Keena Ford and the Second-Grade Mix-Up Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25

  THURSDAY, AUGUST 26

  FRIDAY, AUGUST 27

  SATURDAY, AUGUST 28

  MONDAY, AUGUST 30

  TUESDAY, AUGUST 31

  WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1

  THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2

  FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3

  SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4

  THE BIG BIRTHDAY MIX-UP

  “Excuse me, ladies. I am very excited to report that we have a class birthday tomorrow, September 2. Keena Ford will be the first student to wear our special birthday crown.” Then she looked at me and smiled. “Keena, I hope you like chocolate cake,” she said.

  I tried to open my mouth to tell Ms. Campbell that there must be some mistake. My birthday is February 9. But I thought about that birthday crown. And I thought about the cake. I love birthday cake almost as much as I love pudding pie. So when I opened my mouth, this was what came out:

  “Yes, Ms. Campbell. I LOVE chocolate cake.”

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  PUFFIN BOOKS

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.

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  Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)

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  Registered Offices: Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  First published in the United States of America by Dial Books for Young Readers,

  a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 2008

  Published by Puffin Books, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 2009

  Text copyright © Melissa Thomson, 2008

  Pictures copyright © Frank Morrison, 2008

  All rights reserved

  THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HAS CATALOGED THE DIAL BOOKS EDITION AS FOLLOWS:

  Thomson, Melissa, date.

  Keena Ford and the second-grade mix-up / by Melissa Thomson ;

  Pictures by Frank Morrison

  p. cm.

  Summary: Keena Ford chronicles her many mishaps as she begins the second grade.

  eISBN : 978-1-101-05777-3

  http://us.penguingroup.com

  To the students of Emery Elementary

  in Washington, DC

  —M.T.

  To my wonderful daughter Nia

  —F.M.

  WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 25

  4:30 P.M.

  I’m Keena, and I am the MOST important person in this journal, because it is MY journal. But there are some other important people too, like my mom and my brother, Brian. I live with them in our apartment in Washington, DC. Brian is starting middle school and he thinks he is SO cool. But he still sleeps with his blankie! Ha! I haven’t told his friends yet. I’m waiting for the perfect time.

  My dad is really important too. He lives in Maryland and I visit him on weekends. He has a bald head and a fish named Henry.

  Someone else who is important is my very best friend, Eric. He and his dad live in our building in the apartment right above ours. This other girl in our building, Tiffany Harris, says I can’t be best friends with a boy, but what does she know? I tried being friends with her, but all we did was have stupid tea parties. And her tea tasted like a wet paper bag.

  I guess I should write down that Mr. Lemon is important too. He teaches time-out. It’s the class where you go if you broke a rule by mistake. You go there when the other kids go outside to play after lunch. Mr. Lemon and I spend a LOT of time together.

  I think I will probably write about some other people, but they won’t be as important as the ones I already said.

  My mom got me this journal because I behaved myself at the doctor’s office this afternoon. It was my back-to-school checkup, and I had to get one shot. I cried, but I didn’t pinch anyone. At the doctor’s office, the nurse is allowed to stick you with needles, but you are not allowed to pinch. I learned this last year when I had to get a shot. The nurse said, “This will feel like a pinch for just a second.” And then I said, “YOW!!” because it hurt, and hurt for a LONG time. Then I said, “That did NOT pinch for just a second. It pinched for a very long time.” She just looked at me, so I showed her what I was talking about. I grabbed her arm and pinched—HARD. Just so she would know what it really felt like, instead of telling kids it will only pinch for a second. Then I learned that you never, ever pinch or you get in big trouble. Last year I did NOT get a journal.

  But this year I was very good, so Mom let me pick out my journal myself. She said writing in a journal is a great idea because I can get my feelings out without yelling or pinching. And I can write down the things that you are not supposed to say out loud, like: “Brian just passed gas.”

  I say a lot of things that you are not supposed to say out loud. I think I will have a lot to write in my new journal.

  I am a very good writer for my age. My teacher last year told me that. She also said that if I spent more time writing and less time worrying about other people’s business, then I could be a famous writer someday. But if I don’t pay attention to other people’s business, what will I write about?

  Mom bought me a dictionary to go with my journal so I can spell big words. Already I had to look up “attention,” “worrying,” and “business.” But I didn’t have to look up “dictionary” because it’s right on the front of the dictionary. Isn’t that handy?

  THURSDAY, AUGUST 26

  4:00 P.M.

  Look! So far I have been writing in my journal every day. I knew I would have a lot to write about. Today was a big day because it was the last morning of camp for Eric and me. Last night Eric called me and sounded very mysterious. He said, “Be sure to wear your camp T-shirt tomorrow.”

