Hey New Kid! Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Copyright Page

  Chapter 1 - Super Cody

  Chapter 2 - The Little Dork That. Couldn’t

  Chapter 3 - Die, Pie Again

  Chapter 4 - Smiley Faces

  Chapter 5 - Mom-asaurus

  Chapter 6 - To Skate or Not to Skate

  Chapter 7 - How to Fall

  Chapter 8 - How Not to Skate

  Chapter 9 - Ready, Set, Go!

  Chepter 10 - Boy!

  Chapter 11 - The Truth?

  Chapter 12 - Skating Smiles

  Chapter 13 - Time Enough!

  GULP!

  “This is our new student, Cody Michaels.”

  Cody was standing in front of his new class with his new teacher, Ms. Harvey.

  A classroom full of strangers looked back. His heart was beating fast. Twenty pairs of eyes were fixed on him like the guns of a firing squad.

  “Tell us something about yourself, Cody,” Ms. Harvey said. “Where are you from?”

  Topeka sounded so boring. It was time to create the new Cody. “Alaska,” he said instead. “We lived in an igloo.”

  OTHER CHAPTER BOOKS FROM PUFFIN

  The Fireplug Is First Base Petersen/James

  The Four-Legged Ghosts Hoffman/Seeley

  The Gadget War Duffey/Wilson

  Horrible Harry in Room 2B Kline/Remkiewicz

  I Hate Company Petersen/James

  The Math Wiz Duffey/Wilson

  Rats on the Range James Marshall

  Russell Rides Again Hurwitz/Hoban

  Sasha and the Wolfcub Jungman/Wright

  The Sub Petersen/Johnson

  Wackysaurus: Dinosaur Jokes Phillips/Barrett

  The William Problem Baker/Iosa

  For Ben

  PUFFIN BOOKS

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Putnam Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.

  Penguin Books Ltd, 27 Wrights Lane, London W8 5TZ, England

  Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood, Victoria, Australia

  Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcom Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2

  Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, 182-190 Wairau Road, Auckland 10, New Zealand

  Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England

  First published in the United States of America by Viking,

  a division of Penguin Books USA Inc., 1996

  Published in Puffin Books, 1998

  Text copyright © Betsy Duffey, 1996 Illustrations copyright © Ellen Thompson, 1996

  All rights reserved

  THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HAS CATALOGED THE VIKING EDITION AS FOLLOWS:

  Duffey, Betsy.

  Hey, new kid! / by Betsy Duffey; illustrated by Ellen Thompson, p. cm.

  Summary: Third-grader Cody dreads going to a new school when his family moves,

  so he decides to reinvent himself, hoping his new classmates will be impressed.

  eISBN : 978-1-101-14248-6

  [1. Schools—Fiction. 2. Moving, Household—Fiction. 3. Friendship—Fiction.]

  I. Thompson, Ellen (Ellen M.), ill. II. Title.

  PZ7.D876He 1996 [Fic]—dc20 95-46309 CIP AC

  RL: 2.3

  http://us.penguingroup.com

  Chapter 1

  Super Cody

  “Is your fly zipped?”

  Cody’s mother looked over from behind the steering wheel of their blue station wagon.

  Cody zipped his pants.

  “Tuck in your shirt.”

  “I don’t feel so good,” he said. He saw a school-crossing sign out the window, and his stomach tightened.

  Cody pulled down the car’s sun visor and looked in the mirror. “Maybe I’m sick,” he said hopefully. “Look at these spots. I think I have chicken pox.”

  “Cody, keep your imagination under control. Those are freckles.”

  His mother stopped at a stop sign. “You do not have chicken pox. You just don’t want to go to school.”

  She drove on.

  “The first day is always the hardest. You’ll be just fine.”

  “I don’t see any parking places,” said Cody. “Let’s try again tomorrow. Or next week.”

  A red Jeep pulled out right in front of the school.

  “Oh, good,” his mother said. “Here’s one.”

