7. A Present for My Sister

7 A Present for My Sister "Let's go to Candy Castle!" Ryan shouted as soon as we got out of the line. "Let's go to Cinnabon," shouted Michael. "Let's get ice cream!" said Neil the nude kid. "Let's go to the skateboard shop!" said Alexia. Malls are cool. There's so much stuff to see and do, especially around Christmastime. Our mall even has a train in it. We ran over to the train. It goes around and around in circles on metal tracks. At the ticket booth was an elf with a funny hat and

给妹妹的礼物“我们去糖果城堡吧！”我们一走出队伍，瑞安就喊道。 “我们去肉桂吧，”迈克尔喊道。 “我们去吃冰淇淋吧！”裸体小孩尼尔说。 “我们去滑板店吧！”亚历克西娅说。 购物中心很酷。有很多东西要看，要做，尤其是在圣诞节前后。 我们的商场里甚至还有一列火车。 我们跑向火车。它在金属轨道上一圈又一圈地转着。 售票处有个小精灵，戴着一顶滑稽的帽子

pointy ears, like on Star Trek. The elf turned around, and you'll never believe who it was. Mrs. Kormel, our bus driver! "Mrs. Kormel!" I shouted. "What are you doing here?" "Bingle boo!" she said. "I'm running the train... and earning a little extra money over the holidays." "Aren't you a little tall to be an elf?" asked Alexia. "Elves come in all sizes," Mrs. Kormel told us. "All aboard! Toot toot!" That train ride looked lame, so we didn't get on. Any train that needs an elf to toot for it must be lame.

尖尖的耳朵，就像《星际迷航》里那样。 精灵转过身来，你绝对不会相信是谁。 Kormel夫人，我们的巴士司机！“夫人。 Kormel !”我叫道。“你在这儿干什么？”“嘭！”她说。 “我在开火车……还能在假期赚点外快。” “作为一个精灵，你是不是有点高了？”阿丽克西娅问。 “精灵有各种各样的尺寸，”科尔梅尔太太告诉我们。 “都上!炫耀炫耀!”那趟火车看起来很蹩脚，所以我们没上车。 任何需要精灵来吹笛的火车都是蹩脚的。

We ran over to the escalator. Escalators are cooler than trains, and you don't need tickets to ride them. My friend Billy, who lives around the corner, told me that if you run down an up escalator for ten seconds,

我们跑向自动扶梯。 自动扶梯比火车更酷，而且你不需要买票。 我的朋友比利住在街角，他告诉我，如果你从扶梯上跑下来十秒钟，

you'll travel back in time.* Neil said he had to go to the bathroom, so we went over to the men's room and waited for him to finish. That's when I remembered that my mom gave me money to buy a present for my sister. I didn't know what to get her. What do you get for an annoying sister? "You're a girl," I said to Alexia. "What do you think my sister would like? Perfume? Jewelry?" "Why don't you get her a new skateboard?" suggested Alexia. "That's what I want." A skateboard! "My sister doesn't even know how to ride a skateboard," I told Alexia. "Why would she want that?" "No, that's a great idea, A.J.!" said Ryan. "Buy your sister a skateboard. Then when

你会回到过去。*尼尔说他要去洗手间，所以我们去男洗手间等他说完。 这时我想起我妈妈给了我钱给我妹妹买礼物。 我不知道该送她什么。 有个烦人的妹妹你能得到什么？ “你是个女孩，”我对亚历克西娅说。 “你觉得我妹妹会喜欢什么？” 香水吗?珠宝?”“你为什么不给她买个新的滑板呢？”亚历克西娅建议道。 “这就是我想要的。”一个滑板!“我妹妹甚至都不会玩滑板，”我告诉亚历克西娅。 “她为什么要这样？”“不，这是个好主意，A.J.!”瑞恩说。 “给你妹妹买个滑板。 当

she doesn't use it, the skateboard is yours." "That's genius!" I said. Alexia and Ryan should be in the gifted and talented program. Neil came out of the bathroom. We were about to go over to the skateboard shop to buy my sister's present when the most amazing thing in the history of the world happened. It started with a noise—a high-pitched screech. At first it was far away. Then it got louder. And louder. There was the thunder of feet. They were getting closer. And closer. Then there was screaming! Then we saw a bunch of girls running in our direction. There must have been five hundred of them.

如果她不用，滑板就是你的了。” “这是天才!”我说。亚历克西娅和瑞恩应该在天才班。 尼尔从浴室里出来。 我们正要去滑板店给我妹妹买礼物的时候，世界上最神奇的事情发生了。 一切开始于一种噪音——一种尖锐的尖叫声。 起初它很遥远。然后声音更大了。 和响亮。传来了雷鸣般的脚步声。 他们越来越近了。越来越近。 然后是尖叫声！然后我们看到一群女孩朝我们的方向跑过来。 他们大概有五百人。

"EEEEEEEEK!" one of them screamed. "I think I see Cray-Z!" "I love you, Cray-Z!" Cray-Z was running right at us, and he was being chased by a thundering herd of screaming girls. "In here!" I yelled to him. "Follow me!" Ryan, Michael, Neil, and Alexia formed a human wall to stop the girls. I hustled Cray-Z into the men's bathroom. He was gasping for breath. I thought he was gonna die. He put his hand on my shoulder and looked me in the eye. "You gotta help me, dude," he said. "Those girls are nuts!"

“eeeeeeek !”其中一个尖叫道。 “我想我看到了克雷- z !”“我爱你，克雷z !”克雷- z正朝我们冲过来，他被一群尖叫的女孩追着。 “在这里!”我对他喊道。 “跟我来!”瑞安、迈克尔、尼尔和亚历克西亚组成了一道人墙来阻止女孩们。 我把克雷兹推到男厕所。 他喘不过气来。 我以为他要死了。 他把手放在我的肩膀上，看着我的眼睛。 “你得帮帮我，伙计，”他说。 “那些女孩都疯了！”