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But then I found out who I did have to wrestle, and I would have traded for Benny Wells in a heartbeat. Fregley was the only kid light enough to be in my weight class. And apparently Fregley was paying attention when Mr. Underwood was giving instructions, because he pinned me every which way you could imagine. I spent my seventh period getting way more familiar with Fregley than I ever wanted to be.

Tuesday This wrestling unit has totally turned our school upside down. Now kids are wrestling in the hallways, in the classrooms, you name it. But the fifteen minutes after lunch where they let us outside is the worst. You can't walk five feet without tripping over a couple of kids going at it. I just try to keep my distance. And mark my words, one of these fools is going to roll right onto the Cheese and start the Cheese Touch all over again.

My other big problem is that I have to wrestle Fregley every single day. But this morning I realized something. If I can move out of Fregley's weight class, I won't have to wrestle him anymore. So today, I stuffed my clothes with a bunch of socks and shirts to get myself into the next weight class. But I was still too light to move up. I realized I was gonna have to gain weight for real. At first I thought I should just start loading up on junk food, but then I had a much better idea. I decided to gain my weight in muscle, not fat.

I've never been all that interested in getting in shape before, but this wrestling unit has made me rethink things. I figure if I bulk up now, it could actually come in handy down the road. The football unit is coming in the spring, and they split the teams up into shirts and skins. And I always get put on skins. I think they do that to make all the out-of-shape kids feel ashamed of themselves. If I can pack on some muscle now, it'll be a whole different story next April.

Tonight, after dinner, I got Mom and Dad together and told them my plan. I told them I was going to need some serious exercise equipment, and some weight-gain powder, too. I showed them some muscle magazines I got at the store so they could see how ripped I was going to be. Mom didn't really say anything at first, but Dad was pretty enthusiastic. I think he was just glad I had a

change of heart from how I used to be when I was a kid— But Mom said if I wanted a weight set, I was going to have to prove that I could stick with an exercise regimen. She said I could do that by doing sit-ups and jumping jacks for two weeks. I had to explain that the only way to get totally bulked up is to get the kind of high-tech machines they have at the gym, but Mom didn't want to hear it. Then Dad said if I wanted a bench press, I should keep my fingers crossed for Christmas.