9. Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

9 Teamwork Makes the Dream Work As soon as my mother walked out the door, I grabbed the phone and called Ryan. "Get over to my house ASAP!" I shouted into the phone. "Bring the gang! It's an emergency!" Five minutes later, the doorbell rang. It was Ryan, Michael, Alexia, and Neil.

"What's up, dude?" Ryan asked. "Are you okay?" I told them about the auction and the thousand dollars I was going to get. "WOW," they all said, which is "MOM" upside down. "What are you gonna do with all that money?" asked Ryan. "I thought I might buy the Super Bowl," I said. "I don't think the Super Bowl is for sale, A.J.," Alexia told me. "Professor Armpit says everything has its price," I explained. "Listen, I've got a problem. I need you guys to help me make twenty more pieces of art, real fast." "I don't know anything about art," said Neil. "Neither do I!" I replied. "It doesn't matter! I need you to help me." I told them Professor Armpit said I could have a one-man art show and sell my dumb art for bazillions of dollars. "If

you guys help me, I'll split the money with you." "Cool!" everybody said. "So does anybody have an idea?" I asked. "Nope," said Michael. "Not me," said Alexia. "Don't look at me," said Neil. "Hey, have you got anything to eat in here?" Ryan asked. "I'm starved." Ryan is always starved. He'll eat anything. I told him to see what's in the

fridge. "Hurry up," I told Ryan as he opened the door. "My mom will be home soon." "There's a potato," Ryan said, reaching into the fridge, "and a cucumber..." "Hey," said Alexia. "What if A.J. nailed the potato to the cucumber?" "Why would he do that?" asked Neil. "So he can put it in a museum and call it art!" said Alexia. Hmmmmm. "You're a genius!" I shouted. "Those art nerds will fall for anything!" Alexia should get the Nobel Prize for that idea. That's a prize they give out to people who don't have bells. We went down the basement so I could get a hammer and nail the potato to the cucumber.

"There's all kinds of junk down here," said Michael. "Maybe you can make it into art." "Yeah, anything can be art," said Ryan. "Here's an old frying pan," said Neil. "And here's a kazoo," said Alexia. "Perfect!" I shouted, as I took a piece of string and tied the kazoo to the frying pan. "That's art!" The gang was really helpful, and we created lots of cool art. We glued a stapler

to a broken eggbeater. Then we attached a garden hoe to a plastic statue of Santa Claus. "I will call this Hoe Hoe Hoe!" I said. "You're a genius!" Ryan shouted. When we ran out of junk down in the basement, we went outside. The next day was garbage day, so I figured people would be throwing out lots of stuff we could use. "You can't go poking around in people's garbage cans, A.J.," Alexia told me. "It might even be illegal." She was probably right. Then I remembered that around the corner from my house there are some stores, and they always have a dumpster in the back. "Follow me!" I said. Michael, Ryan, and I climbed into the dumpster for stuff while Neil and Alexia stood guard.* "There's lots of great art in here!" said Michael as we rooted around in the dumpster.