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Words and Definitions
1.
concentrate
to pay attention,
to think very carefully
about something,
to focus on something 
2.
desperate decision
to make a choice
that is very difficult,
not easy
to choose
3.
paper towel dispenser
something that
you can take
big tissues from
(to dry your hands)
in a bathroom
4.
separate stalls
little rooms
next to each other
in a bathroom
that have toilets inside
5.
the toilet flushed
water went
into a toilet
to wash away poo
and urine / wee,
body waste
6.
exhaled
breathed out,
when air went
out of
a person’s mouth
7.
pounded wildly
hit something crazily,
hit something very hard
many times
8.
shook his hand
held a person’s hand
and moved it
up and down
a few times
9.
sleeveless
when a shirt
or dress
doesn’t have
sleeves
10.
checkered
when something
has many
small black
and white squares
11.
considerate
when a person
is thoughtful,
caring about others,
kind and nice
12.
a carton of yougurt
a small container /
cardboard box
of yogurt
13.
traded lunches
gave your food
to someone
and ate his
or her food,
changed meals
with someone
14.
practically the same
almost the same,
very similar,
just about the same
15.
check out a book
to take out a book
from a library,
to sign
the library card
16.
ruin
to break something
completely,
to make something
become useless,
to destroy something
17.
mismatched socks
when someone
is wearing two things
that should be
the same
but they are not
18.
befuddled
completely confused
by something,
having no idea
why something happened
19.
genuine
real,
true,
not fake
20.
make a big deal
out of nothing
to think something
is very bad
when it isn’t,
thinking a little problem
is big
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Page 99
“We’ll get you
at lunch, Chalkers,”
Robbie whispered
as Bradley returned to class.
“You’re late,” said Mrs. Ebbel.
He sat at his desk – last seat, last row –
and looked at the chart on the wall next to him.
Of course there was no gold star next to his name. He had already done three things wrong:
First, he had knocked over a girl and made her cry. Second, he was late getting back to class. And third and worst of all, his name was Bradley Chalkers. As long as his name was Bradley Chalkers, he’d never get a gold star. They don’t give gold stars to monsters.
They beat up monsters. He looked around at Jeff, Robbie, Russell, and Brian. He had to concentrate very hard to keep from crying.
The worst part wasn’t getting beaten up. The worst part was that he knew everyone would love it so much. He imagined the whole school – the boys, the girls, and even the teachers – standing by and cheering as Jeff’s gang took turns hitting and kicking him.
When the bell rang for lunch, he slowly took his paper sack out of his desk.
“We’ll be waiting for you outside,” Jeff said to him.
Bradley watched him walk out the door.
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He walked slowly toward the front of the room, then suddenly dashed out the other door and into the hall.
“Bradley! Come back here!” Mrs. Ebbel yelled.
He kept running. So what if he got in trouble? What difference did it make? He pulled on the door to the library. It wouldn’t budge.
The library was closed during lunch.
He tried to think of somewhere else he’d be safe.
“There he is!” said Doug, stepping out of the auditorium.
Bradley turned and ran back the way he had come. He rounded a corner, then stopped and made a quick and desperate decision.
He opened the door to the girls’ bathroom, closed his eyes, and stepped inside. He opened his eyes. Luckily, the room was empty.
He held his breath and listened.
Nothing could be worse than being beaten up inside a girls’ bathroom. They’d probably stick my head in a girls’ toilet, he thought.
He waited. He didn’t hear anything. He looked around. The floor and the bottom half of the walls were covered with green tile. There were two white sinks and a paper towel dispenser.
There were three toilets in three separate stalls. Each stall had a door. It looked very much like the boys’ bathroom. Girl toilets appeared to be the same as boy toilets. He was disappointed.
He couldn’t risk going back out into the hall. He leaned against one of the stalls, reached into his brown paper sack,
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and took out his roast beef sandwich.
Someone was opening the door! He quickly put the sandwich back in the bag and hopped into a stall, closing the door behind him. He stood on the toilet so his feet couldn’t be seen.
He listened.
He heard a person walk across the tiled floor and then enter the stall next to him. He covered his mouth with his hand as he heard some familiar but very private sounds.
At last the toilet flushed and he heard the person zip her pants and walk across to the sink. He heard the sound of running water, and then a paper towel pulled down from the dispenser.
Finally, the bathroom door opened and shut. He exhaled, hopped off the toilet, stepped out of the stall, and froze.
Two girls were staring at him. One was the girl who had used the toilet next to him. The other had just entered. He wondered which was which. Then he heard the loudest scream he’d ever heard in his whole life.
That answered his question.
He darted past them, opened the door, and flew into the hall. He rounded a corner, came to a door, and pounded wildly on it until it opened.
“Bradley?” said Carla.
“Hello, Carla.” He held out his hand. “It’s a pleasure to see you today.”
