01 In a Mood

MEGAN McDONALDJUDY JUDY MOODY Mood Martian

In a Mood She, Judy Moody, was in a mood. A sourball mood. A mad-face mood. All because school pictures had come home that day. If Stink came into her room, he would ask to see her school picture. And if he asked to see her school picture, he would see that she had been wearing her I AM GIRL, HEAR ME ROAR T-shirt. (The same one she wore today.) And if he saw her wearing her ROAR T-shirt in her school picture, he would also see that she looked like Sasquatch. With bird's-nest hair in her face and in her eyes. Mom and Dad were going to freak. "Just once

we'd like to have a nice school picture of our girl," Dad had said just this morning. "Maybe this will be the year," Mom had said. But third grade was no different. Judy spread out her school pictures on the floor. She looked like: If only Mom and Dad would forget about school pictures this year. Fat chance. Maybe

Judy could pretend the dog ate them! Too bad the Moodys didn't have a dog. Only Mouse the cat. She could say that an evil school-picture bandit erased them from the master computer. Hardly. To make things worse, Rocky had grabbed her Sasquatch picture in class and wouldn't give it back. Then he passed it to Frank, which made Judy yelp and jump up out of her seat instead of doing her math. That's when Mr. Todd said the A word. Antarctica. The desk in the back of the room where Judy had to go to chill out. For the third time that day! Never in the History of Judy had she been to Antarctica that many times in a row. A donut-size sicky spot sat in her stomach just

remembering it. That's why she, Judy Moody, was in a mood. A finger-knitting, don't-think-about-schoolpictures, need-to-be-alone mood. As in by herself. As in no stinky little brother to bug and bother her like a pesky mosquito. Bzzz! Stink was always in her ear. Judy's Number One Favorite Place to curl up with Mouse was on her top bunk, but Stink would for-sure find her there. She crawled over gobs of flip-flops and blobs of dirty clothes to her second favorite spot to be alone— the way- back of her closet. She popped a wad of Stink's yard-long bubble gum in her mouth. "Don't look at me like that, Mouse. What Stink doesn't know won't hurt him." She picked up a skein of gray-brown yarn and looped it

around her thumb. Mouse batted the finger- knitting chain with her paw. Over. Under. Over. Under. Back. Loop-deloop-de-loop. Judy tugged on the long chain of apple-green yarn that dangled from her left hand. Her fingers flew. She, Judy Moody, was the fastest finger knitter in Frog Neck Lake, Virginia. The fastest finger knitter in the east. Probably the fastest in the whole wide world!