Jasper John Dooley, NOT in Love by Caroline Adderson, Ben Clanton Page A

And then the bell rang.
    After lunch, Ms. Tosh asked everybody to get together with their reading buddies. Jasper and Ori were reading buddies. They were reading buddies, knights, friends and neighbors. Ori lived across the alley and one house down from Jasper.
    Before anybody else could, Jasper and Ori dove into the Book Nook at the back of the classroom and stretched out on the cozy pillows.
    â€œYou read first,” Ori said.
    Jasper grabbed a book. But instead of reading out loud to Ori, he started chewing on the book. “I’m still a bad baby,” he told Ori. “And I eat books.”
    â€œDon’t,” Ori whispered. “Stop.”
    Leon, who wasn’t dead anymore, turned around at his table. When he saw Jasper eating his book, he laughed and pointed so that everybody in the class turned to look.
    Ms. Tosh didn’t laugh. She said, “Ori, go read with Zoë. Jasper, you read with Isabel.” She said it in a way that made both boys obey her right away.
    â€œJust for today, right?” Jasper said.
    â€œUntil I say so,” Ms. Tosh said.
    At least Jasper got to stay in the cozy Book Nook. Isabel came over and plopped down on the pillow beside him with her legs stretched out. She was a very freckly girl. She even had freckles on her legs.
    â€œYou read first, Jasper John,” she said, smiling and showing the no-teeth space in her mouth.
    Jasper’s book was about a dog that could skateboard. As soon as he started reading, he was interested. Isabel was interested, too. Jasper knew she was interested because as he read, Isabel leaned in close to him. She leaned so close Jasper could smell her. She smelled like strawberries.
    He thought she was trying to see the page he was reading. Maybe she needed glasses, because she leaned in close enough to —
    â€œYuck!” Jasper roared when he felt Isabel’s wet tongue on his cheek. “Yuck!”
    And Ms. Tosh said, “Jasper John Dooley! You’ve disrupted us enough for one day!”

Chapter 2

    When Jasper John Dooley was the Star of the Week, everybody in the class wrote Compliments to him. Ms. Tosh stapled them all together in a book that Jasper took home with him. The Compliment at the end said: I love you, Jasper.
    Back when Jasper was Star of the Week, he didn’t know who had written the I-love-you Compliment. But now he knew. It must have been Isabel.
    Jasper stayed away from Isabel for the rest of the day. After school, Mom was waiting to walk him and Ori home. She always walked them home because Ori’s mom was busy with Ori’s baby sister. “How was your day?” she asked.
    â€œTerrible,” Jasper said. He was still wiping his cheek, trying to make the goopy feeling of being licked go away.
    â€œTerrible? What happened?”
    â€œOur reading buddies got changed,” Ori said. “I’m not Jasper’s reading buddy anymore.”
    â€œCome on,” Jasper said. “Let’s go.”
    They started walking.
    â€œWho’s your buddy now?” Mom asked Ori.
    â€œZoë.”
    â€œWho’s yours, Jasper?” Mom asked.
    â€œShe’s following us,” Jasper said.
    Mom looked back. Jasper had seen Isabel out of the corner of his eye. Now he pretended to be walking like a monkey, bent over and scratching under his arms. That way he could secretly peek at Isabel from under his arm without her knowing. If Isabel saw him peeking at her, she would probably think he loved her, too.
    Mom stopped and waited for Isabel to catch up. “I hear you’re Jasper’s new reading buddy.”
    â€œYes,” Isabel answered. “Today is the best day of my life!”
    â€œKeep walking,” Jasper said to Ori.
    It was hard to walk like a bent-over monkey peeking under your own arm, but Jasper did it all the way to the corner of the schoolyard. All the way he watched Isabel smile at Mom without any front teeth and Mom smile back with