Third Grade Mix-Up

by Michele Jakubowski

  FOR JACK AND MIA. ALL MY LOVE.

  —M.J.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  CHAPTER 1: Can't Hide from School

  CHAPTER 2: Fruity Frosted Loopies Can't Fix Everything

  CHAPTER 3: The Bus Stop and Gomez Gomez

  CHAPTER 4: Sydney with a "Y" Meets Sidney with an "I"

  CHAPTER 5: The Scariest Place on Earth is the Cafeteria

  CHAPTER 6: Weirder Things Have Happened

  CHAPTER 7: A Girl Friend, Not a Girlfriend

  CHAPTER 8: Day Two Isn't as Bad as Day One

  CHAPTER 9: Halloween, Gomez, and One Mean Older Brother

  CHAPTER 10: A Purple Superhero Princess

  CHAPTER 11: One Problem at a Time

  CHAPTER 12: Little Brothers Will Ruin Your Life

  CHAPTER 13: Halloween, Gomez, and One Mean Older Brother (again, but this time it ends better)

  CHAPTER 14: And the Winner Is...

  CHAPTER 15: Best. Halloween. Ever.

  Name: Sydney Shelby Baxter Greene

  Age: 8

  Birthdate: August 3

  Parents: Bob and Jane Greene

  Siblings: Owen, a charming and annoying baby brother

  Hobbies: fashion, playing Galaxy Conquest reading

  Sydney Greene is a sassy third grader. Not only does she love fashion, but she loves a good game of Galaxy Conquest as well. She might be the smallest kid in the class, but she’s also the spunkiest! Her best friend is Harley Livingston, a third-grade soccer star. They have been best friends since preschool, when Harley kicked a soccer ball into Sydney’s face.

  Name: Sidney Patrick Fletcher

  Age: 8

  Birthdate: May 11

  Parents: Paula Fletcher

  Siblings: None

  Hobbies: sports, playing Galaxy Conquest, telling jokes

  Sidney Fletcher is a quiet kid who loves sports. He is also the newest third grader in Oak Grove. However, it doesn’t take him long to make friends. Gomez (whose real name is Marco Xavier Gomez) is Sidney’s first and best friend in Oak Grove. With one joke at the bus stop, Sidney and Gomez become inseparable.

  “Sidney! Wake up or you’re going to be late for the first day at your new school!”

  I heard my mom yelling to me. I don’t know why she yells. It doesn’t make me want to get up any faster. All I wanted to do was stay in bed. I didn’t want to go to that stupid new school anyway.

  But moms never give up. She came in my room and pulled off my blanket. I tried to hide under my pillow, but it was too small.

  “Come on, Sid. You’re going to be late,” Mom said.

  “I don’t want to go,” I grumbled from under my pillow.

  “It will be fun,” Mom said. “You’re going to the same school I went to when I was your age!”

  Mom had been telling me that ever since we moved to Oak Grove. She grew up here. And for some reason, she thought it was so great that I’d be going to her old school.

  I didn’t see how it made things any better to be going to the same school she went to a million years ago. It made me think that the building must be really old. It could probably fall down at any moment.

  I was happy we had moved to Oak Grove. When my mom and I lived in Chicago, it got sort of lonely. It was a huge city, but it was just the two of us since my dad died.

  I liked living in the city, but now we had a huge backyard. Plus, in Oak Grove we only lived a block and six houses from Granny and Grandpa.

  What I wasn’t happy about was going to a new school. What if all the kids were mean? What if I didn’t like it?

  “I guess I’ll have to eat that big bowl of Fruity Frosted Loopies,” my mom said.

  I poked my head out from under the pillow.

  “You got my favorite cereal?” I asked.

  “Yep, just for you,” she said.

  I jumped out of bed. I still wasn’t excited about going to a new school, but it wasn’t every day my mom got me Fruity Frosted Loopies!

  Today was a big day. Today I finally got to wear the new outfit I had picked out weeks ago. And as I got ready for the first day of third grade, I knew I had made the right choice.

