Free Why Pick on Me by Louis Sachar Page A

saw it.”
    “You were picking your nose!” Clarence said.
    “I was not!” said Marvin.
    “You were snot?” asked Clarence. “He just said he was snot.”
    Everyone, except Stuart, laughed.
    “That’s not what I said,” said Marvin.
    “That’s snot what I said,” said Clarence.
    “Just go to the end of the line, Marvin,” said Travis.
    Marvin didn’t move.
    Clarence grabbed the ball from him. “Oh, gross!” he exclaimed. “His boogers are on the ball!”
    Even Stuart laughed.
    “I’m not playing with this ball!” said Clarence. He threw it to Marvin.
    Marvin held up the ball. “Look, there’s nothing on it,” he said.
    “Now they’re on his hands!” said Clarence.
    Everyone backed away from Marvin.
    The bell rang.
    The other kids hurried back to class, leaving Marvin holding the ball.

2

    It got worse.…
    After school Marvin walked home with Nick and Stuart. He was still upset.
    “The ball was over the line,” he said.
    “Just forget about it,” said Nick.
    “It was over the line,” said Marvin.
    “We know,” said Stuart.
    “Then why didn’t you say anything?”
    “I don’t know,” said Stuart. “It was funny.”
    “Boogers on the ball!” said Nick, then he and Stuart cracked up.
    Marvin didn’t think it was funny. It was unfair! Clarence was just being a bad sport.
    “I didn’t pick my nose,” he said for the millionth time.
    “Just quit talking about it!” said Nick. “Forget about it.”
    “You can’t keep telling people you don’t pick your nose,” said Stuart. “That sounds weird.”
    “But I don’t!” said Marvin.
    His face burned as he thought about it.
    Everybody had laughed at him. Even Nick and Stuart. If they were true friends, they would have stuck up for him.
    He couldn’t stop thinking about it, all day and into the night.
    It was unfair. He didn’t pick his nose. The ball was over the line.
    When he got to school the next morning, the first person he saw was Casey Happleton.
    “Hi, Marvin,” said Casey. Her ponytail stuck out of the side of her head.
    “I didn’t pick my nose,” said Marvin.
    “What?”
    “I didn’t pick my nose,” he repeated.
    Casey looked at him a moment. Then she remembered. “You’re gross,” she said.
    Warren sat in front of him. He had been absent yesterday.
    “Hey, Warren,” Marvin whispered as he tapped Warren’s shoulder.
    Warren turned around.
    “Did you hear I pick my nose?” Marvin asked him. “Well, I don’t.”
    Melanie sat next to Warren. “What’d he say? What’d he say?” she asked. Melanie always wanted to know everything.
    “He asked me if I knew he picked his nose,” said Warren.
    “Oh, yeah,” said Melanie. “Marvin’s the biggest nose picker in the whole school.”
    “I am not!” whispered Marvin.
    All morning Marvin kept telling everyone he didn’t pick his nose. But the more he talked about it, the more the other kids teased him about it.
    And the more they teased him, the more he kept talking about it.
    “Don’t get too close to Marvin,” said Clarence. “Or else he’ll try to pick your nose too.”

3

    It got worse.…
    “What’s your favorite color, Marvin?” asked Judy.
    Marvin thought about red, because he had red hair and his name was Marvin Redpost. But really, he liked green better—the color of grass and trees. The color of springtime.
    “Green,” he said.
    “The color of boogers!” said Melanie.
    “You’re disgusting, Marvin!” said Judy as she wrote down his answer on her sheet of paper.
    Marvin felt terrible. In fifty years they’ll dig up the time capsule. And they’ll find out a boy named Marvin Redpost picked his nose. And everyone will laugh at him.
    Maybe in fifty years he’d be president! But then they’d dig up the time capsule and say, “You can’t be president anymore. You picked your nose.”

    It wasn’t fair. The ball was over the line.
    They didn’t let him play wall-ball at recess. “You’ll get boogers on the ball,” said