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Chapter 10: 

Jalen disappears, and returns. While the natural parallel is to Artie in NO COINS PLEASE,  I want to give some love to Rudy Miller, who spent many a day at camp obfuscating his whereabouts in I WANT TO GO HOME. At least Jalen didn’t show up with a salette.

The moment Jalen pulled toothpicks out of his pocket, I knew what he had been up doing. I did question my logic – it made no sense! Why would an eight-year-old be doing that? But I was remained confident. This is what toothpicks mean in this universe, whether one prefers to “fling the horizontals” (A SEMESTER IN THE LIFE OF A GARBAGE BAG) or get hopped up on an experimental cold medicine mixed with citric acid (BEWARE THE FISH). Personally, I’d rather use leftover fillet mignon and Ritz crackers.