Third Grade Mix-Up Read online

  After the meal, Mrs. Greene pulled fresh cookies out of the oven. Amazing! I was happily eating my second cookie when Sydney kicked me under the table. I looked up and saw her pointing at her brother. She said very quietly, “Watch this!”

  Owen was munching on his cookie when he noticed that we were looking at him again. Without her parents noticing, Sydney stuck out her tongue a few times very quickly. Owen laughed.

  Then he began sticking out his tongue and slobbering all over. Soon enough, the mashed-up cookie in his mouth began flying all over the place! Mr. and Mrs. Greene were sitting on either side of Owen. In a flash, they were both covered in cookie slime.

  At that same moment, I took a big gulp of milk. But Owen was laughing super hard. That made me laugh too. Have you ever tried to laugh when your mouth is full of milk? It doesn’t work very well.

  Next thing I knew, milk was spurting out of my nose! I looked at Sydney and she was laughing so hard she fell off her chair. Seeing that made me laugh even harder. Out came the last bit of milk.

  What’s going on here? I thought. Am I actually getting along with a girl? Weird! But I guess weirder things have happened.

  Besides, a friend who is a girl is NOT a girlfriend.

  Day two of third grade started out tough. When I got to my locker, Nick was waiting for me.

  “Have you learned how to spell your name yet, Squidney with a ‘Y’?” he asked meanly.

  I tried to ignore him, but he just kept talking. But before I could get too mad, Sidney showed up.

  “Oh, look. It’s the other Sidney,” Nick said. “The one who can spell his name. I guess you must be the smart one.”

  “Very funny,” Sidney said.

  “I know,” Nick said. “I’m a pretty funny guy.”

  “I was being sarcastic,” Sidney said.

  “I knew that,” Nick stuttered.

  “Clearly,” I said with a smile. As Nick was leaving, I made sure to call out, “If you make fun of our names again, there will be trouble!”

  I may not have been as tall as Sidney, but I was no wimp. By lunchtime my day was going great. Harley and I had just sat down when I saw Sidney enter the cafeteria. He stood in the doorway for a moment, looking for a place to sit.

  “Hey, Sidney!” I called out. “Want to sit with us?”

  “Thanks,” he said quietly as he sat down next to me.

  “Sidney, this is my best friend, Harley,” I said. “Harley, this is Sidney, but he spells his name with an ‘I’.”

  “Gomez told me all about you,” Harley said. “He said you’re hilarious.”

  “Well, he would be correct,” Sidney said as he smiled and opened his lunch.

  “I forgot my milk. Be right back!” Harley said.

  “You know, I thought you were weird when I first met you,” I told Sidney.

  Then I blushed. That wasn’t at all how I meant to say it. The words just came out that way.

  “I mean, you just stared at the ground and didn’t say anything,” I said.

  Sidney seemed to understand, because right away he said, “I wasn’t so sure about you, either. I don’t usually have friends who are girls.” He took a sip of milk and added, “But you’re a pretty good Galaxy Conquest player.”

  “And you’re pretty funny,” I said.

  Sidney laughed.

  Before I could stop myself, I said, “So we’re friends now?”

  Sidney put down his milk. He looked up at me and smiled. “Yeah, I guess we are,” he said.

  I smiled and went back to eating my lunch. Maybe this year was going to be all right after all. But it was only day two of an entire year, so I wasn’t going to get too excited yet.

  After the first few weeks of school, I felt right at home. Gomez was the best friend I could ask for. Without him, school would be pretty lame. We spent a lot of time at his house. Gomez has three brothers and a sister, so there’s always something going on. I’m an only child, so I love the noise.

  And even though Sydney is a girl, we spent a lot of time together as well. Our moms were best friends, so it was pretty convenient. Plus our Galaxy Conquest games were really heating up.

  Between hanging out with Gomez and Sydney (and Sydney’s best friend Harley) and playing football, I was a happy kid. And before I knew it, it was the end of October and Halloween was just a few days away.

