PUFFIN BOOKS

DIARY OF A WIMPY KID

BOOKS BY JEFF KINNEY

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Ugly Truth

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul

The Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book

The Wimpy Kid Movie Diary

by Jeff Kinney

PUFFIN BOOKS

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India | New Zealand | South Africa

Puffin Books is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose

addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com.

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First published in the USA in the English language in 2009

by Amulet Books, an imprint of ABRAMS

Original English title: Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw

(All rights reserved in all countries by Harry N. Abrams, Inc.)

Published in Great Britain by Puffin Books 2009

Digital edition published 2012

Wimpy Kid text and illustrations copyright © Wimpy Kid Inc., 2009

DIARY OF A WIMPY KID®, WIMPY KID™, and the Greg Heffley design™ are

trademarks of Wimpy Kid, Inc.

All rights reserved

Book design by Jeff Kinney

Cover design by Chad W. Beckerman and Jeff Kinney

The moral right of the author/illustrator has been asserted

ISBN: 978–0–141–34776–9

TO TIM

JANUARY

New Year’s Day

You know how you’re supposed to come up with a

list of “resolutions” at the beginning of the year

to try to make yourself a better person?

Well, the problem is it’s not easy for me to think

of ways to improve myself, because I’m already

pretty much one of the best people I know.

So this year my resolution is to try to help

OTHER people improve. But the thing I’m

finding out is that some people don’t really

appreciate it when you’re trying to be helpful.

1

One thing I noticed right off the bat is that

the people in my family are doing a lousy job

sticking to their New Year’s resolutions.

Mom said she was gonna start going to the

gym today, but she spent the whole afternoon

watching TV.

And Dad said he was gonna go on a strict diet,

but after dinner I caught him out in the

garage, stuffing his face with brownies.

Even my little brother, Manny, couldn’t stick

with his resolution.

2

3

This morning he told everyone that he’s a “big boy”

and he’s giving up his pacifier for good. Then he

threw his favourite binkie in the trash.

Well, THAT New Year’s resolution didn’t even

last a full minute.

The only person in my family who didn’t come up

with a resolution is my older brother, Rodrick,

and that’s a pity because his list should be about

a mile and a half long.

So I decided to come up with a programme to

help Rodrick be a better person. I called my

plan “Three Strikes and You’re Out”. The basic

idea was that every time I saw Rodrick messing

up, I’d mark a little “x” on his chart.

Well, Rodrick got all three strikes before I even

had a chance to decide what “You’re Out” meant.

Anyway, I’m starting to wonder if I should just

bag my resolution, too. It’s a lot of work, and

so far I haven’t really made any progress.

Besides, after I reminded Mom for like the billionth

time to stop chewing her crisps so loud, she made

a really good point. She said, “Everyone can’t be

as perfect as YOU, Gregory.” And from what

I’ve seen so far I think she’s right.

4

Thursday

Dad is giving this diet thing another try, and

that’s bad news for me. He’s gone about three

days without eating any chocolate, and he’s been

SUPER cranky.

The other day, after Dad woke me up and told

me to get ready for school, I accidentally fell

back asleep. Believe me, that’s the last time I’ll

make THAT mistake.

Part of the problem is that Dad always wakes me

up before Mom’s out of the shower, so I know

that I still have like ten more minutes before I

need to get out of bed for real.

5

Yesterday I came up with a pretty good way to

get some extra sleep time without making Dad

mad. After he woke me up, I took all of my

blankets down the hall with me and waited outside

the bathroom for my turn in the shower.

Then I lay down right on top of the heater vent.

And when the furnace was blowing, the experience

was even BETTER than being in bed.

The problem was the heat only stayed on for

about five minutes at a time. So when the furnace

wasn’t running, I was just lying there on this

cold piece of metal.

6

This morning, while I was waiting for Mom to be

done with her shower, I remembered someone gave

her a bathrobe for Christmas. So I went into her

closet and got it.

Let me just say that was one of the smartest

moves I’ve ever made. Wearing that thing was like

being wrapped in a big, fluffy towel that just came

out of the dryer.

In fact, I liked it so much, I even wore it

AFTER my shower. I think Dad might’ve been

jealous he didn’t come up with the robe idea first,

because when I came to the kitchen table, he

seemed extra grumpy.

7

I tell you, women have the right idea with this

bathrobe thing. Now I’m wondering what

ELSE I’m missing out on.

I just wish I had asked for my own bathrobe

for Christmas, because I’m sure Mom is gonna

make me give hers back.

I struck out on gifts again this year. I knew I

was in for a rough day when I came downstairs

on Christmas morning and the only presents in

my stocking were a stick of deodorant and a

“travel dictionary”.

I guess once you’re in middle school, grown-ups

decide you’re too old for toys or anything that’s

actually fun.

8

But then they still expect you to be all excited

when you open the lame gifts they get you.

Most of my gifts this year were books or clothes.

The closest thing I got to a toy was a present

from Uncle Charlie.

When I unwrapped Uncle Charlie’s gift, I didn’t

even know what it was supposed to be. It was

this big plastic ring with a net attached to it.

9

Uncle Charlie explained that it was a “Laundry

Hoop” for my bedroom. He said I was supposed

to hang the Laundry Hoop on the back of my

door and it would make putting away my dirty

clothes “fun”.

At first I thought it was a joke, but then I

realized Uncle Charlie was serious. So I had to

explain to him that I don’t actually DO my

own laundry.

10

I told him I just throw my dirty clothes on

the floor, and Mom picks them up and takes

them downstairs to the laundry room.

Then, a few days later, everything comes back

to me in nice, folded piles.

I told Uncle Charlie he should just return the

Laundry Hoop and give me cash so I could buy

something I’d actually USE.

That’s when Mom spoke up. She told Uncle

Charlie she thought the Laundry Hoop was a

GREAT idea.

11

Then she said that from now on I’d be doing my

own laundry. So, basically, it ends up that

Uncle Charlie got me a chore for Christmas.

It really stinks that I got such crummy gifts

this year. I put in a lot of effort buttering

people up for the past few months, and I

thought it would pay off on Christmas.

Now that I’m responsible for my own laundry, I

guess I’m kind of glad I got a bunch of clothes.

I might actually make it through the whole school

year before I run out of clean stuff to wear.

12

Monday

When me and Rowley got to our bus stop today,

we found a nasty surprise. There was a piece

of paper taped to our street sign, and it said

that, effective today, our bus route was “rezoned”.

And what that means is now we have to WALK

to school.

Well, I’d like to talk to the genius who came up

with THAT idea, because our street is almost a

quarter of a mile from the school.

Me and Rowley had to run to make it to school

on time today. And what REALLY stunk was

when our regular bus passed us by and it was full

of kids from Whirley Street, the neighbourhood

right next to ours.

13

The Whirley Street kids made monkey noises when

they passed us, which was really annoying because

that’s exactly what we used to do when we

passed them.

I’ll tell you one reason it’s a bad idea to make

kids walk to school. These days, teachers give you

so much homework that, with all the books and

papers you have to carry home, your backpack

ends up weighing like a hundred pounds.

And, if you want to see what kind of an effect

that has on kids over time, all you have to do is

look at Rodrick and some of his friends.

14

Speaking of teenagers, Dad scored a pretty

big victory today. The baddest teenager in our

neighbourhood is this kid named Lenwood Heath,

and he’s kind of like Dad’s arch-enemy. Dad has

probably called the cops on Lenwood Heath about

fifty times.

I guess Lenwood’s parents got sick of his act,

because they sent him off to military academy.

15

You’d think that would’ve made Dad pretty

happy, but I don’t think he’ll be satisfied until

every teenager on the planet gets sent off to

juvenile hall or Alcatraz or something. And that

includes Rodrick.

Yesterday Mom and Dad gave Rodrick some money

to buy books so he could study for the SATs, but

Rodrick spent the money on a tattoo instead.

I’ve still got a little time before I turn into a

teenager. But the minute I do I guarantee you

Dad will be looking for the first chance to ship

me out.

Monday

For the past week or so, Manny has been getting

out of bed every night and coming downstairs.

16

Instead of putting him right back to bed, Mom

lets Manny sit with us and watch TV.

It’s really not fair, because when Manny is with

us I’m not allowed to watch any of the shows I

like.

All I can say is when I was a kid there wasn’t

any of this “getting out of bed” stuff. I did it

once or twice, but Dad put a stop to it real quick.

There was this book Dad used to read to me every

night called “The Giving Tree”. It was a really

good book, but the back of it had a picture of

the author, this guy named Shel Silverstein.

17

But Shel Silverstein looks more like a burglar or a

pirate than a guy who should be writing books

for kids.

Dad must have known that picture kind of freaked

me out, because one night after I got out of bed,

Dad said –

18

That really did the trick. Ever since then, I

still don’t get out of bed at night, even if I

really need to use the bathroom.

I don’t think Mom and Dad read Manny any

Shel Silverstein books, which probably explains why

he keeps getting up after they put him to bed.

I’ve heard some of the stories Mom and Dad read

to Manny, and let me just say that the people

who write these books really have a racket going.

First of all, there are hardly any words in them,

so I’m sure it only takes about five seconds to

write one.

19

I told Mom what I thought of Manny’s books,

and she said that if they were so easy to write,

then I should try writing one myself.

So that’s exactly what I did. Trust me, it wasn’t

hard, either. All you have to do is make up a

character with a snappy name, and then make

sure the character learns a lesson at the end of

the book.

Now all I need to do is mail this thing off to

a publisher and wait for the money to start

rolling in.

20

See what I mean? The only thing I noticed

after I finished the book was that I forgot to

make it rhyme. But the publisher is gonna have

to pay me extra if they want THAT.

22

Saturday

Well, after spending the last two weeks walking

to school, I was really looking forward to kicking

back and doing nothing for two days.

The problem with watching TV on a Saturday is

that the only thing that’s on is bowling or golf.

Plus, the sun comes through our sliding glass window,

and you can barely see the TV screen anyway.

Today I wanted to change the channel, but

the remote was on top of the coffee table. I

was all comfortable, with my bowl of cereal in my

lap, so I really didn’t want to get up.

23

I tried using the Force to make the remote

levitate to me, even though I’ve tried it a million

times before and it’s never worked once. Today I

tried for about fifteen minutes and concentrated

really hard, but no luck. I just wish I’d

known that Dad was standing right behind me

the whole time.

Dad told me I was gonna have to go outside

and get some exercise. I told Dad I exercise

all the time and just this morning I used

the bench press he got me.

But I should have come up with something more

believable, because it was pretty obvious that

wasn’t true.

24

See, the reason Dad is on my case about exercise

and all that is because he’s got this boss named

Mr Warren, and Mr Warren has three boys who

are these crazy sports fanatics. Dad sees the

Warren kids outside on their front lawn every

day on his way home from work when his carpool

goes by their house.

25

So I think Dad is pretty disappointed every time

he gets home and sees what HIS sons are up to.

Anyway, like I said, Dad kicked me out of the

house today. I couldn’t really think of anything

I wanted to do, but then I had a good idea.

Yesterday at lunch, Albert Sandy was telling

everyone about this guy in China or Thailand or

someplace who could jump six feet straight up in

the air, no joke. The way the guy did it was by

digging a hole that was three inches deep and then

jumping in and out of it a hundred times. The next

day, the guy doubled the size of the hole, and he

jumped in and out of THAT. By the fifth day,

he was practically like a kangaroo.

26

27

Some of the guys at my table told Albert he was

full of baloney, but what he was saying made a lot

of sense to me. Plus, I figured if I did what

Albert said and then added a few days to the

programme all my problems with bullies could be over.

I got a shovel out of the garage and found a

place in the front yard that looked like a good

spot to dig. But before I could even get started,

Mom came outside and asked me what I was up to.

I told Mom I was just digging a hole, but of

course she didn’t like THAT idea. So she came up

with about twenty reasons why I wasn’t allowed

to do it.

Mom told me it was “dangerous” to dig in the

yard because of underground electrical lines and

sewage pipes and stuff. Then she made me promise

up and down that I wouldn’t dig any holes in

our yard. So I promised.

28

Mom went inside, but then she kept watching me

out of the window. I knew I was gonna have to

take my shovel and go dig a hole somewhere else,

so I headed up to Rowley’s house.

I haven’t been going up to Rowley’s much lately,

mostly because of Fregley. Fregley has been

spending a lot of time in his front yard and,

sure enough, that’s where he was today.

