Chapter 17

I jump out of the tree.

Now before you think I’m a terrible friend, Billy would want me to be safe. And I’m always doing what Billy wants. That’s the kind of friend I am.

I make yet another amazing superhero landing on the ground. Glancing back up the tree, I’m surprised that Billy and Triple-H aren’t even looking at me. They don’t applaud or anything. (So rude!) But Billy has stopped laughing.

I realize that he’s once again frozen with fear. HHH rubs his forehead and examines the rope I threw at him. I know I’ll need to think quickly in order to save my friend.

Several options pop into my head. I can see the end of the rope lying on the ground. Since HHH is holding the other end of the rope, I could try yanking the giant beast out of the tree.

Of course, that would put HHH on the ground with me. I decide to call that Plan Z. I figure I can come up with twenty-five other plans that are safer for all of us. I look around and realize that Mr. Polvado is a genius.

While he secured and leveled the floor of the tree house, he had me and Billy gather twenty-eight large rocks. He obviously wanted us to use those to protect ourselves in the event of an attack.

But there’s a problem. These rocks are too big for one kid to throw. I decide to make “rock attack” Plan Y.

I start to work on Plan X when someone shouts in my ear: “Let’s get out of here!”

It’s Billy! Evidently Plan A was for him to jump out of the tree and land behind me. I would have eventually come up with that plan if Billy had been a little more patient.

Billy is safe and one wall is complete, I figure. That’s good enough for one day, so we sprint to my house and collapse in the yard.

As we catch our breath, Billy turns to me and asks, “Hey, did you see my superhero landing?”

I laugh. “No way! I did a superhero landing too.”

✽

After we enjoy some refreshing lemonade, Billy heads home to get ready for Jackson’s birthday sleepover. We’re both invited to his house tonight.

Jackson is a good friend to have if you need to calm down or kick-start a yawn. I’ll give you an example: Let’s say you’re laughing uncontrollably in the back of class because Billy got an eraser stuck in his nose. Jackson, not laughing at all, would calmly say, “Just close one nostril and blow out of the other one. Now let’s get back to our homework.”

In other words, Jackson is sort of boring. But I still like him—at least when he’s not correcting my grammar. Besides playing chess, correcting people’s grammar is Jackson’s favorite thing to do. This makes me wonder why Jackson likes hanging out with me. (Aftr all, I rarly make mistates.)

Glasses McQueen’s house is on the way to Jackson’s place. Before the sleepover, I swing by the McQueen home so we can ride our bikes over there together.

Glasses and I have been friends since third grade, when he first walked into class wearing a huge pair of—you guessed it—glasses. The lenses were so thick I remember thinking he could look at a map and see people waving at him. I didn’t say that, of course. Unfortunately, another kid instantly made fun of him.

“Nice glasses,” the kid said. “Do you have to hire a window washer to clean them?”

“That’s funny,” Glasses replied, “but I have to wear these until my adult super vision kicks in. Besides, these glasses have changed my life. Before I got these, life was just a blur.”

Everyone laughed—everyone except the kid who made fun of him. I liked Glasses right away. He even told us we could call him “Glasses McQueen.” I thought the nickname made him sound like a superhero.

Anyway, Glasses comes out of his house to meet me and gives me the biggest shock of the day—even bigger than coming face-to-fang with Triple-H.

“You forgot your glasses!” I say.

“I don’t need them anymore,” Glasses says. “I got contacts!”

I’m super excited for him, but I need to ask one tiny follow-up question.

“What are contacts?”

“They’re small invisible lenses you put over your eyeballs that help you see better.”

I quickly change the subject. The thought of touching my eyeball makes me concerned that I won’t be hungry for birthday cake at Jackson’s house. And Jackson’s mom makes the best cakes.

Glasses—maybe I’ll start calling him Contacts McQueen—and I ride our bikes to Jackson’s house. Trent, Zander, and Billy are already in the front yard playing Spikeball. Jackson’s mom comes out to go over a few rules before the party starts. Twenty minutes later I wish I’d been writing them down. She has a lot of rules.

The first rule is we have to remove our shoes to go inside. I really wish I’d known that before coming over. I would have worn different socks. I don’t remember the other rules.

After Trent wins at Spikeball, we all head inside.

“Ewww . . . you can see AB’s big toe! And it’s black!” Jackson says too loudly as I take off my shoes, revealing the hole in my sock.

“My toe is black,” I explain, “because I dropped a big rock on it while working on my tree house.”

I’m waiting for a follow-up question, but there isn’t one. Everyone’s too busy looking away from my foot. Thankfully, Jackson’s mom loans me some extra socks. Actually, once she gets a look at my big, black toenail, she says I can keep them as a party favor.

We start off the night with a chess tournament. Oh yeah, this party is poppin’! I’m actually kidding. No one at the party likes chess except for Jackson. But we all play because it’s his birthday and God wants us to always be nice to others. Plus, we know cake is coming soon!

Trent and Jackson end the tournament with a game that can only be described as “more fun than watching AB’s bruised toenail heal.”

Jackson wins, I assume, probably because Trent falls asleep. I don’t actually see the final moves because I’m wandering around looking for some paint that I can watch dry.

I’m pretty sure that it’s now time for cake, but I also know it’s not polite to ask. Instead I suggest, “Hey, let’s play the Manners Game! We’ll each go around the room and say something we shouldn’t do. I’ll go first. It would be impolite to ask if it’s time for cake, even though it probably is time for cake.”

I’ll never know if my hint works, because that’s when I get the next biggest surprise of the day.

Mark, Luke, and Jordan walk in.