  The school was a tall red-brick building with lots of windows. It did not look at all like his old school. To Cody, it looked more like a prison. He imagined that he was a prisoner being driven to jail.

  “Don’t I get a last request, Warden?” he said to his mother.

  She swung into the parking place. “Don’t be silly. Be yourself. By the end of the day you’ll have lots of new friends. You’ll love this school.”

  Small groups of kids were walking toward the building. They laughed and talked.

  Cody wondered what his friends Aaron and Kate were doing. If he were still in Topeka, he would be with them, making them laugh. School was fun with Aaron and Kate.

  One whole week last month they’d pretended to be from another planet. They’d talked like robots and walked like robots. Everyone had laughed, even his teacher.

  Another time they pretended to be able to read the teacher’s mind. They got out their lunch boxes and lined up for lunch before she called them. And once they pretended that the cafeteria was haunted. Why else would the meat loaf have that greenish color?

  Right now, back in Topeka, Kate and Aaron were walking into his old school, laughing and talking like these kids—these strangers.

  “You told me never to speak to strangers. That’s what those are, Mom.”

  She sighed. “Cody, you’re hopeless. I give you permission, just for today, to speak to strangers. Come on.”

  He didn’t move.

  “I promise it will be fine.”

  She was already out of the car.

  “My legs, Mom. I can’t move my legs.”

  She opened the car door and looked down at him. “There is nothing wrong with your legs.”

  Slowly he got out of the car and began limping toward the red-brick building.

  “I really should stay home. I mean, you might need me, Mom. You’ll be all alone,” he said to her back.

  “I’ll be fine. I’ll have Pal to keep me company.” She kept walking.

  “But Pal’s a dog. He can’t help you unpack. Mom ...”

  She didn’t respond, only held the door open for him. As they walked together to the office, he had that prisoner feeling again.

  “Hi. I’m Susan Michaels and this is Cody. We just moved from Topeka,” she said to the lady at the office window.

  The lady leaned out the window and looked at him. “Second grade?” she asked.

  “Third,” his mother answered. Cody stood up straighter.

  “Welcome to Danville School,” the lady said. “Come on in, Mrs. Michaels. We have some papers for you to fill out. Cody can sit in the hall on the bench.”

  Cody sat down alone and clutched his book bag.

  Inside was all his new stuff. His missed his old stuff—his chewed pencils, his notebook covered with his drawings.

  His mother had not been able to find his school things in the moving boxes yesterday, so they’d had to buy everything new.

  The pencils came in a pack that said NEW! and IMPROVED! The notebook-paper pack said SUPER! and DELUXE!

  A girl passed him in the hall. She wore a purple T-shirt and had lots of curly red hair. She was the only person he had ever seen who had more freckles than he did.

  She smiled at him. At least he thought she smiled at him. Maybe she didn’t smile at him. He looked down quickly.

  Who would want to b
e friends with him anyway?

  He was just plain old Cody who was too short and too freckled, whose father worked in a bank and whose mother sold computers. His family drove an ordinary station wagon and had an ordinary cocker spaniel who did nothing but sleep. Boring.

  He thought about his new pencils and paper, and wished that he could be NEW! IMPROVED! SUPER! or DELUXE!

  “It’s another new kid,” a boy said to his friend as they passed Cody in the hall.

  Watching the boys walk down the hall, Cody wished with all his might that he was not just another new kid. Then, as he waited for his mother, he had an idea.

  No one knew him here. He could be anything that he wanted to be. He would no longer be the plain old Cody. He would be a new version of himself, like the pencils and notebook paper. He could use his imagination to make a new Cody. For once his pretending would not be for fun—it would be for survival.

  Super Cody.

  His mother came out and gave him a hug. “Ms. Mallet will be right out to take you to your new classroom.”

  She straightened his shirt, then rubbed his cheek with spit.