My new strategy with Fregley is to just avoid eye

contact and keep walking, and it seemed to do

the trick today.

29

When I got to Rowley’s, I told him my idea,

and how the two of us would practically be ninjas

if we stuck with this hole-jumping programme I’d

planned out.

But Rowley didn’t seem so hot on the idea. He said

his parents might get mad if we dug a ten-foot

hole in his front yard without asking them, so he

was gonna have to get their permission first.

Now, if there’s one thing I know about Rowley’s

parents, it’s that they never like my ideas. I

told Rowley we could just cover the hole up

with a tarp or a blanket or something and put

some leaves on top of it, and his folks would

never even find out. That seemed to convince him.

30

OK, so I admit that Rowley’s parents might

eventually find out. But that wouldn’t be

for at least three or four months.

Me and Rowley found a good spot in the front

yard to start digging, but we ran into a problem

right away.

31

The ground was pretty much frozen SOLID,

and we could hardly even make a dent.

I spent a few minutes trying before I handed

the shovel over to Rowley. He couldn’t really

make any progress, either, but I gave him an

extra-long turn so he could feel like he was

contributing to the project.

Rowley got a little bit further than I did, but,

when it started to get dark out, he gave up.

32

I guess we’ll have to take another crack at this

thing tomorrow.

Sunday

Well, I thought about it a lot overnight, and

I realized that at the rate me and Rowley are

going, we’re gonna be in college before this hole

is ten feet deep.

So I came up with a totally different idea

for what we could do. I remembered this thing I

saw on TV where scientists made a “time capsule”

and filled it with a bunch of stuff like newspapers

and DVDs and things like that. Then the scientists

buried their time capsule in the ground. The idea was

that in a few hundred years someone will come along

and dig it up, and they can learn how people from

our time used to live.

33

I told Rowley about my idea, and he seemed

pretty enthusiastic about it. Mostly, I think he

was just glad we weren’t gonna spend the next

few years digging a hole.

I asked Rowley to donate some items to put in

the time capsule, and that’s when he got cold feet.

I told Rowley that if he put some of his Christmas

presents in the time capsule, people in the future

would get some really cool stuff when they opened

the box. Rowley told me it wasn’t fair, because I

wasn’t putting any of MY Christmas presents in

the time capsule. So I had to explain to him

that the people in the future would think we

were really lame if they opened the box and it

was filled with clothes and books.

34

Then I told Rowley I’d throw in three dollars of

my own money to prove I was making sacrifices,

too. That seemed to be enough to convince him

to fork over one of his new video games and a

couple of other things.

I actually had a secret plan that I wasn’t

letting Rowley in on. I knew that putting the

cash in the time capsule was a smart move, because

that money is gonna be worth a LOT more than

$3.00 in the future.

So hopefully whoever finds the time capsule will

travel back in time and reward me for making

them rich.

35

I wrote a little note and put it in the box just

to make sure the person who finds it knows

exactly who to thank.

Me and Rowley found a shoe box and put all of

our stuff in it. Then we sealed it up with some

masking tape.

I wrote a little note on the outside of the box

to make sure it didn’t get opened too soon.

36

After that, we put it in the hole we dug yesterday

and buried it as best we could.

I kind of wish Rowley had put some more effort

into digging the hole, because our time capsule wasn’t

really buried all the way. Hopefully nobody will mess

with it, because it needs to stay there for at

least a few hundred years.

Monday

Well, my week got off to a rough start. When

I got out of bed, Mom’s bathrobe wasn’t where

it usually is, hanging on my doorknob.

I asked Mom if she took the robe back, but she

said she didn’t. So I have a feeling Dad had

something to do with it.

37

A couple of days ago, I figured out a way to

combine the bathrobe experience and the heating

vent experience, and I don’t think Dad really

approved of my idea.

I figure he either hid the robe or got rid of it.

Now that I think of it, Dad made a run to the

Goodwill bin last night after dinner, so that’s

probably not a good sign.

Anyway, if Dad DID get rid of the robe, it

wouldn’t be the first time he’s thrown out someone’s

personal property. You know how Manny has been

trying to quit using his pacifier?

38

39

Yesterday morning Dad got rid of every single

one of Manny’s binkies.

Well, Manny totally freaked out. The only way

Mom could get him to calm down was to dig out

his old blanket, this thing he calls “Tingy”.

Tingy started off as a blue blanket that Mom

knitted for Manny’s first birthday, and it was

love at first sight.

Manny carried that thing around with him

everywhere he went. He wouldn’t even let Mom

take it away from him so she could wash it.

It started falling apart, and by the time Manny

was two his blanket was basically a couple of pieces

of yarn held together by raisins and boogers.

I think that’s when Manny started calling his

blanket “Tingy”.

For the past couple of days, Manny’s been

dragging Tingy around the house just like he

did when he was a baby, and I’ve been trying

to stay out of his way as much as possible.

Wednesday

I’m getting really tired of walking to school every

day, so this morning I asked Mom if she would

drive me and Rowley. The reason I didn’t ask her

sooner is because Mom’s car is covered in all these

embarrassing bumper stickers, and kids at my school

are brutal when it comes to that sort of thing.

40

I’ve tried scraping the bumper stickers off, but

whatever kind of glue they put on those things is

meant to last until the end of time.

Today me and Rowley got a ride from Mom, but

I told her to let us out behind the school.

41

Well, I made the dumb mistake of leaving my

backpack in the car, so Mom brought it to me in

fourth period. And of course she picked TODAY

to finally start going to the gym.

It was just my luck, too. Fourth period is the

only time I have a class with Holly Hills, and

I’ve been trying to make a good impression on

her this year. I figure this incident probably set

me back about three weeks.

I’m not the only one who’s trying to impress

Holly Hills, either. I think just about every boy

in my class has a crush on her.

42

Holly is the fourth-prettiest girl in the class, but

the top three all have boyfriends. So a lot of

guys like me are doing everything they can to get

in good with her.

I’ve been trying to come up with an angle to

separate myself from the rest of the goobers

who like Holly. And I think I finally figured it

out: humour.

See, the kids in my class are like Neanderthals

when it comes to jokes. To give you an idea of

what I’m talking about, here’s the kind of thing

that passes for comedy at my school –

Any time Holly’s in the area, I make sure I use

my best material.

43

I’ve been using Rowley as my comedy partner,

and I’ve actually trained him on a couple of pretty

decent jokes.

The only problem is Rowley’s starting to get a little

greedy about who gets to say what, so I don’t

know if this partnership is gonna work out long-term.

44

Friday

Well, I learned my lesson about getting a ride

from Mom, so I’m back to walking to school. But

when I was heading home with Rowley this

afternoon I seriously didn’t think I had the

energy to make it up the hill to my house. So I

asked Rowley if he’d give me a piggyback ride.

Rowley didn’t exactly jump at the idea, so I had

to remind him that we’re best friends and this is

the kind of thing best friends do for each other.

He finally caved when I offered to carry his

backpack for him.

I have a feeling this was a one-time thing,

though, because Rowley was completely wiped out

by the time he dropped me off at my house. You

know, if the school is going to take away our bus

ride home, the least they could do is install a ski

lift on our hill.

I’ve e-mailed the principal about five times with my

suggestion, but I haven’t heard anything back yet.

When I got to my house, I was pretty tired,

too. My new thing is that I take a nap every

day after school.

46

In fact, I LIVE for my naps. Sleeping after

school is the only way I can really recharge my

batteries, and on most days the second I get

home, I’m in bed.

I’m actually kind of becoming an expert at

sleeping. Once I’m out, I can sleep through

just about anything.

The only person I know who’s better at sleeping

than me is Rodrick, and here’s the reason I

say that. A couple of weeks ago, Mom had to

order Rodrick a new bed because he’d worn his out.

So the furniture guys came to take his old mattress

and box spring away.

47

When they came, Rodrick was in the middle of

his after-school nap. So they took his bed

away, and he just slept on the floor, right in

the middle of his empty bed frame.

The thing I’m worried about is that Dad is going

to ban our after-school naps. I’m starting to get

the feeling he’s sick of waking the two of us up

for dinner every night.

Tuesday

Well, I hate to admit this, but I think my naps

are starting to have an effect on my grades.

48

See, I used to do my homework when I got

home from school, and then I watched TV at

night. Lately I’ve been trying to do my homework

WHILE I watch TV, and sometimes that doesn’t

work out too good.

I had this four-page Biology paper due today, but

last night I kind of got caught up in this show I

was watching. So I had to try to write the whole

thing in the computer lab during recess today.

I didn’t have a lot of time to do any research,

so I played with the margins and the font size

to stretch what I had to four pages. But I’m

pretty sure Ms Nolan is gonna call me on it.

49

50

51

Yesterday I actually got a “zero” on a quiz in

Geography. But, in my defence, it was really

hard to study for the quiz and watch football at

the same time.

To be honest with you, I don’t think teachers

should be making us memorize all this stuff to

begin with, because in the future everyone is

going to have a personal robot that tells you

whatever you need to know.

52

Speaking of teachers, today Mrs Craig was in a

really bad mood. That’s because the big dictionary

that usually sits on her desk was missing.

I’m sure someone just borrowed it and forgot to

put it back, but the word Mrs Craig kept using

was “stole”.

Mrs Craig said that if the dictionary wasn’t

returned to her desk before the end of the period

she was keeping everyone inside for recess.

Then she told us she was going to leave the room,

and that if the “culprit” returned the dictionary

to her desk there wouldn’t be any consequences,

and there would be no questions asked.

53

Mrs Craig made Patty Farrell class monitor and

left the room. Patty takes her job as class monitor

really seriously, and when she’s in charge nobody

dares to step out of line.

I was just hoping the person who took the

dictionary would hurry up and come clean,

because I had two cartons of chocolate milk

for lunch.

54

But nobody did come forward. And, sure enough,

Mrs Craig stuck to her promise and kept us inside

for recess. Then she said she was gonna keep us

inside every day until the dictionary was returned.

Friday

Mrs Craig has kept us inside for the past three

days, and still no dictionary. Today Patty Farrell

was sick, so Mrs Craig put Alex Aruda in

charge of the room while she was gone.

Alex is a good student, but people aren’t afraid

of Alex the way they are of Patty Farrell. As

soon as Mrs Craig left the room, it was complete

pandemonium.

55

A couple of guys who were sick of getting stuck

inside for recess every day decided to try to

figure out who took Mrs Craig’s dictionary.

The first person they interrogated was this kid

named Corey Lamb. I think Corey was number

one on the list of suspects because he’s smart and

he’s always using big words.

Corey fessed up to the crime in no time flat.

But it turns out he only said he did it because

the pressure made him crack.

56

The next kid on the list was Peter Lynn, and

before you knew it Peter was confessing, too.

I figured it was just a matter of time before

those guys cornered me. So I knew I had to

think up something fast.

I’ve read enough Sherlock Sammy books to know

that sometimes it takes a nerd to get you out of

a pinch. And I figured if anyone could crack

this case it was Alex Aruda.

So me and a couple of other guys who were worried

about getting hassled went over to Alex to see if

he could help us out.

57

We told Alex we needed him to solve the mystery

of who took Mrs Craig’s dictionary, but he didn’t

even know what we were talking about. I

guess Alex had been so wrapped up in his book

that he hadn’t even noticed what had been going

on around him for the past couple of days.

Plus, Alex always stays inside to read during recess,

so Mrs Craig’s punishment hadn’t had a big effect

on his life.

Unfortunately, Alex has read his share of Sherlock

Sammy books, too, so he said he would help us if

we paid him five bucks. Well, that was totally

unfair, because Sherlock Sammy only charges a

nickel. But me and the other guys agreed it was

worth it, and we pooled our money, then forked

over the five dollars.

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We laid out all the facts of the case to Alex, but

we didn’t know a whole lot. Then we asked Alex if

he could get us pointed in the right direction.

I expected Alex to start taking notes and

spout some scientific mumbo jumbo, but all he did

was close the book he was reading and show the

cover to us. And you’re not gonna believe

this, but it was Mrs Craig’s dictionary.

Alex said he’d been studying the dictionary to get

ready for the state spelling bee next month. Well,

THAT would’ve been nice to know before we gave

him our five bucks. Anyway, there was no time to

waste complaining, because Mrs Craig was gonna be

back in the room at any second.