  I guess Halloween is a big deal in Oak Grove. Gomez’s family goes all out for Halloween. They set up an entire graveyard. It has about twenty tombstones. The tombstones have funny sayings on them like “I told you I was sick” and “Here lies good old Fred, a great big rock fell on his head.”

  I was helping Gomez set up Halloween decorations in his yard. He looked a little down.

  “What’s wrong, Gomez?” I asked.

  Gomez didn’t say anything. He just shrugged his shoulders and kept putting up the tombstones.

  “Aren’t you excited for Halloween?” I asked.

  “Not really,” he replied quietly.

  “What? That’s crazy!” I said. “I can’t wait to go trick-or-treating! I bet I can get at least 100 pieces of candy. There are so many houses in our neighborhood!”

  Gomez looked sad. “Yeah,” he said glumly. “I bet you can.”

  “Seriously, what’s wrong with you?” I asked him. I didn’t want to be mean, but what was his problem? How could talking about candy make anybody sad?

  Then I remembered that Gomez had diabetes and couldn’t eat much sugar.

  “Oh, right. You can’t even eat the candy. Sorry, Gomez,” I said.

  Gomez shrugged. “I can have some candy, just not a lot,” he said. “It’s hard to collect all that candy and not eat it. That’s one reason why I don’t really like Halloween.”

  I was trying to think of a way to cheer him up when a giant monster jumped out of the bushes. Gomez and I both screamed!

  My heart was still pounding when we realized that it wasn’t a monster. It was Gomez’s older brother, Lucas.

  Lucas laughed and pointed at us as he took off his monster mask. “You should have seen the looks on your faces! What babies! I can’t believe I scared you with this wimpy mask.”

  Lucas was thirteen and always picking on Gomez. Gomez was used to it since he has such a big family. I don’t have any brothers or sisters, so I thought it was mean.

  “Boo!” Lucas shouted, making us both jump again. He laughed and began to walk away saying, “I just love Halloween.”

  Gomez frowned and muttered, “And that’s one more reason I don’t like Halloween.”

  Every year my mom takes me shopping for a Halloween costume. I like dressing up, so I spend a long time picking out the right costume. That is why I get so mad when I see a bunch of kids wearing the same costume as me. Last year I was a cowgirl, and there were four other cowgirls in our school!

  This year, things were going to be different. When Grandma Betty came for a visit this past summer, she offered to make me a Halloween costume.

  How cool is that? I would have a completely original costume. What a dream!

  I had the perfect costume in mind. I knew nobody else would think of it. I wanted to be a purple superhero princess. I sent Grandma Betty about a million drawings of exactly how I wanted it to look. I even mailed her a purple crayon to show her the exact color.

  Now Halloween was only a week away, and my costume had arrived. And the dress was just perfect!

  “Ta-da!” I shouted as I ran into my room. I twirled and jumped and twirled some more.

  Harley was sitting on my bed waiting for me. She clapped her hands and cheered. “Oh, Sydney, it’s beautiful!”

  I twirled around a few times so she could get a good look at me. It was so fun. I wanted to keep twirling all day!

  I know a lot of girls dress like princesses on Halloween, but they won’t lo
ok like me. From the tiara on my head to the boots on my feet, my whole costume is purple. Plus, I have a cape. That’s why it’s a superhero princess costume, not just a regular princess costume. It’s awesome!

  This year I was going to win the prize for best costume for sure!

  I started getting dizzy, so I stopped twirling. When I looked at Harley, she looked sad.

  “What’s wrong, Harley? Don’t you like my costume?” I asked.

  “Your costume is great,” she said. “I just wish I was as excited about Halloween as you are.”

  When Harley was sad, I was sad. I plopped down next to her on my bed.

  “But you’ve got a great costume! Why aren’t you excited?” I asked.

