Totally Joe by James Howe

Author:James Howe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers

LIFE LESSON: Middle school is like being trapped in a reality show where there’s no way off the island and you’re always a loser.

L is for

LEFTOVERS

THANKSGIVING WAS THREE DAYS AGO. The relatives have gone away and we’re still eating the turkey loaf we made out of the leftover turkey. Usually, I love leftovers. When my dad and I make chili (which I sometimes make on my own) (it’s really good) (maybe I’ll be a world-famous chef when I grow up)… anyway, when we make chili, I always heat up what’s left over and have it for breakfast the next day. I even like it on school mornings, which probably sounds gross when you think about it being 7:00 A.M. and eating nuked chili, but it is so not.

Next to chili, turkey is my favorite leftover. But not this year. This year, I hate everything about Thanksgiving—and leftovers. Because this year, it’s not just food leftovers I have to deal with, it’s people leftovers.

(Oh, and I should probably mention that we have all this leftover tofurky, too, because Addie and her parents were here. Trust me that the tofurky is going to be left over for a loooooooong time.)

Anyway, you’re probably wondering what I mean by “people leftovers.” What I mean is, the stuff people leave behind them after they’re gone. Aunt Pam moved out two days ago, and I keep finding her things all over the house. It’s like she packed so quickly she didn’t even notice how much she wasn’t packing. Or maybe she just didn’t care. Was she in that much of a hurry to get away from us? Like right now, I’ve got this hair-clip thing sitting on my desk. I found it in her room—her leftover room. I feel kind of bad about it because I gave it to her for her birthday a couple of years ago, and I know she liked wearing it. So why did she leave it out in plain sight on her dresser? Why didn’t it matter enough to take?

She left tons of other stuff, too, mostly in her studio over the garage. She said she’s coming back for everything at Christmas. But what about the empty feeling she left behind? I don’t think she’ll be able to come back for that. That’s going to be around even longer than the tofurky.

The reason I know this is because it’s been more than three weeks since Colin left the note in my locker, and the empty feeling I got after that hasn’t gotten any better in all this time. I guess I may as well tell you what he wrote:

Joe,

The guys on the team gave me a really hard time at practice last night. They Kept asking me if the rumor was true, and some of them—even Justin, who’s my friend—were saying things like, You’d better not turn fag on us, Briggs. Then they started making jokes about not wanting to shower with me, except I’m not sure they were all joking. I told them Kevin and Jimmy had made the whole thing up.

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