10 Ch10-My Genius Idea

Chapter 10 My Genius Idea My life was over. I ran home so fast I could have won a gold medal in the Olympics. Now that Andrea had kissed me, going back to school was out of the question. I could never show my face there again. Ryan and Michael would never let me

hear the end of it. That's when I got a genius idea. I could get plastic surgery! My friend Billy who lives around the corner told me that some lady in France got a face transplant. The doctors just took somebody else's face and put it on her head. Cool! I could do that. I could get a new face and go back to school. Nobody would know it was me. But getting a face transplant sounded disgusting, And my parents probably wouldn't get me one anyway. They wouldn't even get me a new Striker Smith action figure to replace the one Ryan threw out the bus window. No way were they going to get me a new face.

Now that Andrea had kissed me, I had no other choice. I had to move to Antarctica, where no human being would ever see me again. I would live with the penguins. Penguins are cool, and they wouldn't care that Andrea kissed me. "Can you drive me to Antarctica?" I asked my mother after school. "I need to go live with the penguins for the rest of my life." "Sure," she replied, "but first we have to go to the pet store."

Oh, I completely forgot! We were all out of fish food! My chore at home is to take care of our fish. Mom had told me first thing in the morning that after school we were going to the pet store to get fish food. Mom says I have to do chores like feed- ing our fish because doing chores makes you a responsible person. That makes no sense at all. I'm already a responsible person. Any time something goes wrong, everybody says I'm responsible. So we drove to the pet store. They have all kinds of animal stuff there. They even have Christmas presents for pets. People actually give gifts to their dogs! Dog owners are weird.

You have to be real careful with fish. You have to feed them, clean their tank, and make sure the filter is working. I found the fish food and got in line with my mom to pay for it. There was a little sign in front of the cash register that said: DID YOU FORGET ANYTHING? Hmm, did I forget anything? That's when I suddenly remembered what I forgot. I forgot all about the Secret Santa present I was supposed to get for Emily! We had to bring them in tomorrow! Oh, man! If I didn't bring in a Secret Santa present for Emily, I wouldn't get a present from my Secret Santa! And I love getting presents. I had to go back to school. If I went to Antarctica, I wouldn't

get my Secret Santa present. "Mom," I asked, "can you drive me to the mall after this?" "I thought you wanted me to drive you to Antarctica." "I changed my mind," I said. "I need to go to a smelly perfume store to get a Secret Santa present for Emily." Mom was really mad. The stores are all crowded before Christmas, and the traffic is really bad. She said she didn't have time to take me to the smelly perfume store. That's when I got another one of my genius ideas. I could get Emily a present right there at the pet store! They sell