1 Almost the President Struggle of the Titans my best friend Tommy Kasten blurted out Your dad made up Struggle of the Titans Yeah yeah yeah Alex McLeod said his legs and head bobbing up and down With three other guys in his company Best game ever Tommy started making ray gun noises like he was fighting a space alien I’ve never heard of it Ellen Holmes said I can’t wait for your dad to come in Alex Robby Rosen said Maybe he’ll bring in free games for each of us
That would be awesome said Hector Adélia another one of my best friends He can’t Alex said He’s going on a business trip that week A bunch of us were sitting at lunch in the cafeteria talking about Career Week which my fourth-grade class was having in two weeks Every afternoon parents would come in to talk to us about their jobs in Mrs Burke’s class with me Tommy was in Mrs Ladislavski’s class everyone calls her Mrs L and so was Tracy Hazlett who was also sitting at our table Ellen Robby Hector and Alex were I hope Tricia’s dad comes and brings stuff for us I said What’s he do Alex asked She told me he works for a company that makes all sorts of sports jerseys and hats Maybe he’ll bring everyone a hat I wish we were having Career Week Tommy 2
groaned Mrs L s class always has Rainforest Week No one ever gets jerseys or hats on Rain forest Week Maria’s parents run a bakery Alex said Maybe they’ll bring in something to eat Oh man I love their bakery Tommy said Sometimes we get their cinnamon rolls on Saturday mornings Maybe I could transfer to your class for the week Charlie what do your parents do Robby asked I hadn’t asked my parents to come in for Career Week Mostly because I forgot My parents didn’t design games or bake rolls or make jerseys and hats My mom’s a nurse I said She visits people in their homes My dad’s an accountant What’s that Robby asked He mostly works with numbers 3
He just sits around adding and subtracting numbers all day That sounds really boring Robby said faking a big yawn My dad’s not boring I glared at Robby He’s he’s great at math A math genius Tommy added My best friend has a way of exaggerating things Really Tracy Hazlett asked A genius She smiled at me which made my stomach very confused I don’t know why I always have a hard time talking to Tracy Hazlett which I don’t want to talk about Um yeah I said He’s really smart He makes a lot of decisions for his company Like what Robby asked Actually I didn’t know what kind of decisions my dad made I remembered once my dad told us that Mr Jameson the president of the company had called him in for a private talk I could tell my dad thought it was important Big business stuff I said Like when the 4
