It was still raining when Hector came over after school.

“We’ll have to think of things to do inside. We could play with my dog,” I said.

Waggles was standing near us, wearing a silly pink bandana around his neck and wagging his tail.

I threw his toy bone across the room.

Waggles ran to the bone and picked it up. Then he raced back and put the bone on my lap. He also got a bunch of drool on my lap.

“I know. Do you want to throw the toy bone now?” I asked Hector. I picked up the toy. Hanging from it was a long, thick, stretchy, and quite disgusting string of dog drool.

Hector shook his head. “Let’s watch TV instead.”

“No way,” Mia said. “Princess Sing-Along is starting. It’s my favorite show.”

She clicked on the TV. Then she sang along with the TV princess: “If you find it hard to hear, la la la, wax may be jammed in your ear, la la la. Don’t dig out that wax yourself, la la la. Ask somebody for their help, la la la.”

Mia shoved her ear in front of my eyes. “Do you see any wax in my ear?” she asked.

“No. Get away from me,” I said.

Hector pointed to the TV and said, “Zeke, look at that commercial.”

On TV, a bunch of kids played with bright stickers shaped like circles, ovals, squares, and stars.

A man’s voice said excitedly, “Sticker Shapes! The best, newest, most popular toy for kids today. Play with them. Collect them. Bring them to school. Sticker Shapes are a joy for every girl and every boy.”

“Those Sticker Shapes might become very popular. Especially if Owen Leach decides they should be popular,” Hector said.

I groaned. Then I said, “I don’t care how popular they become. They don’t look like much fun to me. I won’t buy them.”

“I learned my lesson from the Puppet Pals,” I added. “I’m saving my money for the Great Epic Superhero video game.”

“That video game sounds really great and epic and super,” Hector said. “I’m going to save up for it too.”

“So then we can each have the same game,” I said.

“Yes,” Hector replied.

“After we both save our money for a long time,” I said.

“Yes,” Hector replied.

“And then we’ll mostly play with the video game together.”

“Yes,” Hector replied.

“Do you see where I’m going with this?” I asked.

“No,” Hector replied.

“If we each paid for half of the Great Epic Superhero video game, we could buy it now and share it,” I said.

Hector grinned. “That’s a great idea. Let’s do it.”

I grinned back and said, “All right!”

Finally, a perfectly happy ending.

“After we buy the video game, we can start saving for those Sticker Shapes,” Hector said.

Okay, so the ending isn’t perfectly happy. But it’s pretty happy.