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After Rodrick's band performed, they handed out the awards. Rodrick's band didn't win anything, but Harry Gilbertson walked away with the prize for "Best Musical Act." But you'll never guess who the Grand Prize Winner was: Rowley's babysitter, Leland. He won for his ventriloquist act, because the judges

said it was "wholesome." I never thought I'd agree with Rodrick on anything, but I'm starting to wonder if maybe he was right about Leland being a nerd after all. After the show, Rodrick's band came back to our house to watch the videotape of their performance. They were all grumbling about how they got "robbed," and how the judges don't know the first thing about rock and roll. So their plan was to just mail the videotape off to some record labels and let their performance speak for itself. They all sat down in front of the TV and Rodrick put the tape in the machine. But it took about thirty

seconds for everyone to realize the tape was worthless. You know how Rodrick asked Mom to videotape the show? Well, she did a pretty good job of filming, but she talked nonstop during the first two minutes. And the camera picked up every little comment she made. THAT SHIRT MAKES RODRICK'S ARMS LOOK SO SKINNY! Every time Bill stuck out his tongue and flicked it up and down like a rock star, you could hear Mom ring in with her opinion.

I DON'T LIKE THAT! In fact, the only time Mom stopped talking was when Rodrick did his drum solo. But during that part, the camera was shaking around so much that you couldn't even see anything. At first, Rodrick and his bandmates were really mad. But then one of them remembered that the school taped the Talent Show, and it's supposed to be on the local cable channel tomorrow night. I guess that means they'll all be coming back over to watch THAT. Thursday Well, things have gotten REALLY bad for me in the last few hours.

Rodrick and his bandmates came over around 7:00 tonight to watch the Talent Show on TV. They sat through the whole three-hour show until their band came on. The school actually did a decent job of taping the performance, and things were looking pretty good up until Rodrick's drum solo. That's when Mom started dancing. And whoever was doing the filming zoomed right in on Mom, and kept the camera pointed at her for the rest of the song. That meant Rodrick didn't have ANYTHING he could send to record companies. And he was really mad about it, too. At first he was mad at Mom for messing things up. But Mom said that if Rodrick didn't want people to

dance, he shouldn't play music. Then Rodrick turned on ME. He said this was all MY fault, because if I just taped the show like he asked me to, none of this would've happened. But I told him that maybe if he wasn't such a jerk, I would have done it for him. We started to yell at each other. Mom and Dad broke us up, and then they sent Rodrick down to his room and me up to mine. But a couple of hours later I went downstairs, and I ran into Rodrick in the kitchen. He was smiling, so I knew something was up. Rodrick told me my "secret was out." At first, I didn't know what he was talking about. But then I got it: He was talking about the thing that happened to me this summer.