The Manny Files book1 Read Online Free PDF Page A

she saw that we had noticed.
    We all ran into one another’s rooms to see what was hanging from the ceiling. Lulu had a horse dangling from her ceiling. India had a butterfly.Belly had a pig. I had a big red-and-gold king’s crown. The girls picked up their old twirling batons and immediately began smashing their piñatas open. The manny held Belly up so she could reach. Tootsie Rolls, SweeTarts, and plastic gold coins came crashing down on them like confetti during the New Year’s celebration on television. The girls stashed the candy in their top drawers, underneath their underwear. Mine was too beautiful to hit. I climbed into bed and watched the light dance on the gold paper hanging from the crown. The manny stood outside our bedroom windows and serenaded us with “La Cucaracha” in a Spanish accent.
    Lulu yelled out the window that she was going to call the police.
    This worried me, so I ran to India’s room to ask her if the manny was doing something illegal. She told me that Lulu was only kidding and that the police couldn’t arrest the manny for singing in our yard unless he was drunk. I don’t think he was drunk. The margaritas that he made us were alcohol-free.
    On the way back to my room I decided that if Lulu drove the manny away, I would kidnap her favorite stuffed bunny and mail it back to her one piece at a time. An ear. A nose. A cotton tail.
    The next morning I woke up to the mannysinging, “‘Schoolboy. Time to wake up and go to school so you can learn something so you can grow up and be somebody.’” He sounded like Frank Sinatra live at the Sahara. Uncle Max listens to Frank Sinatra in his Honda Accord. I sprang out of bed, got dressed, and ran to the kitchen. The manny was standing there in gray flannel pajamas and
cashmere
socks, flipping pancakes high into the air. Belly was next to him, in her pink tutu and no top, flipping American cheese slices in a Tupperware bowl.
    The manny had set the table, complete with a centerpiece of rulers and number two pencils sticking out of a silver mint julep cup. I poured milk into all of the glasses except for Belly’s. Belly is lactose intolerant. I think she’s just intolerable. That’s the word Ms. Grant uses when I ask to go to the bathroom too many times in one day.
    After I poured apple juice into Belly’s glass, the manny began serving our pancakes. Instead of bringing us perfectly round pancakes like Dad does, the manny served pancakes that were shaped like letters and animals. He used Dad’s coffee cream pitcher to pour the shapes. He kept closing one eye and holding up his thumb in front of his face like an artist. India called him Pablo Pancake-asso.
    Belly’s pancakes were shaped like rabbits and ducks. She quickly bit the heads off and laughed. Syrup dripped from the corners of her mouth like blood.
    India’s pancakes spelled her name.
    Mine were shaped in the life cycle of the frog, from tadpole to full-grown frog.
    Lulu screamed when she saw her pancakes. They spelled the word
belch.
She refused to eat them and demanded that the manny trade his pancakes with hers. His spelled the word
hunk.
    I told the manny that the pancakes were incredible.
Incredible
is another one of Sarah’s words that she uses to describe things like movies, books, and ice cream flavors. The manny told me that when his cookbook comes out next year, the pancake recipe will be in it. The manny has a lot going on “next year.”
    We ate our pancakes and ran as fast as we could to the bus stop. India couldn’t wait to tell her friends about the piñatas. Lulu said she was running to get away from the manny.
    As the bus pulled to the curb to pick us up, we heard the manny’s voice yelling, “Wait, you forgot your lunches!” We looked back to see him barreling toward the bus on my bike, which was much too small for him. He wobbled a little bit, and the lunch bags looked heavy hanging on thehandlebars. Belly was right beside him on her Hot Wheels, wearing her