  Harley’s older brother Leo was a football player at Oak Grove High School. He was letting her borrow his jersey from last year. Her parents got her some real football pads and everything. She was even going to draw black lines under her eyes like the football players on TV.

  “It’s not the costume, it’s about trick-or-treating,” Harley explained. “My mom has been on a health kick lately. She won’t let me eat sugar. No gummy worms, candy bars, or taffy for me.”

  “Not even on a special holiday like Halloween?” I asked.

  “Nope. My mom is pretty strict about her sugar rules,” Harley replied.

  I gave Harley a big hug. I wanted this to be the best Halloween ever, so I had to find a way to help Harley. After all, I was a purple superhero princess!

  In case you don’t remember, Galaxy Conquest is by far my favorite game of all time. I like any game where you have awesome powers and get to battle aliens. And I used to think I was the best player. Until I met Sydney.

  Once we started playing together, we kept track of all of our games. So far she had won 52, and I’d won 48.

  Two days before Halloween, we were playing our 101st game of Galaxy Conquest in Sydney’s basement. Sydney was playing a good game and attacking me with her GX5000 laser. But I had a powerful force field, so she was in trouble.

  “I win!” I shouted.

  “Good game, Sidney,” she muttered. She updated my score to 49. Neither of us liked losing (who does?), so I decided to talk about something else.

  “Can you believe Halloween is on Friday?” I asked. “I can’t wait to go trick-or-treating!”

  That made Sydney smile. “And I can’t wait to see who wins best costume at school!” she said.

  Sydney had been keeping her costume a surprise. From the way she acted, I knew it must be something good. It was probably a super girly costume, but I’m sure it was still pretty cool.

  My mom had taken me to the Halloween store. I got a cool magician costume. It had a cape and a real magician hat that folded down and then popped back up. My grandpa had been teaching me card tricks too.

  I noticed that the look on Sydney’s face had changed. She looked sad again.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “I was just thinking about Harley,” she said. “She doesn’t really like Halloween. Her mom is on a health kick and won’t let her eat any of the candy.”

  “Even on a special holiday like Halloween?” I asked.

  “Nope. I said the same thing! It’s crazy,” Sydney said.

  “Gomez feels the same way,” I told her. “He said he doesn’t even want to go trick-or-treating!”

  “If only Halloween wasn’t all about candy,” Sydney said.

  I sighed. “I wish there was some way to help them.”

  “Maybe we could ask my dad,” Sydney offered. “He loves Halloween and he doesn’t even like candy. He’s always playing pranks on the kids when they come to our house. Maybe he could help us make Halloween fun without the candy.”

  “It’s worth a shot. What kind of pranks does he do?” I asked.

  “He has a whole list,” she said. “You should ask him.”

  “Awesome! I want to help Gomez prank Lucas, so that will solve one problem,” I said.

  “What about the candy problem?” Sydney asked.

  “One problem at a time,” I replied. “I promise to figure something out tonight.”

  I smiled confidently, but I had no idea how to solve the candy dilemma. I just knew I had to think of something or Halloween would be a bust.

  As I walked through the front door after school, I almost tripped over Owen. He had just started crawling and was getting into everything. My parents had tried to set up gates around the house, but Owen was sneaky.

  “Hey, little buddy!” I said. Sometimes having a baby brother could be a real pain. Other times it was really fun. Owen sat on the floor waving his arms like crazy and laughing. I couldn’t help but laugh with him.

  “There you are, silly boy!” my mom said as she walked down the hall toward us. She scooped up Owen and gave me a kiss.

  “How was school today?” she asked me.

  I followed her down the hall and told her about the new project we started in art. I saw Sidney’s mom, Mrs. Fletcher, as we walked into the kitchen. I wasn’t surprised to see her. She came over a lot.

  “Hello, Sydney! What’s this about a new art project?” Mrs. Fletcher asked. She’s an artist, which I think is so cool! I want to be an artist one day, so I love talking with her. Her stories are amazing!

