CHAPTER 3

FRIENDS

I read on my beanbag until my father came into my room and told me to turn off my light. He then repeated the same words he quoted every night.

I kept reading under my blanket with a flashlight until my mom came into my room and shared her own saying …

I then secretly read with the help of a glow stick and two blankets. It was really warm under those blankets and somewhere after midnight, my eyelids grew so heavy I could barely keep them open.

When I woke up the next morning, I realized that I had read over half of The Sorcerer’s Stone. I guess caring for Wonkenstein had helped make me a much faster reader. Of course, it helped that the book I was reading was really good. It was way better than the movie. Also, I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, and I really don’t want to freak anybody out, but there are parts of the book that aren’t even in the movie. I sort of feel like I should call the author and tell her.

My guess is she probably already knows that so I’ve decided to hold off on calling her. I stretched and looked around my room. I couldn’t see Hairy right off, but I could smell something.

Hairy had slipped down and under my bed. I pulled him out and put him on my pillow.

I got dressed for the day and then spent a couple seconds just looking at him. He was still not moving, and he was staring into space as if in a trance. I’m not a doctor or a hypnotist, so I don’t know much about trances. I do remember seeing a movie a few years ago about a person who was under a spell. I also remembered that the only way they got the person out of her spell was to sing to her about love. I couldn’t think of anything else to try, so I cleared my throat and gave it a go.

It was embarrassing, but I thought I saw one of Hairy’s fingers twitch, so I kept going. I was just about to sing a second verse when someone knocked on my window and interrupted my performance.

I turned around and saw my friends’ faces pushed up against the glass. I stopped singing and tried to make it look like I had been burping instead. I think they bought it.

My friends usually come in through my window instead of using our front door. It makes my mom mad. I figure I’m just doing her a favor by not having my friends ring the doorbell and traipse in dirt and other junk.

I shoved Hairy under my covers and opened the window. The second it was open, my friends came crashing in. They all started speaking at once.

Jack had told all of them about my Potterwookiee, and now they wanted to see if it was true. I tried to explain that Jack didn’t know what he was talking about as Jack began sniffing around.

Jack howled and pointed toward my bed. They all began to tear through my blankets like a pack of wild dogs.

Jack set Hairy on the bed as everyone huddled around to get a closer look. Poor Hairy just lay there stiffly. I was actually kind of worried about him until his left eye closed and opened in a slow wink. Nobody else noticed because they were too busy making fun of me for sleeping with a stuffed animal. At first their taunting didn’t bother me. Then they figured they might as well make fun of me for other things as well.

Apparently I was really easy to tease. They were wrong about one thing, though. Hairy was not a stuffed animal. Sure, I admit I like Average Chef, but that’s because it involves food and TV, two of my favorite things. As for Thumb Buddies, none of my friends had any idea that I still collected them.

Thumb Buddies are my secret obsession. They were popular years ago. Then they stopped making them due to too many kids getting poked. Also, some parenting magazine called them “the worst idea for a toy ever!” I disagree. I love how small and detailed they are. I used to openly collect them, and now I have to secretly collect them through eBay and Thumb Buddies conventions. My friends would make fun of me forever if they knew what was in the bottom drawer of my dresser.

I scooted over and stood in front of my dresser, just to be safe. My friends weren’t interested in my drawer. They were just annoyed with Jack for bringing them over to see a stuffed animal. Teddy punched Jack in the arm and called him a couple of names as they all turned to head back out of my window. I would have been safe, had Rourk not decided to open his dumb mouth.

Rourk is one of our friends, but he rarely makes things better when he talks. He likes to act tough, talk loud, and sometimes even swear. Of course, it isn’t real swearing. He just repeats what he thinks he heard his older brother say. He usually hears it wrong in the first place, so his swear words don’t make much sense.

My mom never lets me have sleepovers at Rourk’s house, and I’m fine with that. Last time Aaron stayed at Rourk’s, he had to sleep on the floor, and Rourk’s older brother shaved the side of his head and stole his pants.

Now as my friends were getting ready to leave, Rourk decided to open his bothersome mouth and say …

I grabbed Hairy and backed away. I tried to reason with them, but they had only one thing on their minds. It looked like Hairy was headed for a bit of trouble.