DAY 6: TUESDAY

Sleeping with a cat on my head was pretty much a picnic compared to what happened at school Monday night.

I woke up this afternoon with an itchy rash on my forehead, thanks to Moo—not to mention all that scratching. Mom made me rub some coal tar lotion on the rash. Then she reminded me to take Sticky with me to school. My pet squid? I had no idea what she was talking about.

Mom said my sister told her it was "Take Your Squid to School Day."

I know that sounds crazy. At least, I know it NOW. But after my sleepover at Sam's, I was feeling pretty good about Sticky.

Sticky doesn't try to rub up against me. Sticky doesn't ever sleep on my head or give me a rash. Sticky just floats around in his aquarium, staring at me with his sleepy little eyes.

So I was perfectly happy to bring Sticky to school and show him off. After all, I have the best squid around. And maybe he'd take some of the attention off me and my itchy head. I grabbed the travel aquarium, and Sticky and I set off for school.

But when I got there, NO ONE ELSE was carrying an aquarium. And everyone was like, "What's with the squid, Itchy?"

Even Eddy Enderman stared at me and Sticky. Normally, that would have been pretty cool. But carrying my pet squid on a day that wasn't "Take Your Squid to School Day" was NOT cool.

I ended up carrying Sticky from class to class.

Everyone was laughing at me behind my back—and sometimes right in front of my face. But what was I supposed to do? I wasn't going to stuff Sticky in my locker.

Then, when I was leaning over to check on him in the hall, Bones grabbed my lunch right out of my backpack. So to top things off, I was going to starve to death before the night's end. With my squid by my side.

At first, I was mad at Mom. I thought maybe she'd mixed up her days—that all those brussels sprouts were starting to go to her head.

But then when I got to history class, it all started to make sense. History is the only class that my Evil Twin and I have together. We sit as far apart as we can. She took a seat in the back right corner, so I sat in the front left corner.

But as soon as I sat down and put Sticky on my desk, my Evil Twin burst out laughing. Then I knew. This was no mix-up. This was just another evil plot.

I felt my insides start to bubble, like a pot of mushroom stew. If I didn't get control of myself, I'd start hissing—right there in class!

Sam could tell something was up, and he must have told Mrs. Enderwoman. She started class early and said she had something REALLY interesting to talk about. She looked right at me when she said that, which freaked me out.

Usually, Mrs. Enderwoman teaches us about the history of the Overworld. But today, she said we were starting a different kind of history project.

Mrs. Enderwoman said we were going to learn about the history of our families. "Genealogy," she called it. She wanted each one of us to choose a family member from the past to write a report on.

I wished she would quit using the word "family," because that got me thinking about my Evil Twin all over again.

And the stress of it all made my head itch.

I started rubbing my itchy forehead back and forth against Sticky's ice-cold tank. I stared at Sticky. He stared right back. We were kind of in this thing together, Sticky and I.

Unfortunately, Mrs. Enderwoman thought I was shaking my head no. "Gerald, do you have a problem with this assignment?" she asked. GREAT.

I told her no and tried to sit still, even though my rash itched so much, I wanted to crawl right out of my skin.

The only good news was that Mrs. Enderwoman said our genealogy project wasn't due until the end of the month. That's ages from now, so I'm just going to put it out of my mind. I have way more important things to do before then.

Like STOP ITCHING. And figure out how to get back at my Evil Twin for humiliating me. But how does a pacifist get revenge? Too bad they don't teach you THOSE kinds of things at school.

After History class, I stopped by the vending machine to get some pork chops, because it had already been a rough day, and I figured I deserved them.

The machine actually took my emeralds. Woo-hoo!

But it spit out an apple instead of pork chops. SERIOUSLY?

I was staring at that measly apple when Ziggy Zombie caught up with me. Even if I'd seen him coming, I wouldn't have stood a chance. How's a creeper supposed to run when he's carrying an aquarium?

The first thing Ziggy noticed was the rash on my head. "Are those blisters?" he asked in a really loud and excited voice. He reached out his hand like he wanted to TOUCH my rash. Man, that zombie is disgusting.

I shoved Sticky in between us, and that did the trick. Ziggy pressed his green face up to the glass.

"Um, we gotta get to lunch," I told Ziggy. And for some reason, he took that as an invitation to come with me.

Sam sat with us, too—I was glad about that. But he was WAY too friendly with Ziggy. I kept trying to catch his eye and tell him to take it down a notch. We didn't want Ziggy thinking he could sit with us EVERY day. But Sam didn't take the hint.

When Ziggy starting eating some sort of flesh sandwich, it totally grossed me out. I got up and threw away my apple. Even Sticky spun around in his aquarium and looked the other way.

But Sam didn't seem to notice. He kept stuffing his green cheeks with cookies and blabbed on and on about who knows what.

When Ziggy asked what my squid's name was, Sam answered for me. He said, "Sticky" and blew cookie crumbs all over the table.

Well that did it. The skeletons behind us started singing a song.

They made kissy noises and laughed their bony butts off.

How old were those mobs anyway? I felt like I was right back in Creeper Elementary.

I decided to duck out of lunch early. The Art classroom would be open by now. And Sam had finally stopped talking to Ziggy.

But I must have said Sam's name three times before he heard me. He was staring at the other end of the table. When I looked in that direction, I figured out why. Willow Witch was sitting there with some eighth-grade girls.

What's up with Sam and that witch? Did she use a potion on him or what? I decided right there and then that it's time to ditch the witch and the zombie.

So "Take Your Squid to School Day" started out bad and got even worse. Guess that's Mondays for you. I couldn't WAIT for that school night to end.