Middle School by Patterson James

Author:Patterson, James [Patterson, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published: 2011-05-31T05:00:00+00:00

CHARITY CASE

This was a real first. Nobody in the history of Rafe Khatchadorian had ever asked me to help out at a charity thing before. When I told Mom about it, she thought it was great and got Swifty to donate a pie from the diner, no problem. I showed up at the Duper Market with it on Wednesday afternoon.

“Rafe! You’re here!” Jeanne said. She was like the queen bee in the middle of it all. There was a big table set up outside with bake sale stuff, and a huge bin where people coming out of the market could drop food donations. She also had a jar in the middle of the table that said THANK YOU on it.

“Here’s something else,” I said, and dropped ten dollars that I couldn’t afford in the jar, from that week’s Zoom sales.

“Wow!” Jeanne’s eyes opened wide, like she was really impressed, and my heart went a little faster. (Okay, a lot faster.) “So, we’re trying to let people around the neighborhood know about the sale. We’ve got these big signs, and we’re handing out flyers everywhere. Do you think you could—?”

“I’m on it,” I told her.

“Great!” she said. Then she reached under the table and took out what looked like about fifteen pounds of orange fur. “We got this from the high school. It’s kind of big, but I think it’ll fit you,” she said.

It was the costume for the Hills Village High School mascot—an orange falcon with wings, a big yellow beak, and a blue superhero cape.

“This will really get people’s attention,” Jeanne said.

“You’re kidding, right?” One look at her face told me she wasn’t. “I mean, uh… sure,” I said. “Anything for charity.”

“Thanks, Rafe, you’re the best.”

I tried to smile.

It’s a good thing that costume covered my face, because I was about sixteen shades of red once I put the whole thing on. As I walked across the Duper Market parking lot, I’m pretty sure the laughing I heard was a whole lot more at me than with me. Especially considering that I wasn’t laughing—not even a little.

But I’ll tell you something else. Once I got out there on the sidewalk and realized that nobody knew who the heck I was (just like with the ninja), I started getting kind of into it.

I flapped my wings, and jumped around with my sign, and gave out flyers, and patted people on the back when they took them. Drivers honked their horns as they went by, and some of them even pulled in when I pointed the way. If I do say so myself, I was just about the world’s most awesome bake-sale mascot ever.

And don’t think Jeanne didn’t notice, because she did.

“You were amazing,” she said afterward. “Thanks again, Rafe.”

I liked that she thought I was amazing. It kind of made me feel amazing. Not only was Jeanne Galletta smiling at me like crazy, but I’d just spent the afternoon doing the kind of stuff that good people (not just normal people, but good people) do.

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