Keena Ford and the Secret Journal Mix-Up Read Free Page B

MY JOURNAL,” but I did not want Tiffany to tell all my secrets. But I also did not want to tell Ms. Campbell that I didn’t have my journal, because she would think I didn’t take good care of my stuff. So all of a sudden I just told Ms. Campbell that when I was walking to school, a big dog ran into me on the sidewalk and knocked my journal into a puddle and then a bus ran over it. Ms. Campbell raised her eyebrows up high. “Hmmm. You must be very upset,” she said. “I know your journal is very important to you.”
    â€œYes, I’m very upset,” I told her. That was true. I was upset because I had just told a whopper to Ms. Campbell. A whopper is a big, big lie. The only part that was true was that I did see a dog on the way to school, but it was pretty small, and a lady was walking it on a leash. Everything else I said to Ms. Campbell was a big fat lie. My lip started wobbling and my eyes got a little wet when I thought about what a big liar I was.
    I thought Ms. Campbell might say “There, there,” or something like that, but she just gave me this plain old notebook.
    â€œDon’t let this one get run over by a bus,” she told me.
    â€œI won’t. I promise,” I said. I felt a little better because I wasn’t lying when I promised that.
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    Mom just came into my room and said that it is time for dinner. After dinner, I am going to ask Mom to go to Tiffany’s apartment to get my beautiful journal back! Tiffany will have to give my journal back if Mom asks for it. So good-bye forever, plain old boring notebook!

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 17
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    10:30 A.M.
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    Hello stupid old notebook again. We did not go get my journal from Tiffany’s after dinner last night because Mom and Brian got into a big disagreement. A big disagreement is some talking in regular voices, then talking a little bit louder, then yelling for about ten seconds, then talking in very quiet voices. I know because Mom and Dad used to have big disagreements before Dad moved to Maryland. Now they just talk to each other in nice voices and say please and thank you in almost every sentence.
    Mom and Brian’s big disagreement was about basketball. Mom and Dad had decided that Brian was going to have to skip one week of basketball practice and one basketball game because he had been clowning around in class. If Brian was good in class, he would get to play basketball again. If not, he would miss another week. If he missed more than two weeks, then he would have to quit the team.
    At dinner, Brian was very mad about his punishment, and he was trying to argue with Mom. He said his teachers were picking on him. He said he could do what he wanted to do in class because it’s a free country, which is true because I learned it when I went to the United States Capitol. Mom used her voice that means WATCH OUT, and she said they were not going to discuss it anymore. She said that if Brian wanted to stay on the basketball team he should just do what he was supposed to do and that was that.
    So after the big disagreement Mom was kind of grumpy, and she did not want to go to Tiffany’s with me. So I went to my room and tried to think up a way to help Brian be good so he could stay on the basketball team. I wanted him to stay on the basketball team for two reasons. First, playing basketball makes Brian happy, and if Brian is happy, then he won’t want to move to Maryland. Second, I already made posters for when I cheer for Brian at his basketball games, and if he doesn’t get to stay on the team, I won’t get to show my posters. One poster says “RARR BRIAN LION” because Brian’s team is the Lions, and the other poster says “Keep Tryin’ Brian!” I got some little basketball stickers that I put all over the posters.
    Thinking about posters and stickers gave me an idea. I decided to make a sticker chart for Brian to help him keep track of how