"Camupsh ta mick pees?" asked Zac at the breakfast table the next morning.

"What?" asked Taylor.

"I sad cam tu padd la dilk pees?" repeated Zac. Tay looked at Ike.

"I think he said, 'can you get me a tissue please?' " said Ike, shrugging his shoulders.

"Oh," Taylor said as he reached over to hand Zac a tissue. Zac shook his head.

"Nomp! Da mink," he said, pointing to the milk.

"Oh!" said Ike. "The milk. That's what he was saying." Ike and Tay continued to eat their cereal. Zac began to look impatient.

"Welmp? Past if!" he said.

"What? Zac, you have to speak clearer," said Tay.

Zac let out a frustrated noise and got up and picked up the milk himself. "Tank shu so munch," he said sarcastically.

"No problem," said Ike, as he read the morning comics.

"Gee Zac, you'd think you got your teeth pulled or something," said Tay.

"Ah dind!" yelled Zac.

"What?"

With that, Zac stomped out of the kitchen and went up to his room to be away from his brothers. I sound like a freaking chimpmunk! I better get better by the time Holly gets here tommorrow. They had planned that Holly and her sister Carmen would leave last night and fly from London to New York. Then they would switch flights to go to Houston and then up to Oklahoma City. They were expected to arrive around noon the next day.

Up in his room, well not exactly his room, but his section of the room, he found his skateboard and decided to go outside for a while. Hopefully I won't have to talk to anyone. He went outside and started along when he saw Mrs. Fluck, his old piano teacher who he and his brothers had been forced to take lessons from when they were younger. He started to panic. Oh no! She always expects us to say 'hello Mrs. Fluck, how are you?' and I know I won't be able to say her name right with my mouth full of novicane! He tried to sneak by her as she was working in her garden in the front yard, but she had already spotted him. She started waddling over to him.

"Why, hello Zachary. How are you?" she asked him.

"Um, I'm fid. How aw ya Mrs. Fu...Fuc," he desperatly tried to get the 'L' to come out of his mouth, but he couldn't. "Mrs. Fuuuck."

"What did you say?" she said sternly, but Zac had already started to skate quickly away. "Zachary! Young man! I will be having a talk with your father!"

Once she was out of sight, Zac stopped and sat down on a curb on the side of the road. Well, that went well. He had actually always wanted to say that to her face, but had never had the guts to. He knew that if she called his dad, he could always blame it on the novicane. He was sitting on the curb watching a bug walk along when a shadow appeared in front of him. He looked up and standing there was Eric and Nick.

"Hey Zac," said Nick.

"Whalmp? Tus snot mab at me?" asked Zac, surprised that they were talking to him.

"No, not really," said Eric. "I guess we were just dumb yesterday."

"Tu can slay tat again," scoffed Zac.

"Hey! You were dumb too. But I guess we're sorry for saying stuff about you having a girlfriend," said Eric. Zac nodded.

"Otay, I fogive ya. I wuv tu guls!" he started to give them a hug.

"Um, that's okay," said Nick. "Truce?"

Zac grinned and stuck out his hand. "Tuce."

"What's wrong with you anyway? You sound like a moron," said Eric.

"Tanks," said Zac as he proceeded to tell them about getting his wisdom teeth pulled.

"Cool!" said Nick. Zac gave his a look.

"Oh yeah, weel cool. Oh, lemme sell you about tut happen wit Mrs. Fuc, Mrs. Fuccc..."

"Mrs. Fluck?" said Nick.

Zac nodded, relieved. "Teah. Anyway..."

The three boys walked away laughing. Zac was just happy that he had his friends back. He felt in his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper.

There once was a guy with three retarded friends
And two retarded brothers...

chapter 22