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Corey Lamb grabbed the book from Alex and put

it on Mrs Craig’s desk. But she walked in the

room right at that moment.

Mrs Craig ended up going back on her whole

“no consequences” promise, so Corey Lamb is

gonna be spending the next three weeks inside

during recess. Looking on the bright side,

though, at least he’ll have Alex Aruda to keep

him company.

FEBRUARY

Tuesday

Yesterday in the cafeteria, when I emptied out my

lunch bag, I got TWO FRUITS – and no snacks.

This was a pretty big problem. Mom always packs

cookies or sugar wafers or something in my lunch

bag, and it’s usually the only thing I eat. So I

had no energy for the rest of the day.

When I got home, I asked Mom what the deal

was with the two-fruits thing. She said she

always buys enough treats to last us the whole

week, so one of us boys must’ve taken the snacks

out of the bin in the laundry room.

I’m sure Mom thinks I’m the one stealing the

snacks, but, believe me, I already learned my

lesson about doing THAT.

Last year I took treats out of the bin, but I

totally paid the price for it when I opened

my lunch bag at school and pulled out Mom’s

substitute snack.

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Today at lunch it was the same exact thing: two

fruits and no snacks.

Like I said, I really depend on the boost I

get from that sugar. I almost fell asleep in

Mr Watson’s class in sixth period, but luckily I

snapped awake when my head hit the back of

my chair.

When I got home, I told Mom it wasn’t fair

someone else was eating the treats and I was

having to suffer. But she said she wasn’t going

to go grocery shopping until the end of the

week, and that I’d just have to “make do”

until then.

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Dad wasn’t any help, either. When I complained

to him, he just made up a penalty for anyone

caught stealing snacks, which was “no drums and

no video games for a week”. So obviously he

thinks it’s either me or Rodrick.

Like I said, it’s not ME, but I figured Dad

might be right about Rodrick. When Rodrick

went up to the bathroom after dinner, I

walked down to his room to see if I could find

any wrappers or crumbs.

But while I was poking around in Rodrick’s room,

I heard him coming downstairs. I had to hide

quick, because for some reason Rodrick gets really

bent out of shape when he catches me in his room,

like he did yesterday.

Right before Rodrick got to the bottom of the

stairs, I dived into his desk cabinet and shut

the door. Rodrick walked in the room, then

flopped on his bed and called his friend Ward.

Rodrick and Ward talked FOREVER, and I

was starting to think I might have to spend

the night in that desk.

Rodrick and Ward got into a pretty heated

debate about whether or not a person could

throw up while standing on their head, and I

started to feel like I was gonna throw up myself.

Luckily, right around then, the phone’s battery

died. When Rodrick went upstairs to get the

spare phone, I made a run for it.

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This snack thing wouldn’t even be an issue if I

had money. If I did, I could just buy something

from the vending machine at school every day.

At the moment, though, I’m kind of broke.

That’s because I wasted all my money on some

junk I can’t even use.

About a month ago, I saw these ads in the

back of one of my comic books, and I sent away

for a couple of things that were supposed to

totally change my life.

I started receiving my stuff in the mail about two

weeks ago.

The Cash Machine turned out to be some stupid

magic trick where you have to insert your own

money in this secret slot for it to work. And

that wasn’t good, because I was really counting

on that thing to get me out of having to find

a job when I grow up.

The X-Ray Goggles just made you see blurry and

cross-eyed, so that was a bust, too.

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The Throw Your Voice thing didn’t work at

ALL, even though I followed the instructions

in the book.

But the item I had the highest hopes for was

the Personal Hovercraft. I figured getting home

after school would be a breeze once my hovercraft

finally showed up in the mail.

Well, I got the package today, but there wasn’t

a hovercraft inside. There was just a blueprint for

how to BUILD a hovercraft, and I got stuck on

Step One.

I just can’t believe the people who write those

ads can get away with lying to kids like that. I

thought about hiring a lawyer to sue those guys,

but lawyers cost money and, like I said before,

the Cash Machine was a piece of garbage.

Thursday

Today, when I got home from school, Mom was

waiting for me, and she didn’t look too happy.

It turns out the school sent home mid-term

report cards, and she got the mail before I

could intercept it.

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Mom showed me the report card, and it wasn’t

pretty. Then she said we were gonna wait for

Dad to get home to see what HE thought.

Man, waiting for Dad to get home when you’re in

trouble is the WORST. I used to just hide in

the closet, but recently I figured out a better

way to handle it. Now, whenever I get in trouble,

I ask Gramma to come over for dinner, because

Dad’s not gonna act mad at me if Gramma’s around.

At dinner, I made sure I sat in the seat right

next to Gramma.

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Luckily, Mom didn’t mention my report card during

dinner. And when Gramma said she needed to leave

to go to Bingo, I tagged right along with her.

Escaping Dad wasn’t the only reason I went

to Bingo with Gramma. I also went because I

needed a surefire way to make some money.

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I figured spending a few hours with Gramma

and her Bingo friends was a pretty fair price to

pay for a week’s worth of snacks from the

vending machine in the school cafeteria.

Gramma and her friends are EXPERTS at Bingo,

and they’re real serious about it, too. They have

all sorts of gear like lucky blotters and “Bingo

Trolls” and stuff like that to help them win.

One of Gramma’s friends is so good that she

memorizes all her cards, and she doesn’t even

need to use a blotter to mark them off.

For some reason, tonight Gramma and her friends

weren’t winning like they usually do. But then on

the “Cover All” game, I got every square. I

yelled out “BINGO” real loud, and the clerk came

over to check my card.

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It turns out I messed up and covered a couple

of squares that I shouldn’t have. The clerk

announced that my win was no good, and everyone

else in the room was pretty happy that they

could keep playing.

Gramma told me not to call so much attention to

myself if I called out “Bingo” again, because the

regulars don’t like it when a newcomer wins.

I thought Gramma was pulling my leg, but,

sure enough, the regulars sent one of their

ladies over to intimidate me. And I have to

admit she did her job really well.

Friday

Well, today wasn’t exactly my best day ever. For

starters, I flunked my Science test. So it probably

would’ve been a good idea to have studied last night

instead of spending four hours at Bingo.

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I fell asleep in sixth period today, and this time I

was out COLD – Mr Watson had to shake me to

get me to wake up. As a punishment, I had to

sit in the front of the room.

That was just fine with me, because at least up

there I could sleep in peace.

I just wish someone had woken me up when sixth

period ended, because I didn’t wake up until the

next period started.

The class I woke up in was taught by Mrs Lowry.

Mrs Lowry gave me detention, and on Monday

I’m gonna have to stay after school to serve it.

Tonight I was totally jittery from my sugar

withdrawal, but I didn’t have any money to go

buy a soda or candy from the convenience store.

So I did something I’m not real proud of.

I went to Rowley’s and dug up the time capsule we

buried in his front yard. But I only did it because

I was desperate.

I took the time capsule back to my house, opened

it up and got out my three bucks. Then I went

down to the convenience store and bought myself a

big soda, a pack of gummy bears and a candy bar.

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I guess I feel a little bad that the time capsule

me and Rowley put together didn’t stay buried

for a few hundred years. On the other hand, it’s

kind of neat that one of US got to open it,

because we had actually put some really good

stuff in there.

Monday

I didn’t really know what to expect from detention,

but when I walked into the room, the first

thought I had was: I don’t belong in here with

these future criminals.

I took the only empty seat, which was right in

front of this kid named Leon Ricket.

Leon is not the brightest kid in our school. He

was in detention because of what he did when a

wasp landed on the window in homeroom.

I found out that all you do in detention is sit there

and wait for it to be over. You’re not allowed to

read or do your homework or ANYTHING, which

is a pretty dumb rule, considering that most of the

kids in there could really use the extra study time.

Mr Ray was the moderator, and he more or less

kept an eye on us. But every time Mr Ray looked

away, Leon would flick my ear or give me a Wet

Willie or something like that. Eventually Leon got

careless, and Mr Ray caught Leon with his finger

in my ear.

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Mr Ray said if he caught Leon touching me again

he was gonna be in big trouble.

I knew Leon was just gonna go back to bugging

me, so I decided to put a stop to it. As soon as

Mr Ray’s back was turned, I slapped my hands

together to make it seem like Leon had hit me.

Mr Ray turned round and told Leon he was

gonna have to stay another half hour, and that

he had detention again tomorrow.

On the way home, I was wondering if I’d made

the smartest move back there at the school. I’m

not exactly the fastest runner, and a half hour

isn’t that big of a head start.

Tuesday

Tonight I realized all of my current problems

can be traced back to when someone in my family

started stealing the lunch snacks. So I decided

to catch the thief once and for all.

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I knew Mom had gone grocery shopping over the

weekend, so there was a fresh supply of snacks in

the laundry room. That meant the snack thief

was pretty much guaranteed to strike.

After dinner I went in the laundry room and

turned off the light. Then I climbed in an empty

basket and waited.

About a half hour later, someone came in the

room and turned on the light, so I hid under a

towel. But it turns out it was just Mom.

I stayed perfectly still while she got clothes out

of the dryer. Mom didn’t notice me in there, and

she dumped the clothes from the dryer right into

the basket where I was hiding.

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Then she walked out of the room, and I waited

some more. I was seriously ready to wait there all

night if that’s what it took.

But the clothes from the dryer were really warm,

and I started feeling a little drowsy. And before

I knew it I was asleep.

I don’t know how many hours I slept, but what

I DO know is that I woke up to the sound of

crinkling cellophane.

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When I heard the sound of chewing, I turned

on my flashlight and caught the thief red-handed.

It was Dad! Man, I should have known it was

him from the start. When it comes to junk food,

he’s a total addict.

I started to give Dad a piece of my mind, but

he cut me off. He wasn’t interested in talking

about why he was stealing our lunch snacks. What

he WAS interested in talking about was what

the heck I was doing buried in a pile of Mom’s

underwear in the middle of the night.

Right at that moment, we heard Mom coming

down the stairs.

I think me and Dad realized how bad the situation

looked for both of us, so we each just grabbed as

many oatmeal creams as we could carry and made a

run for it.

Wednesday

I was still really steamed at Dad for stealing our

lunch treats, and I was planning on confronting

him tonight. But Dad was in bed by 6:00, so I

didn’t get my chance.

Dad went to bed so early because he was depressed

about something that had happened when he got

home from work. When Dad was getting the mail,

our neighbours from up the street, the Snellas,

walked down the hill with their new baby.

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The baby’s name is Seth, and I think he’s about

two months old.

Every time the Snellas have a baby, six months

later they throw a big “half-birthday” party and

invite all the neighbours.

The highlight of each Snella half-birthday

party is when the adults line up and try to

make the baby laugh. The grown-ups do all

these wacky things and make complete

fools of themselves.

I’ve been to every single Snella half-birthday

party so far, and no baby has laughed once.

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Everyone knows the REAL reason the Snellas

have these half-birthday parties is because their

big dream is to win the $10,000 Grand Prize on

“America’s Funniest Families”. That’s this TV show

where they play home movies of people getting hit

in the groin with golf balls and stuff like that.

The Snellas are just hoping something really funny

will happen at one of their parties so they can

catch it on videotape. They’ve actually got some

pretty good stuff over the years. During Sam

Snella’s half-birthday party, Mr Bittner split

his trousers doing jumping jacks. And, during

Scott Snella’s party, Mr Odom was walking

backwards, and he fell in the baby pool.

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The Snellas turned in those videos, but they

didn’t win anything. So I guess they’re just

gonna keep having babies until they do.

Dad HATES performing in front of people, so he’ll

do everything he can to avoid having to act like a

fool in front of the whole neighbourhood. And,

so far, Dad has weaselled his way out of every

single Snella half-birthday party.

At dinner, Mom told Dad he has to go to

Seth Snella’s half-birthday party in June. And

I’m pretty sure Dad knows that this time his

number is finally up.

Thursday

Everybody at school has been talking about the big

Valentine’s Dance that’s coming up next week.

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This is the first year at my school that they’ve

actually had a dance, so everyone’s all excited.

Some of the guys in my class were even asking

girls if they would be their dates to the dance.

Me and Rowley are both bachelors at the

moment, but that’s not gonna stop us from

arriving in style.

I figured if me and Rowley scraped together

some money in the next few days, we could rent

a limo for the night. But, when I called the

limo company, the guy who answered the phone

called me “ma’am”. So that pretty much blew any

chance he had of getting my business.

