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flags, I could make it look like a slalom course! Whoosh whoosh whoosh, this is me, snowboarding down between the flags! That's what I'm gonna be doing on vacation!
In Style
!"
    "I bet you fall and break your leg," muttered Malcolm.
    "
Snowboard down the slope, and you actin' like a dope...
" Tyrone chanted.
    "Chelsea?" said Gooney Bird. "You're next!"
    Chelsea, holding her flag, moved forward slightly onto the map. She started toward California. Then she stopped, and hung her head.
    "What's wrong,
QT
?" asked Mrs. Pidgeon.
    "Nothing."
    "Don't you want to plant your flag?"
    But Chelsea shook her head. "I asked my mom if we could go to California during our school vacation. But she said not unless we win the lottery." She looked up. "She said we could go to the pizza place one night, though."
    "I see. Well, the pizza place sounds like fun."
    "Not as much fun as Hawaii!" shouted Barry.
    "Or Disney World!" called Beanie.
    "Or Sugarbush, Vermont!" said Ben in a loud voice.
    Chelsea began to cry.
    Mrs. Pidgeon put her arm around Chelsea. She looked around. "Felicia Ann?" she said. "You're next in the alphabet.
What's Up
?"
    "I'm going to the public library," Felicia Ann said in a very small voice.
    "Well, that's always exciting," Mrs. Pidgeon said. She glared at Barry, Beanie, and Ben. "Anyone want to go next? Anyone else got a vacation spot to show us?"
    One by one the children shook their heads. "I'm going to my grandma's," Nicholas said, "but it's just down the street. Really
Magic. NOT!
"
    "I'm going to the movies," Tyrone said. "My dad said he'd take me."
    "
Cool Dude,
" muttered Malcolm.
    "Keiko?" Mrs. Pidgeon suggested. "How about you,
Sweet Thing
?"
    But Keiko said no. "I'm not going anyplace. I'm going to help in my parents' store during vacation."
    "Do you get to do the cash register?" Malcolm asked.
    "No. But I arrange the fruit. I can make a really beautiful pyramid out of oranges."
    "Oh, lovely, Keiko," Mrs. Pidgeon said. "Anyone else? Who has a vacation destination?"
    "Not me."
    "Not me."
    "We're not going anywhere
ever again
" Mal- ^ colm complained, "because of the triplets."
    "I'm not going anywhere either," Mrs. Pidgeon said. "I promised my husband I'd spend the vacation finishing a sweater that I started knitting for him in 2004."
    "
U Go, Girl,
" Tyrone said, and high-fived the teacher.
    "Gooney Bird?" Mrs. Pidegon asked. "What about you? This was your idea."
    "And it was a pretty good one," Gooney Bird said in a tentative voice. "We learned a lot about maps."
    "But where are you going for vacation, Gooney Bird? Someplace
Très Chic
?" asked Felicia Ann.
    Gooney Bird sighed. "I'm staying home," she confessed. "I'm planning to write a novel."
    Everyone stared at the big snow-packed map and its three chopstick flagpoles in Hawaii, Vermont, and Florida. They looked very small and far apart.
    "We could make a math problem out of this," Mrs. Pidgeon suggested. "If there are twelve people, and three of them go off on a vacation, then how many are left?"
    No one said anything. Finally Keiko murmured, "Nine."
    "If we put our nine flags here, in this town, it would look like a porcupine sitting on the map," Chelsea observed glumly.
    "I have an idea," Barry announced. "How about a moment of silence for everybody in this whole second grade except for me..."
    "And me!" Beanie said with a grin.
    "AND ME!" Ben shouted.
    Everyone was very silent. Felicia Ann sniffled quietly and wiped her nose on her sleeve.
    "My feet are cold," Nicholas said, after a moment.
    "Well," Mrs. Pidgeon suggested. "Let's go inside and regroup."

8.
    Inside the classroom, with their outdoor jackets hanging up again and their boots standing in pairs by their cubbies, the second-graders took their seats glumly. Their map project had not been the success they had hoped it would be.
    "What're we going to tell the other kids?" Nicholas asked.
    "Yes," said Ben, "what about Marlon Washington? He said our project was just a big mess, and we said just wait