Judy Moody Around the World in 8 1/2 Days (7 page)

Suddenly, she banged into a desk, tripped over her own foot, and fell in a red, white, and green heap on the floor.

“Oops. Was it too fast?” Rocky asked innocently.

“Stupido!” Judy mumbled.

She, Judy Moody, knew that Rocky and Frank had revved up the tarantella music on purpose.

It was just plain red, white, and mean.

The tarantella had turned out to be a big fat flop. Nobody with two legs could dance as fast as a spider with eight legs. Now the third graders would not make it around the world in eight days. And everybody would blame her, even though she had danced her legs off!

She, Judy Moody, had flunked.

It was all Rocky and Frank’s fault. Rocky No-Talky and Frank the Prank. The My-Name-Is-NOT-a-Poem Club.

After Class 3V left the room, Mr. Todd had a private talk with Judy, Rocky, Frank, and Jessica. He talked to them about what it means to work together as a group. He wanted them to work out their differences, to give each other a second chance. He wanted them to be friends again. But most of all, he wanted to give them a second chance.

“Do I have to have a second chance?” asked Jessica. “Because I think I tried to be a T-E-A-M P-L-A-Y-E-R.”

“You know,” said Mr. Todd, “in Italy there’s a saying. ‘You have to break a few eggs to make an omelet.’”

“For real?” said Judy.

“Absolutely,” said Mr. Todd. “Things often go wrong before they go right. It happens all the time.”

“I’ve heard of ‘break a leg’ but never ‘break an egg,’” said Jessica.

“Boys, how about if I give you until tomorrow morning to do your part for our Around-the-World unit?” Mr. Todd said.

“You mean we could still think up our own Italy project, and bring it in tomorrow morning?” asked Rocky.

“And then we’d still get to go around the world, even though it took eight and a half days?” asked Frank.

“I don’t see why not,” said Mr. Todd. “Even Nellie Bly had a lot of things go wrong on her trip around the world.”

“Yeah, like there was a bad storm and she almost didn’t make it back to America on time,” said Jessica.

“And McGinty, her monkey, got scared and jumped on a lady’s back!” said Judy. “Everybody said he was bad luck and wanted Nellie to throw him overboard!”

“That’s right,” said Mr. Todd. “So, what do you say? Sound like a plan?”

“It’s a plan,” said Rocky and Frank.

Rocky turned to Judy. “We’re sorry you did all the work and for messing up your dance,” said Rocky. “You were REALLY fast! So fast it looked like you had eight legs!”

“And we’re sorry for eating your Pasta Shapes Game and for getting mad,” said Frank. “We really messed up.”

“I messed up, too,” said Judy. “I’m the one who missed our practice. All I could think about was the My-Name-Is-a-Poem Club, and I guess I forgot my old friends.” She held out a hand. Rocky and Frank piled their hands on top of hers.

“Don’t forget me!” said Jessica, adding her hand to the top of the pile.

Magnifico! Fantastico! Judy could not wait to tell Amy Namey that Classes 3T and 3V were going to go around the world in eight (and a half) days after all!

Rocky and Frank had to think up a project. Fast. And Judy and Jessica did not even have to help. Mr. Todd said the boys needed to figure it out all by themselves.

“So what are you going to do?” Judy asked them.

“It’s a surprise,” said Frank.

“It’s a really big scoop,” said Rocky.

“Well, it better not be the Leaning Tower of Pizza Tables again, because half my collection melted.”

“It’ll be better,” said Frank.

“It’ll be big,” said Rocky.

“It’ll be red, white, and green!” said Rocky and Frank, cracking themselves up.

“Is it . . . the Grinch . . . on a fire engine?” Jessica guessed.

“You’ll see,” said Rocky.

“You’ll see,” said Frank.

“Break an egg!” said Judy.

The next morning, Rocky was not on the bus. And Judy was dying to show him the letter and the photo she’d gotten from Nathaniel Daniel in California.

When Judy got to school, she ran over to Amy’s class.

“Look what I got!” she told Amy Namey.

“It’s Bubblegum Alley!” said Amy.