87

Since the dance is next week, I realized I was

gonna need something to wear.

I’m kind of in a pinch because I’ve already worn

most of the clothes I got for Christmas, and

I’m almost out of clean stuff to wear. I went

through my dirty clothes to see if there was

anything I could wear a second time.

I separated my laundry into two piles: one

that I could wear again, and one that would

get me sent down to Nurse Powell’s office for a

lecture on hygiene.

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I found a shirt in pile number one that wasn’t

so bad, except it had a jam stain on the left-

hand side. So at the dance I’ll just need to

remember to keep Holly Hills to the right of me

at all times.

Valentine’s Day

I was up late last night making Valentine’s cards

for everyone in my class. I’m pretty sure my

middle school is the only one in the state that

still makes all the kids give cards to one another.

Last year I was actually looking forward to the

card swap. The night before Valentine’s Day, I

spent a lot of time making an awesome card for

this girl named Natasha who I kind of liked.

I showed Mom my card to check for spelling

errors, but she said what I wrote wasn’t “age

appropriate”. She told me maybe I should just

get Natasha a little box of candy or something,

but I wasn’t about to take romantic advice from

my mother.

At school everyone went around the room and put

their Valentine’s cards in one another’s boxes, but

I delivered my card to Natasha personally.

I let her read it, and then I waited to see

what she made for ME.

Natasha dug around in her box and pulled out

this cheap store-bought card that was supposed to

be for her friend Chantelle, who was out sick

that day.

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Then Natasha scribbled out her friend’s name

and put my name on it instead.

Anyway, you can probably see why I wasn’t too

enthusiastic about the card exchange this year.

Last night I came up with a great idea. I

knew I had to make a card for everyone in the

class, but, instead of being all mushy and saying

things I didn’t really mean, I told everyone

EXACTLY what I thought of them.

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The trick was, I didn’t actually sign any of

my cards.

A few of the kids complained about the cards to

our teacher, Mrs Riser, and then she went around

the room trying to figure out who’d sent them.

I knew Mrs Riser would think that whoever

didn’T get a card was the culprit, but I was

prepared for that, because I made a card for

myself, too.

After the card exchange came the Valentine’s

Dance. The dance was originally supposed to be

at night, but I guess they couldn’t get

enough parents to volunteer to be chaperones. So

they put the dance smack in the middle of the

school day instead.

The teachers started rounding everyone up and

sending them down to the auditorium at around

1:00. Anyone who didn’t want to cough up the

two bucks for admission had to go down to Mr

Ray’s room for study hall.

But it was pretty obvious to most of us that

“study hall” was basically the same thing as

detention.

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The rest of us filed into the gym and sat in the

bleachers. I don’t know why, but all the boys sat

on one side of the gym, and all the girls sat on

the other. Once everyone was inside the gym,

the teachers started the music. But whoever

picked out the songs is seriously out of

touch with what kids are listening to these days.

For the first fifteen minutes or so, no one moved

a muscle. Then Mr Phillips, the guidance counsellor,

and Nurse Powell walked to the middle of the gym

and started dancing.

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I guess Mr Phillips and Nurse Powell thought if

they started dancing all the kids would come

down onto the floor and join them. All they

really did was guarantee that everyone

stayed in their seat.

Finally, Mrs Mancy, the principal, grabbed a

microphone and made an announcement. She said

that everyone in the bleachers was REQUIRED

to come down onto the floor and dance, and it

would count for 20% of our Phys Ed grades.

At that point me and a couple of other boys

tried to sneak out to go down to Mr Ray’s

room, but we got caught by some teachers who

were blocking the exits.

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Mrs Mancy wasn’t kidding about the gym-grade

thing, either. She was walking around with Mr

Underwood, the Phys Ed teacher, and he was

carrying his gradebook with him.

I’m already close to flunking Phys Ed, so I

knew it was time to get serious. But I didn’t

want to look like a fool in front of the kids in

my class, either. So I just came up with the

simplest move I could do that would technically

qualify as “dancing”.

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Unfortunately, a bunch of guys who were worried

about their Phys Ed grades saw what I was

doing, and they came over to where I was. And

the next thing I knew I was surrounded by a

bunch of bozos who were stealing my moves.

I wanted to get as far away from those guys

as I could, so I looked around the gym for a

place where I could go to dance in peace.

That’s when I spotted Holly Hills across the

room, and I remembered why I even bothered

coming to the dance in the first place.

Holly was dancing with her friends in the middle

of the gym, and I started doing my step-dance

thing, moving slowly towards them.

All the girls were lumped together in one big

pack, and they were dancing like professionals,

probably because they spend all their free time

watching MTV.

Holly was right in the middle of the group. I kind

of danced around the outside of the circle for a

while, trying to find an opening, but I couldn’t.

Finally, Holly stopped dancing and went to get a

drink, and I knew it was my big chance.

But, just when I was about to go up to Holly

and say something witty, Fregley came flying in

out of nowhere.

Fregley had pink frosting covering his face, so

he was probably all hopped-up on sugar from the

cupcakes they were serving at the refreshments

table. All I know for sure is that he totally

ruined what should have been a great moment

between me and Holly.

A few minutes later, the dance was over, and I

missed my chance to make a good impression on

her. I walked home alone after school, because I

just needed a little time by myself.

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100

After dinner Mom told me there was a Valentine’s

card out in the mailbox with my name on it. When

I asked her who it was from, she just said,

“Someone special.” I ran out to the mailbox and

got the card, and I have to admit I was pretty

excited. I was hoping it was from Holly, but there

are at least four or five other girls at my school

who I wouldn’t mind getting a card from, either.

The card was in a big pink envelope with my

name written in cursive. I ripped it open, and

here’s what I found: a sheet of construction

paper with a piece of candy taped to it, and it

was from Rowley.

Sometimes I just don’t know about that boy.

MARCH

Saturday

The other day Dad found Manny’s blanket, Tingy,

on the couch. I don’t think Dad knew what it

was, so he threw it away.

Ever since then Manny’s been turning the house

upside down looking for his blanket, and finally

Dad had to tell him that he accidentally threw

it out. Well, Manny got his revenge yesterday

by using Dad’s Civil War battlefield as a playset.

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Manny’s been taking his anger out on everyone

else, too. Today I was sitting on the couch just

minding my own business, and Manny walked up to

me and said –

I didn’t know if “Ploopy” was some kind of little-

kid bad word or what, but I didn’t like the

sound of it. So I went to find Mom and ask

her if she knew what it meant.

Unfortunately, Mom was on the phone, and

when she’s gabbing with one of her friends it

takes forever to get her attention.

I finally got Mom to stop talking for a second,

but she was mad that I interrupted her. I told

her Manny called me “Ploopy”, and she said –

That kind of threw me for a second, because it’s

the exact question I was trying to ask HER. I

didn’t have an answer, so Mom just went back to

her conversation.

After that, Manny knew he had a green light to

call me Ploopy whenever he wanted, and that’s what

he’s been doing all day.

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I guess I should’ve known that telling on Manny

wasn’t gonna get me anywhere. When me and

Rodrick were little, we used to tell on each other

so much that it made Mom crazy. So she brought

out this thing called the Tattle Turtle to solve

the problem.

Mom came up with the Tattle Turtle idea when

she taught pre-school. The idea behind the Tattle

Turtle was that if me and Rodrick had a problem

with each other we had to tell the Tattle

Turtle instead of Mom. Well, the Tattle Turtle

worked out GREAT for Rodrick, but not so

much for me.

Easter

On the car ride to church today, I felt like I

was sitting on something sticky. And when I got

out and turned round to look at the back of my

trousers there was chocolate all over them.

Manny had brought his Easter bunny with him

in the car, and I must’ve been sitting on an ear

or something.

Mom was trying to get the family inside so we

could get good seats, but I told her there was

no way I was going in there looking like that.

I knew Holly Hills and her family were probably

already there, and I really didn’t need her

wondering if I’d pooped in my pants.

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Mom said skipping church on Easter wasn’t an

option, and we argued back and forth. Then

Rodrick chimed in with his solution.

Rodrick knows that church on Easter is always

at least two hours long, so he was just looking

for an excuse to get out of it. But, right at

that moment, Dad’s boss and his family pulled up

alongside us in the parking lot.

Mom made Rodrick put his trousers back on, and

then she gave me her sweater to tie around my waist.

I don’t know which was worse: wearing dress pants

with chocolate all over them or wearing Mom’s pink

Easter sweater like a kilt.

Church was pretty full. The only seats that were

empty were right up front where Uncle Joe and

his family were sitting, so we sat next to them.

I looked around, and I spotted Holly Hills and

her family three rows back. I was pretty sure

she couldn’t see what I was wearing from the

waist down, so that was a relief.

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As soon as the music started up, Uncle Joe

reached out to hold hands with me and his wife,

and he started singing.

I tried to break free a couple of times, but

Uncle Joe had an iron grip. The song was only

like a minute long, but to me it felt like half

an hour.

After the song was over, I turned to the people

behind us, pointed at Uncle Joe and made the

“cuckoo” sign so everyone knew I wasn’t on board

with this holding-hands thing.

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Somewhere in the middle of church, they passed

a basket around so people could give money to

help the needy.

I didn’t have any money of my own, so I

whispered to Mom to see if she would give me a

dollar. Then, when the basket came to me, I

made a big deal of putting the dollar in the

basket to make sure Holly could see how generous

I was.

But when I put the money in the basket, I

realized Mom had given me a twenty, not a

single. I tried to grab the basket to make

change, but it was too late.

All I can say is, I better get some points in

Heaven for THAT donation.

109

I’ve heard that when you do good deeds you’re

supposed to be all private about it, but that

doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense to me.

If I start hiding my good deeds, I’m sure I’ll

just regret it later on.

Like I said before, the Easter service is super

long. One of the songs was going on for about

five minutes, and I started looking for ways to

entertain myself.

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The way that Rodrick keeps himself busy when

he’s bored is by picking at this scab on the back

of his hand that he never lets heal, but I’m not

really interested in going that route.

Manny has it made in church. Mom and Dad let

him bring all sorts of stuff with us to keep him

entertained. Believe me, Mom and Dad never let

me bring anything to church when I was his age.

Mom and Dad always baby Manny, though,

and I’ll give you an example of what I’m talking

about. Last week Manny was at pre-school, and

when he opened up his lunchbox his sandwich was

cut in half, not in quarters, the way he

likes it.

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Manny threw a huge temper tantrum, and the

teachers had to call Mom. So she left work and

drove all the way down to Manny’s school to

make the extra slice.

Anyway, I was thinking about this at church, and

all of a sudden I got an idea in my head. I

leaned over to Manny and whispered –

Well, Manny completely LOST it.

He started bawling, and everyone in the church

turned their heads our way. Even the minister

stopped talking to see what was going on.

Mom couldn’t calm Manny down, so we had to

leave. Instead of walking out the side door,

though, we walked right down the centre aisle.

I tried to look as cool as possible when we

walked past the Hills family, but it was pretty

tough, considering the circumstances.

The only person more embarrassed than me was

Dad. Dad tried to cover his face with the church

bulletin, but his boss spotted him and gave Dad

the “thumbs up” on the way out.

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Wednesday

Things have kind of been tense around the house

since the mess the other day. First of all, Mom was

really mad at me for calling Manny “Ploopy”, so I

had to remind her that she didn’t have any problem

when Manny said it. So Mom banned the word

for everyone, and she said that if anyone was

caught saying it they’d be grounded for a week.

But of course it didn’t take long for Rodrick to

find a loophole.

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This isn’t the first time Mom has banned us

from saying certain words in the house. A while

back, Mom made a “no swearing” rule, because

Manny was picking up new words left and right.

Every time someone said a bad word in front of

Manny, they had to put a dollar in his “Swear Jar”.

So Manny was getting rich off me and Rodrick.

And then Mom upped the ante by banning words

like “stupid” and “jerk” and stuff like that.

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To keep from going bankrupt, me and Rodrick

came up with a bunch of code words that meant

the same thing as the banned words, and we’ve

been using them ever since.

Every once in a while, I forget to switch back

when I get to school, and I end up looking

dumb. Just today, David Nester spat out a piece

of gum and it landed in my hair. I really let loose

with everything I had, but I don’t think I upset

David too much.

