Free Dimples Delight by Frieda Wishinsky

Text copyright © 2005 Frieda Wishinsky
    Interior illustrations copyright © 2005 Louise-Andrée Laliberté
    All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher.
    National Library of Canada Cataloguing in Publication Data
    Wishinsky, Frieda
    Dimples delight / Frieda Wishinsky; with illustrations by Louise-Andrée Laliberté.
    (Orca echoes)
    ISBN 1-55143-362-1
    1. Teasing--Juvenile fiction. I. Laliberté, Louise-Andrée II. Title. III. Series.
    PS8595.I834D54 2005            jC813’.54                        C2005-904059-9
    First published in the United States: 2005
    Library of Congress Control Number: 2005929686
    Summary : Lawrence cannot bear Joe’s teasing about his dimples,
    but nothing he does will make it stop.
    Orca Book Publishers gratefully acknowledges the support for its publishing programs provided by the following agencies: the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage’s Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP), the Canada Council for the Arts, and the British Columbia Arts Council.
    Design and layout: Lynn O’Rourke
    Orca Book Publishers               Orca Book Publishers
Box 5626, Stn. B                              PO Box 468
Victoria, BC Canada                    Custer, WA USA       
V8R 6S4                                 98240-0468
    www.orcabook.com
    Printed and bound in Canada
    Printed on 50% post-consumer recycled paper,
    processed chlorine free using vegetable, low VOC inks.
    08  07  06  05  •  4  3  2  1

To Bill:

Without your love and dimples,

this story would never have come to be.

Chapter One
You’re So Cute
    On the first day of school, our new teacher, Ms. Parks, spotted me. I smiled at her. Right away, I knew that I had made a mistake.
    â€œWill the boy in the blue sweater with the cute dimples in the second row please stand?” she boomed.
    â€œCute!” I groaned.
    â€œYoung man,” Ms. Parks boomed again, “please stand.”
    Everyone’s eyes were on me.
    And then a rumbly voice from behind me said with a snicker, “Look at Dimple Boy!”
    I knew that voice.
    Everyone at school knew that voice.
    It was Joe Morse.
    â€œWhat’s your name?” Ms. Parks asked me.
    â€œLawrence,” I whispered.
    â€œSpeak up. Repeat your name loudly—with confidence,” she said.
    â€œLawrence,” I said.
    â€œThank you, Lawrence. You may sit down.”
    I sat down. My face burned.
    I heard Joe laughing behind me. I turned around.
    Joe was drilling holes into his cheeks with his fingers. He stuck out his tongue like he was going to be sick.
    I wanted to say something, do something, anything, to make him stop. But what?
    Ms. Parks handed out our new math book.
    â€œWrite your name in pencil on the inside cover,” she told us.
    I wrote my first name. On the first letter of my last name, my pencil point snapped like a twig.
    I looked in my pencil case. My new baseball pencil and hot-dog eraser were gone. Eloise! My little sister Eloise always pokes into my stuff.
    I looked around the classroom. The pencil sharpener was at the back of the room, past Joe’s desk. The last thing I wanted to do was pass Joe.
    â€œPsst, Stewart,” I said.
    My friend Stewart was