CHAPTER 20

Every Thursday, Zoe and I would meet at McKelty’s Roll ’N’ Bowl to have a root beer and do some extra work on our Reading Gym project. Most Thursdays, Frankie and Ashley came along, too, and did their homework while we did ours.

One day, we were sitting at the usual booth in McKelty’s when Nick came up to us.

“Hey, Zipper Dork, I challenge you to a bowling duel,” he said. “Are you in the mood for losing?”

“I can’t right now, Nick,” I said. “I’m doing my schoolwork.”

“Come on. The loser buys the winner a root beer.”

“That doesn’t work,” I said. “There’s four of us and only one root beer, so let’s just forget it.”

He wasn’t letting me off the hook so easy.

“Tell you what,” McKelty said. “If I lose, which is not going to happen, I’ll buy all four of you root beers. If you lose, you buy me a root beer float, some red licorice, and a chunky chocolate bar.”

I figured that was a typical snack for him. One thing you could definitely say about Nick McKelty was that he had a giant sweet tooth.

Frankie got up from the booth and stretched to his full tall-bodied self.

“My pal Hank is busy right now, Nick, but it just so happens that I’ve finished my homework, so I’ll take you on,” he said.

McKelty’s face turned purple. It’s one thing to challenge me, Hank Zipzer, to a competition, but it’s a whole other deal to challenge Frankie Townsend. Frankie had been telling me how McKelty was always challenging everyone in their Tae Kwon Do class to a match—everyone but him, that is. McKelty’s the kind of guy that likes to pick on people weaker than him, but will never stand up to someone he thinks is better.

“Come to think of it, my thumb is kind of sore,” McKelty sputtered. “It’s probably best if I give it a rest.”

“Your thumb looks fine to me,” Frankie said. “Come on, dude. I could use a little exercise.”

Before McKelty had a chance to think of another lame excuse, all of us had scooted over to the first available lane and taken a seat at the score table. This bowling duel was going to be fun to watch.

Let me just say two things about what followed.

One: There were no orange swirly balls at this match, thank goodness.

Two: I really enjoyed that root beer afterward. It tasted especially sweet.