“So you’re going to do a rap, huh?” said Gary. “Sounds cool.”
“Just fooling around, you know how it is,” said Joe.
Gary didn’t know how it was, but he was glad Joe thought he did. “I’m going to tell jokes. I’m making them all up myself. But I can’t tell you any. I’m keeping them all inside so they pop out like a balloon.”
Joe looked at him a moment, like he wanted to tell Gary something, but then just smiled. “Sounds cool,” he said. He turned away and quickened his pace.
“Thanks,” said Gary, staying with him. “Hey, how about letting me do something today, besides just hiking the ball.”
“Sure, maybe,” said Joe.
“Do you know if Matt is making up his own jokes, or is he just telling jokes he already knows?” asked Gary.
“What?” snapped Joe. He stopped walking and turned on Gary. “I don’t know! Why don’t you ask him?”
Gary shrugged. “Could you do me a favor? Could you tell Brenda Thompson I don’t want to be first? Just because I was the first to sign up for the talent show doesn’t mean I want to be on stage first.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Brenda Thompson decides the order. You know—which act goes on first, second … Tell her I don’t want to be first.”
“Why don’t—” Joe stopped. He put his hand on Gary’s shoulder. “Look, don’t take the talent show so seriously, okay? It’s for fun. We’re all just going to get up on stage and make big fools out of ourselves. It’s just for fun.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Well, don’t be so uptight about it, okay?” Joe said. “Go with the flow. No matter what happens.”
“Sure,” said Gary. “So will you talk to Brenda Thompson for me?”
“Sure,” said Joe.
When Gary got home, he started reading the book about the pirate and the beautiful girl that Angeline had given him a long time ago. He didn’t make up any jokes. He had too much work to do. And he no longer felt funny.
13.
Miss Langley assigned four pages of math homework.
Just pour it on, Longlegs! thought Gary. You’re the faculty adviser for the talent show, but you don’t care if I have time to make up jokes!
He went to see her after class.
“No one else has signed up since yesterday,” she said.
He shrugged. That wasn’t what he was going to ask her. He started to leave, then stopped. “This isn’t the only class I have, you know,” he said.
“Pardon?”
“Four pages is a lot of homework. Other teachers assign homework too. I have to read a whole book and do a book report by Friday. How am I supposed to work on my act for the talent show if I have to waste all my time doing homework?”
“Maybe if you had started that book report when it was first assigned three weeks ago, you wouldn’t have this problem.”
He couldn’t believe it. How’d she know that? He would have thought that teachers had better things to do than talk about him.
“Goon, over here!” Joe Reed called to him as he stepped out of class.
Joe was standing out by the library. No one else was near.
“I thought of a great idea for a football play,” said Joe. “If you’re up for it.”