CHAPTER 1

On Monday, Lotty waved to her mother and skipped to school. She had a new backpack, new shoes, and a new teacher. It was going to be a great year.

But when she sat down at her new desk, someone behind her said, "Yick! What's that smell?"

"What smell?" Lotty asked.

"I'm Grant Grizzly and I say there's a smell, and it's coming from around you."

Lotty peered inside her desk and sniffed. Grant Grizzly looked at her, held his nose, and laughed.

Lotty shrank down in her seat. "Maybe I do smell," she thought. Her stomach hurt. Her smile slipped.

When Lotty got home, she told her little brother, Jerome, and big sister, Lily, what had happened.

"Should I tell Mrs. Kallberg?" Lotty asked. "I don't want to be a tattletale."

"All Grant did was say something," Jerome pointed out. "If he does it again, give him a karate chop!"

"No karate chops," Lily said, frowning. "And it's not tattling to let the teacher know there's a problem. Still, why don't you try ignoring him first? Maybe he'll leave you alone."

Lotty decided to try Lily's idea.

On Tuesday, she ignored Grant. She ignored the hand that swiped her eraser. She ignored the foot that kicked the back of her chair all morning. She ignored the nasty whispers.

Grant never did anything while the teacher was looking, but he didn't leave Lotty alone. If anything, he got worse.

"She's so stupid she doesn't even know when some- one's talking to her," he told his friends in the hall. Then he yelled, "HEY, STUPID!" right in Lotty's face.

Lotty's stomach hurt. Her eyes prickled. She skipped morning recess and went to the nurse's office, but when the nurse asked what was wrong, Lotty couldn't say anything.

Later she told Lily and Jerome what had happened. "Smack him in the nose!" Jerome insisted. "No nose-smacking!" Lily said. "I think you should tell the teacher."

Lotty shook her head. "What if she thinks I'm a tattletale?" Lily sighed. "Well then, why don't you try to be hisfriend? Sometimes kids act that way because they don't have friends."

"Or you could make a joke out of it," Jerome suggested.

Lotty decided to give their ideas a try.

On Wednesday, while Mrs. Kallberg was talking to a parent in the hall, Lotty smiled at Grant. She asked if he liked baseball. She offered to lend him a pencil when he didn't have one.