CHAPTER 2

On Monday at school, I rolled in with an imaginary Nerf blaster in my arms and targeted my best friend, Charlie.

He gave me the very same toothy grin that made me like him when I moved to this school recently. Then he pulled out his own blaster from under the table (imaginary, too, of course) and pretended to blast me right back.

I think his imagination has been getting stronger since we became friends, like a muscle does when you lift weights all day long.

When Daniel saw us, he giggled and punched me on the arm. it was one of those punches that don’t hurt at all. Daniel is our friend now. He doesn’t actually bully anyone anymore, not even Charlie, who used to be his favorite target for all things horrible. There’s we’d be friends with a bully, but it turns out Daniel had reasons for being so naughty at school, and now that he has us as friends to hang out with, he’s

“It’s a Nerf laser blaster,” I announced. “Imaginary for now, but I’m going to get a real one with the money I’ve saved.”

“Oh, cool!” said Daniel. “I want one.”

“Me too!” chipped in Charlie.

“Let’s all get them and have an

“We can all pretend to be spies, like James Bond chasing down an evil villain,” Daniel said excitedly.

Charlie and I said at the same time. We often say things at the same time, which is super funny and sometimes super freaky.

“Do you have enough money?” I asked.

“No, but my mom said she was going to buy me something for, ummmm . . .” Daniel sheepishly scratched the back of his head instead of finishing his sentence.

“For what?”

Charlie and I did it AGAIN. Same words, same time. Same wanting to know what Daniel was getting a treat for.

“Umm . . .”

“For washing your dad’s car?” I guessed.

“For cleaning your room?” Charlie guessed.

Daniel did some more sheepish head-scratching.

I tried another guess. “For getting ten out of ten on your spelling test?”

“No . . . no . . . um . . . actually for   Daniel said,

using air quotes as he blushed bright red.

Charlie and I both jumped onto Daniel to give him a . I think he was blushing because he’s not always 100% sure that we like him as our friend, but we super definitely do. We keep finding so many things that we like to do together—like the Nerf blasters!

We couldn’t help but talk about it all during math, because it was way more exciting than learning about what a denominator was and how we could think about a pizza in fractions. The only thing I think when I see a pizza is how quick I can get it into my mouth. Mrs. Hutchinson was very excited about fractions. I could tell because her curly hair was all big and springy. That’s one thing I like about Mrs. Hutchinson—she thinks everything is entertaining.

“I CANNOT WAIT for the Nerf battle. It’s going to be crazy fun!” I whispered.

Charlie whispered back, “I knooowww. I just have to think of a way to convince my parents to buy me a blaster, too.”

“You do know that both of you whisper as loud as you talk,” Daniel pointed out.

He must have been right, because Mrs. Hutchinson came over, attempting to put her cross face on, and said, “Stop chatting and tell me how much pizza is on the board, boys.”

“Not enough for me,” said Daniel.

We had to clap our hands over our mouths quickly before Mrs. Hutchinson got upset.

Then Charlie said, “One-sixth,” with his toothy grin.

 Mrs. Hutchinson was pleased enough, even with all our giggling.

I couldn’t wait to get home and ask Mom and Dad if they were OK with us having a big Nerf showdown at home and would they please order pizza that day. Maybe I could promise to talk about the pizza as fractions, like Mrs. Hutchinson was doing—then they’d be up for it for sure.

They love brainy stuff like that. They say it’s because they’re scientists, but I think they’re scientists because they like brainy stuff. It’s like the