10 Ch10-Penguins Are Cool

Chapter 10 Penguins Are Cool It was dark and quiet. The little hand on the clock was past twelve, so I knew it was after midnight. But I ate so much sugar, there was no way I was going to get to sleep. "Let's slink around by the animals!" I suggested. "Yeah!" agreed Michael. "You're going to get in trouble," Andrea said. "I'm going to tell Mrs. Daisy," said Emily. "Fine," I said. "Tell her. And I'll tell her that you ate all that candy." Me and Michael slinked around the first floor like secret agents. Andrea and Emily, the big copycats, followed us. We looked at the moose again, and the buffalo and the gorillas. The animals looked even more real late at night. That's when I saw it. The most amazing thing in the history of the world. But I'm not going to tell you what it was. Okay, okay, I'll tell you. And you don't even have to read the next chapter. It was a diorama filled with penguins! Penguins! I must have missed this before. I'm sure I would have

remembered it. I pressed my nose against the glass. Ever since I was little, I loved penguins. I slept with a stuffed penguin in my crib when I was a baby. I dressed up like a penguin for Halloween. I used to have an imaginary penguin friend. I saw every penguin movie there was to see. Looking at those penguins close-up, I was hypnotized. I could almost hear them speaking to me. "Come with us, A.J.!" one of the penguins said. "We'll go to Antarctica! You can play with us forever and ever and ever." "Kids don't have to go to school in Antarctica," said the second penguin. "There are no teachers to tell you what to do. There are no parents to yell at you. There are no problems. It's paradise." "In Antarctica we don't care if you secretly love Andrea," said the third penguin. "Come with us and live in peace," said the fourth penguin. "We'll slide around on the ice all day. It'll be fun." "I'm coming," I told the penguins. "I'm coming with you...." Suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was Michael's.

"A.J., are you okay?" he asked. "Who are you talking to, man?" "Uh, nobody." It must have been the sugar.