The other thing that’s changed since Easter is

that Dad has been on me and Rodrick’s case. I

guess he’s tired of us looking bad in front of his

boss, Mr Warren.

Dad made Rodrick enroll in an SAT class, and

he made ME sign up for Rec League soccer.

Soccer tryouts were tonight. The coaches lined

up all the kids for a “skills test”, where you had

to dribble the ball between some cones and stuff

like that.

I tried my best, but I got ranked “Pre-Alpha

Minus”, which I’m sure is just adult code words

for “You Stink”.

After the skills test, they put us on different

teams. I was hoping I’d get one of those fun

coaches who doesn’t take sports too seriously, like

Mr Proctor or Mr Gibb, but I got the worst

one out of the whole bunch, Mr Litch.

Mr Litch is one of these drill-sergeant types who

likes to yell a lot. Mr Litch used to be Rodrick’s

coach, and he’s pretty much the reason Rodrick

doesn’t do sports any more.

Anyway, our first real practice is tomorrow.

Hopefully, I’ll just get cut so I can get back to

playing video games. Twisted Wizard 2 is supposed to

come out soon, and I heard it’s awesome.

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Thursday

I got put on a team with a bunch of kids I

didn’t really know. The first thing Mr Litch did

was hand out uniforms, and then he told us to

come up with a team name.

I suggested that we call our team the “Twisted

Wizards”, and get the Game Hut to sponsor us.

Nobody liked my idea, though. One kid said we

should call the team the “Red Sox”, which I

thought was a terrible idea. Number one, the Red

Sox are a baseball team and, number two, our

soccer uniforms are blue.

But of course everyone else loved the idea, and

that’s the name that won out. Then the assistant

coach, Mr Boone, said he was worried that if we

called our team the Red Sox we might get sued.

I’m pretty sure those guys have better things to

do than to go around suing middle-school soccer

teams, but, like I said before, nobody wanted to

listen to my opinions.

So the team voted to change the name to “Red

Socks”, and that was final.

After that we started practice. Mr Litch and

Mr Boone made us run laps and do leg-lifts and a

bunch of other stuff that had nothing to do with

soccer. In between wind sprints, I hung out by

the water cooler with the other two Pre-Alpha

Minus guys. And every time we were slow getting

back to the field Mr Litch would yell –

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Me and the other guys thought it would be pretty

funny if the next time Mr Litch said that we all

ran at him with our butts sticking out.

So the next time Mr Litch yelled for us to get

our butts over there, I ran with my rear end

pointed at him. But the other guys totally

hung me out to dry.

Mr Litch did not appreciate my sense of humour,

and he made me run three extra laps.

When Dad picked me up at the end of practice,

I told him that maybe this soccer thing wasn’t

such a good idea, and that he should probably

just let me quit.

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That made Dad pretty mad, so he said –

Which isn’t really true at all. I’m a HUGE quitter,

and so is Rodrick. And I think Manny is on his

third or fourth pre-school by now.

Anyway, I got the feeling that if I’m gonna

get out of soccer I’m gonna have to think of

another angle.

Friday

Ever since I started playing soccer, I’ve been

going through my clothes twice as quick as I did

before. I’ve been totally out of clean stuff to

wear for a while now, so I’ve been pulling all of

my clothes out of my dirty laundry piles. But I

found out today that recycling clothes from the

dirty laundry pile can be risky.

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I was walking by some girls in the hallway

today, and a pair of dirty underwear fell out of

one of my trouser legs. I just kept walking and

hoped that the girls might think the underwear

wasn’t actually mine.

But I paid the price for that decision later on

in the day.

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I think I’d better hurry up and learn how to

do my laundry, because I’m really running out of

options. Tomorrow I’m gonna have to wear a

T-shirt I got from my Uncle Gary’s first wedding,

and I’m really not looking forward to it.

I was kind of down in the dumps on the walk home

from school today, but then something happened to

change that. Rowley told me one of his friends

from karate was having a sleepover this weekend,

and he asked me if I wanted to come along.

I was about to say “no way”, but then Rowley

said something that got my attention. The kid

who’s having the party lives on Pleasant Street,

which is in the same neighbourhood that Holly Hills

lives in.

At lunch today I overheard a couple of girls saying

that HOLLY is having a sleepover Saturday night,

so this could really be the opportunity of a

lifetime for me.

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Tonight at soccer practice, Mr Litch told

everyone the position they’d be playing in the

first game on Sunday.

Mr Litch told me I’d be the “Fetcher”, and

that sounded pretty cool to me. So, when I got

home, I bragged to Rodrick about it.

I thought Rodrick would be impressed, but he just

laughed. He told me that Fetcher wasn’t actually a

real position on the field – it’s just a kid who

chases the ball when it goes out of bounds. Then he

showed me a rulebook with all the soccer positions

and, sure enough, Fetcher wasn’t in it.

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Rodrick is always pulling my leg, so I guess I’ll

just have to wait until this weekend to see if he’s

telling the truth this time.

Sunday

Remind me to never go to a sleepover with

Rowley again.

Yesterday afternoon Mom dropped me and Rowley

off at his friend’s house. The first hint that I

was in for a long night was when we walked into

the house and there wasn’t a kid there who was

older than six.

My second hint was that everyone was wearing

their karate gear.

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The whole reason I even went to this sleepover

was so we could all sneak out and crash Holly’s

slumber party. But Rowley’s friends were more

interested in “Sesame Street” than they were

in girls.

All those guys wanted to do was play a bunch of

dopey party games, like Blind Man’s Bluff and

that kind of thing. I could’ve been playing Spin

the Bottle with Holly Hills, but instead I spent

my night trying not to get groped by a bunch of

first-graders.

Rowley’s friends played some other games, too, like

Freeze Tag and Twister.

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I excused myself to go upstairs when someone

suggested we could play Who Licked Me?

I tried calling Mom to come pick me up, but she

was out with Dad. So I knew I was stuck at

this kid’s house for the night.

At about 9:30 I decided to just go to sleep

and get the night over with. But those guys

came into the bedroom and got into a massive

pillow fight. And, let me tell you, it’s not easy

falling asleep when a sweaty little kid falls on

you every five seconds.

Eventually the kid’s mom came upstairs and told

everyone it was time to go to sleep.

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Even after the lights went out, Rowley and his

friends stayed up, talking and giggling. They

must have thought I fell asleep, because at one

point a bunch of them snuck up on me to try

and pull the hand-in-a-bowl-of-warm-water trick.

Well, that was enough for ME. I went downstairs

to sleep in the basement, even though it was

pitch-black down there and I couldn’t find the

light. I’d left my sleeping bag upstairs, and

that was a mistake, because it was freezing

in the basement.

I did NOT want to go back upstairs and get

my stuff, though. I just curled up in a ball and

tried to conserve as much body heat as possible to

make it through to the morning.

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I think it was probably the longest night of my life.

When the sun came up this morning, I found out

the reason it was so cold in the basement. I was

sleeping right by the sliding glass door, and some

fool had gone and left it open overnight.

That really stunk, because if I knew there was a

way to escape last night, I definitely

would’ve taken it.

When I got home this morning, I went back to

bed until Dad woke me up and told me it was time

to go to the soccer game.

It turns out Rodrick was right about the

Fetcher thing. I spent the whole game pulling

balls out of the brambles and, let me tell you, it

wasn’t a whole lot of fun.

Our team won the game, and afterwards we

were supposed to go out to celebrate. Dad

couldn’t stick around, so he asked Mr Litch if

he would drive me home afterwards.

Well, I really wish Dad had asked ME what I

thought about that idea first, because I would’ve

just gone home with him.

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I was starving from all that digging around in

the bushes, though, so I figured I’d just go

with the team.

We went to a fast-food place, and I ordered

twenty chicken nuggets. I went to use the

bathroom, and when I came back to the table

all my food was gone. But then Erick Bickford

dumped my nuggets out of his big sweaty hands.

If you ever wanted to know why I don’t like

team sports, there it is in a nutshell.

After lunch was over, me, Kenny Keith and

Erick got into Mr Litch’s car. Kenny sat in

the back with Erick, and I sat up front in

the passenger seat.

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We had to wait a long time because Mr Litch

was sitting on the hood of his car, blabbing

away with Mr Boone. After we’d been sitting

there for a while, Kenny leaned forward from

the back seat and pressed the horn for about

three seconds.

Then Kenny jumped back in his seat so when Mr

Litch turned round it looked like I was the one

who honked the horn.

Mr Litch gave me a dirty look, and then turned

back round and talked to his assistant for another

half hour.

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On the way home, Mr Litch stopped to do about

five errands. He wasn’t in any hurry to get them

done, either.

And get this: Kenny and Erick were mad at ME

for making them get home so late. So that should

give you a feeling for the type of intelligence I’m

dealing with here.

Mr Litch dropped me off last. On the way up the

hill, I saw the Snellas out in their front yard,

and it looked like they were trying to get some

clips to send in to “America’s Funniest Families.”

I guess they don’t feel like waiting around a few

months until Seth’s half-birthday party.

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APRIL

Thursday

Today was April 1st, and here’s how my day

started –

Every other day of the year, you couldn’t

drag Rodrick out of bed before 8:00 a.m. But

on April 1st Rodrick always wakes up early so he

can get his tricks in.

Someone seriously needs to explain the concept of a

practical joke to Rodrick, because all his “jokes”

involve me getting injured.

Last year Rodrick bet me fifty cents I couldn’t

tie my shoes while I was standing up, and I

totally fell for it.

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I went inside and told Dad that Rodrick shot

me in the butt with a paintball gun. Dad didn’t

feel like getting in the middle of a fight, so he

just told Rodrick to pay me my fifty cents for

winning the bet.

Rodrick took two quarters out of his pocket

and threw them on the ground. But obviously I

hadn’t learned my lesson, because I bent over

to pick them up.

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At least I put some thinking into MY practical

jokes. Last year I pulled a pretty good trick on

Rowley. We were in the bathroom at a movie theatre,

and I convinced him that some random guy

standing at the urinal was a professional athlete.

So Rowley asked the guy for his autograph.

And today me and a couple of other guys pulled

a good one on Chirag Gupta.

We decided it would be pretty funny if we made

him think he was losing his hearing, so we all

made sure we talked real quiet every time he

came around.

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Chirag figured out what was going on pretty

quick, and he went straight to the teacher to

shut it down before the joke could get out of

hand. I guess he didn’t want a repeat of the

Invisible Chirag joke from last year.

Friday

We had our second soccer game tonight. Some

adult volunteered to fetch the balls, so I got to

sit on the bench for the whole game.

It was really cold out, and I asked Dad if

I could go get my coat out of the car, but he

said no.

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Dad said I needed to be prepared in case the

coach decided to put me in the game, so I had

to just tough it out.

I wanted to tell Dad that the only time I’d

be stepping foot on the field would be when Mr

Litch made me pick up all the other kids’ orange

peels at halftime. But I just kept quiet and

concentrated on not letting my shin guards

freeze to my legs.

Every time Mr Litch called a huddle, Dad made me

get off the bench and go join the rest of the

team. Have you seen a game on TV and wondered

what the benchwarmers were thinking when they

stand in the huddle while the coach goes over the

game plan?

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Well, now I can tell you firsthand.

Once the sun went down, it got REALLY

cold. In fact, it got so cold Mackey Creavey

and Manuel Gonzales went and got SLEEPING

bags out of the Creaveys’ car.

And Dad still wouldn’t even let me go get

my coat.

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During a timeout, we all joined the huddle. And

when the coach got an eyeful of Mackey and

Manuel he told them they were excused and to go

to the Creaveys’ car for the rest of the game.

So Mackey and Manuel got to sit in a heated

SUV, while I had to sit on a cold metal bench in

my shorts. And I know for a FACT that the

Creaveys have a TV in their car, so I’m sure

those guys were totally living it up in there.

Monday

I have definitely got to start keeping on

top of my laundry. I’ve been out of clean underwear

for about three days, so I’ve been wearing my

bathing suit as a substitute.

Today we had Phys Ed, and when we changed into

our gym clothes, I totally forgot I was wearing

my Speedo underneath.

It could have been a lot WORSE, though. I

have a pair of Wonder Woman Underoos that

I’ve never taken out of their wrapper, and this

morning I was pretty tempted to wear them

just because they were clean.

