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kindergarten.”
    â€œWow,” Joe Knapp said. “Maybe she likes you, too. But she just doesn’t want to admit it, so she chases Rocko.”
    For one second I felt this warmth expanding inside my chest. Joe and I stood there looking at each other. I could tell by his little puppy eyes behind the smeared lenses of his glasses that he understood.
    â€œHit it like this,” I said, slamming the ball with my fist.
    Joe Knapp clasped his hands together and swung lightly, hitting the ball directly back at the wall with only a slight lift of his butt.
    â€œGood job, man,” I said. “But you need to tell your mom to get you a different bandage. Timmy the Train will get you laughed out of class.”
    Joe Knapp nodded and smiled. He still had baby teeth, more than I did. You gotta love that little kid.
    We high-fived.
    â€œHey, I could use your help on something, too,” I said.
    â€œSure,” said Joe.

    â€œRemember when I chased Serena around the yard for Rocko? Ms. Washington wants me to write an essay on why that’s not cool, and I know she’s right, but for some reason I can’t think of what to write.”
    â€œMaybe you did it because you want Serena and Rocko to like you. And you chose Rocko over Serena because she was chasing him instead of you.”
    That about summed it up.

 
    MARCH
    WHY IT’S NOT A GOOD IDEA TO PLAY UNSUPERVISED CHASING GAMES AT RECESS
    by Ben Hunter
    I’m sorry for the incident involving an unsupervised chasing game at recess. I believe I did this because I wanted to be liked by my classmates, but in the end, the classmate I wanted to like me the most was the one who could’ve gotten hurt. I will do my best to refrain from committing such a reprehensible action in the future.
    The reason this should not happen again is that it could interrupt other students who are having a peaceful recess. Also, fellow students could fall and scrape their faces off. In addition, I could fall and scrape my face off.
    This behavior will not happen again, because we want to keep our faces on our face.

 
    CHAPTER 13
    SPELLING BEE’S KNEES
    In March we had a spelling bee. Ms. Washington called it “the Spelling Bee’s Knees.”
    Everyone else messed up on their words except Rocko and me. We stood at the front of the classroom under the hanging solar system and in front of the instructions on how to write an essay. Rocko and I were supposed to each spell three words at a time until someone messed up.
    Ms. Washington picked a word out of the basket.
    â€œRocko, how do you spell able ? Use it in a sentence, please.”
    â€œAble. A-B-L-E. Some people are able to beat others to the fence in Super Sport Baseball Cleat Camp, and they are also able to go to Hawaii for vacation.”
    I clenched my fist under the table.
    â€œCorrect,” Ms. Washington said, reaching into the basket. “Now please spell fragile .”
    â€œFragile. F-R-A-G-I-L-E . Some people’s bones are more fragile than other people’s bones.”
    I bit my lip, which can be dangerous when your front teeth are as big as mine.
    â€œCorrect, Rocko,” said Ms. Washington, picking another word. “And now please spell temper .”
    â€œTemper. T-E-M-P-E-R. Some people have a bad temper and try to hit you when you ask them if they had a nice winter break.”
    â€œOkay, very good. Now it’s Ben’s turn. Ben, how do you spell detrimental ?” Ms. Washington asked. “And please put it in a sentence.” She smiled at me like a movie star on the red carpet, all proud, as if she expected me to rock this one.
    I looked at Rocko and thought about my broken clavicle that had probably healed crooked and would never be a normal clavicle again. “Detrimental. D-E-T-R-I-M-E-N-T-A-L . Some people are detrimental to my health.”
    â€œCorrect. How do you spell treachery ?”
    Easy peasy. “Treachery.