10. The Truth about Pee Air

10 The Truth about Pee Air Bummer in the summer! Pee Air had beaten me fair and square at thumb wrestling. I thought I was gonna die. Everybody was hooting and hollering. My hand hurt. This was the worst thing to happen since National Poetry Month! I wanted to run away to Antarctica and go live with the penguins. "Nice try, dude," said Ryan, putting his arm around me. "You gave it your best

shot." Michael gave me a thumbs-up, but then he must have realized that was a dumb thing to do, considering that I had just lost the thumb war. "Hey, we should take A.J. out to the I Scream Shop," Michael said. "Maybe that will make him feel better." Ice cream! All right! Michael should be in the gifted and talented program for coming up with that idea. We walked a million hundred miles to the I Scream Shop. And when we opened the door, you'll never believe who we saw in there. I'm not going to tell you. Okay, okay, I'll tell you. It was Pee Air! But you'll never believe who was with him. I'm not going to tell you.

Okay, okay, I'll tell you. It was Alexia! And they were both sitting at the same table! They had skateboards with them. That must have been how they got to the I Scream Shop before we did. "Alexia!" I said. "What are you doing here with Pee Air?" "Eating ice cream," she said. "What does it look like I'm doing here?" "I invited Alexia... to join me to celebrate... my thumb war victory," said Pee Air. Wow! So Andrea wasn't Pee Air's special valentine after all! Maybe Alexia was Pee Air's special valentine. Or maybe Andrea was Pee Air's special valentine, but he was secretly going out for ice cream with Alexia behind Andrea's back. Or maybe Alexia was Pee Air's special valentine, but he was secretly

going out for ice cream with Andrea behind Alexia's back. Valentine's Day was complicated. And it was about to get even more complicated. Because you'll never believe who came into the I Scream Shop at that moment.

I'm not going to tell you. Okay, okay, I'll tell you. It was Andrea and Emily! Andrea was holding the special valentine that Pee Air had given her. Andrea looked at Pee Air. Pee Air looked at Andrea. "Pee Air!" shouted Andrea. "Andrea!" shouted Pee Air. "What are you doing here with Alexia?" asked Andrea. "Yeah," said Emily. "What are you doing here with Alexia?" "They're eating ice cream," I said. "What does it look like they're doing?" "I... I... I..." Pee Air didn't know what to say, at least not in English. "Pee Air!" said Andrea. "You said I was your special valentine!" "Yeah," said Emily. "You said Andrea

was your special valentine!" Andrea looked like she was going to cry. Pee Air looked like he wanted to be anywhere else in the world. He didn't know what to say. He didn't know what to do. He had to think fast. "In France, all the girls are special on Valentine's Day," he finally told Andrea.