  I checked over my outfit. Cute tunic? Check. Cute leggings? Check. Cute headband? Check. And the best part of all: purple ankle boots.

  You may not think a first day of school outfit is important, but I do. I’m only eight years old, but it’s never too early to be fashionable.

  I am the first person to notice when my mom’s shoes don’t match her outfit. She doesn’t mind. She says I have “an eye for fashion,” whatever that means. Sometimes my parents say the weirdest things!

  “Sydney!” I heard my mom call. “Hurry up or you’ll miss the bus.”

  I walked slowly down the stairs and into the kitchen. I had a big frown on my face. You would think that with such a cute first-day-of-school outfit I would be happy about going back to school, but I wasn’t.

  “Cheer up,” my mom said. “You’re going to love third grade!”

  That’s what I thought until five days ago. That’s when we found out our classroom assignments. Ever since preschool I have been in the same class as my best friend, Harley Livingston. But not this year.

  Harley got Mrs. Madden, who is super nice and smells like cherries. I got Mr. Luther. He is grumpy and doesn’t smell like anything.

  “Buck up, kiddo!” my dad said as he fed my baby brother, Owen, a spoonful of cereal.

  I frowned bigger because I don’t even know what “buck up” means. See what I mean about my parents and the weird things they say?

  Owen must have thought it was weird too. He stuck out his tongue and sprayed cereal all over my dad’s shirt.

  Even though I didn’t want to, I laughed.

  I smiled a little bigger when Mom pulled out Fruity Frosted Loopies, which is my favorite cereal. She doesn’t let me eat sugar cereal very often, but today was special. How could I stay mad with this delicious cereal in front of me?

  “Eat up,” Mom said as she put my lunch bag into my new backpack.

  Then I quickly remembered where I was going and went right back to my bad mood.

  Not even sugar cereal could keep me happy today.

  At the bus stop, there was a short kid kicking a hole in the ground with his shoe.

  “Gomez, stop digging up the Petersons’ yard!” the woman standing near him said. The kid looked up at her. Then he moved to another spot and began a new hole.

  “Good morning!” the woman said when she saw us. “You must be the people who bought the Garcias’ old house. It’s so nice to meet you! I’m Florence Gomez, and this is my son, Gomez.”

  My eyes bugged out of my head. Had she just said her last name was Gomez? And her son’s name was Gomez? So his name was Gomez Gomez! How cool was that?

  Gomez’s mom must have been reading my mind. The next thing I heard her say was, “His first name is Marco, but everyone has called him Gomez since he was a baby.”

  My mom and Mrs. Gomez kept talking, the way moms always do. I looked over at Gomez. He was still hard at work on his hole. I am tall for my age, and he was a lot shorter than me.

  “Say hello to Gomez, Sidney,” my mom said. “Mrs. Gomez says you two will be in the same class. Isn’t that nice?”

  I put on one of those fake smiles I do sometimes. I pull my lips wide across my face, and only I know that I’m not really smiling.

  Gomez looked up at me and began to laugh a little bit. I wanted to see if I could really crack him up so I crossed my eyes and stuck out my tongue. He started laughing so hard I thought the ki
d was going to pee his pants!

  It was at that moment that I knew Gomez and I were going to be best friends. Maybe school wouldn’t be so bad after all.

  I had never walked into a classroom without Harley next to me. I was so nervous!

  Mr. Luther was standing in the middle of the room saying hello to everyone. I looked around to see if there was anyone I knew.

  I saw Gomez and Alexa, who both lived on my block. I also saw Nick, James, and Rebecca, who were in my class last year. Nick was a bully, but the other kids were nice.

  Then Mr. Luther said, “Everyone, find your seats! Your place at the table will have your name on it.”

  I was happy when I found my seat right away. I noticed that Mr. Luther had spelled my name wrong. He had spelled it Sidney, instead of Sydney. Mr. Luther was busy helping some other kids find their seats, so I decided to tell him later.

