When it was recess time, Josh, Jessie, and I ran outside to meet Robbie on the playground.

“Race you to the big tree,” said Jessie. “Ready, set, go!”

The three of us took off running. Josh started out in the lead, but Jessie sprinted past him. Josh tried to catch up to her, but he couldn’t. Jessie reached the tree first.

“You … are … so … fast … Jessie,” Josh said, panting.

“She’s the fastest kid in the whole school,” I said.

“No I’m not,” Jessie said, laughing.

“Well, you’re really, really fast,” I said. “I’m pretty sure you could beat most of the fifth graders.”

Robbie came jogging up. “Hey, guys,” he said.

“Hey, what’s up?” we all said.

“You guys ready to go look for worms?”

“Yes!” said Josh, pumping his fist in the air. “The bigger, the better!”

“A big, fat, juicy worm is the best kind,” Jessie said, grinning.

“Where do you think we should go look?” I asked Robbie.

“Let’s go check out that mud puddle over near the slide. I think we might find a lot of worms in there.”

We all ran over to the mud and got down on our hands and knees.

“I think we might have to dig around in the mud a little bit to find them,” said Robbie. “Sometimes they like to hide.”

We started digging through the mud. It was cool, and squishy, and gooey. “This is great mud for making mud pies!” I said, letting the mud ooze through my fingers.

“I love playing in the mud,” said Josh. “It’s so much fun!”

“Found any worms yet?” asked Robbie.

“Not yet!” I said.

“Me either,” said Josh.

“I found one! I found one!” Jessie shouted.

Just then Chloe slid down the slide and came running over to us. “What did you find, Jessie?” she asked excitedly. “Did you find a jewel?”

“A jewel?” Josh whispered to me. “Where does she think we’re digging, ancient Egypt?”

I laughed.

“No! I didn’t find a jewel. I found this,” Jessie said, dangling the huge, slimy worm in Chloe’s face.

“EEEWWW! EEEWWW! EEEWWW!” Chloe screamed and flapped her arms around wildly in the air. “Get that thing away from me! Get it away!”

Jessie put the worm in the palm of her hand. “But it’s so cute.”

“Cute! Cute? It is not cute!” Chloe shouted. “It is DIS-GUS-TING!”

“No it’s not,” said Jessie, bringing the worm up close to her own face, as if she were about to kiss it.

“Yes it is,” said Chloe. “It’s dirty and disgusting, and it has germs. Lots and lots of germs!”

“So you don’t want to hold it?” Jessie teased.

“No I don’t! I’m going to play somewhere else!” said Chloe, and she turned around and marched off.

“Little worm, say bye-bye to Chloe,” said Jessie.

“That girl is unbelievable,” said Josh. “But at least now I know that if I want to get rid of her, all I have to do is show her a worm!”

I chuckled. “We’ll have to remember that for April Fools’ Day.”

“Good idea,” said Josh. “Maybe we could put a gummy worm in her sandwich. That would really freak her out!”

“I can picture it now,” I said. “She’d be jumping around and screaming, ‘Help! Help! I ate a worm. Call 911! Call 911!’”

“HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!” Josh and I laughed hysterically.

“Hey, guys, I got one!” Robbie yelled. “Come look!”

“Wow! That one is ginormous!” I said. “I think it might be bigger than Jessie’s worm.”

“Let me see,” said Jessie. “I don’t know. Mine might be bigger.”

“Why don’t you hold the two of them next to each other, so you can compare their size,” Josh suggested.

“Good idea,” said Robbie. “Jessie, you hold yours up right next to mine, so we can measure.”

They held up their worms.

“It’s close,” I said. “But I think Robbie’s worm is bigger.”

Then I heard a familiar voice. “What are you babies doing?”

It was Max.

“I thought you were playing tag,” said Josh.

“I was, but I got bored, so I came over here to see what you wimps were doing.”

“We’re looking for worms,” said Josh.

“Did you find any?” asked Max.

“Yeah. I found one and Robbie found one,” said Jessie.

“Can I see them?” said Max.

Robbie and Jessie held out their worms for Max to see. He grabbed the worms out of their hands.

“Hey, give those back! Those are ours,” Jessie said.

“Not anymore,” Max said, grinning. “Now they’re mine.” And he ran off with the worms.

“I can’t believe he just did that,” I said.

“He’s such a bully,” said Josh.

“I really wanted to bring my worm inside and show it to Miss Clark,” said Jessie. “I think she would have thought it was cool.”

“Hey,” said Robbie. “Did Miss Clark tell your class about the Second Grade Spelling Bee?”

“Yeah, she told us about it this morning,” I said.

“Isn’t that so cool?” said Robbie excitedly. “I’ve always wanted to be in a Spelling Bee.”

“I know,” said Jessie. “Me too! I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

“It is going to be a lot of work,” said Robbie. “Did you see how many words are on the list they gave us to study?”

“How many?” I asked.

“One hundred,” said Jessie.

“One hundred?” said Josh. “No way!”

Jessie nodded her head. “Yep. One hundred words.”

“That’s a lot of words,” said Josh. “I don’t think I can learn that many.”

“Of course you can,” said Robbie. “You just need to work hard and study the words every night. Right, Freddy?”

“Well, I won’t have to study too much,” I said.

“Why not?” asked Jessie. “Do you have some kind of superpowers?”

“No, I don’t have superpowers,” I said, laughing. “But I do have my lucky shark’s tooth.”

“You can’t just depend on that,” said Robbie.

“Yes, I can,” I said. “It always brings me good luck.”

“What happens if you lose it?” Josh asked. “You know I have a lucky shark’s tooth, too, and one time I lost mine. I couldn’t find it for a week!”

“I don’t have to worry about that. I never lose mine,” I said, patting my pocket. “It’s always right here.”