CHAPTER 17

THE FOURTH GRADE

For as long as I had known Bones, he always rolled with the punches. Sometimes I wished I was more like him. If someone told me I had cancer, I'd probably feel sorry for myself and stay up in my room and stare at the fish all day.

     I remember the first day Bones came to my school. We were in fourth grade. He had just moved to town with his mom and was about a foot taller than everyone else in our class. When he walked into the classroom, everybody just stared at him.

There was an empty desk in the front of the room and one next to mine in the back, and I was hoping he'd just sit right down in the empty one up front.

No such luck. Bones sauntered right past the empty seat in front and went all the way back to the seat next to mine. Our teacher, Miss Thompson, went out to talk to his mom in the hallway, which gave Mike Mazzarella, kids called him "Mazz," the opportunity to whisper loud enough for everyone to hear, "Look at that, the Skyscraper sat next to the Blimp."

The whole class burst out laughing, including Bones. And that made Mazz very angry because, in fourth grade, kids weren't supposed to laugh at jokes that were meant to make fun of them.

Then Bones looked at me and asked with nothing but honest curiosity, "Are you the Blimp?"

     I had no idea how to answer him.

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