EllRay Jakes Rocks the Holidays! by Sally Warner Read Free Book Online Page A

Alfie hurries to tell me. “All the time, not just on assembly day. And I’m coming to your Winter Wonderland show, by the way,” she adds, bouncing on to yet another topic.
    “I don’t think so,” I say carefully. “You’ll probably be busy having too much fun over at Kreative Learning and—”
    “I’m
coming
,” she informs me. “You may be the king of the show, EllWay. But I get to be the king’s sister.”
    “Okay, good,” I say, scrambling to my feet. “That’s just fine. See you there, Alf. And it’s your bath time, by the way.”
    “But you didn’t give me the five-minute warning,” Alfie tells me, shaking her head. “
Or
the one-minute warning.” And she busily switches a couple of Barbies around—so that the stuck-up, mean one is at the very end of the line.
    Take
that
, Vanessa-Suzette.
    “I’ll let Mom give you those two warnings,” Isay, feeling fed up and sad at the same time.
    Because—Dad probably thinks that me being an emcee at the assembly will be good for the
community
. For everyone with brown skin. I just figured that out. And it makes me feel terrible! I can’t live up to that. I’m just an ordinary kid, with good parts and bad parts all scrambled together.
    What if I accidentally mess up, like I did with Kevin’s friendship?
    And what about what’s good for
me
?

11
CHALLENGE
    “Hey, EllRay-dude,” Kevin says, coming up to me after lunch.
    It is Wednesday, December seventeenth, and most of us ate outside—even though it is kind of cold, and the wind is blowing leaves and escaped sandwich bags around in circles, and puffy clouds are whizzing across the sky.
    It’s actually great playing weather, though. We should get to stay outside the whole rest of the day, just flinging ourselves around. Most of us boys are allergic to sitting still, except when we’re playing video games.
    And guys crashing into each other can be
awesome
.
    “What, Kevin-dude?” I say, trying for a regular smile.
    But I have been dreading this moment. What goofy thing is he going to come up with next for me to do?
    “I got one,” Kevin tells me. “Your first challenge.” And a small crowd of guys quickly gathers around, as if they can somehow tell that something unusual—maybe even interesting!—is about to make their lunch break more lively.
    Jared. Stanley. Even a worried-looking Corey.
    “Wait.
Wait
,” I say. “I already agreed to be the emcee for the assembly. I thought that was my first challenge. How many are there gonna be? You can’t keep adding on,” I say, trying to act like I have a choice about doing them.
    Which I don’t. Not if I want to make it up to Kevin so we can be friends again.
    I really do owe him, even though it was an accident that I embarrassed him.
    And with Kevin, once we’re even, it’ll be over.
    Done with.
    Forgotten.
    Gone.
    He’s cool that way.
    “Three challenges,
not counting
being the emcee,” Kevin announces. “Because in books, everything happens in threes, doesn’t it? Three wishes. The three wise men.”
    “But I think the wise men were from the Christmas story,” I say cautiously, not wanting to set him off again.
    “Well,
that’s
in a book,” Kevin says.
    No arguing with him there. “Okay,” I tell him in my most soothing voice. “What do I have to do?”
    “Hang from the middle of the overhead ladder for a real long time,” Kevin says. “Until the buzzer sounds. Starting—
now
.”
    And I try to hide my smile as our windblown posse heads toward the overhead ladder. Kevin’s first challenge will be an easy one for me! I’m really good at overhead ladder stuff.
    I mean, I’ve never tried just hanging from it, but it
sounds
easy.
    Oak Glen Primary School’s overhead ladder is metal, and it’s tall. There’s sand underneath. A couple of rungs on each side serve as steps. You climb up and then reach over to grab on to one of the toprungs. Then you swing hand over hand across all the top rungs of the structure until you