The Mealworm Diaries Read Free

Aaron asked.
    â€œI don’t think so,” Mr. Collins said. “The sides are smooth and straight, and I’m hoping they’ll like the food so much they won’t try to escape. I’m not sure what the caretaker would say if we let an army of mealworms loose in the school.”
    A few of the girls said “Ewww!” all over again, but the boys chuckled.
    Aaron huffed when Mr. Collins refused to give him a tin of his own. “It’s up to your partner,” he said, handing Jeremy two tins. “He’s the keeper of your mealworm, remember?”
    Then he raised his voice so the whole class could hear. “Use a marker to print your name and your mealworm’s name on the side of the tin, and then tidy up and begin your journal entries.”
    Jeremy passed one tin to Aaron and printed the name Spot on the second. When he finished, he saw Karima wiping her desk with a couple of wet paper towels. She didn’t say anything, but when she was done she handed them to Jeremy, so he wiped his own desk. He was happy to get rid of any mealworm poop, even if it was almost invisible. Tufan reached for the towels next, and then everybody got towels and followed their example. Jeremy felt better. Maybe his desk wasn’t the only poopy one.
    When Aaron left, Jeremy wrote everything he could think of in his mealworm diary, and he made a quick sketch of two mealworms sitting up as if they were having a conversation. One was wearing little square glasses; the other had a big letter S on his chest and a little cape across his shoulders.
    Karima’s laugh made him look up. “That’s really good,” she said.
    He smiled and a warm feeling settled into his chest. There was something about her…was it her eyes?
    Whatever it was, it made all his Aaron troubles seem less important.

FIVE
    â€œMan, it sucks to be you,” Tufan said as they lined up for recess. “Aaron is such a creep.”
    Jeremy chuckled his agreement, but when he saw Aaron watching, not three feet away, he stopped. He didn’t like the kid, but he didn’t want to make fun of him either. To keep from saying anything else, he stepped to the side and knelt to retie his shoelaces as the line of kids swirled by him and out the door.
    When he got outside, he found himself surrounded by a whole lot of kids he didn’t know. He saw Karima looking at him and he turned away, afraid she might call him over. When he glanced back, she was unfolding a skipping rope. It wasn’t long before he heard a familiar slap, slap, slap beating out the song she and her friends were singing as they skipped. He wondered how they’d feel if he asked to join them. He was good with the ropes, really good. But from what he could see, in this school skipping was only for girls.
    There were other groups of kids nearby. Some were playing foot hockey. None of them were paying him any attention. At home somebody would have asked him to join in, or he would have walked over and said, “Can I play?” At home he never stood alone. At home he knew everybody.
    He looked out into the field beyond the pavement and saw the boys from his class in the baseball diamond. By the way their arms were waving, he was sure they were arguing.
    He’d found out yesterday that they played something called soccer baseball. Horace said real bats and balls weren’t allowed in city schools, so they played a game with baseball rules, kicking a soccer ball instead of hitting a baseball with a bat. He waited to see if somebody would wave him over. Nobody did.
    He turned, spotted the sign for the boys’ washroom and thought about going in there. Would it be easier to hide in the washroom than to stand alone in a crowd? He shook his head, lifted his shoulders and headed for the diamond. He’d stand and watch if he had to. It was better than spending recess beside a urinal.
    â€œHey, Jer,” Horace called as he came closer.