At recess the next day, Hector and I sat on the playground with my bag of Puppet Pals.

“This is so exciting! I can’t wait to see your new puppets!” Hector exclaimed.

“Yeah,” I said.

“What? I can’t hear you when you talk so quietly and dully,” he said.

“I’m excited,” I said.

“What?” he asked again.

“Never mind.” I yawned.

I pulled the Puppet Pals out of the bag one by one. First, I took out a zebra Puppet Pal.

“Zebras are cool,” Hector said. “But it’s too bad you didn’t get the zebra with red and black stripes. That one is very rare and valuable.”

Next, I pulled out a Puppet Pal that looked like a train engine.

Hector smiled and said, “Choo, choo!”

I smiled back. This was okay. But I liked basketball better.

Owen Leach came by to look at my new Puppet Pals.

Since he was so popular, a lot of kids sat down next to him.

Soon, half my class was watching me show off my Puppet Pals. They seemed more interested in the puppets than I was.

I pulled eleven Puppet Pals out of my bag. Then I said, “That’s all I have. Does anyone want to play basketball?”

I’d seen the twelfth Puppet Pal yesterday. I had covered it in foil. Then I had shoved it to the bottom of the bag. I never wanted to look at it or touch it again.

I told Hector, “The twelfth Puppet Pal isn’t any good.” In fact, it was horrible.

“Puppet Pals are so much fun...,” Owen said.

The other kids joined in the commercial jingle, “...for just about everyone.”

“Show us the last Puppet Pal,” Owen ordered.

I pulled the foil out of the bag. I unwrapped the Puppet Pal and tried not to look at it. I also tried not to shake, scream, or run away.

Hector yelled, “You got the wasp Puppet Pal! That’s wild!”

Was he as scared of insects as I was?

“The wasp!” Owen exclaimed.

Everyone else repeated, “The wasp!”

Victoria Crow said, “Wasps are my favorite type of insect. I love to study them. I collect wasps, too. I have wasp stuffed animals, books about wasps, wasp erasers, chocolate-covered wasps—”

Grace Chang interrupted her. “No one cares about that.”

“Yeah. No one cares,” Emma G. said.

“Yeah. No one cares,” Emma J. said.

Grace went on talking. “Puppet Pal wasps are very rare. There are only 97 of them in the whole wide world. So they’re worth a lot of money. That’s why they’re important.”

“And my best friend, Zeke, has one now,” Owen said.

“He’s not your best friend. He’s my best friend,” Hector said.

“No one cares about that either,” Grace said. She stood up and tried to tower over me, but she was too short to do much towering. She dangled her long, scary fingernails in front of my face. “Give me that Puppet Pal wasp or I’ll rip your face off,” she said.

“No.” I closed my hand around the Puppet Pal.

Grace touched my cheek with her fingernail. As I said, Grace’s fingernails were long and scary. They were also sharp, pointy, and (in my opinion) quite evil.

Owen glared at Grace. He said, “If you take Zeke’s Puppet Pal, I’ll tell everyone to never speak to you again. And they’ll listen. I’m that popular.”

Grace’s long, scary, sharp, pointy, and (in my opinion) quite evil fingernail froze on my cheek.

“Owen really is that popular,” I said.

“Be quiet,” she said.

“Yeah. Be quiet,” Emma G. said.

“Yeah. Be quiet,” Emma J. said.

“You be quiet,” I said.

“All three of you be quiet,” Grace said.

“All four of you be quiet!” Owen said.

After Owen spoke, we quieted down. Owen really was that popular.

Then Owen said, “Grace, this is your last chance. Let Zeke go, or I’ll make sure no one ever speaks to you again.”

Grace frowned. She said, “Okay, you win. This time. But keep in mind that even though you are that popular, I am that evil.” She took her long, scary, sharp, et cetera fingernail off my cheek. Then she giggled her evil giggle and walked away.

Emma G. and Emma J. tried to giggle evilly too. But their giggles just sounded silly. They walked away behind Grace.

I thanked Owen for sticking up for me.

He smiled. “No problem. Do you know why I rescued you from the long, scary, sharp, pointy, and, in my opinion, not-that-evil nails of Grace Chang? It’s because I like you.”

Wow. The most popular boy in third grade just said he liked me.

“You should come to my house and play Puppet Pals with me,” he said.

Wow. The most popular boy in third grade just invited me to his house.

Owen kept smiling. “Let’s be good friends,” he said.

Wow. The most popular boy in third grade wanted to be good friends with me.

“Good friends share things. So you should share your Puppet Pal wasp with me,” he said.

“But I just got it yesterday,” I protested.

“I’ll be your best friend if you give me that wasp,” he said.

His mouth was smiling, but his eyes were sort of cold.

Owen didn’t wow me anymore. “Hector’s my best friend,” I said.

“Yeah,” said Hector, “we’re best friends for real, not just because we want each other’s Puppet Pals.” Hector smiled. His eyes were warm.

“Hey, best friend,” I said. “Do you want to play basketball now?”

Hector shook his head. “No way. Now that you have your own Puppet Pals, we can play with them all the time, just like everyone else.”

Not everyone was playing with Puppet Pals. I looked around the playground. Chandler was still crying. Victoria was reading a book about wasps. Rudy was training Cuddles, his giant red beetle, to roll over. But all the other third graders were playing with their Puppet Pals.

I didn’t want to listen to Chandler cry, watch Victoria read about wasps, or get anywhere near Rudy’s giant red beetle. So I said, “Okay, Hector. I’ll play Puppet Pals with you.”

I tried hard not to yawn again.