Too Much Drama Read Online Free PDF Page A

coloring he does. When she pointed to the aqua scarf, Leo very nicely thanked her for her help even though she’d been pretty rude to him.
    And when we were walking to the food court to get lunch, Leo suggested we stop in the candy store on the way.
    â€œDoesn’t dessert come after a meal?” I asked.
    Leo grinned. “It’s the holidays—let’s live large,” he said as we sampled the peanut butter fudge on the counter.
    â€œThat’s really good,” I said. Leo agreed, and he asked the guy working behind the counter if we could take another sample.
    â€œSure,” he said. He seemed surprised Leo had asked.
    â€œThanks,” Leo said as he handed me a piece of mint fudge and took one for himself. Then he told the guy that he works in a deli and that his pet peeve is when he puts out a plate of samples and someone stands there eating them all.
    â€œI know what you mean,” said the guy.
    He thanked Leo and wished us a happy holiday. As we left the store, I was thinking how much I liked how polite Leo was to everyone, especially at holiday time.
    But I guess the thing that really stuck in my mind was what happened when I was buying mittens for May and June.
    As I was looking through the piles of mittens and slipping my hands into pairs I liked, I couldn’t help noticing that Leo had gotten quiet and was staring at me. It was kind of embarrassing. “What are you looking at?” I asked. The words sounded harsh, and I wanted to reel them back in as soon as I’d said them.
    But Leo didn’t seem to mind my question. He just answered it honestly. “You have pretty hands.”
    I’d never thought of my hands as anything other than functional, so I liked the thought that I could add “nice hands” to my list of good features. Then, to my surprise, Leo took my hands in his and inspected them. “Really nice mitts,” he said.
    The way he said it made me laugh. It was a reference to a baseball catcher’s mitt, and I couldn’t help but think of all the times Matt Parker had said stuff about baseball when we were going out. Most of what he had to say was about how he was good at it. It usually left me feeling cold and thinking that the main thing he liked talking about was himself. Leo’s reference had the opposite effect—I felt all warm.
    And I don’t think it had anything to do with the mittens.

In the book of life, the answers aren’t in the back.
    â€”Charlie Brown
    Monday, December 8, 6:05 p.m.
Babysitting
    I’m sitting on the couch with May and June, watching SpongeBob, eating Domino’s, and thinking about my hands. The ones Leo said were pretty. I’m still kind of hung up (in a good way) on that comment. I’m also hung up (in a bad-phone-joke way) on why he hasn’t called since we went shopping on Saturday.
    Is he busy getting ready to go to college in January? He said he had a lot to do, but still, I would think he’d have time to make a phone call. I have no idea what someone has to do to get ready to go to college. It must be very time consuming.
    Here’s an idea: I’m going to call him and find out.
    8:30 p.m.
    Calling Leo was a good move. As soon as I called, he said he was sorry he hadn’t called and that the reason he hadn’t is because his grandparents showed up yesterday for a surprise visit. “One of the drawbacks to being an only grandchild is that when they come to visit, I’m the one they want to visit with,” he said.
    â€œDo you like your grandparents?” I asked.
    â€œYes,” said Leo. “. . . and no. They’re intense.”
    â€œWhat do you like best about them?” I asked.
    â€œThey like to talk to me about science, which I like talking about. My grandpa is a physicist, and my grandma is a neurosurgeon.”
    â€œI see why you’re a chemistry genius. It must be genetic,” I said.
    â€œQuite possible,”