Free There’s A Boy in the Girl’s Bathroom by Louis Sachar

punching him, in the neck, in the stomach, then in the eye.
    Jeff fell to the ground.
    Melinda jumped on top of him, knees first. She sat on his chest and held his arms flat against the ground.
    Lori knelt beside them and slapped the ground as she counted: “One … two … three … four … five … six … seven … eight … nine
ten!”
    Melinda stood up.
    Lori held Melinda’s arm high in the air. Holding her nose with her other hand, she bellowed: “The winner, and still champion of the world … Marvelous Melinda!”
    Colleen clapped her hands.

25 .
     
    I’m going to be good
, thought Bradley,
and then, when everybody sees how good I am, they’ll know I’m not a monster
.
    “And Mrs. Ebbel will give you a gold star,” said Ronnie.
    Bradley was so excited, he didn’t realize he was putting on two different-colored socks: a blue one and a green one. He tied his shoelaces, then went into the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror.
    His black eye was almost all gone. It had faded into a light brownish-yellowish color. He hurried out to breakfast.
    His mother made oatmeal for him.
    “I hate hot cereal,” he complained.
    “You’ll eat what you’re served,” said his father. “This isn’t a restaurant.”
    He frowned, not because he had to eat oatmeal, but because he realized he never should have said he hated it. That was something the Bad Bradley would say. The Good Bradley liked hot, lumpy cereal.
    He took a big spoonful, brought it to his mouth, and swallowed the glop. “Mmm, good!” he said, but as he withdrew the spoon from his mouth, his elbow bumped his glass of orange juice.
    Claudia screamed and jumped up.
    “Oh, Bradley!” said his mother.
    His father glared at him.
    “It was an acci—” He started to say it was an accident but then remembered Carla didn’t believe in accidents. That puzzled him. He wondered why he would want to spill his orange juice on purpose. He liked orange juice. It was the oatmeal he should have spilled.
    “Are you just going to sit there, or are you going to help your mother clean it up?” asked his father.
    He picked up his napkin to help, but his mother told him to stay out of her way. “You’ll only make a bigger mess,” she said.
    Silently, he finished eating.
    As he headed back to his room, Claudia burst out laughing.
    “What’s so funny?” he demanded.
    “Look at your socks!” she laughed.
    He looked down at his feet, then back at his sister, the laughing hyena. “Thank you, Claudia,” he said. “I appreciate your sharing that with me.”
    She stopped laughing and stared at him.
    He walked into his room, sat on the edge of his bed, and took off his sneakers.
    “Wow!” said Bartholomew. “You were so good. I would have punched her face in if I was you.”
    “He’s going to get a gold star today,” said Ronnie.
    Bradley changed his socks, but once again he was so excited thinking about the gold star that he didn’t pay attention to what he was doing. He took the green sock off his right foot. He took the blue sock off his leftfoot. He put the green sock on his left foot and the blue sock on his right foot. Then he put his shoes on and left for school, determined to be good.
    He walked into class and took his seat—last seat, last row. He sat up straight with his hands folded on top of his desk. He tried to hold back his excitement as he glanced at the chart on the wall next to him.
    Jeff came in and sat down—last seat, second to last row.
    Bradley saw him out of the corner of his eye, then turned to get a better look. Jeff had a black eye!
    “What are you staring at, Chalkers!” Jeff snarled.
    “Hey, you two look like twins!” exclaimed Shawne, the girl who sat in front of Jeff.
    “Turn your ugly face around,” Jeff snapped.
    “Oh, shut up, Bradley,” said Shawne, turning around.
    Bradley looked at the back of Shawne’s head.
She still thinks I’m a monster
, he realized.
But once I get my gold star, then