The next morning, our teacher, Mr. McNutty, held up a big cardboard clock. He moved the minute and hour hands around on it. Then he asked, “What time is it now?”

Aaron Glass raised his hand. “Time to tell time,” he said.

“But what time does this fake clock show?” the teacher asked.

“Fake time,” Aaron said.

Victoria Crow raised her hand. She said, “The clock shows five minutes after four o’clock.” She was right as always. She’s the smartest kid in third grade.

“School will be over by then, and we’ll be playing with our Puppet Pals,” Laurie Schneider said.

Mr. McNutty moved the clock hands again. “What time is it now?” he asked.

“A new time,” Aaron Glass said.

“It is 6:53,” Victoria said.

“Time to play with Puppet Pals after dinner,” Owen Leach said.

“What if it was 6:53 in the morning?” the teacher asked.

“Then my mom would be telling me to get ready for school. And I’d be lying in bed, ignoring her, and playing with my Puppet Pals,” Grace Chang said.

“Yeah. Me too,” Emma G. said.

“Yeah. Me too,” Emma J. said.

Mr. McNutty sighed. “You kids sure love those puppets. Just don’t play with them in class.”

Then he looked around the room. Almost everyone had Puppet Pals on their fingers. “Please put those away,” he said.

“My Puppet Pal horse is galloping away,” Hector Cruz said.

“My Puppet Pal race car is speeding away,” Owen Leach said.

“My Puppet Pal tree is leaving. Get it? Leaving? Like leaves on a tree?” Danny Ford said.

“My Puppet Pal egg is scrambling. Get it? Scrambled eggs?” Grace Chang said.

Then Owen started singing the commercial jingle. Everyone joined in: “Puppet Pals are so much fun for just about everyone.”

Mr. McNutty put his head on his desk. He seemed very tired of Puppet Pals. I put my head on my desk. I was very tired of Puppet Pals, too.

But my classmates were not tired of them. At recess, almost everyone played with Puppet Pals.

I played basketball against myself. I used my right hand to dribble and shoot With my left hand, I tried to steal the ball away from myself. My left hand kept fouling my right hand. My left hand got benched. My right hand got injured. My right hand challenged my left hand to a fight. It was all very confusing and not much fun.

My classmates sat on the grass in a circle around Grace Chang. Grace Chang is short and tiny and usually wears frilly pink dresses. Also, she is evil. She scratched Hector with her long, scary fingernails. She made up lies about Laurie Schneider. She stuck a “Kick me” sign on my bottom. She stuck “Kick Zeke” signs on other people’s bottoms. And those were just the things she did this week!

I wondered why my classmates were sitting in a circle around her.

I put the basketball away and walked over.

Grace was showing everyone her large collection of Puppet Pals. She held up a dragon puppet. “This dragon is very rare,” she said. “There are only 10,000 Puppet Pal dragons in the whole world.”

Everyone said, “Ooh!” or “Ahh!” or “Ooh! Ahh!” or “Ahh! Ooh!”

Everyone except me. I yawned.

Grace said, “Yuck. It’s Zeke the Freak.”

“Yeah. Yuck,” Emma G. said.

“Yeah. Yuck,” Emma J. said.

I said, “My real name is Ezekiel Heathcliff Meeks. I prefer to be called Zeke or Zeke Meeks. I do not prefer to be called Zeke the Freak.”

“Grace, don’t be rude to my friend,” Hector said.

“That was pretty rude of you, Grace,” Danny Ford said.

“It was rude,” Aaron Glass said.

“Don’t call me dumb,” Aaron said.

“I didn’t. I called you stupid,” Grace replied.

He shrugged and said, “Oh, okay.”

“Grace, you’re extremely rude,” I said.

“At least I’m honest,” she said.

“Let’s get out of here,” Hector said.

Hector and I stood up and started to walk away from Grace.

A lot of kids followed us. I knew I could count on my classmates to do the right thing.

Grace said, “I have some extra Puppet Pals. I’ll give them away right now to anyone who’s nice to me.”

Hector and I shook our heads and left.

Everyone else sat down again.

“Thanks for sticking up for me,” I told Hector. “Now do you want to play basketball?”

“No thanks. I want to look at my Puppet Pals,” he said.

Those Puppet Pals were ruining my life.