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Believe me, I didn’t ASK for the Wonder Woman

Underoos, either. This past summer a few of my

relatives asked Mom what I wanted for my

birthday, and she told them I was really into

comics and super heroes.

So the Underoos were a gift from Uncle Charlie.

We had another soccer game after school, but it’s

been getting a lot warmer lately, and I wasn’t

worried about the cold.

At school, me, Mackey and Manuel agreed we’d all

bring some video games tonight, and for the first

time we actually enjoyed ourselves at soccer.

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It didn’t last long, though. Twenty minutes into

the game, Mr Litch called all three of us off the

bench and told us to get on the field.

Apparently, some parent complained that their

kid wasn’t getting any playing time, so the Rec

League made a rule that now every kid has to

get in the game.

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Well, none of us had been paying any attention

to the game, so when we got on the field, we

didn’t know what to do or where to stand.

A couple of kids on our team told us the other

team had a “free kick”, and that we were supposed

to stand shoulder to shoulder to make a shield to

block it.

I thought the guys on my team were joking, but

it turns out they weren’t. Me, Manuel and Mackey

had to line up in front of our goal. Then the referee

blew the whistle, and a kid from the other team ran

at the ball and kicked it right at us.

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Well, we didn’t do a really good job of protecting

the goal, and the other team scored.

Mr Litch pulled the three of us out of the game

the second he got the chance, and he yelled at

us for not standing still and blocking the ball.

But I’ll tell you what: if I have to choose

between getting yelled at or getting hit in the

face with a soccer ball, it’s no contest.

147

Thursday

After the game last week, I asked Mr Litch if

I could be the back-up goalie for the team, and

he said I could.

It was a genius move on my part, for a couple

of reasons. First of all, goalies don’t have to

run laps and all that stuff during practice.

They just do individual goalie drills with the

assistant coach.

Second, goalies wear different uniforms from

the rest of the team, and that means Mr

Litch can’t put me in the game when it’s time to

block free kicks.

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Our regular goalie, Tucker Fox, is the star of

the team, so I knew there was no way I was

gonna see any playing time, anyway. These last

few games have actually been kind of FUN. But

tonight something bad happened. Tucker hurt his

hand diving after a ball, and he had to come

out. So that meant the coach had to put me in.

Well, Dad was really excited I was finally

getting some real playing time, and he came down

to my end of the field to coach me from the

sideline. It’s not like I really needed it, though.

Our team kept the ball on the other side of the

field for the whole rest of the game, and I didn’t

even touch it once.

149

I think I know what Dad was up to, though.

When I used to play T-Ball, I had a really hard

time concentrating on the game. Tonight Dad just

wanted to make sure I didn’t get distracted the

way I used to get when I played right field.

I have to admit, it was probably a good thing

that Dad stayed on my case tonight.

There were about a million dandelions down at

my end of the field, and in the second half I was

starting to get a little twitchy.

150

Monday

Well, yesterday we had another soccer game,

and luckily Dad wasn’t there to see it. We lost

our first game of the season, 1–0. Somehow the

other team got the ball past me in the last few

seconds, and they won. So that ruined our

perfect record.

Afterwards, everyone on my team was in a sour

mood, so I tried to cheer them up.

My teammates thanked me for being positive by

pelting me with orange peels.

Back at home, I was nervous to tell Dad about

the game.

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I guess he seemed a little disappointed, but he

got over it pretty quick.

But tonight, when Dad got home from dinner,

he looked really mad. He plopped the newspaper

down in front of me on the kitchen table, and

here was the picture on the Sports page –

Apparently, Dad found out about the paper from

his boss at work.

OK, so maybe I didn’t tell Dad ALL the

details of the game.

In my defence, though, I didn’t really know

what happened until I read about it in the

paper myself.

Dad didn’t say a word to me for the rest of

the night. If he’s still mad at me, I just hope

he gets over it pretty quick. Twisted Wizard 2

finally came out today, and I’m kind of counting

on Dad to float me some money so I can get it.

153

Friday

Tonight after dinner, Dad took me and Rodrick

out to a movie. It’s not because he was trying to

be nice, though. He just needed to get out of

the house.

Remember how I told you that Mom got on an

exercise kick a few months ago? Well, she quit

after her first class. Dad took a picture of Mom

decked out in all her exercise gear the first day

she went to the gym, and tonight the pictures

came in the mail.

The photo place gives you duplicate prints, so as

a joke Dad wrote labels on the two pictures of

Mom and put them up on the refrigerator.

154

Well, Dad was pretty proud of himself for coming

up with that one, but Mom wasn’t so amused.

Anyway, I guess Dad felt like maybe it was a

good idea to put a little space between him and

Mom tonight.

155

We went to the new movie theatre that just

opened at the mall. After we bought our tickets,

we went inside and gave them to the usher, who

was a teenager with a crew cut. I didn’t recognize

him at first, but apparently Dad did.

I read the teenager’s name tag, and I couldn’t

believe my eyes. It was Lenwood Heath,

the bad teenager who used to live on our street.

The last I saw him, he had long hair and he

was setting someone’s trash on fire. But now here

he was, looking like he just graduated from the

air force or something.

156

Dad seemed REALLY impressed with Lenwood’s

new look, and the two of them struck up a

conversation.

Lenwood said he’s been going to Spag Union

Military Academy, and he’s just working at the

movie theatre for spring break. Then Lenwood

said he’s trying to get good grades at Spag

Union so he can get into West Point.

And all of a sudden Dad was treating Lenwood

like his new best friend. Which was really crazy,

especially considering the history between the

two of them.

157

Anyway, Dad kept chatting away with Lenwood,

so me and Rodrick just got our popcorn and

went in the theatre. And it wasn’t until halfway

through the movie that I realized what was

really happening.

If Dad saw how military school could make a man

out of a juvenile delinquent like Lenwood Heath,

then it wasn’t a stretch to think it could make a

man out of a wimp like ME.

I’m just praying Dad isn’t having those thoughts.

Right now I’m pretty concerned, because after

the movie tonight, Dad was in the best mood

I’ve seen him in for a LONG time.

Monday

Well, it’s just like I feared. Dad spent the

whole weekend reading up on Spag Union, and

tonight he told me he’s gonna sign me up.

Here’s the worst part: “New recruits” have to

report on June 7th, when I’m supposed to be

on summer HOLIDAY.

Dad tried to convince me that this would be a

great thing for me, and how Spag Union would

really whip me into shape. But going off to boot

camp was not the way I was planning on

spending my school break.

I told Dad I won’t last a day at Spag Union.

First of all, they mix kids my age in with

teenagers, and that can’t be a good thing.

159

I’m sure the older kids would single me out on

the first day.

But what I’m actually a lot more concerned with is

the bathroom situation. I’ll bet Spag Union is one

of these places that has open showers with no

stall doors, and that kind of set-up is not for me.

When it comes to the bathroom, I need my privacy.

I don’t even use the bathroom at school unless it’s

an absolute emergency.

160

A few classrooms in our school have bathrooms right in

them, but I can’t even use those, because every little

sound you make is broadcasted to the whole room.

The only other option is to use the cafeteria

bathroom, and that place is a complete madhouse.

Somebody got the idea a few weeks ago to start

throwing wet toilet paper around, so now that

place is like a war zone.

I can’t concentrate in that kind of an environment,

so I basically have to hold it until I get home

from school.

A couple of days ago, something happened that

changed the situation. The janitor put some new

air fresheners in the bathroom.

I started a rumour that the air fresheners

were actually security cameras to catch whoever

was throwing the wet toilet paper.

I guess I must’ve told the right people, because

from that point on the cafeteria bathroom has

been quieter than the library.

162

I might’ve solved the bathroom problem at

school, but I don’t think I’m gonna be able to

pull off the same kind of trick at Spag Union.

And I seriously doubt I can hold it for

the whole summer.

I knew I wasn’t gonna convince Dad to change

his mind, so I went to Mom. I told her I didn’t

want to go to a place where they make you shave

your head and do push-ups each day at 5:00

every morning. I figured she’d agree with me and

talk some sense into Dad.

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But it looks like Mom isn’t gonna be any help to

me after all.

Wednesday

I knew I needed to do something quick to

convince Dad that I was tough and didn’t

need to go to military academy. So I told

him I wanted to join the Boy Scouts.

Dad seemed really enthusiastic about the idea, so

that was a relief.

Besides trying to find a way to get Dad off my

back, I have a couple of other reasons for wanting

to join the Boy Scouts. Number one, Boy Scout

meetings are on Sundays, so that means I can

quit soccer.

164

And, number two, it’s about time I start getting

some respect from the other kids at school.

There are actually two Boy Scout troops in

my town: Troop 24, which is right in our

neighbourhood, and Troop 133, which is about

five miles down the road. Troop 133 is always

having hot-dog roasts and pool parties and stuff

like that, but Troop 24 is constantly out doing

community-service projects on the weekends. So

I’m definitely more of a Troop 133 kind of guy.

Now the trick is to make sure Dad doesn’t find

out about Troop 24, because he’ll make me sign

up with them for sure.

165

In fact, tonight we were driving to the mall,

and we passed Troop 24 cleaning up the park.

Luckily, I distracted Dad at the last second.

Sunday

Today was my first Boy Scout meeting, and luckily

it was with Troop 133. I got Rowley to sign up

with me, too. When we got to the lodge, we met

Mr Barrett, the Scoutmaster. He asked me and

Rowley to say the Pledge of Allegiance and do a

bunch of other stuff, and we were in. Mr Barrett

even gave us our uniforms.

Rowley was happy because he thought the uniform

was cool, but I was just happy to have a clean

shirt for a change.

166

After we put our uniforms on, we joined the rest

of the troop and started working on merit badges.

Merit badges are these little patches you get for

learning how to do all sorts of manly stuff.

Me and Rowley started flipping through the

merit-badge book to see what we should work on.

Rowley wanted to do something hard like

Wilderness Survival or Personal Fitness, but I

talked him out of it. I said we should just

start off with something nice and easy, so we

settled on Whittling.

But whittling was a lot harder than I thought

it would be. It took forever to try to carve

a block of wood into anything, and Rowley got a

splinter within five minutes.

167

So we went to Mr Barrett and asked him if there

was something less dangerous we could do.

Mr Barrett said that if we were having trouble

with the wood, maybe we could use soap instead.

And that’s when I knew I made the right call

when I signed up with Troop 133.

Me and Rowley started carving the soap, but

then I found out something really great. If

you get the soap wet enough, you can just mould

it into any shape you want with your hands. So we

put away our whittling knives and squeezed

our soap into a shape instead.

168

169

My first creation was a sheep. I turned it in to

Mr Barrett, and he checked one carving off my list.

I didn’t really know what to do for my next

carving, so I just turned my sheep upside down

and handed it back in as the Titanic.

And, believe it or not, Mr Barrett accepted that

one, too.

So me and Rowley both got our Whittling merit

badges and pinned them to our uniforms. When I

came home, Dad was really impressed. If I’d

known that this was all it took to make him

happy, I would have signed up for Boy Scouts

about six months ago.

MAY

Sunday

The other day Mr Barrett announced that our

Boy Scout troop was having a father-son campout

this weekend, so I asked Dad if he’d go with me.

I was pretty surprised with how easy it was to

impress Dad with that one little merit badge, so I

figured a whole weekend of him seeing me do

macho stuff would totally blow him away.

170

But yesterday morning I woke up as sick as a

dog. I couldn’t go, but Dad had to, because he

signed up to be a driver.

I stayed in bed pretty much the whole day. I

just wish I’d got sick on a weekday instead

of a weekend. Last year I didn’t miss any days

of school, and I promised myself I wouldn’t let

that happen again.

The father-son camping trip turned out to be a

disaster. The phone rang at 10:00 last night,

and it was Dad calling from the emergency room.

Dad got put in a tent with the Woodley brothers,

Darren and Marcus, because their dad couldn’t

come. Darren and Marcus were horsing around in

the tent, even though Dad kept telling them to

go to sleep. At one point Darren threw a football

at Marcus, and it hit him in the stomach.

172

Marcus wet his pants, and I guess Darren thought

that was pretty funny.

Well, Marcus went totally berserk. He bit

Darren, and he wouldn’t let go, either.

It took Dad a long time to prise the two of

them apart, and he had to take Darren to the

emergency room after that.

