Judy Moody Goes to College - Megan Mcdonald [12]
“Nobody’s getting any money,” said Dad.
“And nobody’s a geck,” said Mom.
“Yeah, you’re not at college now,” Stink said.
“Good news, though,” said Mom. “You won’t have to go to tutoring anymore.”
“Yeah, no more yogurt!” said Stink.
“Huh?” Judy loved college. She liked having a tutor.
“You knew this was just for a short time,” Dad said. “To get extra help for a few weeks. But now Mr. Todd’s back, and we’re proud of how great you’re doing.”
“You’ll still see Chloe, honey,” Mom said. “Maybe she’ll come to your class to help Mr. Todd. And she said she’d be happy to babysit anytime.”
“Does she know Stink lives here, too?”
“And that’s not even the best news,” said Mom. “When Chloe called today —”
“Chloe called? You talked to Chloe? When? Where was I?”
“You were at school —” said Mom.
“No fair.” Judy couldn’t help it that her cell phone was made of candy.
“Let Mom finish,” said Dad.
“Anyway, remember a painting you made when you went to college for a day with Chloe?”
“Yes! Portrait of a Band-Aid-Not-Soup-Can without Shadows, Deluxe Edition.”
“What’s that?” Stink asked.
“It’s a pop-art painting like that guy who paints soup cans, Andy Warthog.”
Stink snorted like a warthog.
“Warhol,” said Dad. “Andy Warhol.”
“Is anybody going to let me finish?” Mom asked.
“Peace!” said Judy, holding up two fingers.
“As I was saying, I guess you left it there to dry, and the professor thought the painting was made by one of his college students. He chose your painting to hang in an art show at the college. They have a small gallery in the college library there.”
She, Judy Moody, could not believe her ears. “Painting? College? Art show? Me?” she asked.
Dad laughed. “We thought you’d be pleased.”
Pleased? Pleased was only a teeny-tiny fraction of what she felt. This was uber-exciting. This was ridonkulus-rare. She, Judy Moody Warthog, aka Just Jude, was going to be in an art show at college! For serious!
“I have to call Chloe,” Judy said.
“On your candy cell phone?” Stink asked.
“Stink. I take it back. You’re not just a geck. You’re a geck squared. Geck to the power of three.”
“Gecko-gecko, click-click, cheep-cheep-cheep,” sang Stink, bobbing his head and making gecko noises all around the kitchen.
What a warthog.
The next morning at school, Judy flip-flopped down the hall to Room 3T.
“Professor Todd,” Judy asked, “did you tell Kate and Richard that I don’t need a tutor anymore? Because I really learned a lot in college, and I’d like to keep going. And besides, my painting is in an art show there, and I’d really like to see —”
“You know, Judy, you’re not the only one who wants to go to college,” said Mr. Todd.
“What do you mean? Didn’t you already go to college, like a long time ago, I mean, to be a teacher and everything?”
“Not me — the class. Class 3T is going to college.”
“You mean the whole class needs a tutor? But I thought everybody just flunked the test on purpose.”
“Not for tutoring,” said Mr. Todd. “We’re going on a field trip.”
“To college?”
“To college,” said Mr. Todd.
“And Chloe will be there?”
“Chloe will be there. We’ll be spending a whole morning in the Math Lab.”
“And we can go see my painting?”
“We can go see your painting. Won’t that be exciting?”
“You don’t know the half of it! The three-quarters of it. The nine-tenths of it. Thank you, Mr. Todd, thank you!”
She, Judy Moody, had a brand new attitude. It was grat-i-tude.
One whole week had to go by before Judy Moody got to go to college with her class. The week took about a year. At last it was time.
When Class 3T got to college, their first stop was the Math Lab. Judy took everyone over to Investigation Station and showed them how to build with sponge blocks and make graphs and play Tic-Tac-Cookie. They even got a taste of Chloe’s special pizza fractions (minus the pizza tables, which Judy got to collect).
Then Chloe passed out poster boards. Everyone got to spread out all over the floor and make their very own board games. Judy Moody drew different tents on her game board and a twisty-turny path that connected them.
Chloe