November 1

Chapter 1.

“Gabriel! Don’t slam that door!”

Gabe couldn’t hear his mother’s admonishment as he stomped up the stairs to his bedroom, kicked the door shut and threw himself onto his bed. He stared at the ceiling and heaved a big sigh.

“I am never going to survive the sixth grade,” Gabe said to himself, flopping onto his belly and picking up his newest comic book.

“Something got you down, big bro?” came a voice from under the bed.

“Anastasia! What are you doing in here! I thought I told you to stay out!” Gabe jumped to the floor and pulled back his bedspread to find two small feet wiggling around on the floor. “Get out from under there. What is the matter with you?”

“Eustace got away.” Gabe’s little sister explained, as she scooted out from under the bed. “I thought he might have sought refuge in here, seeing as it is,” she wrinkled up her nose as she glanced around the room, “the dirtiest room in existence.”

“Did you find your nasty rat?” he asked, ignoring the slight on his cleanliness. Gabe had never claimed to be a clean freak.

“No, but I did find that math homework you lost last year.” Anastasia replied, handing her brother a crumpled sheet of paper. “You missed numbers 12 and 17. And your penmanship is deplorable.”

Gabe snatched the paper from her hand and started pushing her towards the door. “Your stupid rat is not in here. Now, get out! And stay out! I mean it this time!”

“Sounds like someone had a rough day at school. Listen, Gabe, I understand that you’re in a bad mood, but really, there are better ways to channel your aggression than slamming doors and bullying your little sister. For instance, you could…”

Gabe didn’t bother listening to his sister prattle on and slammed the door in her face. A second later, he heard a knowck at the door.

“What?!” Gabe yelled, ripping the door open.

“Mom says not to slam the door.” Anastasia said, sticking her tongue out at him.

“Away!” Gabe shouted after her retreating figure. He shut the door carefully this time. He didn’t want to top his horrible day off by getting grounded. Just for good measure, though, he kicked a pile of clothes laying near him on the floor.

Gabe stomped back over to his bed and picked up his backpack, and pulled out a copy of Huckleberry Finn and a shoe box diorama depicting two people on a river raft. There was a large footprint smushing the two figures together, and the cardboard of the shoe box was wet and distorted. Gabe sighed, heavily as he recalled the events of the day.

Today was the day that the first book reports of the year were due. Their teacher, Mr. Bexton, encouraged creativity, and as Gabe hated writing, he had decided to take the opportunity to create a diorama book report. He had spent many hours getting the raft and Huck to look just right.

He’d proudly carried the diorama to the school bus stop that morning where he’d run into his old friend, Alex. Alex and Gabe had been good friends in the fifth grade, with their buddy Derek, rounding out the trio. After Derek had moved out of town, Alex had decided that he was too good for Gabe, and had started hanging out with the older middle school students. Gabe hadn’t really cared as he always thought Alex was a little bossy, but somehow Alex had decided that he had to torture Gabe in order to maintain his new ‘cool’ attitude.

When Gabe had walked up to the corner, Alex ignored him at first, but as soon as a couple of eighth graders arrived, Alex got a gleam in his eye and grabbed the diorama out of Gabe’s hands. “Ooh, look here! What is this?” Alex had taunted, making sure the older boys were listening, “It looks like a diorama! I thought we stopped making those after second grade. But we always knew you were a little… slow Gabe, didn’t we?” Alex laughed loudly, and held his can of Sprite over the painted on blue river. “But it looks like you didn’t finish this yet, huh? There’s no water in the river!” He upended his can into the scene, and then threw the whole thing on the ground as the bus pulled up. The eighth grade boys smirked at Gabe, and one of them slowly stepped onto the diorama as he moved towards the bus door.