Absolutely Alfie and the First Week Friends by Sally Warner

Author:Sally Warner [Warner, Sally]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2017-08-29T00:00:00+00:00

10

Nightmare Twist

“But—but—look over there,” Alfie sputtered at Hanni, Lulu, and Scooter as she pointed to a nearby table. “That team is making something really cool. Together. It looks like a robot,” she added, trying to tempt them to turn their heads and take a peek.

“Ew,” Lulu said, busy with her jewelry box. “Robots.”

“You can put your box of jewels next to my awesome ATV when we’re done,” Scooter told Lulu. “That’s kind of like working together, isn’t it? And then my ATV can run over that girl’s computer until it’s smashed flat.”

“Her name’s Hanni,” Alfie said. “And all you guys should just look around, for once.”

Phoebe’s table was putting together a castle. It even had a drawbridge. And kids were laughing!

At another table, Bryan was blowing wadded-up balls of paper through a tube. His team was probably making a cannon or something.

Everyone was cooperating. Nobody was getting squashed. They were teams.

Except at Alfie’s table.

“You’re not the boss of us, Alfie,” Lulu informed her.

“But you better get started,” Hanni said, sounding almost sorry for her summer friend. “You’re really falling behind. Why don’t you make a poster out of one of those pieces of cardboard, Alfie?” she suggested, pointing. “It can say ‘Welcome!’ Then we’ll all have something to show on Back to School Night. That’s what we’re supposed to be doing,” she added, as if explaining a difficult idea to some kid who just wasn’t getting it.

“Yeah,” Scooter said. “Because so far, Alfie, you got nothin’.”

“Nobody asked you,” Lulu told him, not looking up.

“Listen. We are really supposed to be working on only one project,” Alfie said for the third time. “All four of us. Together,” she repeated. “And we shouldn’t be mean to each other,” she added.

She looked around the room. Where was Mr. Havens when you needed him? Still in the craft closet?

He was huge! How could he just disappear like that?

“Yeah, right,” Hanni scoffed, laughing. “Like I’m gonna wreck my grade by letting a bunch of random kids work with me on a big assignment like this. An assignment that everybody’s gonna see. Even grownups. Even my mom.”

Alfie blinked. Grades? Random kids? But she and Hanni had been pretty good friends for the past two weeks. Hanni had even given her Princess. For free! And Hanni had known every single kid at their table in first grade.

Even “that boy” Scooter Davis.

“But working together as a team is supposed to be the assignment,” Alfie said, her voice weary. She was giving it one last shot.

“Good going, Alfie, trying to get me to help you with your challenge,” Hanni said in a jokey voice. She wrestled with a strip of duct tape so she could turn a flat, skinny box into an upright computer monitor, Alfie guessed. “Here. Hold this, would you?” Hanni asked Alfie.

“I’d like to,” Alfie said, trying not to sound too huffy. “But I’m kind of busy right now, working on my own project. You know, so I can get into college.”

In about a million years.

“You are not working on a project,” Lulu said.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.