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pretty shaken up. Apparently Mr. Winsky got a call from a parent who said they witnessed Rowley "terrorizing" the kindergartners when he was supposed to be walking them home from school. And Mr. Winsky was really mad about it. Rowley said Mr. Winsky yelled at him for about ten minutes and said his actions "disrespected the badge." You know, I think I might just know what this is all about. Last week, Rowley had to take a quiz during fourth period, so I walked the kindergartners home on my own. It had rained that morning, and there were a lot of worms on the sidewalk. So I decided to have some

fun with the kids. But some neighborhood lady saw what I was doing, and she yelled at me from her front porch. It was Mrs. Irvine, who is friends with Rowley's mom. She must have thought I was Rowley, because I was borrowing his coat. And I wasn't about to correct her, either. I forgot about the whole incident until today.

Anyway, Mr. Winsky told Rowley he's going to have to apologize to the kindergartners tomorrow morning, and that he's suspended from Patrols for a week. I knew I should probably just tell Mr. Winsky it was me who chased the kids with the worms. But I wasn't ready to set the record straight just yet. I knew if I confessed, I'd lose my hot chocolate privileges. And that right there was enough to make me keep quiet for the time being. At dinner tonight, Mom could tell something was bothering me, so she came up to my room afterward to talk. I told her I was in a tough situation, and I didn't know what to do. I got to give Mom credit for how she handled it. She didn't try to pry and get all the details. All she said was that I should try to do the "right thing," because it's our choices that make us who we are.

I figure that's pretty decent advice. But I'm still not 100% sure what I'm going to do tomorrow. Thursday Well, I was up all night tossing and turning over this Rowley situation, but I finally made up my mind. I decided the right thing to do was to just let Rowley take one for the team this time around. On the way home from school, I came clean with Rowley and told him the whole truth about what

happened, and how it was me who chased the kids with the worms. Then I told him there were lessons we could both learn from this. I told him I learned to be more careful about what I do in front of Mrs. Irvine's house, and that he learned a valuable lesson, too, which is this: Be careful about who you lend your coat to. To be honest with you, my message didn't seem to be getting through to Rowley. We were supposed to hang out after school today, but he said he was just going to go home and take a nap. I couldn't really blame him. Because if I didn't have my hot chocolate this morning, I wouldn't have had

much energy, either. When I got home, Mom was waiting for me at the front door. DID YOU DO THE RIGHT THING? YEAH! Mom took me out to get some ice cream as a special treat. And what this whole episode has taught me is that every once in a while, it's not such a bad idea to listen to your mother.