Chapter 10

Chapter ten On Monday at two o'clock, all the first-and second-graders at PS 87 were sitting in the auditorium waiting for the We Love Nature assembly to begin. Because we were the big kids, we got to sit in actual chairs. The first- graders had to sit on the floor in front of us. All the parents were sitting in the rest of the seats. All the parents, that is, except my dad. He had told me that morning that he wasn't going to be able to come to the assembly because of an important business meeting. It was a long story about his computer crashing, most of which I didn't understand because it involved words like "hard drive," "double right

click," and "lost documents." The part I did understand, and I wished I didn't, was that he wasn't going to be there. Principal Love got the assembly started by walking up to the microphone and clearing his throat. He rubbed the mole on his cheek, which looks like the Statue of Liberty without the torch. Then he began. "Welcome, boys and girls, and parents of PS 87," he said. It sounded like he had a little frog in his throat. He could have used one more throat clearing before he spoke. "Today we are celebrating nature," he said. "As we all know, nature is a natural part of our natural world, which is the world we naturally live in."

"He's not making any sense," Frankie whispered in my ear. "He never does," Ashley whispered in the other ear. "But it's a lot of fun to watch the mole bounce up and down on his cheek," I said. "It looks like it's doing the hula." We all burst out laughing but stopped immediately when Principal Love shot us that look that says "no laughing allowed." Then he introduced our teacher, Ms. Flowers, who told the parents about our unit on writing nature poems. The parents all applauded when they heard we were going to read our poems out loud to them. "Boys and girls," she said, "make sure you have your poem in your hand, ready to read."

"Uh-oh," I said, realizing that I was the only one not holding my poem in my hand. "Zip, tell me you didn't..," Frankie said. "Lose it," Ashley added. "It's got to be here somewhere," I said, grabbing my backpack. While the first students got up onstage to read their poems, I unzipped every compartment of my backpack in a wild search for my poem. Some of them twice. I found old gummy bears, pencils with no points, and erasers shaped like bananas. But no poem. I must have forgotten to put it in. I really don't like my brain, I thought. It never remembers what I need it to remember.

"Hank Zipzer," I heard Ms. Flowers saying. "Would you please come to the stage and let us all hear your poem?" "I don't have it," I whispered to Frankie. "Then you have to do it from memory," he said. "Can you do that?" Ashley asked. "I guess I'm going to find out real quick." I stood up slowly, trying to go over the lines in my head. As I crawled over the other kids to get to the aisle, Nick McKelty stuck his foot out to trip me. He is the biggest, thickest, meanest kid in all of second grade. His idea of a big laugh is tripping people and watching them fall down.

"Don't even bother going up there, Zipper Teeth," he said. "Your poem is going to stink up the place." Usually I would have had a snappy comeback for him. But I wasn't feeling all that confident. I wasn't sure I had any poem—stinky or not. I got to the stage and stood in front of the microphone. Wow, there were a lot of people out there in the auditorium. All the moms and dads were waving and trying to get their kid's