  “Hey, Squidney!” Nick said as he sat down across from me. He had been calling me that since kindergarten.

  My mom and dad told me to ignore people when they say mean things, so that’s what I did.

  Before Nick could say anything else, I saw Mr. Luther walking across the room with a new kid. Mr. Luther looked confused as he got to my table.

  “I thought I had put you over here,” he was saying to the boy. He looked at my name tag and smiled at me. “You must be Sydney.”

  Mr. Luther may not have smelled like cherries, but he did have a nice smile.

  “Yes, I am,” I said.

  “Well, Sydney, let me introduce you to Sidney,” Mr. Luther said, pointing to the new boy.

  “Uh, okay, hi,” I said.

  The new boy was very tall and had black hair that fell over his eyes. He was looking at the ground when he mumbled, “Hi.”

  “I think you may be sitting in the wrong spot, Sydney,” Mr. Luther told me, pointing to the name tag. “See? This Sidney spells his name with an ‘I.’”

  I felt my cheeks start to burn. How embarrassing! By now all of the other kids had found their seats. Everyone was staring at me!

  “Here’s your seat, Sydney with a ‘Y’!” I heard James call from across the room.

  I stood up slowly and began to walk across the room. This was just too embarrassing! As I passed Nick he said, “Way to go, Squidney with a ‘Y’. By third grade you should know how to spell your own name!”

  This was turning into the worst first day of school ever!

  Besides having my seat stolen by that little blond girl, my morning had gone fine. During the first recess I played basketball with Gomez. I was feeling pretty good until it was time to go in for lunch. The playground lady called for Mr. Luther’s class to line up.

  “Come on, Gomez, let’s go eat,” I said. I was really hungry, and my mom is an excellent lunch packer.

  “I can’t,” Gomez said. “I have to go to the nurse’s office.”

  “Are you sick?” I asked.

  “No,” he said.

  “So why are you going to the nurse’s office?” I asked.

  “I’m diabetic, so I need to get my blood sugar checked before lunch,” Gomez said. “My mom worries. She wants me to eat lunch with the nurse for the first few days of school, just to be on the safe side.”

  I must have had a strange look on my face, because then Gomez said, “Don’t worry, you can’t catch diabetes!”

  I have to admit that I was relieved, but I was still confused.

  “What is diabetes?” I asked.

  “My body has trouble making insulin, which it needs to get energy. I get my blood sugar checked and insulin shots to help it,” Gomez explained.

  “Shots?” I repeated, my eyes getting bigger. “Like the kind you get at the doctor that your parents say won’t hurt but they really do?”

  “Yep,” Gomez said, nodding. “You get used to it. I’m pretty tough.”

  “I might be bigger, but you are definitely way tougher,” I said.

  Gomez looked very proud of himself. “Well, I’d better go. Miss Mary is actually pretty fun to eat with. She knows a lot of good jokes. See you later!”

  After Gomez ran off, I walked slowly to the lunch line. When our class got into the cafeteria, everyone was sitting in groups talking loudly and eating their lunches. Everyone was smiling, laughing, and having fun. Everyone but me. I was terrified.

  The cafeteria in a new school is the scariest place on Earth. In a new classroom, you are assigned a seat. In the cafeteria, you have to find one. And it is not an easy task.

  I was too afraid to ask anyone if I could sit with them. I felt like my shoes had been glued to the floor. This was not going to end well for me.

  Finally a cafeteria lady came over and put her arm around my shoulder. “Are you looking for a spot, sweetie?” she asked.

  I just nodded. I felt like every eye in the cafeteria was on me. My face started to get very hot. Thankfully the nice woman guided me to an open table. There was a big sign in the middle that read Nut-Free Table. I guess that’s where the kids who have nut allergies sit.

  Even though I didn’t have a nut allergy, I was more than happy to sit down. There were two kids sitting at the table already. They looked up and gave me annoyed looks. Then they went back to ignoring me. So much for feeling welcome!

