Free EllRay Jakes is a Rock Star! by Sally Warner Page A

because I am the shortest kid—including all the girls!—in our class at Oak Glen Primary School in Oak Glen, California, USA.
    Hanging upside-down! It’s worth a shot, because:
    1. I have already tried drinking so much milk that it almost comes out of my nose when I laugh.
    2. And I have tried sleeping straight, not curled up like the shrimp that I am.
    3. And I have tried “thinking positive,” which is something my dad always recommends. He is a champion positive thinker, unlike my mom, who is a worrywart. She also wants to be a writer of fantasy books for grown-ups, which is why my little sister Alfleta—“Alfie”—and I have such weird names.
    My real name is Lancelot Raymond Jakes, in case you didn’t know.
    But please, please , just call me EllRay.
    My dad’s name is Dr. Warren Jakes, and he teaches geology at a college in San Diego. He is very smart, and he is bigger than normal-sized, so maybe there is still hope for me.
    â€œI believe you, Kevin,” Emma says, daring to argue with Cynthia. “But how do you know you grew an inch?”
    â€œBecause my mom marked it on the wall,” Kevin tells her—and everyone. “And the last time she did that, I was a whole inch shorter.”
    â€œWhen was that?” Emma asks.
    â€œLast summer,” Kevin says. “On the Fourth of July.”
    Cynthia snickers behind her hand. “Kevin’s mom writes on the wall! That’s so messy,” she says to Fiona McNulty, who is the shyest girl in our class. Fiona has weak ankles, she tells us way too often.
    Fiona really admires Cynthia, though. “Yeah. Writing on the wall is so messy,” she says, sounding like an echo.
    Kevin scowls. “You better not be making fun of my mom,” he says in a low and scary voice.
    And he’s right to say that, because kids can say any bad thing they want about another kid, if they have the nerve, but parents are off-limits.
    Also sisters and brothers, unless the kid officially hates them.
    Already-tall Stanley Washington frowns and pushes up his glasses higher on his nose. “But that doesn’t make any sense,” he says, as if he has been dividing numbers in his head.
    â€œYou grew an inch since last summer , Kevin,” Krysten—“Kry”—Rodriguez says, backing Stanley up. “Not over the weekend.”
    Kry is very pretty, and she’s also good at math and at figuring things out.
    â€œWell, I know that ,” Kevin says. He would be looking mad if anyone else had said what Kry did, but everybody in my class likes Kry.
    She’s another positive thinker.
    â€œThat’s what I meant to say the whole time,” Kevin continues. “Only somebody interrupted me.”
    We all turn to look at Cynthia, but Cynthia just shrugs. “Well, who even cares?” she says, straightening the plastic hoop she wears to hold her hair back from her face. “Anyway,” she adds like she is making perfect sense, “my dad’s taller than Kevin’s dad.”
    That doesn’t break the rule about not criticizing parents, but it comes pretty close. We think about it for a while.
    â€œWhat does that have to do with anything?” Corey finally asks.
    â€œI’m just saying,” Cynthia says, satisfied, and Fiona gives her an admiring smile.
    â€œWell, who even cares who’s taller?” Stanley says. “Because Jared’s dad has a lot cooler stuff than all your dads. In fact, he got a brand-new ATV just last week. It’s red, and it has flame decals all over it.”
    â€œATV” stands for “All-Terrain Vehicle,” and you can ride them fast in the desert or at the beach. Lots of places. You don’t even need roads.
    My dad would probably never buy an ATV, though, because he likes to protect the environment, I guess mostly because the environment has a lot of rocks in it.
    I like the environment, too, but I really want