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But Mom says I can't have any candy until Halloween night, which I think is totally cruel. I think I've figured out a way to get my hands on some candy BEFORE Halloween, though. My school is having a contest called the "Balloon Brigade," which it does every October. Each student gets a helium balloon, and everyone releases theirs at the same time. They give you these little cards to write your name and address on, and when people find the balloons they're supposed to send them back.

The school has a big map on a bulletin board near the library, and when a kid turns in a balloon, Vice Principal Roy uses a thumbtack to mark how far it went. At the end of the week he measures the distance each balloon traveled to find out whose went the farthest, and that kid gets a REWARD.

Last year, Andrea Gennarro's balloon traveled forty-three miles, and she won a thirty-dollar gift certificate for the book fair. But THIS year the grand prize is a giant jar of candy corn, which is sitting in Vice Principal Roy's office right now. The school puts a little code on each balloon so nobody cheats and turns in a store-bought balloon. I've never had one of my balloons sent back to me, though. I need to make SURE that whoever finds mine doesn't just ignore me, so I wrote a three-page letter that I'm hoping will get a response.

Because when it comes to free candy, I'm not messing around. To whoever finds this balloon: I am a lonely child without any friends. I released this balloon hoping it would find its way to a kind person who might write me back and bring some joy to my life. Monday After lunch today the teachers led us all out to the basketball court for the big Balloon Brigade launch. I still get kind of nervous stepping foot on the blacktop, because that's where the Cheese sat for a year and a half. There's even a stain where it used to be.

It's been a long time since the Cheese terrorized our school, but I guess some people actually LIKED having something to be scared of. A few different times kids have tried to start the Cheese Touch back up, but the teachers are on the lookout because they don't want to have to go through all that nonsense again. One kid actually managed to sneak a piece of lunch meat onto the court during recess, but the Roast Beef Touch didn't have the same ring to it. YOU'VE GOT THE ROAST BEEF TOUCH! HA HA!

Still, someone's ALWAYS trying to start some new thing. This year it's all about the chairs in the auditorium. The chairs are red except ONE, which is yellow and has a busted leg. Apparently some kid peed on it during a really long assembly last month. And if you're not paying attention and sit in the yellow chair, you're pretty much finished for the rest of the school year. If you ask me, people should just be happy the Cheese Touch is behind us and stop trying to replace it with something else. Because the last thing you need in middle school is anything EXTRA to worry about.