  As I ate my snack, I told them about our new art project at school. “We each get our own canvas to paint on. Can you believe that?” I asked.

  Canvas is the material that painters paint on. I felt like a real artist, having my own canvas.

  “That is very exciting!” she said. “Having the right materials can take your art to a new level.”

  “I agree,” I said. “If I’m going to be a great artist like you, I need to have the right materials. But now I have to check on my beautiful costume. See you later!”

  “Bye, Sydney,” Mrs. Fletcher said.

  I ran up to my room. I wanted to try on my purple superhero princess costume one last time. Halloween was tomorrow, and that meant it was almost time to show off my costume at the school party!

  I had been asking the other kids about their costumes. I felt pretty good about winning the best costume contest. I knew my costume was the most original.

  I was just outside of my room when something caught my eye. A little figure was crawling out of the bathroom laughing. For just learning to crawl, Owen could sure get around and cause trouble.

  When I looked into my room, I saw my bed. What I didn’t see was my incredible superhero princess costume on top of my bed. I didn’t want to panic right away.

  I tried to figure out what had happened. Maybe mom had ironed it or took it downstairs to show Mrs. Fletcher. Maybe I hung it in my closet and forgot. But the more I tried to calm down, the more panicked I got.

  From that moment on, I felt like everything was in slow motion. I knew I had to go and see what Owen had done. I just knew it wasn’t good. I slowly walked down the hall to the bathroom, and that’s when I saw it.

  “MOM!!!” I screamed.

  Mom and Mrs. Fletcher found me in the bathroom, staring at the toilet. I was crying so hard I couldn’t speak. All I could do was point to my costume, which was stuffed into the toilet.

  “Oh, honey!” my mom said. “Owen must have gotten into your room! He is so sneaky now that he can crawl!”

  My mom was holding Owen, and he was clapping and laughing. He thought this whole thing was funny.

  A little while ago I thought my baby brother was cute. Now I never wanted to look at him again! Why couldn’t I be an only child like Sidney?

  “What am I going to do?” I cried. “The party is tomorrow, and I have no costume! My life is ruined!”

  “Oh, Sydney,” my mom said. “There’s no need to be so dramatic.”

  “You just don’t understand,” I cried.

  “I might have an idea,” Mrs. Fletc
her said. “We’ll have to be creative, but it might be fun.”

  I didn’t know what else to do, so I said, “Whatever.” Just another thing to ruin Halloween.

  “Do you have everything?” Gomez asked me. We were heading to his house after school.

  “Yep, I’ve got everything we need right here,” I told him, patting my backpack.

  After Sydney told me about her dad pulling pranks on Halloween, it made me think. I felt bad that Lucas always pulled pranks on Gomez. I decided to help Gomez get Lucas back.

  Since my dad is gone, it’s always fun to hang out with Mr. Greene. He is super funny! He told me all kinds of pranks I could do. He had a million of them!

  Last year, he dressed like a scarecrow and sat very still on their front porch. Whenever a group of older kids came up to the house for candy, Mr. Greene would wait until they got very close. Then he would shout, “Boo!” He said every kid screamed, even Lucas.

  So for the past few days, Gomez and I had been plotting our revenge on Lucas. We were finally ready. When we got to Gomez’s house, it didn’t take long to set up.

  We were sitting at the kitchen table when Lucas and three of his friends came in after soccer practice.

  As soon as Lucas walked in, he started teasing Gomez.

  “Hey, shrimp! What are you babies doing?” he said, laughing at us. Lucas’s friends laughed too, as if he was the funniest guy on earth.

  “We’re not doing anything, Lucas. Go away!” Gomez said.

  But Lucas didn’t go away. He came closer, and that’s when he saw what was on the table. Apples, sticks, and sheets of caramel. His eyes got big.

  “Are you making caramel apples?” he asked.