  “But MONDAYS are camp T-shirt days,” I said. “Tomorrow is Wacky Thursday.” I had already picked out my final Wacky Thursday outfit. I was going to wear what I wore for Hallow een last year when I was a cat who was also a princess and also a witch.

  “Just please wear your T-shirt, Keena. I will explain the plan tomorrow,” Eric said.

  “Or you could explain it right now,” I s
aid.

  “What’s that? Keena? I can’t hear you. I think we are going through a tunnel.” Then I heard a clicking sound as he hung up the phone. I know that sometimes when people drive through tunnels their phones stop working. But there is no tunnel in Eric’s apartment, unless you count the time we tried to dig a tunnel to my apartment through a loose floor tile. We got in big trouble for that one.

  I thought about not wearing my T-shirt to show Eric he’s not the boss of me, but I was too curious to see what he had planned. So when Eric arrived this morning, I was wearing my T-shirt and my cat ears. I opened the door to see Eric in his T-shirt, hiding something behind his back.

  “Ta-daaaa!” he said, and held out two permanent markers.

  “Huh?” I said.

  “When we get to camp, we’ll get everyone to sign our T-shirts with a permanent marker. Then we will always remember our friends from camp!” Eric seemed very excited.

  I tried to act excited too, because even if Eric’s great ideas aren’t that great, he IS my very best friend.

  “Okay,” I said. I was thinking to myself, “What’s so great about two old markers?” But at least I had my cat ears.

  You know what, though? Eric’s idea was really good! We got all of the other kids and even the counselors to sign our T-shirts. Everyone else wished they had worn their camp T-shirts too. It was lots of fun with only one problem. The problem was that the ink went through the shirt and onto my skin in some places, so it says “Nancy” on my arm and “Leonda” on my stomach. I can’t quite seem to wash it off. But I’m sure my mom can fix it with a little scrubbing, once I show her.

  7:00 P.M.

  Every day after camp Eric and I have been working on our playhouse. Well, it’s not really a playhouse. We call it a Homework Hut. It’s a place for us to sit and work on our homework once we are in second grade. Second grade has lots of homework, so Eric and I need a pretty quiet place to work on all of it. And since we know for sure that we will be in the same class, it makes sense for us to work together. We have a big box from Mom’s new refrigerator. Eric got two old pillows that will be our seats. I have been painting the Homework Hut. We keep it on the balcony behind my apartment, and we cover it with plastic bags every night. It looks really, really cool. It is going to be so fun to do our homework in the Homework Hut. I think second grade is going to be the best year ever.

  FRIDAY, AUGUST 27

  8:00 P.M.

  Today was the worst day EVER. Last night I forgot to put the cover on the Homework Hut. Mom called me to set the table when I was about to cover the hut. I knew she had made a pudding pie, and that is my very favorite dessert. So I didn’t want to make her mad by not setting the table right away. Then she might say, “No pudding pie for you, Keena Ford!”

  So I got my pudding pie, but I ruined the Homework Hut. We had a thunder-storm and the whole thing is wet. It’s bad. Really bad. The paint dripped all down the side, and now it looks like it says “HORK HU.” But that is not even the most awful thing that happened today! Here is the MOST awful thing:

  Eric and I are not going to be in the same class.

  I got a letter from school today. From the SCHOOL PRINCIPAL. At first I was afraid that maybe she had found out that I was the one who got the jump rope stuck in Mr. Lemon’s DVD player by mistake.

  But the letter wasn’t about Mr. Lemon’s DVD player. It was about Eric and me NOT BEING IN THE SAME CLASS for sure. Know why? Because Eric is a boy and I am a girl. That’s right. Our principal is putting boys and girls in different classes.

  I hope this doesn’t mean my classroom will have a lot of pink.

  Now there’s no reason to even fix up the Homework Hut.

  SATURDAY, AUGUST 28

  8:30 A.M.

  I am watching cartoons with Brian while we are waiting for Dad to pick us up to go to Maryland. We watch two cartoons every Saturday morning. The first cartoon is about machines that fight for no reason, and the second cartoon is about funny animals on a farm. When you have to watch one stupid cartoon before you get to watch a good cartoon it is called a compromise.

  6:30 P.M.

  I am at Dad’s house. Brian is playing with his friend Maryland Jason. I call him Maryland Jason because Brian has another friend named Jason in DC. Brian says not to say “Maryland Jason,” because it sounds dumb, and he also says not to call it “playing,” because once you are older you just call it “hanging out.”

