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That morning, Class 3T sat about as still as popping popcorn.

“My, aren’t we jumpy this morning,” said Mr. Todd.

“We have something we want to ask you,” said Judy. She added three new bite marks to her pencil.

“Yes, yes, yes,” everybody agreed.

“Well, before you ask me your question, I have some important news to tell all of you. It’s a secret, but I think it’s time I let you in on it.”

Chomp, chomp. Judy chewed on her pencil eraser.

“You know Ms. Tater, the author you met yesterday?”

Judy nearly choked on her pencil eraser! The whole class seemed to hold its breath. The popcorn stopped popping.

“I hope you enjoyed her presentation, and I hope you all learned something about making crayons and something about making books.”

Bite, bite. Chomp.

“I told you Ms. Tater is a special friend. And I’m so glad you all had a chance to meet her, because Ms. Tater and I are engaged. We are going to be married! And you are all invited to our wedding.”

“Wedding!” “Mmm, cake!” “Can I come?” “When?” “Will you still be our teacher?”

Questions and more questions zoomed around the room.

“Will there be a lot of crayons at your house?” asked Jessica Finch.

“Will your kids be the Tater-Todds?” asked Frank. He cracked himself up.

Judy did not even stop to laugh. “I KNEW IT!” She jumped right out of her seat. Her bite-mark pencil flew to the front of the room. She practically did a dance right in the middle of the second row from the right.

“Judy Moody predicted it!” yelled Frank Pearl. “She was right!”

“She knew yesterday!” said Rocky. “She told us on the bus.”

“She called me!” said Jessica Finch.

Everybody pointed to Judy. “She did! She told us! She knew! She predicted it right!”

“Judy,” said Mr. Todd, “is this true?”

“It’s non-fiction,” said Judy.

“How did you know? We thought we had a pretty good secret.”

Judy thought of all the ways she knew. The mood ring turning red. The apple seed. The candle wax. But most of all it was the way Mr. Todd smiled ear to ear around Ms. Tater. And the way Ms. Tater’s eyes looked when she showed them the Pumpkin Moon crayon.

She could say it was the mood ring. She could say it was ESP. She could say that she, Madame M for Moody, saw the future. Just like Jeane Dixon, Famous American Fortuneteller, without the eggs. But Judy realized — some things you just know. In your heart. There’s no explaining them.

“How I knew is a secret,” said Judy.

At last, she, Judy Moody, had predicted the future.

As soon as she got home, Judy ran straight to her room, opened up her super-special baby-tooth box, and took out her mood ring. Judy slipped the mood ring onto her finger. She closed her eyes. She held her breath. She counted to eight, her favorite number. She thought of purple things: cool arm slings and dragonfly wings, grape bubblegum and not-pond-scum mood rings.

At last, Judy opened her eyes.

Black! The mood ring was black as Christmas-stocking coal. Black as a bad-luck ink splat. Black as a bad mood.

How could it be black when she was On-Top-of-Spaghetti happy? No, wait! The mood ring was changing. Yes. Right before her eyes. The mood ring turned purple! Mountain Majesty Purple! No lie. She, Judy Moody, was in a Joyful, On-Top-of-the-World mood.

Mr. Todd said that everybody played a part in their own future, and the future was looking brighter already. From now on, Judy would take the future into her own hands, and there was no time like the present to get started.

She took out a non-Grouchy pencil and she wrote some non-fiction in her non-homework journal.

Judy Moody’s Plans for the Future

Spell tortilla and zigzag the right way.

Get Stink to stop bugging me.

Maybe write a book (not about crayons).

Paint my room Purple Mountain Majesty.

Dress up fancy for a wedding.

Become a doctor.

The future was out there, waiting. And there was one more thing Judy did know for sure and absolute positive — there would be many more moods to come.

Who’s Who

M.D. = A Moody Day

M.D. = MeDullas and ManDibles

M.D. = Mystery Detective

M.D. = A Million Dollars

M.D. = Mucus Dermis

M.D.