2 Ch2-Weird Words

Chapter 2 Weird Words "iFIola!" Miss Holly said. "Today we're going to learn Spanish vocabulary words." "Yay!" said the girls. "Boo!" said the boys. "The first word is 'toupee,'" said Miss Holly.

I know what a toupee is. It's fake hair that guys wear so they won't look bald. Our principal, Mr. Klutz, should get one because he's as bald as a bowling ball. "The Spanish word for 'toupee' is el peluquin," said Miss Holly. "El peluquin," we all repeated. "Good," said Miss Holly. "The next word is 'lifeguard' The Spanish word for 'lifeguard' is el salvavidas." "El salvavidas," we all repeated. "Good," said Miss Holly. "The next word is 'toilet.' The Spanish word for 'toilet' is el inodoro!" "El inodoro," we all repeated. This was getting weird. I figured Miss

Holly would teach us words we'd use every day, like "When do we eat?" or "Where is the skate park?" But she was teaching us weird words instead. Neil the nude kid raised his hand. "Why do we need to learn those words?" he asked. "Well," said Miss Holly, "what if you're at the beach and you need to tell some- body that the lifeguard's toupee fell in the toilet?" Miss Holly is weird. "Okay, that's enough vocab- ulary for now," Miss Holly said.

"Let's learn how they celebrate the holi- days in a Spanish-speaking country like Mexico!" Miss Holly told us that eleven days after Christmas in Mexico, kids put their shoes out on the balcony before they go to sleep. If they've been good, their shoes will be filled with treats when they wake up the next morning. "Eww, that's disgusting!" I said. "I wouldn't eat those smelly treats!" Miss Holly said that was silly. Then she told us that for nine days before

Christmas in Mexico, people act out the journey of Mary and Joseph going to Bethlehem. After a big feast, they play the pinata game. "Repeat after me," said Miss Holly. "Pinata!" "Pinata," we all repeated. I knew what a pinata was because Ryan had one at his birthday party. It's this big, hollow, paper thing you hang from a tree, and kids take turns whacking it with a stick. When the pinata breaks open, candy falls out and everybody grabs it. Pinatas are cool because you get to do two very cool things— eat candy and whack something with a stick.

Miss Holly went to the closet, and guess what she took out? I'm not going to tell you. Okay, okay, I'll tell you. A pinata! It was in the shape of a star. We were going to play the pinata game! All right! Miss Holly climbed up on her desk and tied the pinata to a bar on the ceiling. "Can I go first?" we all yelled. Miss Holly said we'd go in ABC order, which meant that Andrea (AN) got to go first. I lined up behind her because my real name, Arlo, begins with AR. Miss Holly told us that in Mexico the kids are blindfolded when they play the