  I lowered my head and opened my lunch. A note from my mom fell onto the table.

  I know that it’s really dorky to get a note from your mom when you’re eight years old. But it did make me feel a little better.

  The doorbell was ringing, and my mom had just told me the craziest thing ever.

  “You what?” I asked.

  “I met the new neighbors today,” she repeated. “I invited them for dinner. Mrs. Fletcher is great, and her son Sidney is in your class. Isn’t that nice?”

  After the name mix-up, the rest of my day had been pretty good. Now my mom was ruining it. Why would I want to hang out with the new boy? The same boy who had totally embarrassed me at school? Ugh.

  I didn’t have time to argue because the doorbell rang again and my mom opened the door. The new boy and his mom were here.

  “Thank you so much for having us over,” Mrs. Fletcher said.

  “We’re so glad you could come,” my mom said and gave Mrs. Fletcher a hug. They had only met today, but the two of them acted like best friends. I guess that’s what happens when you’re old.

  After introducing the guests to my dad, my mom turned toward me and said, “Why don’t you take Sidney down to the basement before dinner?”

  “Okay,” I mumbled.

  Sidney was standing with his hands in his pockets, looking at the floor. I’ve looked at our floor before. It’s not that interesting.

  He followed me down the stairs. I showed him my corner of the basement. My parents call it my “art studio.” That makes me feel like a real artist.

  Sidney walked around looking at all of the cool stuff on the walls. He stopped in front of a poster my aunt gave me of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

  “I’m going to go there someday,” I told him. “I’m going to be a famous artist, a rock star, or a veterinarian when I grow up. I’m going to travel around the world. It’s going to be amazing!”

  “I’ve been to Paris. It’s pretty cool,” he said and shrugged.

  I couldn’t believe my ears! He said it like it was no big deal! As if he’d said, “I’ve been to the mall.”

  “Oh, I’m so jealous!” I told him. “Paris is the fashion capital of the world! The farthest I’ve ever been is to my grandparents’ house in Florida.”

  He laughed and said, “My dad was a photographer. He used to take my mom and me with him when he worked.”

  “Where else have you been?” I asked.

  “I’ve been all over the world,” Sidney told me. “Besides France, I’ve been to Spain, China, and Australia.”

 
“No way!” I said. I couldn’t believe it.

  He shrugged again and said, “It was cool. They took me to a lot of museums and historical places.”

  “I love museums! Especially art museums,” I said.

  “Me too!” he said. He seemed happy that I agreed. “Those were always my favorite. My mom is an artist, so we’d spend a lot of time looking at cool stuff. She knows all about it.”

  “Wow. Just wow,” I said.

  “Hey! Is that Galaxy Conquest?” he asked, walking over to the shelves where I kept my video games.

  “Yes,” I said quietly. None of my girl friends liked to play that game, but I loved playing it with my dad.

  “That’s my favorite video game ever!” he said. “I totally rule at Galaxy Conquest! Wanna play?”

  I really did want to play, even if it was with a boy I barely knew. I couldn’t help but think the following things as we set up the game: Am I actually getting along with the new kid? A new kid who is a boy? The same new kid who shares my name and embarrassed me today? Weird!

  But I guess weirder things have happened.

  By the time Mrs. Greene called us up for dinner, Sydney and I had each won one game of Galaxy Conquest. We decided we’d play the championship round after dinner.

  I hadn’t been happy about going over to the Greenes’ house when my mom first told me about the invitation. But Sydney was kind of cool. Plus, she really was good at Galaxy Conquest. And dinner was awesome!

  As I finished up my second piece of lasagna, baby Owen began banging his hands on his high chair. I hadn’t spent much time around babies, and the angry look on his face made me laugh. I looked over at Sydney and she was laughing too.

  Owen must have noticed that he was making us laugh. He did it again. This time he banged so hard, a bunch of lasagna flew in the air. One got stuck in his hair. Another was just above his eye. He looked at us to see if we were still laughing. We were. I had no idea babies could be so funny!