8. Arguing with Arlo

8 Arguing with Ar10 We spent a long time going up and down every aisle at Staples. Our cart was almost filled to the top. These are some of the things I picked out.... a box of crayons (with a built-in crayon sharpener!). a new cork bulletin board for my room. a school year calendar

.a bunch of Book Sox (They're like socks for your books!). a lunch box with Cray-Z on it (He's my favorite singer.). a bottle of hand sanitizer (because I don't want to get everybody else's germs). two-pocket folders with pictures of kittens on them (I almost picked the ones with bunnies, but the kittens were cuter.). erasers (but I don't need many of those because I hardly ever make mistakes). a name badge (so it will be easier for everybody to remember my name on the first day of school). a notepad in the shape of a cupcake (It's adorable!). a plastic organizer for my desk drawer (I love organizing things. It's fun to put different school supplies into

separate containers.). a new backpack. a tape dispenser (in the shape of a high-heeled shoe!). oh, and a box of staples (I couldn't forget them!) "Look, Arlo!" I said. "They even sell laminating sheets! We can laminate things at home. Isn't that exciting?" "This place is a snoozefest," said Arlo. "Can we get out of here now?" Boys just don't understand shopping. We found our moms, and they paid for the school supplies. When we got home, Arlo parked himself in front of the TV (of course). I went to my room to organize my things.

First I removed all the tags from the clothes I bought and hung the clothes neatly in my closet. I organized the outfits in the order of which one I would wear on each day of the week for the first two weeks of school. Next I lined up all my school supplies in

alphabetical order. (Lining things up is fun.) Then I put all the school supplies into separate containers and stuck labels on them so I would know what was inside each one. I was all ready for the first day of school. My new clothes were hanging up. My school supplies were ready to go. My bedroom was neat and clean. I even looked up a bunch of words in the dictionary just in case I would need to know those words for the new school year. There wasn't anything else to do except sit around and wait for school to start. I went downstairs. Arlo was in the living room playing video games. "Is that all you ever do?" I asked him. "Watch TV and play video games?" "I like watching TV and playing video games," he said. "It's fun. Your problem is,

you don't know how to have fun." "I do too!" I told him. "I have lots of fun." "Yeah, you have fun organizing your school supplies." (Actually, I do have fun organizing my school supplies. But I didn't want to admit that.) I was tired of arguing with Arlo all the time. I went into the kitchen, where my mom and Arlo's mom were drinking coffee (of course) and whispering to each other. They stopped whispering when they saw me. "What are you whispering about?" asked them. "Oh, nothing," they said really quickly. "I'm bored," I told them. "Why don't you and A.J. go out to play?" said Arlo's mom. "What?!" Arlo yelled from the living