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
Tracy Hazlett smiled at me as she left I hope your dad gets to come speak to your class I tried to smile back but my mouth twisted in a weird way Let’s go Charlie Tommy said Don’t waste recess I got up to follow the others but I couldn’t get my mind off my dad’s job What did he really do I wondered if his boss Mr Grimaldi would even give him the afternoon off to come into school Maybe my dad could come in And maybe he could do something cool And maybe someday he’d be president of the company Or maybe not Sometimes I have a big blabby mouth 7
2 I Am Math Genius That night after dinner my little sister Mabel my dad calls her Squirt but I call her the Squid because it’s funnier was sitting at the kitchen table and my mom was quizzing her on addition My sister’s in first grade so the problems were pretty easy like 65 plus 11 and 73 plus 22 But she was still having a hard time Dad was washing the dishes I was drying and putting things away I don’t like this the Squid announced It’s too hard Dad turned around
