The Waffler by Gail Donovan Page B

treasure.
    â€œHi, Waffles,” said Devin.
    â€œHi, Waffles!” echoed Lagu.
    Monty pasted a smile on his face. The smile was supposed to say,
Ha-ha, no big deal
. Except the smile was a total lie. He hated being called Waffles. Tristan Thompson-Brown had started it, and now everybody did it. The only person who didn’t was Jasmine. Maybe he’d go sit next to her. He started to get up and by mistake stepped on Lagu’s hand.
    â€œOuch!” yelped Lagu.
    Monty got off Lagu’s hand quick as he could, but by mistake he bumped into Devin on the other side. That should have been no big deal except Devin made a big joke by shouting, “Get off me, Greene!” and scrambling away, bumping into Emma Robinson. Emma pulled away from Devin and knocked heads with Ella Bakunda. And Emma and Ella both shouted, “Monty, stop!”
    â€œSorry,” said Monty, before he scooted around the circle and plopped down next to Jasmine.
    â€œMonty!” said Mrs. Tuttle. “What do you think you’re doing?”
    Monty couldn’t tell the whole truth—that he was getting away from kids calling him Waffles. He told half the truth. “I wanted to sit somewhere else.”
    â€œYou mean you picked a spot, and then changed your mind?”
    â€œI guess,” said Monty.
    â€œAnd do you see what happened?”
    â€œI moved?” he asked.
    â€œYou hurt your classmates,” said Mrs. Tuttle.
    Monty thought that was taking it a little far. Yes, he’d stepped on Lagu’s hand, and he was sorry for that. But Devin had just been kidding around. And even though Emma and Ella hadn’t liked getting bumped into, he didn’t think they’d actually gotten hurt.
    â€œMonty, come here, please,” said Mrs. Tuttle, and off came decision-aid number one: Monty shouldn’t have changed his mind about where he was sitting.
    Sometimes Monty couldn’t believe grown-ups. How come they blamed you for something that wasn’t your fault? He wouldn’t have stepped on Lagu’s hand in the first place if Lagu and Devin hadn’t called him Waffles. And they wouldn’t have called him Waffles if Principal Edwards hadn’t called him a waffler. And Principal Edwards would never have called him a waffler if Mrs. Tuttle hadn’t made Monty go to the office just because he threw a pencil. It was so messed up!
    It was so messed up that Monty decided to make an even bigger mess. When Mrs. Tuttle asked if anybody had anything to share about their Buddy, he raised his hand. “I saw my Buddy march in the parade yesterday. And I have three more Buddies,” he announced.
    Mrs. Tuttle gave him a funny look. “Everyone has one Buddy,” she corrected.
    â€œYeah but I’m, like, really popular,” said Monty. “All the kindergartners want to be my Buddy.”
    The other kids laughed, and Mrs. Tuttle put her hand to her mouth and turned an imaginary key, which meant everybody was supposed to keep their mouths closed with their words inside. Nobody was supposed to talk except her.
    â€œMonty, your Little Buddy is Leo Schwarz. You can’t decide to change Buddies. That’s not your decision to make.”
    â€œI didn’t change,” he said. “He’s still my Buddy. I just added more Buddies.”
    â€œMonty,” said Mrs. Tuttle. She paused, so he would know that what she was about to say was extra important. “We need cooperators in our classroom. Can you be a cooperator?”
    â€œI am!” said Monty. “This is like being extra cooperative! Because the name of the Expedition is Hidden
Treasures
, not Hidden Treasure, right? So the more Little Buddies I have the more I’m finding Hidden Treasures!”
    Jasmine spoke up, “It wasn’t really fair, ’cause some of the kids didn’t get Big Buddies, and they really wanted one!”
    Then Tristan Thompson-Brown said that it wasn’t