10

coming from the carpet, so they hired a cleaner to come shampoo the rug. But that didn't solve the problem, and they thought maybe a squirrel or a mouse died in their walls. So they had a carpenter come in to try to find it. After a few weeks, I guess they couldn't take the smell anymore, so they moved out. And I have to admit I felt a little bit guilty when I saw they were taking their plastic plant with them.

Ever since, I've been trying to figure out how to sneak some deviled eggs into Fregley's house. Tuesday Yesterday when I got home, I put my egg in my sock drawer, but then I realized it wouldn't be safe in there. Whenever I have something new, Manny finds a way to get to it and wreck it. In fact, it only took a day and a half for Manny to find my headgear. And I don't care WHAT Dr. Kagan says, there's no way I'm putting THAT thing in my mouth again.

I thought about hiding the egg at the top of my closet, but that wouldn't stop Manny. I hid some comic books up there once, but that boy can climb like a monkey. What I realized is that the more work I put into hiding something, the better chance Manny has of finding it. So I decided to hide my egg in an obvious spot where he would never think to look. I put it in the refrigerator on the second shelf. But

this morning I opened the refrigerator to get my egg, and it wasn't where I left it. I went into a panic, and I asked Mom if she'd seen Manny take my egg out of the refrigerator. But Mom said SHE was the one who took it, and that's what she was making me for breakfast. All of a sudden I felt a little sick to my stomach. I realized that if I couldn't even take care of an egg for twenty-four hours, I definitely have no business ever being a parent.

When I got to school, I noticed that all the girls in my Health class had gotten THEIR eggs to school safely. Some of the girls were carrying theirs around in little pouches they'd sewn, and a few of them had even accessorized their eggs with sparkles and glitter and stuff like that. I'm pretty sure the point of the lesson was to teach us how hard it is to take care of a baby, so I don't think the girls were really getting the message. I was thinking about swiping Rowley's egg when he wasn't looking and passing it off as my own, but he

had drawn all over his in crayon, so that wasn't an option. When Nurse Powell came to my desk, I pulled out the plastic baggie that had my scrambled egg in it, but she didn't seem too impressed. CAN I AT LEAST GET PARTIAL CREDIT? So I guess that means I'm probably gonna be in summer school to repeat Health class.