Free EllRay Jakes Rocks the Holidays! by Sally Warner

even had breakfast yet.
    “Well, let me finish up with Alfie’s outfit, then I’ll scramble some eggs. You need some protein in that tummy,” Mom tells me.
    I’m afraid that if I put
anything
in “that tummy,” as Mom called it, there’s gonna be a tummy-relateddisaster. Maybe all over the Oak Glen Primary School stage.
    BLAR-R-R-R-T!
    But I’m too tired to argue with her, so I keep my mouth shut.

    “All right, everyone,” Ms. Sanchez calls out, clapping her hands to get our attention after the last in-class rehearsal. “It’s time to walk to the auditorium.
Quietly
,” she adds, raising a warning finger. “Muffle your jingle bells, ladies.”
    And the girls clasp their bells to their chests so they won’t give away our class’s noisy surprise.
    We are feeling excited for three reasons. First, today is different from other school days. Second, we are about to perform onstage, in front of a lot of strangers. And third, winter break is about to start. And you can add a fourth excitement for me, because I’m the emcee.
    As she promised, Ms. Sanchez used a special pen to print short versions of the four acts on one of my palms.
    1. K: Jingle Bells.
    2. First: Frosty.
    3. Second: Mean Grinch.
    4. Third: Jingle Bell Rock.
    And on my other palm, she printed, very small, “Welcome to Wonderland!” and “Thanks for coming!” This is followed by “NICE AND SLOW.”
    Now, all I have to do is to
not sweat
, because I want to be able to read her writing. And because
I want to do a good job.
    I really do! I know that now.
    1. I want to do a good job for Oak Glen Primary School.
    2. And I want to do a good job for Ms. Sanchez, and for our bright-red third grade class.
    3. And I want to do a good job for my mom and dad and little sister.
    4. I even want to do a good job for the community, as Dad calls it. Not that the community will notice.
    5. But I especially want to do a good job for myself.
    Maybe I
am
a natural leader! Who knows? But if I am, I have to start someplace.
    Who cares what Principal Hairy James’s reason was when he said that either Kevin or I had to be the emcee? And who cares why Kevin told me I should do it?
    None of that matters anymore.
    “Dude, listen,” Kevin McKinley whispers as we work our way down the main hall, which is still decorated with those Frisbee-sized snowflakes.
    “What?” I say, interrupting my silent practice.
    “I figured out your last challenge,” he says. He has a funny look on his face, like he wants to apologize ahead of time for something.
    “I already did three,” I remind him.
    “Tell him,” Jared urges in his version of a quiet voice.
    “Yeah. Tell him,” Stanley says, grinning like a hyena.
    Oh. So that’s how it is. Jared and Stanley are running things, now!
    A couple of girls are looking at us as we whisper and walk, but we ignore them.
    “Okay,” Kevin says, his voice shaking a little. “At the end of the show, right after you say, ‘Thanks for coming,’ you have to yell out a swear.”
    “A good one, too,” Jared says.
    He means a
bad
one. A bad swear word.
    I’m doomed.
    If I
do it
, I’m doomed.
    This challenge is definitely coming from Jared, and maybe from Stanley, too. Not Kevin. And it’s more of a dare than a challenge, if you ask me. Because this is not something I would ever want to do.
    Anyway, my deal was with Kevin.
    And doing a dare was not part of that deal.
    Jared pokes Kevin in the back to make him speak, like Kevin is a ventriloquist’s dummy. “You have to yell it real loud, and in front of everyone,” Kevin whispers, right on cue. In case I didn’t get it.
    But I got it.
    Kevin looks miserable, though.
    “Listen,” I whisper back, trying to talk only to him. “It’ll wreck the whole show.”
    “Who cares?” Jared says, butting in. “You’re not so great,
EllRay.
Just because you get to be the emcee.”
    He sounds jealous! And he would just
love
to see me get in trouble.

    “I know I’m not so great,” I tell