STROKE OF GENIUS

My mind was flying by the time I took Junior back inside. I grabbed one of Mom’s big art books off the shelf and took it straight to my room. I definitely didn’t feel like sleeping now. Operation: S.A.M. was practically pouring out of my brain.

So you know what Loozer looks like, right? I decided that SAM was going to be the opposite of him—filthy rich, crazy good-looking, and very, very stealthy. He was also a secret agent, and his mission was about putting great works of art all over Hills Village Middle School.

Not my art, exactly. But also, kind of, yes. You’ll see.

I decided to kick things off with one of Mom’s favorite paintings: The Starry Night, by Vincent van Gogh. He’s one of those geniuses Ms. Donatello was talking about earlier. So I opened up that giant art book to a picture of the painting, and put it on my desk. Then I tore four pages out of my sketchbook and taped them together into one big sheet.

I wasn’t sure how long this was going to take, since I’d never done it before. I just knew that I wanted to finish in time to be at HVMS really, really early—like right after the first janitor and before anyone else. So even though it was about two thirty in the morning, I just kept on working.

I pulled out my best pen, took a good long look at that crazy, swirly, genius masterpiece, and started to draw—The Starry Night, by Vincent van Gogh.

By SAM.