Chapter 16

“Very good, Bryce,” Mrs. Ferguson said after I read my story. I don’t like writing as much as Ashley does, but I love getting up in front of the class.

Ashton was next. He wrote about his pet ferret Freddy, which in real life had been run over by his older brother. I was there when it happened. Ashton tried to revive the poor thing, but it’s hard to give a ferret CPR. We buried him in Ashton’s backyard and put a cross over the little grave with an inscription, “Here lies Freddy, a faithful ferret.” Ashton said it was good alliteration.

In his story, the ferret grew up to become president of “Ferretica” and was interviewed by Larry King. Everybody laughed at the wild things Freddy did, but I could tell Ashton still missed the animal.

“Very nice fantasy, Ashton,” Mrs. Ferguson said. “It fits with what I asked you to do.”

“Fantasy?” Ashton said.

“Well, let’s face it—it pushes the boundaries of believability.”

Ashton trudged back to his seat. “It could happen.”

Next up was Jeff Alexander. Adults call him “inspiring” because he’s fighting cancer, but I just call him my friend. Last year he looked like any other kid in sixth grade. Now he has only a little hair, has to have someone help him carry his books to class, and is a lot thinner. A couple of years ago his doctors found some kind of tumor, and he went through chemotherapy and surgeries and stuff.

But all these things just make it more fun to hear him talk, because he has a great sense of humor. His diary is published every month in the school newspaper. He talks about what it’s like to have cancer, but somehow every one of his columns makes you laugh.

His story was titled “The Day I Found My Hair.” Instead of going through chemotherapy and losing his hair, his story was about a day he had chemo and grew more hair than he could handle.

By the end of the story, he had grown so much hair that he had to shave his body every day, and he used the extra to power all of Colorado for one year. “I not only became a handsome spokesman for the Hair-Energy Commission, but I also provided the electricity for everyone’s hair dryers!”

I slapped Jeff a high five as he sat down next to me and I was laughing so hard that I didn’t realize Ashley was at the front of the class.