't like him (and Gary in return didn't like them) and Gary sometimes felt that no one liked him because of the way he looked. He was also afraid of a lot of things, such as big mean kids, dogs, the dark, loud noises, swimming in the ocean and most of all bees.

Although he was afraid of bees, Gary was also fascinated by them, often studying them from a book and he couldn't resist spying on Mr. Andretti (whom he also detested) with his bees. The only thing that made Gary happy was his computer as whilst he was on it, he forgot that he was a total jerk (which isn't true). Gary had proven to be quite naive as he had never seemed to have heard about practicing with a skateboard and his negativity had blinded of what he really had, as he felt that his life was just the pits, which had made him want to be someone else. And after his adventures as a bee, Gary has become more skillful and has gained a lot more confidence than before. And Gary can now see that Krissy is okay for a sister.