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Emily said.
    â€œMrs. Zipzer, I was a total crack-up today,” Robert chimed in.
    â€œI can’t wait to hear this,” I said. “Please, Robert. Share it all.”
    â€œHank, what’s your problem?” My dad raised one eyebrow at me, a thing he does when he’s not mad yet but is just about to be. “Robert is our guest.”
    I knew I was being grouchy, but I couldn’t help myself. It was really hard to hear about their fun time in Junior Explorers, while all I did was watch it through my classroom window. I took a bite of my tofu taco and prepared to chew it really hard, then realized I didn’t have to. My mom’s tofu was soft and mushy.
    â€œWe learned the hula and the limbo,” Emily went on.
    â€œI kept falling over backward under the limbo rod, so finally I got on my stomach and crawled under the bar like a salamander.” Robert started to laugh at the memory.
    Emily burst out laughing, too. “You should have seen him. He was a perfect salamander.”
    The two of them held their sides, and their snorty rhino laughter made a second appearance at the table.
    I wish I could crawl into that box and hang out with Bruce under the wilted lettuce leaf. Hey, I like salad.
    â€œAnd guess what?” Emily said when she finally got control of herself. “This Friday we’re having a luau extravaganza and a sleepover under the stars. Doesn’t that sound so magnifico ?”
    â€œYou guys get to sleep out on the playground?” I could hardly believe my ears. “Frankie and Ashley never told me that.”
    â€œThey probably didn’t want to make you feel bad,” my dad said.
    â€œWell, I do anyway.”
    â€œI’ll tell you all about it, Hank,” Robert said. “In fact, I’ll even write down what each person does in the talent show.”
    â€œThere’s a talent show, too?” This was almost too much for me.
    Robert nodded.
    â€œRobert and I are entering,” Emily said. “We’re going to train Bruce to do his own version of the hula, and we’re making a hula skirt for him out of wheatgrass.”
    â€œOh, wheatgrass is so healthy,” my mom said. “Of course, that’s when you swallow it. I don’t know if there are healthy benefits for wearing it.”
    â€œThe great thing is, he’s so little that we only need four blades of grass,” Robert added.
    â€œCongratulations,” I said. “You’ll probably get in the Guinness Book of World Records for making the smallest hula skirt in history.”
    â€œGreat idea, Hank,” Robert said. “We’ll have to take a picture of Bruce in his skirt and submit it to them.”
    â€œNews flash, Robert. I was kidding. As in joke.”
    â€œOh, right,” Robert said. “Smallest hula skirt in history. Pretty funny, huh, Emily?”
    He and my sister hauled out their rhino snorts for the third time that night.
    â€œWhat are the other children doing for the talent show?” my mom asked as she reached for another tofu taco. She likes her own cooking, which is an excellent thing because no one else in the family does.
    â€œHeather Payne is going to sing ‘Home on the Range,’ and Frankie and Ashley are doing a magic trick,” Emily said.
    That did it! I dropped my tofu taco in my lap. Cheerio jumped up on his two back legs and gulped it down like the doggy vacuum cleaner he is.
    â€œFrankie and Ashley are doing a magic trick?” I confess, I was practically crying. “That’s not fair! They can’t do magic without me. Our act is called Magik 3, not Magik 2.”
    Frankie, Ashley, and I have a magic act. True, we hadn’t performed in a while, not since my twin cousins’ birthday party, when we made a bunch of three-year-olds cry by making their M&Ms disappear. But still, we’re all part of Magik 3. And Frankie always says I’m the best magician’s assistant