Read Jasper John Dooley, NOT in Love for Free Online

to keep it. I’ll put it on my wall.”
    Mom didn’t like the sign as much as Isabel. She unlocked the door and asked Isabel to go ahead inside and make herself at home. “Jasper will be right there,” she said. She closed the door again and crossed her arms the way Jasper had crossed his before he needed them to hold up the sign.
    â€œJasper John Dooley,” Mom said. “Isabel is your guest. You will be as nice to her as she was to you when you were a guest at her house. Do you understand?”
    â€œI don’t like her!” Jasper said. “Dad said I would start to like her more and more, but I don’t. I like her less and less. I’m not a knight anymore because of Isabel! Paul C. took my place, Mom. Paul C.!”
    â€œThat’s no reason not to have good manners. If you don’t make her welcome, you can forget about ever getting a trampoline for your birthday,” Mom said.
    After she said that, she turned the color of jam.
    â€œAm I getting a trampoline for my birthday?” Jasper asked.
    Mom said, “That depends.”
    Suddenly Jasper liked Isabel. He liked her a lot! Because if he had never gone over to her house, he would never have jumped on a trampoline and felt that soaring-through-the-air-stomach-flip-floppy feeling that was the best feeling he’d ever had. And if he had never had that feeling, he would never have asked for a trampoline, which he didn’t have to save three million dollars for anymore. All because of Isabel! He just had to be nice to her until Mandy came to pick her up!
    He threw himself at Mom and hugged her. “I love you so so so so much!”
    That was a good feeling, too. The flip-floppy-I-really-love-you feeling he felt right then.
    â€œThank you,” Mom said, laughing.
    Jasper burst inside. “Isabel? Where are you?”
    Isabel was in the living room jumping on the sofa.
    â€œOh,” Jasper said. “I don’t think you should do that. It’s not allowed.”
    â€œI jump on the sofa at my house,” Isabel said, jumping even higher.
    â€œYou should stop before my mom sees you. Let’s go to my room and jump on the bed.”
    â€œOkay!” Isabel yelled. She took a flying leap over the side table, almost knocking the lamp to the floor.
    In Jasper’s room, Isabel ran all around looking at everything. “Is this your desk?” she asked.
    Jasper wondered who else’s desk it could be. It was in
his
room. Before he could say this, Isabel dashed to his bookshelf and started pulling out books and lifting down his soccer trophies.
    â€œWhat’s this, Jasper? What’s in this box?” Isabel asked, grabbing his lint collection off the shelf.
    â€œCareful with that!”
    Jasper lunged for the box and took it from her before she spilled out his lint.
    â€œWhat is it? What is it? What is it?” she asked.
    Jasper was surprised she didn’t know. He’d brought his lint collection to school when he was Star of the Week. Now he took it over to the bed. Isabel sat beside him and watched as he carefully unlatched the lid.
    â€œOh, right!” Isabel said. “I remember.”
    His Nan had given this box to him. It was a jewelry box, but Jasper wasn’t using it for jewelry. It was for lint.
    The biggest compartments in the jewelry box were packed with plain gray dryer lint. Lint with colored flecks went in another compartment. There was a compartment for pocket lint, too, and a very special compartment that had only a tiny bit of lint in it. That kind of lint was rare and hard to collect. It was belly-button lint. The only place Jasper could get belly-button lint was from his dad.
    Jasper explained all this again to Isabel. She seemed interested because, as he explained the different compartments, she gasped.
    But she wasn’t gasping. She was taking a huge gulp of air. With the huge gulp of air puffing out her cheeks, she leaned over his lint