8 Missing

CHAPTER 8 Missing In my first book, I made a list of my favorite things. Well, cleaning up is definitely NOT one of my favorite things. It's one of my least favorite things, the same as throwing up and wishes not coming true. It's hard to keep things neat all the time. Like on my desk, I have my stories, plus pieces of papers with ideas on them for more stories I want to write one day. You can't throw away ideas. What if you forget them later on?

第八章 失踪。在我的第一本书里，我列了一张我最喜欢的东西的清单。 不过，打扫整理绝对不属于我最喜欢的事之一。 它是我最讨厌的事之一，和呕吐、愿望落空一样讨厌。 要一直把东西收拾得整整齐齐真的很难。 就说我的书桌吧，上面放着我写的故事，还有好多写着灵感的碎纸，都是我想以后写更多故事用的。 你可不能把灵感丢掉呀。 万一你之后把它们忘了怎么办呢？

But I knew my punishment was to clean up so I put all the papers together and tried to make the pile look extra neat. When Mom makes a pile, she picks all the papers up together and shuffles them so the edges match up. It's harder to do than it looks. I have lots of pens too. I started testing out the pens so I could throw away the ones that didn't work. I took a new fresh piece of paper and made a mark on it with every pen. If the pen worked, I saved it. If it didn't work, then I threw it away. Here's a good trick I know: If you shake a pen really hard, you can sometimes get more ink to come out. So then you can keep it. At the end, I only had to throw away two markers and one ballpoint pen. Also I decided to save the piece of paper with all the marks on it because it looked kind of like a rainbow.

但我知道惩罚就是打扫，所以我把所有纸归到一起，尽力把纸堆摆得格外整齐。 妈妈堆纸的时候，会把所有纸收起来整理好，让每张纸的边缘都对齐。 这事看着容易，做起来可难了。 我还有好多钢笔呢。 我开始试笔，打算把写不出来的扔掉。 我拿出一张崭新的纸，用每支笔都画了一下。 能出墨的笔，我就留下来。 写不出墨的，我就把它扔掉。 我知道一个好用的小窍门：要是你用力猛晃钢笔，有时候就能再出墨水了。 这样你就能接着用它了。 最后，我只扔掉了两支马克笔和一支圆珠笔。 我还决定留下那张画满印记的纸，因为它看起来有点像彩虹。

I put it on the top of the pile with my stories. There were other things in my desk that I definitely had to keep, like my dad's old gym membership card. It looks like a credit card, which is kind of like money. Mom wouldn't want me to throw money away. I put it in the top drawer, next to my Play-Doh turtle. I have one, and Willa has one. We made them a couple months ago. When we were done, we decided not to smash them up and put the Play-Doh back in the can. Instead, we left the turtles on my desk to dry out and now they're as hard as gobstopper candy. Willa brought her turtle home. It's sitting on the bookshelf in her room. But soon everything in her room will be packed up and moved to Pennsylvania.

我把它放在那堆故事纸的最上面。 我的书桌里还有别的必须留下的东西，比如爸爸旧的健身会员卡。 它长得像信用卡，差不多就跟钱一样。 妈妈肯定不会让我把钱扔掉的。 我把它放进最上层抽屉，摆在我的彩泥乌龟旁边。 我有一只，薇拉也有一只。 我们几个月前一起做的它们。 做完之后，我们决定不砸碎它们把彩泥装回盒子里。 我们反而把乌龟留在书桌上风干，现在它们硬得跟糖球一样。 薇拉把她的乌龟带回家了。 它现在摆在她房间的书架上。 但很快她房间里所有东西都会打包，搬去宾夕法尼亚州了。

Then I started thinking about Willa again. It made me too sad to do any more cleaning up. Willa is the nicest girl I ever met. I'm not just saying that because she's my best friend. Everybody says so. Just last week it was Arielle's birthday and she brought cupcakes to school. This boy in our class named Clark dropped his cupcake and Mrs. Finkel made him throw

接着我又想起了薇拉。 这让我太难过了，根本没法接着打扫。 薇拉是我遇见过最善良的女孩。 我不只是因为她是我好朋友才这么说。 所有人都这么说。 就在上周，艾丽尔过生日，她带了纸杯蛋糕去学校。 我们班一个叫克拉克的男孩掉了自己的纸杯蛋糕，芬克尔老师让他把

it away, even though the floor isn't that dirty. There weren't any extra cupcakes left over so he wasn't going to get one, but Willa said she would cut hers in half and share it with Clark. She even let him have the big half. See, that's how nice Willa is. When she gets to Pennsylvania, everyone in her new school will want to be her best friend. But I won't have one anymore. I just couldn't believe she was actually going to move away. She's been my best friend since the whole time we've been in school. I'm going to miss her so much! SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There aren't enough letters in the whole entire world to show how much I will. Or enough exclamation points. But I didn't even get to keep thinking about Willa because suddenly I heard Penny

它扔掉，哪怕地板其实没那么脏。 当时没有多余的纸杯蛋糕了，克拉克本来吃不上，可薇拉说她会把自己的切成两半分给克拉克。 她还把更大的那半给了克拉克。 你看，薇拉就是这么善良。 等她到了宾夕法尼亚州，新学校的所有人都会想当她最好的朋友。 可我就再也没有好朋友了。 我真不敢相信她真的要搬走了。 从上学开始，她就一直是我最好的朋友。 我会超级想她的！ 超——————级想!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 哪怕把全世界所有字母都用上，也说不出我到底有多想念她。 用多少感叹号都不够。 可我还没来得及接着想薇拉，突然我就听到佩妮