08 The Worst Thing Ever

The Worst Thing Ever D-day. Doomsday. Dumbday. Saturday. The day of Frank Eats-Paste Pearl's birthday party. I'd rather eat ten jars of paste myself than go to that party, Judy thought. For three whole weeks she had kept the hand-delivered-by-Frank-Pearl birthday invitation hidden inside the bottom of her Tip-It game, where Mom and Dad (who hated Tip-It) would NEVER find it. Then today, the very day of the party, it happened. Dad found out. She, Judy Moody, just had to ask Dad to take her to Fur & Fangs for some toad food. She just happened to be looking at a tadpole kit

with real live frog eggs — Watch tadpoles turn into frogs! See tails shrink, feet grow, legs form! — hoping to talk Dad into buying it for her when another kit just like it bumped into her. Holding the kit was Frank's mom. "Judy!" Frank's mom said. "Isn't that funny? It looks like we had the same idea for Frank's present! I thought he'd love watching a tadpole turn into a frog. I was about to buy him the same kit!"

"Um, I wasn't . . . I mean, you were?" "Frank's really looking forward to seeing you at his party." "Party?" Dad's ears perked up. "Whose party?" "Frank's!" said his mom. "I'm Mrs. Pearl, Frank's mom." "Nice to meet you," said Dad. "Very nice to meet you," said Mrs. Pearl. "And Judy, I'll see you this afternoon. Bye for

now." Mrs. Pearl put the tadpole kit she was holding back on the shelf. "Frank LOVES reptiles," she said. Amphibians, thought Judy. "Judy, why didn't you just say you needed to come here to get your friend a birthday present? Did I know you had a party to go to today?" Dad asked. "No." In the car, Judy tried to convince her dad that there would be kids at the party making rude body noises and calling each other animalbreath names. "You'll have fun." "You know, Frank Pearl eats paste," said Judy. "Look. You've already got the tadpole kit,"

Dad said. "I was kind of sort of hoping I could keep it." "But Mrs. Pearl put hers back when she saw yours. At least take it over, Judy." "Do I have to wrap it?" asked Judy. From the look on his face, she knew the answer. Judy Moody wrapped the too-good-for-apaste- eater present in boring newspaper (not the comics). Even though the party started at two o'clock, she told Mom and Dad that the party didn't start until four o'clock, so she would only have to go for the last disgusting minutes.

The whole family rode in the car to Frank Pearl's house. Even Toady went along, carried by Stink in a yogurt container. Judy held Frank's lumpy present and fell into a bad-mood backseat slump. Why did Rocky have to go to his grandma's TODAY of all days? "She's crying!" Stink reported to the front seat. "Am not!" she said back with her best troll eyes ever. "Wait here," Judy told her family when they got to Frank's house. "Go ahead. Have fun," Dad said. "We'll be back for you in half an hour. Forty minutes tops." "We're only going to the supermarket," said Mom. But they might as well have been going to New Zealand.