173

174

Dad came home this morning, and he was not

real happy with me for getting him stuck in

that situation. Something tells me that after

this weekend he’s not a big fan of Troop 133,

either.

Sunday

Today was Mother’s Day, and I didn’t have

anything to give to Mom.

I was going to ask Dad to take me to the

store so I could at least get Mom a card or

something, but Dad was still recovering from the

father-son campout. And I don’t think he was

looking to do me any favours, anyway.

So I had to come up with a homemade gift.

Last year I made Mom a “Chore Coupon” book

for Mother’s Day. Each coupon had something

like “One free lawn mowing” or “One free window

washing” on it.

I give Dad a Chore Coupon book just about every

Father’s Day, and it always works out great. It’s

a way for me to take care of my gift obligation

without having to spend any money, and Dad

never actually uses any of his coupons in the book.

175

Mom cashed in every single one of her coupons

last year. So I didn’t want to make the same

mistake this year.

I tried to think of something original to make

for Mom today, but I ran out of time. So I

ended up just piggybacking on Manny’s gift.

Monday

I figure the best way to get Dad to forget that

father-son camping mess is to make it up to him.

So tonight at dinner I asked Dad if he wanted

to go on a camping trip, just me and him.

I’ve been studying up on my Boy Scouts manual, and

I’m pretty eager to show off what I’ve learned.

Well, Dad didn’t exactly jump at my offer, but

Mom thought it was a GREAT idea. She said we

should go this weekend and that Rodrick could

go, too. She said it would be a great “bonding”

experience for the three of us.

177

I wasn’t too enthusiastic about that idea, and

neither was Rodrick.

In fact, one of the reasons I wanted to get out

of the house this weekend is because me and

Rodrick are in a fight.

Last night Mom was giving Rodrick a haircut in

the kitchen. Usually when Mom gives us boys a

haircut, she puts a towel round our necks so

the hair doesn’t get all over our clothes. But

yesterday Mom used one of her old maternity

dresses instead of a towel. So when I saw

Rodrick like that, I knew I had to take

advantage of the situation.

178

I ran upstairs and locked myself in the bathroom

before Rodrick had a chance to catch me and

take the camera. And I didn’t come back out

until I was sure he was gone.

Rodrick got me back, anyway. Last night I had

a nightmare that I was sleeping on a nest of

red ants, and that was thanks to him.

The way I see it, now we’re even. But if there’s

one thing I’ve learned about Rodrick it’s that

he’s still not gonna let it go. So that’s why I’m

not that eager to hole up in a tent with him for

the weekend.

Saturday

Today me, Dad and Rodrick headed off on our

camping trip. I picked a place that had a lot of

manly activities that you could do.

179

On the way to the campground, the sky got

dark, and then it started to rain.

I wasn’t all that concerned, because our tent is

waterproof, and Mom packed ponchos for everybody.

But, by the time we got to our campsite, it was six

inches underwater.

We were pretty far from home, so Dad decided

we should just find a place to stay for the night.

I was really bummed, because the whole point of

the trip was for me to impress Dad with my

camping skills, and now we were just gonna stay

in some stupid hotel room.

180

Dad found a place and got a room with two beds

and a pullout couch. We watched TV for a while

and then started getting ready for bed.

First, Dad went downstairs to the front desk

to complain that the heater was too loud, so I

was alone in the room with Rodrick.

I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth,

and when I came out Rodrick was looking out of

the peephole. Then he said something that made

me freeze in my tracks.

He said that Holly Hills and her family were out

in the hallway, and they were staying in the

room right across from us.

181

I had to see this for myself. So I moved him

out of the way and looked out of the peephole.

The hallway was completely empty. And before I

realized it was a trick Rodrick gave me a big

shove, and I fell out of the door.

Then it got worse. Rodrick locked the door

behind me, and I was stuck in the hallway wearing

nothing but my tighty whities.

182

I pounded on the door, but Rodrick wouldn’t let

me back in the room.

I was making a big racket, and I realized

people in the nearby rooms were gonna start

opening their doors to find out what was going

on. So I ran round the corner to save myself

the embarrassment of anyone seeing me. I

spent about fifteen minutes sneaking through

the hallways, hiding every time I heard voices.

I was gonna go back to our room and beg Rodrick

to let me in, but then I realized I didn’t even

know our room number. And all the doors

looked exactly the same to me.

183

I couldn’t exactly go down to the front desk,

either. The only option I really had was to try

to find Dad.

Then I remembered: Dad is a junk-food addict.

I knew he’d eventually turn up at the vending

machines, so that’s where I camped out.

I wedged myself in between the soda machine and

the candy machine and waited. I had to wait a

really long time, but Dad finally did show up.

You know what, though? After seeing the look on

Dad’s face, I kind of wished I’d just sucked it

up and gone to the front desk instead.

184

Sunday

Well, after our camping trip, I’m pretty sure

there’s no chance I can convince Dad to change

his mind about Spag Union. So, at this point,

I’m not even gonna bother trying.

I realized there are only about three more weeks

before I get shipped out, so I figure this is

my last chance to make a play for Holly Hills. If

I’m lucky, maybe I can take some good memories

with me to military academy, and my summer

won’t be so bad.

185

I’ve been working up the nerve to talk to Holly for

a long time, and I decided it was now or never.

When we went to church today, I tried to make

sure we sat right near the Hills family. But we

ended up two rows in front of them, which I

guess was close enough. And during the part

where everybody shakes hands with one another

I made my move.

The hand-shaking thing was actually just step

one in a two-part plan, and the second part

would come tonight. My next step was to call

Holly on the phone and use the hand-shaking

thing to get the conversation started.

186

At dinner tonight, I told everyone that I

needed to make a very important call, so everyone

should stay off the phone. But I guess Rodrick

must’ve figured out I was gonna call a girl,

because he took all the handsets and hid them.

That meant the only way to make a call was to

use the speakerphone in the kitchen, but there

was no chance of THAT happening.

187

I told Mom that Rodrick took all the phones, and

she made him return them to where they belonged.

Eventually, Rodrick went down to the basement.

Later on I snuck into Mom and Dad’s room to

make my call. I turned off the lights so Rodrick

wouldn’t know I was in there, and I hid under

a blanket. Then I waited for about twenty

minutes to make sure he hadn’t followed me.

Before I had a chance to dial Holly’s number,

someone walked in the room and turned on the

light. I thought for SURE it was Rodrick.

But it wasn’t. It was DAD.

188

I decided to stay perfectly still and let Dad

get whatever he needed and leave.

But Dad didn’t leave. He got into bed and started

reading a book.

I should have just uncovered myself the second

Dad walked in the room, because now I couldn’t

just get up and walk out or I’d give him a heart

attack. So I decided to just sneak out of the

room real slow.

I moved about an inch a second. I figured it

would take me about a half hour to make it all

the way out of the room, but there would still be

enough time to call Holly after that.

I was only about five inches from the bedroom

door when the phone in my hand rang and

scared the living daylights out of me.

I think Dad really did almost have a heart

attack. And, once he recovered, he didn’t look

happy to see me.

Dad made me get out of his room, and then he

slammed the door.

I’m sure this episode didn’t help my standing with

Dad, but I guess at this point it’s probably too

late, anyway.

190

Tuesday

Two days have already passed since I shook

hands with Holly, and I didn’t want any more

time to go by before I spoke with her again.

Luckily, Dad and Rodrick weren’t home tonight,

so I knew I could make a phone call without

being bothered. I practised what I was going to

say about a million times, and then I finally

worked up the nerve to make the call.

I dialled Holly’s number, and the phone started

ringing. But right then Mom picked up the

phone downstairs.

Mom has this really bad habit of just dialling

without checking to see if anyone else is using

the phone, and that’s what she did tonight.

191

I tried to stop her, but it was no use.

The phone kept ringing at the Hills’s house, and

then someone picked up. It was Holly’s mother.

Mom was really confused, since she didn’t dial

the Hills’s number in the first place. I just

held my breath and waited for it all to be over.

192

It took Mom and Mrs Hills a minute to figure

out who was on the other end of the line. But,

once they did, they just started chatting like

nothing strange had happened at all.

They got into this long conversation about the

PTA and the fundraising committee and stuff

like that. I couldn’t really hang up, because

then Mom would hear the click and know someone

was on the other end.

Eventually, the conversation between Mom and

Mrs Hills turned to me.

At that point I just put the phone down and

went to bed. I figure that a phone call between

me and Holly isn’t meant to be, so I’m officially

giving up.

193

Friday

Today at school I overheard Holly tell a couple

of her friends that she was gonna meet them at

the rollerskating rink tonight, and a lightbulb

went on over my head.

After school I asked Mom if she’d take me to

the Roll-a-Round tonight, and she said yes but

I’d have to get a ride home from someone else’s

parents. So I invited Rowley along.

As soon as Rowley showed up at my front door,

I knew I’d made a mistake inviting him.

Rowley had his hair all teased up, and he was

dressed just like his favourite singer, Joshie.

194

And I think Rowley might have even been wearing

sparkly lip gloss, but I can’t say for sure. I

couldn’t stop to worry about the way Rowley

looked, though, because I had my own problems.

Earlier on I had lost one of my contact lenses, so

that meant I had to wear my back-up glasses.

The lenses on those things are about three inches

thick, and they look ridiculous.

If I’m not wearing my contact lenses or my

glasses, I’m as blind as a bat. I guess I should

just feel lucky that I wasn’t alive during caveman

times, because I wouldn’t have been able to hunt or

do anything useful. I’m sure my tribe-mates would’ve

ditched me the first chance they got.

195

I probably would’ve had to become a wise man or

something just to make everyone think I was

worth keeping around.

On the ride to the rollerskating rink tonight,

I gave Rowley some instructions on how to

behave if I got into a conversation with Holly

Hills – knowing him, he could seriously hurt my

chances with her.

I wish I had waited until we were out of the

car, because Mom overheard our conversation.

196

When we pulled up at the Roll-a-Round, I got

out of the car before Mom could say anything

else I didn’t want to hear.

Me and Rowley paid our admission and then went

inside. We rented our skates and brought them

over to the arcade area, where I scoped out the

whole scene.

I spotted Holly over by the snack bar. She was

with a bunch of her friends, so I wasn’t ready

to go and talk to her just yet.

At 9:00 the DJ announced “Couples Skate”. A

lot of people were pairing up, and Holly was sitting

at a table, all alone. I knew this was the chance

I was waiting for.

197

I started making my way over to her, but

getting around on skates was a lot harder

than I thought it would be. I had to hug the

wall just to stay on my feet.

It was taking forever, and I realized the

song was gonna be over by the time I got to

Holly. So I got down on my butt and scooted

over to her to speed things up.

I almost got run over a couple of times, but I

finally made it to the snack bar.

198

Holly was still there, sitting by herself. Time

was running out, so I had to take a shortcut

through a puddle of soda to get to her.

On my way across the snack bar, I tried to

work out what I was going to say to Holly. I

realized I wasn’t looking my coollest at that

moment, so I knew I was gonna have to say

something pretty smooth to make up for it. But

before I even had a chance to open my mouth,

Holly said four words that changed everything –

I started to tell her I was Greg Heffley, the

guy from the “Doggie Dropped It” joke, but

right then Couples Skate ended, and Holly’s friends

swooped in and pulled her out on to the rink.

199

I made my way back to the arcade, and that’s

where I stayed for the rest of the night.

Because, believe me, I was NOT in the mood

for skating.

You know, I probably should’ve realized a long

time ago that Holly wasn’t worth my time.

Somebody who would mistake me for Fregley

definitely has something wrong with them.

I’m officially done with girls. I should just

ask Dad to see if Spag Union has early admission,

because there’s really no point in me sticking

around here any more.

200

JUNE

Friday

Today was the last day of school, and everybody

was in a good mood but me. Everyone else is

looking forward to having fun this summer, but

all I’ve got to look forward to is sit-ups and

marching drills.

At lunch, everyone handed their yearbooks

around for people to sign, and when I got mine

back, here’s what was on the last page –

At first I couldn’t figure out who “Slick” was,

but then I realized it was just Rowley. A couple

of days ago, Rowley was standing near an older

kid’s locker, and the guy wanted Rowley to move.

201

So here’s what the guy said –

So I guess now Rowley thinks “Slick” is his

permanent nickname or something. I just hope

he doesn’t expect ME to say it.

I flipped through the pages to see who else

signed my yearbook, and there was one that made

me stop in my tracks. It was from Holly Hills.

