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likes. So Mom took it off the tree and handed it to Manny to hang up himself. But Manny wanted his ornament to be the FIRST one on the tree, so that meant we had to take all the decorations down, just so he could get his way. And that's just the kind of thing that happens in my house every single day. Mom hasn't started to use the threat of Santa as a way of getting Manny to behave, but I'm sure she will soon. I don't think it's such a good strategy for

keeping us in line, though. Because the second Christmas is over, Mom doesn't have any real leverage. WELL! THE EASTER BUNNY IS GOING TO BE VERY DISAPPOINTED IN YOU BOYS! Monday Right before Thanksgiving break, there was a contest at school to see who could come up with the best anti-bullying slogan, and the grand prize was a pizza party for the winning team.

Only YOU can STOP BULLYING! Form a team of up to five people and come up with the best anti-bullying slogan. The winning team will get a PIZZA PARTY in the cafeteria! Let's make bullying extinct! Everyone wanted that pizza party, and people didn't care WHAT they had to do to win it. Two groups of girls in my grade came up with slogans that were really similar, and each group accused the other one of stealing their idea. The whole situation spun out of control, and eventually the vice principal had to step in to stop it from turning into a full-scale riot.

Our school only has one legitimate bully this year anyway, and his name is Dennis Root. And with all the signs and posters everywhere, BULLDOZE BULLYING NO BULLY ZONE STOP BULLYING NOW I'm pretty sure the message is getting through to him. The day before Thanksgiving there was a big anti- bullying assembly, and everyone in the auditorium was looking at Dennis the whole time. I kind of felt sorry for him, so I tried to make him feel better.

Even though Dennis is the only real bully in our school this year, we had a BUNCH of them LAST year. People were constantly getting picked on at recess, so the teachers set up a station on the playground where kids could press a button if they needed to get a grown-up's attention. TELL -A- TEACHER STATION Well, the Tell-a-Teacher station just ended up being a convenient place for the bullies to hang out and find their next victims.

The teachers say TEASING counts as bullying, too, but I don't think there's any way they're gonna put a stop to THAT. Kids are always calling each other names and that kind of thing at my school. In fact, one of the reasons I try to stay under the radar is because I don't want to end up getting stuck with a nickname like Cody Johnson did. In kindergarten Cody stepped in some dog poop at recess, and ever since then people have called him "Dookie."