Amber Brown Goes Fourth Read Online Free PDF Page A

come over tomorrow,” she says.
    I can’t wait.

Chapter
Eleven

    Thanks for writing to me.
    I wish you were here. (You probably wouldn’t like being here because I’m in detention . . . which I got because I kind of lost my head in Elementary Extension.)
    Oh, I added the used gum you mailed me to our gum ball. It was a good idea to put a wet paper towel around it and put it in a baggie (it did leak a little).
    I’ll keep adding to the ball too. I just wish that you could add the gum yourself.
    I also wish your handwriting was better.
    I wish to ask you a few questions about your new school’s lunch menus (since it’s so hard to read your handwriting):
    Do they serve worm rolls? Or warm rolls?
    Did you really have to eat pimpled feets? Or was it pickled beets? (Either one sounds really gross!)
    Do the kids at your school really call the cafeteria hamburger that? Wow!
    I have another question. . . . Do they teach penmanship at your new school?
    I have another question. Since you are living down south now, are you going to start talking funny? Are you going to think that I talk funny?
    It’s too bad you aren’t here. Jimmy and Bobby are having a burping contest!!!! You should see the prize!!!!!!
    Well . . . . here’s some more news:
    1. My mother’s going out with this guy named Max. Secretly, I think of him as Min . . . . . like in minimum. I haven’t met him yet . . . . and I really don’t want to meet him either.
    2. I wish my father would move back.
    3. You, too. . . .
    4. I’ve learned to snap my fingers.
    5. Oh, you know what? I’m becoming friends with Brandi Colwin. She’s really nice. . . . You’d like her.
    I hope that you have a new friend too. (Just don’t like him or her more than you like me.)
    Your friend,
    P.S. Don’t eat too many worm rolls.
    “Brandi,” the Elementary Extension teacher says sweetly, “your mother is here to pick up you and Amber.”
    It’s interesting how some teachers get this really sweet voice when parents are around.
    I’m so glad that Mrs. Holt uses her sweet voice with her students, not just with the parents.
    As we grab our books, I whisper to Brandi, “I hope your mom is very strong.”
    “Why?” she whispers back.
    “Well, she’s PICKING us up.” I grin.
    We both start to laugh . . . . . a lot, but we don’t get detention. . . . I think that’s because Mrs. Colwin is standing there waiting . . . . . or maybe the teacher is in a better mood.
    I know that I’m in a great mood.
    Not only am I going over to Brandi’s house, but I’m getting my hair braided.
    It’s going to be Amber Brown’s new look.

Chapter
Twelve

    “Want to see something really gross?” Brandi giggles as we sit in her bedroom.
    I nod.
    She goes over to her dresser, opens the top drawer, and pulls out a roll of six-foot-long bubble-gum tape.

    “Am I allowed to say something about Justin?” I ask, a little afraid that she’ll get mad again.
    She nods. “As long as you don’t compare us . . . . . . or make me feel like I just got picked for the ‘friend team’ because there is no one else left.”
    “I don’t feel that way.” I cross my heart. “I promise.”
    “Good.” She opens up the bubble-gum package.
    “I don’t think that gum is gross. . . . Justin and I always used to buy those and split it . . . . . three feet each. Sometimes we each put half of it in our mouths . . . . . and then when we were all done with it, we added it to this huge chewing-gum ball. I still have the ball. I’ll show it to you sometime.”
    “Cool.” Brandi grins and raises one eyebrow.
    Ever since the first time she did that, I’vebeen practicing, but my eyebrow just won’t move. My lip goes up instead.
    She says, “Yeah . . . . . but did you or Justin ever blow bubble-gum bubbles with your nose?”
    I shake my head no.
    She grins and takes a long piece of gum, starts chewing, and then when enough is chewed, she