  Since Brian went to Maryland Jason’s, that means I got to talk to Dad alone. When I told him I was going to be in a class with a bunch of girls he just smiled at me like it was funny. And I said, “It’s NOT funny! How would you like to be covered in pink and drinking paper-bag tea every day?” Then he looked at me like I was a little bit crazy. And he said maybe we should go out for coffee and talk about it.

  Going out for coffee with Dad is pretty much my favorite thing ever. For one thing, I get to order for myself. I always order a “decaf with skim milk, hold the coffee.” When you say “hold” something, it means “Do NOT put that on my food.” Like if you think spinach is nasty, you say, “Hold the spinach.” And then you don’t get nasty spinach on your plate. This only works when you go out to eat, though. It doesn’t work on moms or dads. They will never, ever hold the spinach.

  Anyway, I know that when I order a “decaf with skim milk, hold the coffee,” that means I’m not really drinking coffee. I am just drinking milk. But the coffee shop smells like coffee, and I get to drink out of a coffee mug. So I feel like a real grown-up.

  Dad and I like to have grown-up talks at the coffee shop. Sometimes we talk about how it can be a little bit hard for me to live in two different places. Sometimes we talk about how I will try to stay out of trouble so my teacher stops calling my dad’s cell phone and using up his daytime minutes.

  Today we were talking about how SUPER-SAD I was that Eric and I weren’t going to be in the same class. And how I was going to be in a class with all girls. Not that I have a problem with girls—after all, I am a girl, right?—but I don’t like to wear skirts very much. Or play with dolls. I used to play with them sometimes, you know, when I was really bored, but Brian would make fun of me. So now when I am really bored I just play tic-tac-toe against myself.

  There is another teeny-tiny reason why I don’t want to be in a class with all girls. If all of the second-grade girls are in one class, it means that Linny Berry will be in my class for sure. And we don’t exactly get along. I think it started when I might have taken her green crayon. Linny got mad, and she didn’t invite me to her birthday party. It was on a Saturday, and she invited all the other girls in our first-grade class. So on Monday they all came to school wearing these necklaces they got at Linny’s birthday party. And I felt really bad that I didn’t have one.

  So I called her a bad, awful, horrible name. I called her the bad name three times in a row. That’s how mad I was about that stupid necklace. And Linny started to cry. The teacher called my mom but she was in a meeting, so then the teacher called my dad and used up some more of his daytime minutes. Linny whispered that she hated me, but the teacher didn’t hear. Then I got sent to Mr. Lemon, the time-out teacher, and we had that little mix-up with the jump rope.

  And that is why I can’t be in the same class as Linny Berry.

  While I was thinking about Linny Berry, Dad asked, “Remember when you and Eric didn’t speak for three days last year?”

  I said I remembered. We got in a great big fight because . . . well, I can’t remember why. I remember being really mad, though. “I can’t remember why we were fighting,” I admitted.

  “It was probably because you were spending too much time together,” Dad said. “Sometimes if you spend all of your time with one person, you start to fight about silly things. So maybe if you and Eric are in different classes, you’ll be even better friends.”

  “Kind of like how you and Mom don’t yell at each other now that you live in Maryland?” I asked.

  Dad gave a tiny nod
. Then he smiled, but he looked a little bit sad too. Then he said we should probably go home. So I drank the rest of my milk really fast. And I wiped off my milk mustache without having to be told.

  MONDAY, AUGUST 30

  9:00 P.M.

  Tomorrow is the first day of school! Mom, Brian, and I went shopping today. I had to get new uniforms. Our school uniform is green pants or a green skirt with a white button-down shirt. The good thing about uniforms is that you can get an award for wearing your uniform every day, even if you don’t get any other awards like “Good Citizen” or “Most Improved.” I also got a cool belt that sparkles. And I got TWO pairs of shoes! Brian and Mom got in a fight because he wanted shoes that cost one hundred dollars. Mom said, “Forget it.”

  I said, “I am not complaining about my new things, Mommy. I am just so happy to be shopping with you.” And I gave her a big smile. She said, “Well, at least someone is grateful for their new clothes.” Then Brian called me a mean name.

  I got so excited about my new belt and shoes that I almost forgot about Linny Berry and my all-girl class. Almost.

  It is taking me a long time to fall asleep. I started thinking again about how I was not going to be in the same class as Eric. I have decided that I will probably hate second grade.

  TUESDAY, AUGUST 31

  10:30 A.M.

  I LOVE second grade!!!!!!

  There’s some pink in our classroom, but there are other colors too. Our classroom looks really cool. We have four computers where we can play math and reading games. We have beanbag chairs where we can sit and read books. The beanbags are my second-favorite thing about my new class because I need a soft place to sit when I read. Reading at my desk makes my elbows hurt.