The New Kid Read Online Free PDF Page B

a waffle cone at the International Yogurt Depot sound good to you?”
    “I have no idea how one small yogurt shop on the corner claims to be an ‘international’ yogurt depot, but let’s go.”
    When they arrived back home, Genevieve was lying with her nose between her paws and a scrap of torn paper stuck to her nostrils with
21,783 + 72,634
written on it. She thumped her tail. She rolled her eyes to the side.
    “It was my fault, Dad,” Carson quietly said. “It had barbecue sauce on it. Can one page of math problems hurt her?”
    “Nah.”
    “Just making sure.”
    “Remember the antler incident, Dad?”
    “How could I forget that.”
    Bedtime, nine o’clock, was quickly approaching. Carson started his math homework all over again.
    He thought of Ms. Parker and called out: “Is ‘beeping’ an onomatopoeia?”
    “Yes.”
    “Is ‘buzzing’?”
    “Yes.”
    Carson painstakingly redid his math problems and then worked for a few minutes on his Whiz Quiz poem.
    In the morning, he made his bed and sat Moose on top of the dresser, next to the cockeyed pencil jar Carson’s dad had made in a college ceramics class. Moose enjoyed sitting there and looking across the room at the wallpaper.
    It was a pretty morning, with sunshine coming through the blinds and making a pattern of bright yellow lines on the wall.
    “Want to try to guess the animal in my Whiz Quiz poem?” Carson asked his dad during breakfast. “I’m trying to make it really tricky. I really want to trick my class. And Mr. Lipman! Ready?”
    “Shoot.”
    “Face round as a balloon.”
    “Panda.”
    “No.”
    “Skunk?”
    “A skunk has a pointy face, Dad.”
    “Not all do. Remember when you were a skunk for Halloween? Grandma made that costume. You were a short skunk with a round face and a big, fat, fluffy black and white tail.”
    “Being away from Grandma and Grandpa stinks,” Carson said.
    “Boy, you can say that again.”
    “Being away from Grandma and Grandpa stinks,” Carson said.
    And sometimes Valley Oak stank.

6. HELLO,
Mrs. Crabbly
    For the past two weeks, Carson hadn’t known if he was coming or going.
    He heard the Chill-Time Chimes and looked up.
    Okay.
    Was he coming or going?
    He glanced again at the schedule written on the board, just to make sure: Going.
    This time to the computer lab.
    After that, lunch.
    Carson took his lunch from his Valley Oak backpack hanging on his hook—right next to Chloe’s, near the rolling book cart by the classroom door.
    He stood in line, carefully holding the brown paper bag with
Carson
written on the front. He was starving! Inside was a tri-tip sandwich on whole wheat bread with lettuce and tomato, three home-baked oatmeal cookies, a small handful of all-fruit gummy bears that were
not
candy, and a foil container of guava juice
without
added sugar.
    All the other kids had canvas lunch bags. Shelly’s sparkled: on the side it had a unicorn with twinkly wings and a twisted white twinkly horn flying over a rainbow.
    Carson was fine with his regular old plain brown paper lunch bag, but there was quite a bit of lunch in it today. He would carry it carefully and remember to bring home the small plastic packet of Eskimo Ice so his dad could freeze it again.
    Carson surveyed the line of lunches. Nancy’s MONTEREY BAY AQUARIUM bag was the best. It had a brown baby sea otter lying on its back in the white foam, holding a clam on its belly and looking right at you.
    “Where’s the Monterey Bay Aquarium?” Carson asked her.
    “In Monterey by the bay.”
    Nancy cracked a smile.
    “I have a sea otter named Ethel that looks just like this.” She held the bag up so Carson could get a really good look. “Or she did when she was young, anyway. Ethel’s a bit ratty-looking at the moment, but she was once a very sleek lady. You’ll meet her on Stuffed Animal Day. She’s getting all dressed up and wearing lipstick. Are you bringing a stuffed animal on Stuffed Animal Day,