8. Bobo

Chapter 8 Bobo There on the ground sat a dirty yellow teddy bear. With only one ear. "BOBO!" Wyatt cried. He grabbed that bear and hugged it. "You said only babies have stuffed animals," I said. "Loser babies," Gus pointed out. Wyatt's face got very pink. He dropped that old bear on the ground.

"That's my little brother's bear," Wyatt said, very fast. "I don't know how he got in my backpack!" But I could tell Wyatt was fibbing. He had hugged that bear like he really meant it. After that we had to go to Mr. Goosegarden's office. He is the principal. That means he talks to you about your Bad Choices. I think he is also the boss of the teachers. Maybe they have to talk to Mr. Goosegarden about their Bad Choices too. Mr. Goosegarden has a very cool office. He has a zillion windup toys on his desk. There is a monkey who does a back-flip.

A caterpillar who tap-dances. A gorilla who pounds his chest. And teeth that chatter. The secretary, Mrs. LaBella, led us into Mr. Goosegarden's office. While we waited for him to come in, I wound up the chattering teeth. Wyatt wound up the gorilla. We didn't talk to each other. But we let the toys fight it out on the floor. Mr. Goosegarden entered. He did not seem surprised to see the teeth and the gorilla fighting. He sat down and rubbed his eyes and talked to us about our noisiness. And about blaming someone without any proof. And about Bobo and Hamilton.

"Boys," he said, "I'll tell you a little secret. I still have my old teddy bear." He smiled. "And sometimes I even sleep with him." We were very quiet. Since this was shocking news. "No way," I said. "No way," Wyatt said. "Way," Mr. Goosegarden said. Then he made us shake hands. And pull the chattering teeth off the gorilla.

We walked back to class, Wyatt and me. We didn't talk. Because I was still sure Wyatt had my pig. Well, pretty sure. Also because now everybody knew about Hamilton. Of course, everybody knew about Bobo, too. All the way back to our classroom, I thought about poor lonely Hamilton. Who would tell him funny stories? Who would rub his tummy? Who would hug him when he was sad? Who else could have pig-napped him? Except Wyatt? It was exactly the kind of thing a bullyish guy like Wyatt would do.

We got to the classroom door. Wyatt's backpack was in his hallway cubby. Bobo's dirty ear was sticking out. It wasn't fair for Wyatt to have his stuffed animal, when I didn't have mine. We headed into the classroom. I sat down at one of the worktables. Emma and Gus sent me sorry-about-the-principal-visit looks. Ms. Diz rang her gonger. "We've had some talk today about how stuffed animals are just for little children," she said. "Loser babies," Gus corrected. "Thank you, Gus," said Ms. Diz. "Next time, please raise your hand first." Ms. Diz went to the blackboard. She wrote: