Amber Brown Is Feeling Blue Read Free Page A

how gross it is that I forgot to brush my teeth …. and my hair.
    Borrowing Mom’s hairbrush, I try to get my hair to look good, or at least not to look like one of those dumb troll dolls.
    It’s too hard to think straight this early, I mean, late, in the morning … when we’veoverslept and I’m late for school … and my breath smells and I look like a troll doll.
    I hold my hand over my mouth so that the air goes up and my nose can smell my breath.
    It smells of candy corn, peanut butter, and morning mouth.
    I wonder if I can get a pass to the nurse’s office. I think she keeps emergency toothbrushes next to the Band-Aid box … or I can always put a Band-Aid over my mouth.
    “We’re here,” Mom says. “Please hand me your notebook so that I can write you a note.”
    I look in my pink knapsack and realize that I’ve left my notebook (with my homework in it) by my bed.
    Mom and I rush into the school and explain why I’m late to the school secretary, who writes me a pass.
    I walk down the hall, checking on my breath when no one’s looking.
    Walking into my classroom, I see that everyone is standing by Mrs. Holt’s desk, talking to a kid who I don’t know.
    She’s probably one of the kids who just moved into the new housing development.

    Hal Henry was the first new kid in our class this year. Mrs. Holt has told us to expect more.
    So I guess this person is one of them.
    I look at her.
    She’s got brown hair, blue eyes, and she’s not very skinny.
    She looks like a perfectly nice new kid.
    “She’s here,” Hannah Burton announces to the class in a voice that is much too sweet for the real Hannah Burton.
    “AMBER BROWN has arrived ….. late, but here,” Hannah says. “Let me be the one to introduce you two.”
    “Hannah, I can do that,” Mrs. Holt says softly.
    Hannah continues anyway: “AMBER BROWN ….. meet KELLY GREEN.”
    I start to smile and say hello and then it hits me.
    The new person is named Kelly Green.
    KELLY GREEN.

Chapter
Five

    I, Amber Brown, am flummoxed.
    Flummoxed. Flummoxed. Flummoxed.
    The other night, Max used that word, and when I asked what it meant, he helped me look it up in the dictionary.
    It means confused and perplexed. (We looked that word up, too.)
    I am so flummoxed.
    How can there be another person in my class with a totally colorful name?
    How much chance is there of two people with two names that are colors being in the same class?
    I love having my unusual name.
    There’s a lot in my life that’s changing.
    My dad is moving back.
    Mom and Max are going to get married.
    I’ve been in the fourth grade only two months, and I had to get used to a new teacher, Mrs. Holt.
    With all of the changes in my life, I would like for some things to stay the same.
    My name is one of them. It’s unusual. It’s colorful. It’s me, Amber Brown.
    “Amber Brown. Kelly Green.” Hannah Burton is smiling. “Let the Color Wars begin.”
    Hannah Burton is one of those people who is happiest when other people are unhappy, especially if she helps cause it.
    If Hannah Burton were given a colorful name, it would be “Dirtball Mud.”
    The only war that I must deal with is the one that Hannah and I have …. It’s a not very civil war. I don’t want to be part of it, but for some reason, Hannah is always saying disgusting, mean things.

    Hannah Burton is a disgusting, mean thing, and I’m not going to let her start a fight that isn’t even there between Kelly and me.
    “Kelly Green.” I look at Kelly and say, “It’s really nice to meet you.”
    Mrs. Holt smiles and says, “Amber, I want you to be Kelly’s special guide.”
    “I was hoping that I could be the guide.” Hannah Burton is using her sweet voice. “After all, Amber has so much to do …. what with her having to devote so much extra time to getting organized.”
    And then Hannah Burton whispers something.
    I think it’s “…. and having to remember to brush her hair.”
    I put my hand to my hair and then