  “Remember what your dad told you this morning,” she said, “about the little engine that could. ‘I think I can. I think I can.’ ”

  “Mom, I’m not a baby.”

  “I know, Cody. I just want you to think positive.”

  “I think I positively don’t want to be here.”

  “Cody,” she said, “the kids will love you.”

  Ms. Mallet came out of the office. Cody gave one more pleading look at his mother before he turned and walked down the hall.

  “And remember, be yourself,” his mother called to him.

  Which is one thing he had decided not to be.

  One SUPER! DELUXE! new kid coming up!

  Chapter 2

  The Little Dork That. Couldn’t

  “This is our new student, Cody Michaels.”

  Cody was standing in front of his new class with his new teacher, Ms. Harvey.

  A classroom full of strangers looked back. His heart was beating fast—faster, he was sure, than it ever had before. He imagined again that he was a prisoner. Twenty pairs of eyes were fixed on him like the guns of a firing squad. The girl with the purple T-shirt, he noticed, sat in the front row.

  “Tell us something about yourself, Cody,” Ms. Harvey said. “Where are you from?”

  He rubbed his hands together to stop them from shaking. Topeka sounded so boring. It was time to create the new Cody. “Alaska,” he said instead. “We lived in an igloo.”

  “My,” his teacher said.

  The twenty pairs of eyes widened. Now he had their attention. He felt a ripple of excitement—like the kind he felt when he made a goal at soccer. They believed him. He took a deep breath, tucked his hands down into his pockets, and continued.

  “And I am smart, super smart. In fact a genius.”

  He stood up taller. Everything was going great.

  “As a baby my first word was encyclopedia.”

  Ms. Harvey blinked. “Tell us about your family.”

  He thought for a second. His family was boring too. But not for long.

  “My dad works for the F.B.I. He’s a secret agent.”

  “Oh!” Ms. Harvey said.

  “My mom drives a red Jag.”

  “Cool,” said a boy in the back.

  Being Super Cody was terrific. He was in control. He could have anything. He could be anything.

  “With black leather seats,” he added. “And a fax machine.”

  “Well,” said Ms. Harvey. She paused, then asked, “Any pets?”

  “Just Pal,” Cody answered, then remembered that he was Super Cody now.

  “And what is Pal?”

  “He’s a ...” Cody thought hard. Pal couldn’t be just a dog. Everyone had a dog. “He’s an emu.”

  Someone gasped.

  Cody wondered what an emu was.

  “Well,” Ms. Harvey said, “I think that’s enough for now.”

  “It is?” Cody was just getting started. “I could tell you about my house and my room.” He was thinking about inventing a swimming pool and Ping-Pong table.

  “Maybe later,” said Ms. Harvey. She led him to a seat right behind the freckled girl in the purple T-shirt.

  “Welcome. Have a seat behind Holly.”

  Cody sat in his new desk and looked around at his new class. His heart was not pounding quite so hard now. His hands had stopped shaking.

  “Hey, new kid,” the boy behind him whispered.

  “It’s Cody,” he whispered back.

  “Can you bring your emu tomorrow?

  “No,” Cody answered. “He’s shy.”

  “No talking, Chip.” Ms. Harvey looked in their direction. “We start the day with science.”

  She handed Cody a science book. It was the same one that they had used at his old school.

  “We’re starting a new unit today,” she said. “Chapter twelve. Plants.”

  “Ooo! Ooo!” Cody—that is, Super Cody— waved his hand in the air.

  “Yes?”

  “I just wanted you to know,” he said, “that I am an expert on plants. We just finished this unit at my old school.”

  “Thank you, Cody,” she said, “for sharing that.”

  “I mean, if you need any help ...”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  Cody opened his book to chapter twelve.

  The pictures of the leaves and flowers were comforting.

  When they had finished chapter twelve, Ms. Harvey showed them a stack of paper cups and a bag of potting soil. “We’re going to plant some seeds today,” she said.

