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I plopped my stuff down on the stage, where all the other kids were. Then I noticed that Rowley was there, so I moved my stuff to the other side of the stage. I think most of the kids had already written off the night, because just about everyone was playing with whatever electronic gadget they brought with them. I didn't even THINK of bringing my video games, and I didn't have a magazine or anything to entertain myself. So I asked one of the grown-ups what I could do. Mrs. Barnum told me there was an "activity center"

我把我的东西扔在舞台上，其他孩子都在那里。 然后我注意到罗利在那里，所以我把我的东西搬到了舞台的另一边。 我想大多数孩子都已经忘记了这个夜晚，因为几乎每个人都在玩他们随身携带的电子产品。 我甚至没有想过要带电子游戏，也没有杂志或任何东西来娱乐自己。 于是我问其中一个大人我能做些什么。 巴纳姆太太告诉我有个“活动中心”

in the corner for anyone who needed to take a "fun break" during the night. But all of the activities were little-kid stuff. Activity Center Ball Pit I decided to just sit on my sleeping bag with my hands folded on my lap instead. At 9:00 the adults said it was time for "party games," but nobody heard them because everyone had headphones on. Mr. Tanner said people needed to be "social," so he confiscated all the cell phones, music players, and whatever else kids had and put them in a garbage bag.

在角落里，为那些需要在晚上“休息一下”的人准备。 但所有的活动都是小孩子玩的。 活动中心球坑我决定坐在睡袋里，双手交叉放在腿上。 9点时，大人们说该玩“派对游戏”了，但没人听见，因为每个人都戴着耳机。 坦纳先生说，人们需要“社交”，所以他没收了孩子们所有的手机、音乐播放器和其他东西，把它们放进一个垃圾袋里。

Then we all sat in a circle in the middle of the auditorium. Mrs. Carr said we were gonna play some "icebreakers" that would help us get to know each other better. But the truth is, all of us kids know one another really well, because we've been together since preschool. In fact, I think we know each other TOO well. Mrs. Carr said we were gonna start with something called the "Name Game," where everyone goes around and gives themselves a nickname that starts with the same letter as their first name, like "Sporty Seth" or "Funny Fred" or something like that. The idea was that your nickname would say something about your personality. Rowley went first.

然后我们在礼堂中央围成一圈坐了下来。 卡尔太太说我们要玩一些“破冰游戏”来加深彼此的了解。 但事实是，我们所有的孩子都非常了解彼此，因为我们从幼儿园就在一起了。 事实上，我认为我们彼此太了解了。 卡尔太太说我们要从“名字游戏”开始每个人轮流给自己取一个和名字开头字母相同的昵称，比如“运动赛斯”或者“搞笑弗雷德”之类的。 他们的想法是，你的昵称可以反映出你的个性。 罗利先走了。

RESPECTFUL ROWLEY! It was really stressful trying to come up with a cool- sounding nickname, and my turn was coming up quick. I finally settled on "Great Greg," which I know is a little lame, but it was hard to think of a decent nickname that starts with the letter "G." I guess the kid to my right, George Fleer, was having the same problem as me. GREAT GEORGE I couldn't use the same word as George or people would think I was copying him. So I sat there for a while trying to think of another good "G" word, but everyone was staring at me and

尊重罗利!想出一个听起来很酷的绰号真的很有压力，而我的机会很快就来了。 我最后决定叫“伟大的格雷格”我知道这名字有点蹩脚，但很难想出一个以“ g ”开头的好绰号 我猜我右边的孩子，乔治·弗勒，和我有同样的问题。 我不能用和乔治一样的词，否则人们会认为我在抄袭他。 所以我在那坐了一会儿想再想一个合适的“G”开头的词，但大家都盯着我看

my mind just went blank. Then Mrs. Libby chimed in to try and bail me out. JOLLY GREG! Everyone seemed pretty happy with that, even though "Jolly" doesn't start with the letter "G." And it makes you wonder about our education system, especially since Mrs. Libby is the eighth-grade honors English teacher. I thought "Jolly Greg" was a TERRIBLE nickname, but before I could come up with something better, the person to my left went, and it was too late. So now I was stuck with a stupid nickname for the rest of the night, and probably until I go off to college.

我的脑子一片空白。然后利比太太插嘴想把我救出来。 快乐的格雷格!大家似乎都很高兴，尽管“Jolly”不是“ g ”开头的 这让你对我们的教育系统感到好奇，尤其是因为利比夫人是八年级的荣誉英语老师。 我认为“快活格雷格”是个糟糕的绰号，但在我想出更好的绰号之前，我左边的人走了，一切都太晚了。 所以那天晚上剩下的时间我都被这个愚蠢的绰号困住了，可能直到我去上大学。

HELLO my name is Jolly Sheg After that, we played a game called "I Never Told Anyone This Before," where we had to tell everyone a secret. Mrs. Carr said the game would help us "bond" with one another, but I think the REAL purpose was to let the chaperones know who the troublemakers were. I WAS THE ONE WHO SPRAY PAINTED A BAD WORD ON THE FRONT OF THE SCHOOL! My theory was proven right later on when Teddy Caldwell went down the hall to the bathroom and a chaperone trailed him.

在那之后，我们玩了一个叫做“我以前从未告诉过任何人”的游戏，我们必须告诉每个人一个秘密。 卡尔太太说这个游戏可以帮助我们彼此“联系”，但我认为真正的目的是让监护人知道谁是捣蛋鬼。 是我在学校门口喷了个脏话！后来，我的理论被证明是正确的，泰迪·考德威尔穿过大厅去洗手间，一个女伴跟着他。