“Look closer,” Judy said.

Amy peered at the photo and found the initials JM made out of chewed-up gum.

“JM for Judy Moody! I’m on the Wall of Gum!” said Judy. “In the Bubblegum Hall of Fame.”

“Double check!” said Amy.

“Hey, have you seen Rocky? Or Frank?” Judy asked Jessica Finch when she got to class.

“Didn’t you hear? The two of them got here super early and they’ve been down in the cafeteria all morning. I can’t wait to find out what they’re up to.” The whole class was buzzing about the big scoop. Rocky and Frank even got to miss Spelling.

Finally, Rocky and Frank came back upstairs. They told Mr. Todd and Ms. Valentine to bring everybody down to the cafeteria in five minutes.

“What IS it?” asked Judy, rushing up to Rocky and Frank.

“We’re not telling!” they said.

Class 3T and Class 3V walked single file down the hall and down the stairs to the cafeteria. They could smell it before they saw it. Everybody had a seat at one of the lunch tables.

The project was so big, it would not fit through the door, so the lunch ladies had to help them slide it through the wide window from the kitchen. In came a lunch lady, then Rocky, then Frank, then another lunch lady. They were holding their hands over their heads and carrying the biggest, roundest circle of cardboard Judy had ever seen.

“YUM!” said Jessica Finch.

“Smells good!” said Judy.

“What is it?” everybody asked.

It took six pushed-together tables just to hold it. They set the cardboard down. On it was the biggest, bubbliest, yummiest, cheesiest pizza in the world.

“What’s red, white, and green all over?” asked Frank.

“The World’s Biggest Pizza!” Rocky announced. “Red sauce and white cheese with green-pepper topping!”

“No way!” everybody said.

“Yah-huh,” said Rocky. “At least it’s Virginia Dare School’s Biggest-Ever Pizza. It’s six feet wide, and we used thirty pounds of dough and thirty-six pounds of cheese.”

“That pizza weighs more than me!” shouted Judy.

“Actually,” said Frank, “the real World’s Biggest Pizza is about the size of a parking lot.”

“But this is the World’s Biggest Pizza Map!” said Rocky.

“What? Huh?”

Everybody gathered around the pizza and took a closer look. It was big and round as a world, and the cheese was piled in seven funny shapes. One for each continent. Like a map! Green peppers made a trail from North America to the tip of Asia.

“I get it! It’s a map!”

“It’s the world!”

“I see North America!”

“I see Italy! It’s the shape of a boot,” said Judy.

“Look!” said Amy Namey. “The pizza map follows Nellie Bly’s trip around the world.”

“Right — it’s all the places we went around the world in eight and a half days,” said Judy.

Amy Namey took out her clipboard. “I’m going to be first to get the big scoop,” she told Judy. “I’ll write this up for my newspaper! WORLD’S BIGGEST PIZZA MAP AT VIRGINIA DARE SCHOOL.”

“Don’t forget CLASS 3T AND 3V GO AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHT AND A HALF DAYS!” said Judy.

“Eight and a half days, two hours, thirteen minutes, and twenty-seven seconds,” said Amy, looking at both her watches.

“Check!” said Rocky and Frank, sounding like Amy Namey.

“Fantastico!” said Judy.

“Dig in!” said a lunch lady. “There’s more than enough for everybody.”

“There’s more than enough to have pizza for lunch every day for a week!” said Rocky.

“Pizza for lunch every day? Told you that could happen,” said Amy Namey.

Magnifico!

Judy and Rocky and Frank and Amy each picked up a slice. A string of ooey-gooey cheese stretched from Rocky’s to Frank’s to Judy’s to Amy’s slice of pizza.

“Hey! We’re all connected!” said Judy.

“The Eatsa Pizza Club!” said Frank.

“Double cool,” said Rocky.

“Triple yum,” said Frank.

“Quadruple check!” said Amy Namey.

And the four friends laughed themselves red, white, and green all over. Then they sat down and ate the biggest, cheesiest, most delizioso pizza in the world.

For sure and absolute positivo!