  “Ooo! Ooo!” Cody waved his hand again but this time Ms. Harvey did not seem to see him.

  Row by row, the kids went to the table in the back of the room to plant their seeds. Cody kept waving his hand for Ms. Harvey to call on him, but she didn’t notice.

  Finally it was his turn. He walked back to the table with the kids in his row.

  Chip passed out the cups. They scooped dirt into the cups from the bag of soil.

  “Hey, new kid,” Chip said, “here’s your seed.”

  Cody pressed his seed into the dirt in his cup. It gave him a hopeful feeling to plant the seed. He carefully patted the dark moist soil over it.

  “Hey, Holly,” Chip said.

  Holly was patting down the soil on top of her seed.

  “Yes?”

  “What are you going to get for your birthday?”

  “Rollerblades,” she answered.

  “Cool! I can skate backwards,” Chip said.

  . Holly’s eyes were a wonderful greenish color. Super Cody spoke up. “I’m probably the best skater in the whole school,” Cody said. “Maybe even the world.”

  Holly’s green eyes got wide. The way she looked at him made him feel great. He was sorry for a second that he couldn’t really skate.

  “I’ve won a lot of skating trophies,” he added. “Dozens.”

  “Wow,” she said.

  “I can give you skating lessons,” Cody said.

  “Let’s finish up,” Ms. Harvey said, “and get to our seats.”

  Cody smoothed out the black soil on the top of his cup. He put the cup on the windowsill with the others.

  “Time for math,” Ms. Harvey said.

  Cody got out one of his new pencils. He took out his new pencil sharpener and began to twist the pencil in the sharpener. He was good at math. He thought about raising his hand to tell Ms. Harvey how good he was at math.

  “Multiplication.”

  Cody stopped sharpening his pencil. He wouldn’t need it after all. They had not had the times tables yet at his old school.

  Ms. Harvey handed out the sheets of problems. Cody looked at the problems, then glanced around the room. All the other kids were writing. They were filling in the answers.

  Cody began to write down numbers:

  122. 45. 600.

  He wro
te anything just to look like he knew the answers.

  They finished the test and began to pass their papers to the front of the room. Cody passed his paper up.

  The new deluxe Cody was getting complicated.

  He was from Alaska.

  He had lived in an igloo.

  His father was an F.B.I. agent.

  His mother drove a red Jag.

  His pet was a shy emu.

  He had won trophies for skating.

  And he was smart, super smart.

  Cody suddenly wished those things were true.

  At his old school, he was smart. He made good grades. He didn’t have to skate. Here everything was different. Being the new Cody was hard.

  He thought about that little engine climbing up the mountain. The happy face of the engine had always irritated him. Then he imagined a large bomb dropping from the sky and blowing up the little engine.

  Instead of the little engine that could, Cody had become the little dork that couldn’t.

  Chapter 3

  Die, Pie Again

  Cody’s room at home looked like a tornado had hit it. Boxes were piled everywhere. Some were open, with things falling out. Others were still taped shut.

  “Ah ha! Underwear!” Cody’s mother pulled handfuls of his clothes out of a moving box. She was acting like unpacking was a treasure hunt.

  Cody stood in the doorway. “I’m home,” he said.

  The room had teddy-bear wallpaper. The teddy bears marched around the walls playing little horns and drums. A baby had lived in this room before they moved in.

  Cody leaned against the door frame. He imagined himself as a soldier returning from war. He felt as tired and worn out as if he had just crawled through a mine field.

  His mother didn’t notice. “Tell me all about school,” she said cheerfully, pulling a pile of jeans out of the box.

  “Terrible. Horrible.”

  He staggered over to the pieces of his bed and collapsed on the mattress where Pal lay sleeping. Pal didn’t even move.

  “Pal doesn’t care that I just had the worst day of my life,” he said. Pal’s tail thumped twice.

  His mother stopped unpacking the box and looked at him. “I know it’s not easy to move,” she said.