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“What’s your favorite vegetable?” asked Casey.
Marvin Redpost looked up. “Potatoes. No, carrots,” he said. It was very important he told the truth.
Casey Happleton wrote it down. She sat at the desk next to Marvin. She had a ponytail that stuck out of the side of her head. Instead of the back.
“Casey!” whispered Melanie. “What’s your favorite bug?”
Melanie sat in front of Casey.
“A stink bug,” said Casey.
Casey Happleton was a weird girl.
“What’s yours, Marvin?” asked Melanie.
“Uh, black widow,” answered Marvin.
“Ooooooh,” said Casey.
“Who’s jabbering?” asked Mrs. North. “Marvin?”
“I wasn’t jabbering,” said Marvin. “Melanie asked me her survey question.”
“Oh. Well, you can do that later,” said Mrs. North. “This is silent reading time.”
Marvin returned to his book. He was nine years old. He was in the third grade. Mrs. North was his teacher.
He liked Mrs. North. He liked the third grade. He liked being nine.
“Have you picked your survey question yet?” Stuart Albright asked him on the way out to recess.
“No,” said Marvin. “I can’t think of a good one.”
Everyone in his class had to choose a survey question.
Marvin was supposed to ask everyone a question and write down the answers. Then he would have to do a report on it.
The results would be buried in a time capsule. It would be dug up in fifty years.
That’s why Marvin wanted to think of a real good question.
“What was your favorite vegetable?” asked Stuart.
“Carrots.”
Stuart nodded. “It’s weird when you think about it,” he said. “You have red hair.”
“So?” said Marvin.
“They call a person with red hair Carrot Top. But really, carrots are green on top. So they should call a person with green hair Carrot Top.”
Stuart was Marvin’s best friend. Marvin was the only one who understood him.
They got on line to play wall-ball.
“Hi, Marvin,” said Nick, getting in line behind him.
“Hi, Nick,” said Marvin.
