Janice Avery

Janice Avery is the secondary antagonist in Bridge to Terabithia. She is a heavyset eighth grader who bullies younger children at school.
==Role in the film==
Born in West Virginia, Janice is the most popular eighth grader at the school, the ruler of the bus and the toilet. She's big and an idol, at the beginning and end of the movie. Jess Aarons knows how to worship her but kids as little as his younger sister, May Belle, haven't yet learned that. Janice does things like steal little kids' lunches and force them to be her slaves when they do not cooperate with her wishes.
Janice and her two friends, Wilma and Bobby Sue, go to the same school as Jess and Leslie Burke. They commonly bully younger children, for example, Jess, who is teased for being poor, and Janice even throws a little girl's sandwich on him on the school bus. During break time, they usually stand in front of the girls' bathroom and make people pay a dollar for using it.
Leslie, frustrated from being bullied, sits on the back seat of the bus where only the older students sit. Jess, who sees Janice, Wilma, and Bobby Sue coming, rushes to help her. Janice tells them to get out, causing Jess to thoughtlessly insult her for her obesity. As revenge, she later pretends to be tripped by him, leading the bus driver to order him to walk home.
When Janice steals Twinkies from May Belle, Leslie decides to stop her. At first, she gets a group of younger children, and they head to the bathroom shouting, "Free to pee!" However, the girls only laugh at them. May Belle tries to convince Janice to give her back her Twinkie, but pretends to not what she's talking about, then May Belle tells Jess that he's supposed to beat her up since he's her brother, which is highly impossible because Jess explains that Janice is bigger than him and everyone. May Belle begins to cry after Janice stole her Twinkie and is now hurt, but Janice bullies her while crying so Jess and Leslie then decide to play a prank on Janice. They write a love letter "from Willard Hughes", the object of her affection, who "wants to see her after school", and Jess hides it in her notebook. The next day, she really waits for Willard after school, but he does not appear. She speaks to him in front of all his friends, much to his surprise. When she finally realizes the letter was fake, all the students who see it laugh at her.
Jess and Leslie feel good due to their victory, until they hear Janice sobbing in the bathroom. Leslie comes in to talk with her, and discovers that she is abused by her sadistic father. Leslie advises her to pretend she has no idea what Wilma and Bobby Sue are talking about, and the students soon forget about it. Since then, Leslie develops sympathy and a friendship with Janice. The police are recently called to her house, and now the whole seventh and eighth grade know she is beaten there, so they ostracize her.
After this, Janice stops being a bully and becomes an outsider and a friend of Leslie. After Leslie's death, Janice watches in sympathy when Gary Fulcher pushes Jess onto the floor, and is last seen when she sits next to Jess on the bus and rubs the knuckles of her right hand against the palm of her left, and Jess realizes why Gary had a bloody nose. She then says "Hey" in a sweet voice, much to Jess' surprise.
==Trivia==
*One of the creatures Jess and Leslie fight with in Terabithia is a troll resembling Janice.
**The connection between Janice and the troll is given a subtle foreshadowing when Leslie first talks to her. She compares her bathroom tolls to the story of troll bridges.
==Gallery==
Janice and her friends.jpg|Janice and her friends taunt May Belle.
Category:Females
Category:Live-action characters
Category:Teenagers
Category:Disney characters
Category:Characters
Category:Bridge to Terabithia characters
Category:Villains
Category:Live-action villains
Category:Students