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
president needs to know something he always asks my dad Whoop-de-doo said Robby Numbers are boring My dad builds houses and sometimes he lets me come and help him My dad had never asked me to help him at work Sometimes he brought papers home and worked on his computer but he’d never really showed me what he did If my dad came in you’d see how awesome he is I said He’s got a very important job Like almost the president Tracy Hazlett asked Well almost I said Do you think your dad would really come in Charlie Alex asked I forgot to ask him If Mrs Burke still needs another parent though I bet he would If he comes in I hope he doesn’t give us multiplication problems Robby muttered He’d be stupific Tommy said Stupific is a 5
word Tommy and I made up that means stupendous and terrific I’ve seen him do cool tricks with calculators Calculators Alex asked Could he bring in calculators Just then the buzzer sounded and lunch period was over Everybody got up from the table but I just sat there holding my milk carton thinking about my dad and Career Week 6
