Philip and the Loser (9781619501522) by John Paulits Page A

desk and pushed it out of sight.
“All right, class. We still have ten minutes. Let me finish
explaining your assignment.”
    Philip saw Emery raise his head. The class
hadn’t quieted yet, so Philip quickly said, “You missed everything.
Why’d you have your head down? It was pretty funny.”
    Emery shook his head. “It wasn’t.”
    “ It was.”
    “ It wasn’t. That boy?”
    “ Yeah?” said Philip.
    “ He’s my cousin Leon, the one I told
you was moving a block away from me.”
    “ That goof’s your cousin?”
    “ Quiet, there,” said Mr.
Sagsman.
    Emery nodded at Philip and faced the
teacher. Philip faced front, too.
That
was
Emery’s cousin? The cousin Emery never wanted to talk about? The
one Emery’s mother said they’d have to play with every day? Philip
glanced at Emery, who sat with his head cradled in one hand. Philip
knew if Emery had to play with him,
he
would
have to play with him, too. Philip cradled
his
head in one hand while Mr. Sagsman droned on about the
wonders of brotherhood.
     
     

Chapter Two
     
    “ Where is he?” whispered Emery. “You
see him?”
    “ Not yet, but I’m looking,” Philip
replied.
    Philip and Emery crouched down behind two of
the eight dented metal trash cans lined up near the wall outside of
the school kitchen in the corner of the play yard. They were
looking for Leon.
    Philip sniffed. “
Pshew.
It really stinks here.”
    “ It’s where they throw all the leftover
junk from lunch,” Emery informed him, looking around at the wilted
string beans, soggy pizza, squashed potato puffs, and other stuff
the children had rejected and which hadn’t quite made it into the
garbage cans.
    “ I gotta move somewhere else. It’s
really bad right here.” Still squatting, Philip shuffled toward
another garbage can. Suddenly, he slipped on something and lost his
balance. “
Whoa!”
When he grabbed the top of
the nearest garbage can, his hand sank into something soft. “Yuck,”
he said. He let go fast and fell backwards.
    “ Philip, what’s on your hand?” Emery
asked as Philip scrambled back into a squat.
    “ Nothing,” said Philip, looking for
someplace to wipe his hand.
    “
Yeeessshhhhh.
You got lunch
junk all over your back.”
    “ Lunch junk?” Philip twisted his neck
around, but not enough to inspect his shirt. Emery pointed. “Look
what you fell in.”
    An assortment of mashed fruit, lunch trays,
and oozing bread spread out behind Philip. Emery couldn’t help
laughing, even though he knew Philip wouldn’t like it.
    “ What’s funny?” snapped
Philip.
    “ It’s Leon. Whenever he’s around,
things like this happen.”
    Philip rubbed his old-lunch dirty hand along
the ribs of the nearest garbage can. “Some of it won’t come off,”
he mumbled. He started shaking his hand to loosen the stuck garbage
and make it fall off. “Brush me off,” he told Emery.
    Emery looked around and found two napkins
that looked cleaner than everything else. Philip turned his back to
him. Emery rubbed the paper softly along Philip’s back.
    “ Harder,” said Philip. “Get the junk
off me.”
    Emery rubbed harder than Philip
expected, and he tumbled forward. “
Yaahh!”
    He put out his hands to stop his fall,
but one hand landed on a black and brown banana peel and slid
forward. Philip tried to jump up, but his quick move only made him
slip further, and his right knee went
splat!
into a ketchup-covered half a hamburger.
    “ This is . . . oh smelly . . . get this
. . .” sputtered Philip, and he finally scrambled to his
feet.
    “ Get down,” said Emery. “Here comes
Leon.”
    Philip didn’t care who was coming. He was
covered with garbage, and he felt like he wanted to throw up. He
began shaking himself as hard he could and rubbing his back against
the wall, hoping the attached garbage would fall off.
    Leon noticed a boy covered with garbage
jumping around doing some wild new dance. “Oh, hi, Emery. Who’s
this?”
    “ He’s my friend,