First of all, she wrote my actual name, so that

means she figured out who I was since Friday

night. And, second, she wrote “K.I.T.” at the

end, which everyone knows means “Keep in

Touch”. You’d better believe I’m gonna take

her up on her offer.

202

I handed my yearbook to Rowley to show him

what Holly wrote. But then he showed me what

she wrote in his yearbook, and it kind of made

her note to me look lame.

203

A couple of minutes later, Holly’s yearbook came

around, and I had a chance to sign it. So

here’s what I put –

The way I see it, I just did Rowley a HUGE

favour. I don’t want his heart stomped on by

Holly Hills, because the truth is girls can be a

little cruel sometimes.

Saturday

Today was my only day of summer holiday, and I

had to spend it at Seth Snella’s half-birthday

party. I asked Mom to let me stay home so I

could enjoy myself, but she said we were going to

the party as a family.

204

Dear Holly-

You are a nice person and all, but I

only think of you as a friend.

From,

Dad didn’t even bother fighting it, because he

knew he wasn’t getting out of it, either.

So at 1:00 we walked across the street to the

Snellas’ house.

The Snellas really did it up this year. They had

a clown making balloon animals, and a bouncy

castle for the kids.

They even had live music. Rodrick was pretty

sore over that because his band, Loded Diper,

tried out for the job, but the Snellas turned

them down.

Everyone ate lunch, and then at 3:30 the main

event started.

205

..

Mr and Mrs Snella had all the adults line up in

front of Seth, and they all took turns trying

to make him smile. Mr Henrich went first.

I noticed Dad looking really nervous at the back

of the line. At one point I walked by Dad to get

myself some cupcakes, and he stopped me. He told

me if I could get him out of this situation, he’d

owe me big-time.

206

I thought it was pretty ironic that Dad would

be asking ME for a favour, especially since he’s

the one who’s shipping me off to military school

tomorrow. So I was fine with letting him squirm.

But that doesn’t mean I wanted to see my

Dad acting like a baboon in front of the whole

neighbourhood, either. I thought about sneaking

home to spare myself the shame.

That’s when I saw Manny on the other side of

the deck, poking around Seth’s presents.

Manny found the present that was from our

family, and he ripped it open. As soon as I saw

what it was, I knew things were about to get

real complicated.

207

It was a blue knitted blanket, just like the one

Manny used to have as a baby. And you could

tell Manny thought he had found himself a

brand-new Tingy.

I went over to Manny and told him he was gonna

have to hand over the blanket because it was for

the baby, not him. But Manny wouldn’t cough it up.

When Manny realized I was gonna take away the

blanket, he just turned round and chucked it over

the railing.

208

The blanket landed in the branch of a tree. I

knew I had to get it back before Mom found

out, so I got down off the deck and started

climbing up the tree.

Right when I was about to grab the blanket, my

foot slipped, and I was left hanging there. I

tried to pull myself back up, but I didn’t have

the strength.

I probably would’ve been able to do it, but the

only thing I’d had to eat today was a grape soda

and the frosting off a piece of cake, so I had no

energy.

209

I yelled for help, but I really wish I hadn’t

called attention to myself. Because right when

everyone came over to see what was going on, my

trousers came loose and fell down round my ankles.

It wouldn’t have happened if I was wearing my

own trousers. But I never washed my smart

trousers after they got that chocolate all over

them, so I was borrowing a pair of Rodrick’s

trousers, which were about two sizes too big for me.

The situation was humiliating enough, but then I

realized something even worse. I was wearing

my Wonder Woman Underoos.

210

Eventually, Dad ran over and helped get me

down, but not before Mr Snella got the whole

thing on tape. And something tells me that this

time round he has a good shot at the “America’s

Funniest Families” Grand Prize.

After that, Dad hustled me home, and I thought

he was gonna be really mad at me. But it turns out

that my accident happened right when Dad was

next up to go in front of Seth Snella, so I saved

him from having to take his turn.

And get this: Dad thinks I faked the whole

thing to bail him out.

I wasn’t about to correct him, either. I made

myself a big bowl of ice cream, sat down in front

of the TV and tried to enjoy the rest of my

one day of freedom as best I could.

211

Sunday

When I woke up this morning, it was a quarter

past 11:00. I couldn’t figure out why I was

still in bed, because Dad was supposed to drive

me to Spag Union at 8:00.

So I went downstairs. Dad was sitting at the

kitchen table reading the paper, and he wasn’t

even dressed yet.

212

When I walked into the kitchen, Dad told me

we could “rethink” this military academy thing. He

said maybe I could just do some push-ups and

sit-ups every once in a while, and that would be

just as good as the summer conditioning programme

at Spag Union.

I couldn’t believe my ears. I guess Dad felt like

he owed me for saving him yesterday, and this

was his way of paying me back.

I walked out of the house and went up to

Rowley’s before Dad could change his mind. And

on my way up the hill, I realized that I was on

summer holiday.

213

I knocked on Rowley’s door, and when he

answered I told him I didn’t have to go to Spag

Union after all.

Rowley didn’t even know what I was talking

about, so that just shows you how clueless he can

be sometimes.

We played Rowley’s Twisted Wizard 2 for a while,

and then his parents kicked us out of the house.

So we grabbed some popsicles and went and sat

on his front kerb.

You’ll never believe what happened next. A

really cute girl I had never seen before walked up to

us and introduced herself.

214

She said her name was Trista and that she just

moved in down the street.

I looked at Rowley, and it was pretty obvious he

was thinking what I was thinking. So it took me

about two seconds to come up with a plan.

But then I had a BETTER idea.

215

Rowley’s family belongs to a country club, and he’s

allowed to bring two guests to his pool every day.

So that could actually work out real nice.

It looks like things are finally going my way

and, you know, it’s about time. I don’t know

anyone who deserves to catch a break more

than me, because, like I said before, I’m

pretty much one of the best people I know.

216

And I know it’s really corny to finish with a

happy ending, but it looks like I’m out of paper

anyway, so I guess this is

Acknowledgements

Thanks to my wife, Julie, without whose love and support

these books would not be possible. Thanks to my family – Mom,

Dad, Re, Scott and Pat – and to my extended family – the

Kinneys, Cullinanes, Johnsons, Fitchs, Kennedys and Burdetts.

You have all been so supportive of this endeavour, and it has

been great fun to share this experience with you!

Thanks, as always, to my editor, Charlie Kochman, for taking a

chance on this series; to Jason Wells, the best publicity director

in the business; and to all of the great folks at Abrams.

Thanks to my boss, Jess Brallier, and to all of my co-workers

at Family Education Network.

Thanks to Riley, Sylvie, Carla, Nina, Brad, Elizabeth and Keith

out in Hollywoodland.

Thanks to Mel Odom for his wonderfully bombastic write-

ups of the first two books.

And thanks to Aaron Nicodemus for encouraging me Way

Back When to pick up my cartooning pen after I had given up.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeff Kinney is the creator of Poptropica.com, and the author

of the #1 New York Times bestsellers Diary of a Wimpy Kid

and Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules, as well as the Diary

of a Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book. He spent his childhood

in the Washington, D.C., area and moved to New England in

1995. Jeff lives in southern Massachusetts with his wife, Julie,

and their two sons, Will and Grant.

JUNE

Friday

For me, summer break is basically a three-month

guilt trip.

Just because the weather’s nice, everyone expects

you to be outside all day “frolicking” or whatever.

And if you don’t spend every second outdoors

people think there’s something wrong with you.

But the truth is I’ve always been more of an

indoor person.

The way I like to spend my summer holiday is in

front of the TV, playing video games with the

curtains closed and the lights turned off.

Unfortunately, Mom’s idea of the perfect summer

holiday is different from mine.

Mom says it’s not “natural” for a kid to stay

indoors when it’s sunny out. I tell her that I’m

just trying to protect my skin so I don’t look

all wrinkly when I’m old like her, but she doesn’t

want to hear it.

Mom keeps trying to get me to do something

outside, like go to the pool. But I spent the

first part of the summer at my friend Rowley’s

pool, and that didn’t work out so good.

Rowley’s family belongs to a country club and,

when school let out for the summer, we were

going there every single day.

Then we made the mistake of inviting this girl named

Trista who’d just moved into our neighbourhood. I

thought it would be really nice of us to share our

country-club lifestyle with her. But five seconds

after we got to the pool she met some lifeguard and

forgot all about the guys who’d invited her there.

The lesson I learned is that some people won’t

think twice about using you, especially when

there’s a country club involved.

Me and Rowley were better off without a girl

hanging around, anyway. We’re both bachelors at

the moment, and during the summer it’s better

to be unattached.

A few days ago I noticed the quality of service

at the country club was starting to go down a

little. Like sometimes the temperature in the

sauna was a few degrees too hot, and one time

the poolside waiter forgot to put one of those

little umbrellas in my fruit smoothie.

I reported all my complaints to Rowley’s dad.

But for some reason Mr Jefferson never passed

them on to the clubhouse manager.

Which is kind of weird. If it was me who was

paying for a country-club membership, I’d want

to make sure I was getting my money’s worth.

Anyway, a little while later Rowley told me he

wasn’t allowed to invite me to his pool any more,

which is fine with me. I’m much happier inside

my air-conditioned house, where I don’t have to

check my soda can for bees every time I go to

take a sip.

Saturday

Like I said, Mom keeps trying to get me to go to

the pool with her and my little brother, Manny,

but the thing is my family belongs to the TOWN

pool, not the country club. And, once you’ve tasted

the country-club life, it’s hard to go back to being

an ordinary Joe at the town pool.

Besides, last year I swore to myself that I

would never go back to that place again. At the

town pool you have to go through the locker

room before you can go swimming, and that means

walking through the shower area, where grown

men are soaping down right out in the open.

The first time I walked through the men’s

locker room at the town pool was one of the

most traumatic experiences of my life.

I’m probably lucky I didn’t go blind. Seriously,

I don’t see why Mom and Dad bother to try to

protect me from horror movies and stuff like

that if they’re gonna expose me to something

about a thousand times worse.

I really wish Mom would stop asking me to go to

the town pool because, every time she does, it

puts images in my mind that I’ve been trying

hard to forget.

Sunday

Well, now I’m DEFINITELY staying indoors

for the rest of the summer. Mom had a “house

meeting” last night and said money is tight this

year and we can’t afford to go to the beach,

which means no family holiday.

THAT really stinks. I was actually looking

FORWARD to going to the beach this summer.

Not because I like the ocean and the sand and

all of that, because I don’t. I realized a long

time ago that all the world’s fish and turtles and

whales go to the bathroom right there in the

ocean. And I seem to be the only person who’s

bothered by this.

My brother Rodrick likes to tease me because he

thinks I’m afraid of the waves. But I’m telling

you that’s not it at all.

Anyway, I was looking forward to going to the

beach because I’m finally tall enough to go on the

Cranium Shaker, which is this really awesome ride

that’s on the boardwalk. Rodrick’s been on the

Cranium Shaker at least a hundred times, and he

says you can’t call yourself a man until you ride it.

Mom said maybe if we “save our pennies” we can go

back to the beach next year. Then she said we’d

still do a lot of fun stuff as a family and one day

we’ll look back on this as the “best summer ever”.

Well, now I only have two things to look forward

to this summer. One is my birthday, and the

other is when the last “Li’l Cutie” comic runs in

the paper. I don’t know if I ever mentioned

this before, but “Li’l Cutie” is the worst comic

ever. To give you an idea of what I’m talking

about, here’s what ran in the paper today –

But here’s the thing: even though I hate “Li’l

Cutie”, I can’t stop myself from reading it, and

Dad can’t, either. I guess we just like seeing

how bad it is.

“Li’l Cutie” has been around for at least thirty

years, and it’s written by this guy named Bob

Post. I’ve heard Li’l Cutie is based on Bob’s son

when he was a little kid.

But I guess now that the real Li’l Cutie is all

grown up, his dad’s having trouble coming up with

new material.

A couple of weeks ago the newspaper announced

that Bob Post is retiring and the final “Li’l Cutie”

is gonna be printed in August. Ever since then me

and Dad have been counting down the days until

the last comic runs.

When the last “Li’l Cutie” comes out, me and Dad

will have to throw a party, because something like

that deserves a serious celebration.

“HILARIOUS” – Sunday Telegraph

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