CHAPTER 17

William

Lucy LaRoux was a Hollywood agent. That meant she usually judged people based purely on looks. So when she saw William Wilhelm, she said, “Puny, short, wears glasses… you must be the class genius!”

“What? Who? Me?” William said. “Nope!”

“Yeah, we’ll get you on some game shows!” Lucy said, ignoring him. “You’ll solve math problems, or answer trivia questions, or spell big words no one’s ever heard of, or… What’s wrong? You look confused. I thought that didn’t happen to smart people.”

“That’s because I’m not the smartest kid in class,” William explained.

“That’d be me.” Mason waved. “F-a-r-t, that spells ‘smart’!”

“It does not,” Olivia said. “Actually, I’m the smart one in this class. Possibly the only one.” Olivia went back to doing long division—for fun.

“So what do you want to be famous for?” Lucy asked William.

“I want to be a famous rapper,” William said.

Now it was Lucy who looked confused. She shrugged. “Okay, MC Willy, show me what you got.”

William picked up a pencil, pretending it was a mic. He turned his hat sideways and did his rap:

“Yo, yo, yo!

My name is Willy,

and I’d like to say,

“I am a student in school,

in the Classroom THIRTEEN!

“Boom!” MC Willy William said. He dropped his pretend mic to the floor. No one applauded.

“You do realize raps are supposed to rhyme, right?” Lucy said.

Confused, William scratched his head. “They are?”