Read Jasper John Dooley, NOT in Love for Free Online Page B

said.
    â€œIt’s five thirty,” Mandy said. Then she turned to Isabel. “Izzy! Look at you! Your mother isn’t going to be very happy. You’d better have a bath as soon as you get home.”
    â€œDo you want to have a playdate tomorrow, Jasper?” Isabel asked him. “This was fun!”
    Jasper laughed because she looked so so so funny with a cat on her forehead and its tail hanging down her nose. There was a flower on one cheek and a bird on the other. Her arms and legs were doodle pads. And so was her stomach under her shirt.

Chapter 11

    The next day Isabel got the lates. The kids were all at their tables writing Compliments to Margo and eating the cupcakes she had brought when somebody knocked on the door. Ms. Tosh answered it. Jasper saw Mandy in the hall. Ms. Tosh stepped out and closed the door. A few minutes later she came back inside with Isabel. Ms. Tosh had her arm around Isabel the way she put her arm around a kid coming back from the sickroom.
    Everybody stared at Isabel. Ms. Tosh put a finger to her lips.
    All the kids nodded and went back to writing Compliments to Margo just as if Isabel had not come in late with connect-the-dot drawings all over her face.
    The Star, Margo, got to do anything she wanted while the rest of the class was writing Compliments to her. She was playing with Hammy, the little brown hamster in the cage at the back of the room. She didn’t see Ms. Tosh put her finger to her lips. Now she turned and saw Isabel. In a very loud voice, she cried out, “Isabel! What happened?”
    â€œJasper John did this to me!” Isabel told the class. “He connected all my dots when I was at his house yesterday! Look!”
    She pulled up her shirt to show her stomach. She pulled up her long sleeves and the legs of her pants. Everybody saw how Jasper had turned her into a connect-the-dots doodle pad.
    â€œDidn’t you have a bath?” Jasper asked.
    â€œI had three baths,” Isabel said. “This is permanent marker. Do you know what ‘permanent’ means?”
    â€œForever?” Jasper said.

    â€œIt means I’m going to have a cat on my forehead for the rest of my life!”
    Leon said, “I like how the tail is hanging down your nose.”
    â€œIt looks terrible!” Isabel roared. “I’m not allowed to play with you ever again, Jasper John. My mom is going to phone your mom. She’s really mad.”
    Jasper slithered down in his desk. He wished he had some potholders to cover his face.
    â€œIsabel,” Ms. Tosh said. “Please sit down. We’re writing Compliments to Margo.”

    When Isabel’s mom phoned Jasper’s mom, Jasper’s mom would change her mind about getting him a trampoline for his birthday. Jasper felt sad about that. But he felt better in the lunchroom with Ori and Leon and Paul C., because Paul C. said, “I guess those girls won’t be bothering you anymore. I guess you’re going to be a knight again.”
    Being a knight with his friends was better than having a trampoline. Jasper knew that now.
    Paul C. took off his glasses and cleaned them. He looked just as sad as Jasper had felt a moment ago.
    â€œYou can be a knight, too,” Jasper told him.
    â€œCan I?” Paul C.’s face lit up. “Look,” he said, turning over the book he had brought down to the lunchroom. It was about knights. The boys leafed through it while they were eating. It gave them some good ideas about shields.
    As soon as they finished eating, they rushed outside to play.
    They were eenie-meenie-miney-moeing to see who would be the dragon when Isabel pushed through the bushes. “Come on, Jasper,” she said in a voice that was hard not to obey.
    â€œWhere?” Jasper asked.
    â€œYou have to get married to me. Nobody else will now that you drew all over my face.”
    Jasper stood up. He could see all the girls on the other side of the bushes waiting