5. Agree to Disagree

5 Agree to Disagree When we woke up the next morning, I could smell the yummy smell of waffles cooking. I love waffles! Arlo and I ran downstairs. We got to pour the batter. When you help make the waffles, it makes them taste even yummier. "You kids go play," my mom told us after we finished. "A.J.'s mom and I will have coffee."

Grown-ups sure love coffee. They drink it all the time. At school one day the coffee machine broke down, and the teachers were walking around like zombies because they didn't have their morning coffee. I tasted coffee once. It was yucky. But when I'm a grown-up, I'll force myself to drink it, because that's the rule. I always follow the rules. "What do you want to play?" I asked Arlo. "I don't know," he said. "What do you want to play?" "Too bad we can't start working on our homework to get a jump on it," I told Arlo. "I know! We can finish our summer reading!"

"WHAT?!" Arlo exclaimed. "It's summer! I

hate reading! We have to read all year long. I don't even like reading street signs during the summer. They should have summer not reading." "Do you want to play dress-up?" I asked Arlo. (I love playing dress-up!) "No!" I realized that Arlo was just going to say no to anything I suggested. Because that's what boys do. So I came up with a plan to make him say yes. "Do you want to play with my Barbies?" I asked. "No!" Arlo replied. "Boys don't play with Barbies." "That's just what grown-ups tell you," I said to Arlo. "Are you going to let a bunch of grown-ups tell you what you can or can't do? That doesn't sound like you, Arlo. A man like you makes up your own mind,

right?" I was using psychology to get Arlo to play with my Barbies. My mom taught me how to do that. She's really smart because she went to Harvard. "Okay, okay," Arlo agreed. "Get out your dumb Barbies." "Yay!" I got my Barbie collection out of my closet. I have Ice Capades Barbie, Angel Princess Barbie, and Halloween Glow Barbie (with a glow-in-the-dark hair extension). "Can we cut their heads off?" Arlo asked. "Of course not!" I said. "Can we go outside and melt their faces with a magnifying glass?" Arlo asked. "Absolutely not!" "Can we throw them out the window and see what happens when they hit the ground?" Arlo asked.

"No!" "Then I don't want to play with your Barbies." "That's not fair!" I told Arlo. "You said you'd play with them." "Cutting their heads off, melting their faces, and throwing them out the window is playing with them," Arlo said. "It is not!" "It is too." "I'll tell you what," I told Arlo. "Let's agree to disagree."