21

If Rowley thinks he had it bad when those kids made him eat the Cheese, he should try being stuck in the Leisure Towers ladies' room for an hour and a half. I guess someone eventually heard me in there, and they reported me to the front desk. Within a few minutes, word got around the building that there was a "Peeping Tom" in the women's room.

By the time security came in and got me out of there, everyone who lived in Leisure Towers was down in the lobby. And Rodrick saw the whole thing unfold upstairs on Grandpa's TV. Now that the story was out, I knew I couldn't show my face at school. So I told Mom she was gonna have to transfer me somewhere else, and I told her why. Mom said I shouldn't worry about what other people think. She told me that my classmates would understand that I had just made an "honest mistake."

So that just proves once and for all that Mom doesn't understand a THING about kids my age. Now I'm kicking myself for not keeping up my pen- pal relationship with Mamadou. Because if me and him had stayed in touch, maybe I could have gone to France as an exchange student and hid out THERE for a few years. All I know is, the one place I don't want to go tomorrow is school. And it looks like that's exactly where I'm headed.

Friday The CRAZIEST thing happened today. When I walked in the door at school, a bunch of guys cornered me, and I braced myself for the teasing to start. But instead of harassing me, they started CONGRATULATING me. Everyone was shaking my hand and patting me on the back, and I didn't know WHAT was going on. With all those guys talking to me at the same time, it took me a while to make sense of anything. But here's what must have happened. The story Rodrick told his friends got passed on to their brothers and sisters, and then they told THEIR friends.

But by the time word spread around, all the details got totally messed up. So the story went from me accidentally walking into the women's bathroom at Leisure Towers to me infiltrating the girls' locker room at Crossland HIGH SCHOOL. I couldn't believe everything got twisted like that, but I wasn't about to set the record straight, either.

All of the sudden, I was the hero at school. I even got a nickname. People were calling me the "Stealthinator." Someone even made me a Stealthinator headband, and you better believe I wore it. Things like this never happen to me, so I wasn't gonna pass up my moment of glory. And for the first time ever, I knew what it felt like to be the most popular kid at school. Unfortunately, the girls weren't as impressed with me as the guys were. In fact, I think I might have a little trouble getting someone to go to the Valentine's Dance with me.