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Chapter 27
She shook his hand.
He walked inside, shut the door behind him, and sat down around the table. “You won’t believe it,” he said as he looked at his picture of the green monster hanging on the wall.
“You just won’t believe it.”
“I’m sure I won’t,” Carla agreed. She sat across from him. She was wearing a sleeveless, black-and-white checkered shirt.
“Okay, I’ll tell you,” said Bradley.
“I was hoping you would.”
“Do you know where I was before I was here?”
“No?”
He slammed his fist on the table. “The girls’ bathroom!”
He told her all about it, how the girl had used the toilet next to him and how he thought she had left but really another girl had entered!
“At first I didn’t know which girl was which, but then one of them screamed, so she must have been the one.”
“Who was she?” asked Carla. “Did you know her?”
“Yes, but I don’t think I should tell you her name.
She probably doesn’t want anybody else to know.”
“That’s very considerate of you, Bradley.”
He shrugged.
“Shall we have lunch?” asked Carla.
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“Okay.” He took out his roast beef sandwich.
Carla set her lunch on the table. She had a carton of yogurt and a plate of sliced tomatoes and cucumbers. “That looks good,” said Bradley.
“You want to trade?”
“Okay.”
They traded lunches. Bradley ate a slice of cucumber.
He thought it was delicious.
“So what were you doing inside the girls’ bathroom?” asked Carla. She took a big bite out of Bradley’s roast beef sandwich.
“Jeff and his friends were chasing me,” he explained.
“Jeff’s got a black eye, just like me! They all think I gave it to him.”
“Did you?”
He could have lied. He could have said, sure, he beat up Jeff with one hand tied behind his back. He knew Carla always believed whatever he said.
“No. I can’t even beat up a girl,” he said. “Melinda Birch beat me up. Do you know her?”
“No.”
“You’d like her. She’s nice.”
Carla smiled.
Bradley ate a slice of tomato followed by a spoonful of yogurt. “I hid in the library at recess,” he said. “They couldn’t beat me up in the library, even if they found me. You can’t even talk in the library.”
“Yes, I know.”
Isn’t it amazing?”
“What’s that?”
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“The library. All those books. And they’re all different, aren’t they?”
Carla nodded as she drank Bradley’s juice through a straw.
“I kept thinking about that the whole time I was there,” he said. “They’re all different, but they all use practically the same words. They just put them in a different order.”
“Did you – ?”
“Just twenty-six letters,” he told her. “All they do is move those letters around and then they say so many different things!”
“Did you – ?”
“You’d think, after a while, they’d run out of ways to move them around,” said Bradley.
“Did you check out a book?”
“No, Mrs. Wilcott won’t let me. I used to, a long time ago, before I met you, I used to check out books and not return them.
I used to scribble in them and rip them up. So she won’t let me check any books out anymore. The whole time I was there she kept watching me, saying, ‘I don’t want any trouble from you, Bradley.’ “
He ate another slice of cucumber. “I just wanted to look at a book. I wasn’t going to ruin it.”
“I know,” said Carla. “And after a while, Mrs. Wilcott will know that too.”
“I’m trying to be good,” said Bradley. “But nobody will give me a chance.”
“They will. It just takes time.”
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“Do you ever play checkers on your shirt?” he asked.
Carla nearly spit out her juice. She laughed and shook her head.
“I like your shirts,” he said.
“I like your socks,” said Carla.
Bradley looked at his mismatched socks. “I thought I changed them,” he said, befuddled.
“I hate socks that match,” said Carla. “See.” She stuck out her legs. She was wearing white pants. She had on one white sock and one black sock.
Bradley smiled. It wasn’t his usual twisted smile, but one that was genuine. It was one that, up till now, had been seen only by Ronnie and Bartholomew.
“I know something good you can do,” said Carla.
“And Mrs. Ebbel will notice it too.”
“What?”
“Homework.”
The smile dropped off his face. “No. No I can’t,” he said.
“Sure you can,” said Carla.
“I can’t!” His eyes filled with tears.
“You can do anything you want to do, Bradley Chalkers. I have a lot of confidence in you.”
He shook his head. “But I can’t.” His voice cracked.
“Don’t say ‘I can’t.’ As long as you say you can’t do something, then of course you won’t do it. Say, ‘I can!’ Say ‘I can!’ and you can do anything.”
“I can’t! I can’t!” He was crying.
“Bradley, it’s not that difficult.
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You’re making a big deal out of nothing. If you want, I will help you.”
“I can’t,” he sobbed.
“Why can’t you?” she demanded.
He wiped his eyes with his sleeve and sniffled. He looked Carla straight in the eye and said, “I don’t know what page we’re on!”
“Oh, Bradley,” Carla whispered. Her eyes glistened. She stood up, walked around the table, and kissed him on the cheek.
NOT DONE yet
The End
ThEnd