FLIP OUT

About ten minutes after I met Philip “Flip” Savage, all I could think was, “What is he doing in this class?” He seemed totally normal and even pretty cool. But after another ten minutes, when Mr. Fanucci had to separate him for some “quiet time,” I started to figure it out.

Flip is like a spinning top that never loses its spin. Like one of those gyroscopes that just goes, and goes, and goes, and goes…

… and goes, and goes…

… and goes.

He’s also possibly the funniest person I’ve ever met. He’s even funnier than that sit-down/stand-up comedian kid I heard about, Jamie Grimm.

For instance, I already told you Mr. Fanucci’s first name is Edward, right? On the first day, Flip said, “Hey, Mr. Fanucci, can we call you ‘Special Ed’?” That got a big laugh, so even when Mr.Fanucci said no, Flip kept going.

“Okay, we’ll just call you ‘Mr. Fun’ for short,” he said.

“I can live with that,” Mr. Fun said. (And for the record, Flip calls him “Special Ed” when he’s not around.)

Flip loves coming up with different names for everyone. He calls me “Short Stack” sometimes, because I’m half an inch shorter than him, plus I love pancakes. He calls Maya “Good News.” Dee-Dee is “Gadget.” And Jonny is “Factoid.”

The other thing about Flip is that he’s a total jock. Whatever nuclear power plant he’s got running his engine on the inside, it makes him perfect for football, baseball, soccer, and lacrosse on the outside. (He’s part of the reason I joined the football team, but more about that later.)

He even calls himself “Dumb Jock” all the time, which I think is hilarious.

He says that anything you can call yourself, it doesn’t matter if other people call you that too,because you said it first. Which makes a lot of sense to me.

I’ll tell you what else. This kid may not be very good at sitting still. And he’s definitely not the world’s best at math or English.

But I’ve never met anyone else besides Flip Savage that I just knew right away I’d be good friends with.