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the dollar before I could pull it down. So me and Rowley had to go up on the boardwalk to get it back. This kid wasn't budging, though. I tried to explain the concept of personal property to him, but he STILL wouldn't give us our money. I was getting pretty frustrated with this kid, and that's when Rowley's parents showed up. I was pretty glad to see them because I figured if ANYONE could talk some sense into this kid, it was Mr. Jefferson. But Mr. Jefferson was mad, and I mean REALLY mad. He said he and Mrs. Jefferson had been looking all over for us for the past hour and they were ready to call the police to report us missing.

Then he told us we had to get in the car. But on the way to the parking lot, we walked past the arcade. I asked Mr. Jefferson if we could please have another dollar since we never did get to spend that one he gave us. But I guess that wasn't the right thing to ask, because he took us back to the car without saying a word. When we got back to the cabin, Mr. Jefferson said me and Rowley had to go straight to our room. That really stunk, because it wasn't even 8:00 and it was still light outside. But Mr. Jefferson said we had to go to bed and that he didn't want to hear a peep out of us until morning. Rowley was taking it really hard. From the way he

was acting, I don't think he's ever been in trouble with his dad before. I decided to lighten the mood a little bit. I walked around on the shag carpet and then gave Rowley a static electricity shock as a joke. That seemed to get Rowley to snap out of it. He walked around in a circle for about five minutes rubbing his feet on the carpet, and then got me back

while I was brushing my teeth. ZAP I couldn't let Rowley one-up me like that, so when he got into bed I got his boppy balloon, pulled back the giant rubber band, and let it rip. If I had to do it again, maybe I wouldn't have pulled back so hard. When Rowley saw the red mark on his arm he screamed, and I knew that was gonna attract attention. nkledc. Sure enough, his parents were up in our

room in five seconds. HE... HE BURNED ME! I tried to explain that the mark on Rowley's arm was from a rubber band, but that didn't seem to matter to the Jefferson's. They called my parents, and two hours later Dad was at the cabin to pick me up and take me home. Monday Dad's really mad that he had to drive four hours round-trip to come get me. But Mom wasn't mad at all. She said the incident between me and Rowley was

just "horseplay" and she was glad we were "pals" again. But Dad is still mad, and it's been really chilly between us ever since we got back. Mom's been trying to get the two of us to do something like go to the movies together so we can "make peace," but I think right now it's best for me and Dad to just stay out of each other's way. I think Dad's bad mood is here to stay, though, and part of it has nothing to do with me. When I opened up today's paper, here's what I saw in the Arts section—