Free Summer School! What Genius Thought That Up? by Henry Winkler

I’m reading to someone else. I just can’t get over it!!!

CHAPTER 16
    THAT NIGHT AFTER DINNER, Frankie, Ashley, and I met in the clubhouse for what Frankie called a dress rehearsal of our magic trick. Frankie loves to be prepared. He would have made a great Cub Scout except that he wouldn’t like wearing that yellow scarf. If the Cub Scouts would ever decide to lose the scarf, Frankie’s in.
    â€œOkay, guys,” he said, checking his watch. “In exactly twenty and one half hours we’re going to wow ’em and zow ’em. Ashweena, talk to me.”
    â€œCostume, completed,” said Ashley. She twirled around to show us her blue pants and top that she had covered with green rhinestones in the shape of ocean waves. There were yellow rhinestones for the sun, and red rhinestones for coconuts. She was very sparkly.
    â€œPrincess Leilani, you look great,” Frankie said. “Music all set?”
    â€œUkulele, tuned,” Ashley answered, strumming the first notes of her crazy hooky lau song. “All four strings pulled tight.”
    â€œZip, where are you?” Frankie called out. “Report in.”
    I had been standing behind a column of cardboard boxes, where I had gone to change into my costume. I had the green velvet pillows strapped on my feet and the palm leaves we got at Big Eddie’s wrapped around my waist. I had tried to tie the coconuts around my upper arms, but it was hard, using only one hand and my teeth. I stepped out from behind the boxes and raised my arms in a very kingly manner.
    â€œYour coconuts are sagging,” Ashley said.
    â€œSo help me. There’s only so much a guy can do with his teeth.”
    I took a step over to Ashley, but I had forgotten about my pillow shoes. I tripped over the boxes big time, and landed headfirst in the couch.
    â€œKing Kahuna Huna, your butt is flapping in the breeze,” Frankie said, cracking up.
    â€œGo ahead and laugh. I need a hand here, friends of mine.”
    Ashley and Frankie were laughing too hard to help, so that left me bent over like a pretzel, wedged between the cushions and the back of the couch. There was a lot of dust in that couch, and when I breathed in, it flew all the way up to the top of my nose.
    Ah . . . ah . . . ah . . . ah-choo!
    Man, I sneezed so hard that the force of it unwedged my head. That made Frankie and Ashley laugh even harder. I have to admit, it was pretty funny. I laughed too.
    â€œCan we be serious here?” I said, after I had caught my breath. “I want to finish in time to rehearse my Einstein speech. If I blow that, King Kahuna Huna is a no-show.”
    â€œZip, you’re freaking yourself out,” Frankie said.
    â€œI’m a little nervous,” I confessed. “There’s a lot of information to remember.”
    â€œYou’ve got it all written down on note cards,” Ashley said. “You’ll be fine.”
    â€œYou’d be fine, Ash, but I may not be.”
    â€œZip, what’s the rule?” Frankie asked, looking me in the eyeballs.
    â€œBreathe,” I answered.
    â€œRight. Take air in through your nose and let it out through your mouth. Remember, oxygen is power.”
    â€œI know.”
    â€œDon’t just know. Do.”
    I took a deep yoga-style breath, the way Frankie’s mom, who is a yoga teacher, had always taught us to do. I must have dislodged some of the dust that was still hanging around up there in my nose, because I sneezed so hard, my coconuts sagged again.
    â€œLet’s run through our act before you lose your coconuts altogether,” Frankie said.
    The rehearsal was a little shaky, but we got through it. Ashley strummed her ukulele and danced, and Frankie did a few magic chants that he made up himself. When he said the magic word, zengawii , I leaped out from behind the couch. Of course, at the actual talent show, I was going to leap out from a cloud of lava smoke. We were going to