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* HeroesWantRedheads: At the end of the book, he meets a red-haired girl that he saw come out of Person-to-Person services, and they have a nice chat and get to know each other. He mentions how he didn't trip like he did earlier with Judy, an earlier crush of his, during this conversation and this makes him realize more joys in life.
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* WeakButSkilled: Gary is smart, but a clumsy weakling, even before he becomes a bee. Fortunately his bee form is much more fast and maneuverable, which combined with his human mind eventually lets him overpower Dirk by leading a swarm of bees.
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* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: As the title suggests, he's terrified of bees. Naturally, his neighbor is a beekeeper and a total JerkAss.

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* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: As the title suggests, he's terrified of bees. Naturally, his neighbor is a beekeeper and a total JerkAss.JerkAss.

!! Dirk Davis
The boy whom Gary wants to swap bodies with.
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* AlliterativeName: '''D'''irk '''D'''avis. Gary even thinks his name sounds cool this way.
* BookDumb: Why he signs up for Person-to-Person vacations. He is bad at math, and wants to swap bodies with someone who is ''good'' at math so he or she can give him good answers for him to pass summer school. When it comes to skateboarding, however, he is a pro at it, and makes "Gary" popular by showing off his skills in his body.
* EasilyForgiven: [[spoiler: After all the trouble that he puts Gary through by refusing to give back his body, when he's finally defeated, Dirk later approaches Gary in his own body to apologize. Gary accepts it, and the two become friends]].
* HeavySleeper: Gary in his bee body is frustrated when approaching Dirk in his body and trying to wake him up. No matter what he does, "Gary" continues snoring asleep.
* HiddenDepths: Dirk is a BookDumb kid who initially just wants to use Gary to get through his math tests, but it's suggested later on that he's not happy with his original life. He's also much more sociable than Gary and even makes a friend out of his cranky cat.
* JerkJock: What he was probably like in his original body. Also overlaps with DumbJock.
* NotSoAboveItAll: As stoic and smug as he is when hanging out in Gary's body and refusing to hand it over, he is visibly shocked and scared when he comes back with an ''entire swarm'' of bees to defeat Dirk.
* TookALevelInKindness: [[spoiler: At the end of the adventure, he gains a massive amount of humility from what he's been through, and goes to Gary to make amends]].
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* BeeBeeGun: Defied at first, as he stops himself from stinging enemies because he's aware that bees die when using stingers. Then kicked into high gear when Dirk refuses to give him back his human body, at which point Gary whips the nearby hive into a frenzy and assaults his usurper with a ''swarm'' of angry bees.


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* HeartIsAnAwesomePower: Dirk dismisses Gary's attempts to take back his body, believing he's helpless as a tiny insect. However, being a bee also means he's connected to the larger hive, and Dirk pays for that when Lutz summons the whole angry swarm to divebomb him.
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Misused; Bee Afraid is not when a character is afraid of bees. It means "scary, dangerous, or antagonistic bee character or species".


* BeeAfraid: The entire book, but especially when he gets trapped in one of his neighbors' hives.
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Characters from the ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' novel ''Why I'm Afraid of Bees''.

!! Gary Lutz

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/garylutz.jpg]]

--> ''"At that moment, I would have happily traded lives with a tree. Or a bird. Or a bug. Or just about any other living object on the planet."''

The constantly bullied and tormented protagonist of ''Why I'm Afraid Of Bees''.
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* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: He's a social outcast and a perpetual loser. Even his mom, neighbor and the family cat make fun of him.
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: He wishes he had the life of anybody except himself and ends up switching places with a bee.
* BeeAfraid: The entire book, but especially when he gets trapped in one of his neighbors' hives.
* BodyHorror: Due to a mishap, when he tries to swap bodies with a handsome local, he instead swaps bodies with a ''bee''.
* ButtMonkey: Hands down the biggest one in the entire series, and that's saying something. He has ZERO friends, his sister hates him, his beekeeper neighbor is a sadist who loves tormenting him with his biggest fear, and when he finally has a chance to escape his miserable life, he's turned into a bee.
* TheChewToy: He suffers a lot of injuries, especially on his bike, and that's before he's turned into a bee.
* TheDogBitesBack: After Dirk, the JerkJock who has his body, refuses to give it back, Gary finally has enough and coerces his fellow bees into dive-bombing him.
* DescriptionInTheMirror: This is how he describes his physical appearance while checking himself out at the beginning of the book. This is notably the only instance in the original series when this trope is in play.
* DeusExMachina: He remembers too late that bees die after using their stingers, but instead, the shock of his sting somehow puts him, Dirk, and the bee back into their rightful bodies.
* DisappointingOlderSibling: His younger sister, Krissy, thinks he's a failure in the first half of the book. She thinks he's wimpy, laughs at him whenever she had the chance, and insulted him constantly. By the end of the book, on the other hand, she doesn't think he's that bad.
* DrivenToSuicide: His life sucks ''so'' much that at one point, he is tempted to sting his JerkAss neighbor, at the cost of his own life.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: Does he ever. After getting his body back, he becomes much more confident and popular, although he does retain some of the bee's senses and characteristics.
* EmbarrassingNickname: "Lutz the Klutz".
* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: He is the Foolish Sibling to Krissy's Responsible Sibling, at the beginning of the book. Gary was highly afraid of bees, was a weakling, and could be pretty foolish. Krissy, on the other hand, is hardly afraid of bees in general, is pretty strong for her age, and is usually intelligent.
* HeroesWantRedheads: At the end of the book, he meets a red-haired girl that he saw come out of Person-to-Person services, and they have a nice chat and get to know each other. He mentions how he didn't trip like he did earlier with Judy, an earlier crush of his, during this conversation and this makes him realize more joys in life.
* NotQuiteBackToNormal: [[spoiler: He's swapped back into his human body, and all appears to have been the same as before. However, he still enjoys sucking out pollen from flowers just like he did as a bee, which he does at the end of the book.]]
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: When he gets back to his human body, he is not afraid of bees at all. He shoos away a whole swarm of them off his bed and tells them to have a good time. He then looks back, and his parents saw the whole thing, and they look at him as if he grew a second head.
* PickedLast: This is how he gets treated with two baseball captains at the start of the book, being argued over who takes him. He is not happy about this, but doesn't want to leave right away in fear of being thought of as a weakling. Eventually, though, he calls it quits.
* PlatonicKissing: When he finally gets back in his human body, he meets his sister, and in his joy, he kisses her on the cheek, much to her disgust.
* StrawLoser: He sucks at sports, he doesn't have a single friend, and he spends most of his time on the Internet (or what passed for Internet in the early/mid-90s).
* TooDumbToLive: When out riding on his bike, he spots Judy walking nearby and he wants to impress her, so he shows her riding the bike without using the handlebars. He wasn't even wearing a helmet at the time. Thus, he almost gets hit by a car, and he ends up colliding into a signpost. When his father finds out about this, he chews Gary out for being so careless.
* TookALevelInCheerfulness: After his adventure with the bees, he learns to appreciate his life more.
* TheUnfavourite: Even his mom and sister seem to delight in making fun of him.
* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: As the title suggests, he's terrified of bees. Naturally, his neighbor is a beekeeper and a total JerkAss.

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