4 Pizza and Pogo-Juggling

Chapter 4 Pizza and Pogo-Juggling Mr. Tony seemed like he was really mean. But suddenly, he broke out into a big grin. "I was just kidding with that army stuff," he said. "Welcome to the ASKK program! Are you kids ready to have fun?" "Yes!" said all the girls. "No," said all the boys. "Before we have fun," Andrea said, "may I ask you a question, Mr. Tony?" "Certainly," he replied. "Why were you juggling on a pogo stick?" "I'm trying to get into The Guinness Book of World Records," Mr. Tony said. "The record for pogo-juggling is almost 25 minutes. I want to break it."

Pogo-juggling? Now I knew Mr. Tony was weird. "Did you get hurt pogo-juggling?" asked Emily. "Is that why you have a Band-Aid on your arm?" "It's not a Band-Aid. It's a nicotine patch," Mr. Tony explained. "I'm trying to quit smoking." "Cigarettes are really bad for you," said Ryan. "I know," Mr. Tony said. "I used to be a chain-smoker." "You smoked chains?" I asked. "That's

weird." "A chain-smoker is somebody who smokes all the time, Arlo!" Andrea said. She calls me by my real name because she knows I don't like it. "I knew that," I lied. "My doctor says that if I do a lot of exercise, it will help me quit smoking," Mr. Tony said. "So I thought I would try to do something active and get into The Guinness Book of World Records. If I was the best in the world at something, I think I would have the confidence to stop smoking." That made sense, I guess. Mr. Tony took us on a tour of the ASKK room. "On nice days you can play out in the playground," he told us, "but there are lots of fun things to do in here too." The ASKK room was divided into a bunch

of little stations. There was one station for drawing pictures, one station for arts and crafts, one station for cooking, one station for making stuff with beads and Legos, and one station for playing board games.3 "You can do whatever you want," said Mr. Tony. "You can even do your homework if you'd like, over here in the homework station." That's where Andrea will probably spend her time. She loves homework. I bet that on her birthday she asks her parents to give her more homework. "I don't want to do any of that stuff," I told Mr. Tony. "Me neither," said Ryan. "We don't want to be here," said Michael. "Yeah, we want to go home," said Neil the nude kid.

Mr. Tony looked sad for a minute. But then he snapped his fingers. "I have an idea for something you boys would like to do!" he said. "Let's make a pizza!" Pizza? I love pizza! I could eat pizza all day long. Well, maybe not in the shower. That would be weird. "We don't know how to make a pizza," said Ryan. "I'll show you how!" Mr. Tony said. "It's easy." He told us he was born in Italy, and his father has been making pizza for fifty years. "Doesn't your father get tired?" I asked. Nobody laughed even though I said something funny.

Mr. Tony showed us how to throw the pizza dough up in the air. We all got to help spread the sauce and the cheese on top of it. Then we put the pizza in the oven for like a million hundred minutes. When it was done, each of us got a slice. The pizza was great! In fact, it was more